Note: All dates approximate except full moon and eclipse.
May: Xerxes begins to move troops across the Hellespont.
June: Xerxes begins march from the Hellespont to Athens.
Third week of August: Greek men and ships take up positions at Thermopylae and Artemisium.
August 19, full moon: End of the Olympic Games and the Carnea Festival.
ca. August 27–29: Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium.
ca. September 1: Greek fleet returns from Artemisium and arrives at Phaleron Bay and at Salamis; Persian army begins march southward.
Early September: Peloponnesian armies in full force begin building wall at Isthmus of Corinth.
ca. September 1–6: Evacuation of Athens.
ca. September 4: Persian fleet moves southward.
ca. September 5: Persian advance guard reaches Attica.
ca. August 31–September 20: Persian army conquers Phocis and Boeotia and regroups in Athens.
ca. September 7: Persian fleet reaches Phaleron Bay.
ca. September 21–23: Siege of Athenian Acropolis.
ca. September 23: Persian army takes Athenian Acropolis; Greek war council on Salamis votes for fleet to retreat to Isthmus of Corinth.
Night of ca. September 23–24: Mnesiphilus, Themistocles, and Eurybiades force Greek war council to change plans and remain at Salamis; debate between Themistocles and Adimantus.
Dawn, ca. September 24: Earthquake.
Evening of ca. September 24: Sicinnus’s mission to the Persians.
Midnight, ca. September 24: Persian fleet enters straits of Salamis.
ca. September 25: Battle of Salamis.
End of September: Persians begin to withdraw from Athens.
October 2, partial eclipse of the sun: Spartan army leaves Isthmus.
