ABSTRACT
For the Greeks the Persian Wars were of great significance, for in 490 and 480-79 the city-states of mainland Greece were faced with the prospect of becoming vassals of the Great Kings of Persia, Darius and Xerxes respectively. The failure of the Persian invasions meant that the Greeks of the mainland remained free-and that they went on to liberate their fellow Greeks of the islands, and the cities of the Asia Minor coast. Prior to his Marathon campaign in 490 Darius had already undertaken an expedition against the European Scythians c. 513 (which takes up most of Book IV of Herodotos’ Histories) and he remained interested in the general area of Europe. By about 500 BC, just prior to the Ionian revolt, the Persians had control over the Greek cities of the Hellespont, Thrace and Macedon (cf. doc. 7.1). While the Ionian Revolt, led by Aristagoras of Miletos (doc. 7.2), brought the Athenians, and Eretrians, to Darius’ attention, it is important to note that the Persian empire had already been expanding in that direction and it was probably inevitable that sooner or later it would have attempted to bring the Greeks of the mainland and the still unconquered islands under its sway. Persian activity north of Greece in the last two decades of the sixth century strongly suggests that the campaign at Marathon was intended as the start of Persian annexation of the Greek mainland. After the Ionian revolt collapsed in 494 with the defeat of the Ionians at the Battle of Lade and the capture of Miletos, various islands were reconquered in 493 by the Persians, and in 492 Mardonios, a son-in-law of Darius, set up democracies in many of the Greek states of Asia Minor.
