East and West

In the year 480 BC, leaders of the alliance of Greek city-states were in peril. Recent losses at Thermopylae and an unsuccessful stalemate at Artemisium had hampered their cause to remain independent of Persia. To make matters worse, Boetheia and Attica, with proud Athens within, were under control of the Persians. Athens was obliterated. The Greek Alliance was to pull back their hoplites to the Isthmus of Corinth to defend what remained of free Greece. The navy, however, was to stay at the island of Salamis, south of Attica, to prevent the Persians from landing their navy behind the Greek lines in Corinth. The other Allies, however preferred to sail to the coast south of Corinth to consolidate with the army. OTL, Themistocles persuaded the other Allies to keep the navy at Salamis, under threat of him leaving with the Athenian refugees for Sicily, and the Greeks scored a major victory at Salamis that ensured the immediate freedom of Greece. What if, however, the other Allies were more stubborn, and believed that the Athenian navy would not desert them for Themistocles' Sicily plan. This timeline explores that possibility.