Fearing a Persian invasion, Athens agreed to help and sent tiremes (Greek warships with ramming capabilities at the bow) to help. In the end, it didn’t help. The Ionian Revolt was crushed and Darius became even more wary of the Greek city-states to the point he concluded an invasion might not be such a bad idea.

According to Herodotus one of the causes of the revolt was the plotting of Histiaeus, deposed Tyrant of Miletus. He was living in forced exile at the Persian court at Susa, while his son-in-law Aristagoras ruled Miletus. Histiaeus wrote to his successor encouraging him to revolt.

The following year, however, saw an Allied army decisively defeat the Persians at the Battle of Plataea, thereby ending the Persian invasion.

The Ionians were not ambushed by the pursuing Persians, or otherwise taken by surprise, but deployed in some kind of battle order, with the strong presumption of it being a phalanx, and fought. The ensuing battle was a rout.

The Ionian Revolt constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Persian Empire, and as such represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Although Asia Minor had been brought back into the Persian fold, Darius vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the revolt.

king Darius I

Battle of Salamis

Although the Greeks finally beat the Persians in the Battle of Platea in 479 B.C., thus ending the Greco-Persian Wars, many scholars attribute the eventual Greek success over the Persians to the Spartans’ defense at Thermopylae.

Greece

The Greek forces, mostly Spartan, were led by Leonidas. After three days of holding their own against the Persian king Xerxes I and his vast southward-advancing army, the Greeks were betrayed, and the Persians were able to outflank them.

The historical Xerxes probably did not consider himself a god, but he was a legend in his own time. He removed a golden statue from the temple of Zeus, desecrating the temple, something his father Darius did not dare to do.