Changes

Once Themistocles convinced the Athenians to invest their resources into building a navy, it was up to him to decide what that fleet would look like. Instead of building large ships that could carry more soldiers and marines to do ship to ship fighting, Themistocles focused the Athenian efforts on building fast triremes that could out maneuver the enemy and ram their hauls, causing them to sink. <ref> Hale, p. 20</ref> Themistocles also used a portion of the silver to modernize the harbor of Piraeus, which was landlocked Athens’ only access to the sea. By the time Xerxes I and his army had marched south into Attica, the Athenians had a navy of 200 fast ramming triremes ready for war. <ref> Forrest, George. “Greece: The History of the Archaic Period.” In <i>The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World.</i> Edited by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, and Oswyn Murray. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 40</ref>

===The Hero of Salamis===