Persian Wars Pros And Cons Of Ionia

In the years leading up to the war between the Persian Wars, the Persian Empire had rapidly expanded across the Mediterranean. Under the King Darius the Great, the vast Persian Empire experienced a number of revolts from the peoples they had subjugated. One of the rebelling regions was Ionia, a place on the coast of Anatolia. Ionia was originally settled by the Greeks, and when the Ionian Rebellion began, the Greek city-state of Athens offered some assistance to the rebels.
The Persian Empire, with its massive army, soon put down the Ionian rebellion. However, Darius and the Persian generals were incredibly angry that the Greeks had intervened on the side of the rebels. Although the Greek aid to the Ionians was relatively minor, the Persian

General Mardonius annexed Macedonia and two years later, Datis and Artaphernes were sent out on a naval expedition to conquer the Aegean islands. After finishing this campaign, they were supposed to bring back Hippias, the former tyrant of Athens, who would set up a pro-Persian regime.

The campaign started without serious problems and soon, the islands of the Aegean Sea were subdued. To celebrate this success, the Persians sacrificed at Delos, maybe because they identified the god Apollo with their own Ahuramazda. After this, the Persian navy continued to the isle of Euboea, where the expeditionary force attacked Eretria, one of the Greek cities that had supported Greek rebels in Asia Minor. Fighting continued for six days, but the town was betrayed on the seventh day. Its inhabitants were carried off as prisoners.
The part of Athenian territory opposite Euboea -and also the best ground for cavalry to maneuver upon- was at Marathon, and it was to this village that Hippias directed Datis, Artaphernes, and the 25,000 Persians. There was a symbolic reason as well: Hippias' father Peisistratus had once landed at Marathon, and had become tyrant of