From the Ionian Revolt to the Battle of Marathon, 499–490 B.C.E.

Important Events

From the Ionian Revolt to the Battle of Marathon, 499–490 B.C.E.

In 499 B.C.E., the Greek city-states in Ionia rebelled against their Persian-installed tyrants. The Athenians sent troops because they saw the Ionians as close kin. By 494 B.C.E., a Persian counterattack had crushed the revolt (Map 3.1). Darius exploded in anger when he learned that the Athenians had helped the Ionian rebels. He even ordered a slave to repeat three times at every meal, “Lord, remember the Athenians.”

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Figure 3.1: MAP 3.1 The Persian Wars, 499–479 B.C.E.
Figure 3.1: Following the example of King Cyrus (r. 557–530 B.C.E.), who founded the Persian Empire, his successors on the throne expanded the empire eastward and westward. King Darius I invaded Thrace more than fifteen years before the conflict against the Greeks that we call the Persian Wars. The Persians’ unexpected defeat in Greece put an end to their attempt to extend their power into Europe.

In 490 B.C.E., Darius sent a force to punish Athens and install a puppet tyrant. The Athenians confronted the invaders at the town of Marathon, on their coast. The Athenian soldiers were stunned by the Persians’ strange garb—colorful pants instead of the short tunics and bare legs that Greeks regarded as proper dress (see the chapter-opening photo)—but the Greek commanders had their infantry charge the enemy at a dead run. The soldiers in their heavy armor clanked across the plain through a hail of Persian arrows. In the hand-to-hand combat, the Greek hoplites used their long spears to overwhelm the Persian infantry.

The Athenian infantry then hurried the twenty-six miles to Athens to guard the city against the Persian navy. (Today’s marathon races commemorate the legend of a runner speeding ahead to announce the victory, and then dropping dead.) Their unexpected success strengthened the Athenians’ sense of community. When a rich strike was made in Athens’s publicly owned silver mines in 483 B.C.E., a far-sighted leader named Themistocles (c. 524–c. 460 B.C.E.) convinced the assembly to spend the money on doubling the size of the navy instead of on distributing it to the citizens.

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A Signet of Persia’s King Darius
Like other kings in the ancient Mediterranean region, the Persian king hunted lions to show his courage and his ability to overcome nature’s threats. In this scene from a signet, used to impress the royal seal into wet clay to verify documents, Darius I shoots arrows from a chariot driven for him by a charioteer. He is depicted wearing his crown so that his status as ruler would be obvious. The symbol of Ahura Mazda, the chief god of Persian religion, hovers in the sky to indicate that the king enjoys divine favor. (The British Museum, London, UK / akg-images.)