The history of the second Persian war as presented in most of the modern literature is solely based on Herodotus' Histories. However, Herodotus' narration seems to contain several unrealistic elements which raise doubts about the actual strategy of the Greek alliance. In this article we present an alternative interpretation of Herodotus' story by using the information derived from an inscription found on a marble tablet of the 3rd century BCE. This inscription is known as the “Decree of Themistocles” or the “Decree of Troezen” from the name of the small city in Argolis, Greece, where it was discovered.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/671/the-greek-strategy-at-the-battle-of-salamis-480-bc/.