Battle of Salamis (480 BC)

The Battle of Salamis (480 BC) delivered the most lopsided naval victory in classical history, as Themistocles' Greek fleet destroyed Xerxes I's Persian navy in the narrow straits, preserving Athens's democratic city-state and enabling the flowering of philosophy, drama, and science. If Persia had conquered Greece, the intellectual tradition underlying the European Renaissance might never have taken root. This victory's casualty ratio was even more extreme than Midway's (#6): the Greeks lost only 40 ships while the Persians lost over 200—a 5:1 ratio that dwarfed the 4:1 carrier loss at Midway. With 300 Greek ships facing 1,000 Persian vessels, Salamis prevented a Persian occupation that would have erased classical antiquity's cultural foundation.