History has many fathers, many moments on which the future seems to rest. They may seem inevitable now, but at the time, no one could have known Greece would survive. Athens had been burned and a huge invading army roamed the plains – accompanied by thousands of Greeks who had thrown their lot in with Persia. The Theban hoplites were the most famous of those, but there were also horsemen from Larissa and Pherae – and on the Spartan peninsula of the Peloponnese, the city of Argos remained neutral and sent no one. The influence of Persia was vast, its wealth limitless. After all, the legendary riches of Croesus were just a small part of the Persian treasury.

On the island of Salamis, it is true that Xanthippus’ dog tried to follow its master and drowned. We do not know its name. The dog’s tomb existed for centuries afterwards, though it is lost today.

At sea, Themistocles, Xanthippus and Cimon worked together with the factions of their allied fleet to hold the strait against vastly superior forces. It is not far-fetched to say they could not have won without Themistocles sending a message to King Xerxes. The Persian king already had Greek allies at sea and on land. The idea would not have been so strange. The first message was a ruse to split the fleet – a chance to wrench victory from an impossible situation.

With half the Persian fleet rowing around Salamis in a pincer movement, Themistocles sent a second message, in what has to be a stroke of genius. By ‘revealing’ a threat to the bridge of ships, he panicked Xerxes into packing up his pavilion on the shore and leaving Athens – taking a decent part of the fleet and army back to protect his line of retreat. It is, simply, the ruse that won the war – and Themistocles was responsible. If we include the fact that it was Themistocles who persuaded the Assembly of Athens to build a great fleet in the first place, it is hard to exaggerate the role he played. He is almost single-handedly the man who saved the west. I have always loved moments where history seems to turn on a single life, such as when the Mongolian armies of Tsubodai were brought home from their great trek by the heart attack of a khan. The events around Salamis were of a similar magnitude, or greater still.