The Ionian Revolt: How a rebellion sparked the Greco-Persian Wars

The Ionian Greeks were a group of Greek city-states that inhabited the central and western coasts of Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey.

They were considered to be Greeks, despite not being located on the Greek mainland because they shared a common culture and language with the mainland Greeks. 

During the Greek Dark Age (c. 1200-800 BC), Greeks from the mainland had migrated to western Asia Minor and intermingled with the local population, which is how the Ionian Greeks came to be.

The Greeks in Ionia would become pawns in the expansion of one of the greatest superpowers of the ancient world: the Persians.

The Persians were an Iranian people who had conquered the Medes, another Iranian people.

The Persian Empire was founded in 550 BC by Cyrus the Great and, at its height, it extended from Egypt to India and included parts of Europe and Africa. 

Whenever the Persians conquered new regions, they would appoint powerful Persian nobles, called 'satraps', to oversee important provinces, called 'satrapies'.

The satraps were tasked with collecting taxes from the local people and maintaining order. 

They were ultimately required to send a large portion of the taxes they collected back to the Persian king.

However, the satraps could not be everywhere at once in their territories, so they would appoint local Greek rulers, called 'tyrants' to govern particular cities on their behalf and enforce the Persian tax and law systems on their subjects.

In 546 BC, Cyrus conquered the very first Ionian Greek city: the kingdom of Lydia.

This was quickly followed by the conquest of the Ionian Greeks as well. Most of the time, the Persians were not seen as particularly harsh rulers and they often allowed the Ionians to maintain their Greek culture.

However, they did enforce the heavy taxes on them. After the new Persian king, Darius I, came to power in 522 BC, he appointed his half-brother, Artaphrenes, as the satrap of Lydia and Ionia. 

Artaphrenes, met with the other Ionian leaders around 500 BC and made them promise not to fight one another after seeing that many of them wanted greater power and territory. 

It was clear that he recognized that internal conflict might lead to regional instability.

Artaphrenes was then approached by Aristagoras, the tyrant of one of the richest Ionian cities, Miletus, who offered to conquer the island of Naxos for Persia if the Persians would give him an army and navy to do so.

With Darius' permission, Artaphrenes agreed. So, Aristagoras launched the attack on Naxos in 499 BC.

However, after a four-month siege, he had to admit defeat and returned to Miletus.

Terrified that either Darius' or Artaphrenes' would hunt him down and punish hime for wasting their resources and failing to provide the victory he had promised, Aristagoras looked for a way to protect himself.

To do this, he encouraged a number of other Ionian cities to consider rebelling against Persian rule of their cities. 

However, Aristagoras knew that the armies these cities could muster would be no match for the massive Persian forces and knowing that Darius would respond quickly to any rumours of a revolt, Aristagoras travelled to Sparta and asked King Cleomenes for the help of the formidable Spartan army.

However, when the Spartan commander was informed of the length of time it would take his army to arrive and help the Ionians, he flatly refused Aristagoras' request for assistance.

This was because the Spartans were not willing to travel too far from Sparta in case their helot slaves rose up in revolt against them.

After Sparta's rejection of support, Aristagoras then turned to Athens, which was a powerful city-state with a large navy.

He met with the Athenian leaders and gradually convinced them to support the Ionian Revolt.

As a result, in 499 BC, Athens sent 20 ships and some men to aid the Ionians in their revolt against Persia. The nearby city-state of Eretria also sent 5 ships.

Once Aristagoras had this additional military aid, he returned to Miletus and finally launched the Ionian Revolt in 499 BC.

As the various Ionian cities had promised, they attacked the Persian garrisons in their regions.

Their early successes meant that the revolt quickly spread to other cities, including Smyrna, Ephesus, and Byzantium. 

In total, twelve Ionian city-states participated in the revolt, who all felt that they were united by their shared heritage and a hatred of Persian domination.

The following year, in 498 BC, a combined Ionian force, with their Athenian and Eretrian allies, attacked Sardis, the capital of Lydia, which was one of the main Persian strongholds in the region.

The Persian defenders put up solid resistance but had to retreat to the central citadel of Sardis where the soldiers were better able to hold off the Greek attackers.

However, knowing that they couldn't capture the citadel, the Ionian Greeks chose to burn down the city of Sardis instead.

This also resulted in the destruction of Temple of Cybele, one of the city's most important religious structures.

The Persian satrap, Artaphrenes, managed to survive the burning of the city and sent messengers to Darius, informing him of the Ionian rebellion and Sardis' destruction.

He also requested fresh reinforcements to help crush the uprising. Darius was furious when he received the news and vowed to crush the rebels.

He responded quickly to the uprising and sent an army as requested. 

In 498 BC, the Persians began their march on Ionia. The first city they attacked was Ephesus.

Unfortunately, the Ionians holding the city were no match for the Persian army and were quickly defeated.

Despite the defeat at Ephesus, the revolt continued to spread to other Ionian cities.

So, the Persians then continued their march, attacking and conquering several other Ionian cities that had revolted against their rule.

The culminating battle took place at Lade in 494 BC, where the Persian navy decisively defeat the combined Ionian fleet.

Following this victory, the Persians marched on and besieged Miletus, which had been the center of the revolt.

Once more, the Persian army vastly outnumbered the Greeks and so, the Greeks were forced to retreat to their ships and sail away.

Aristagoras, the original leader of the revolt, was forced to abandon his city and flee with them. 

As a result, Darius captured Miletus and decided to make an example of it.

All the of the remaining men were killed, the women and children were sold into slavery.

Then, the sanctuary of Didyma was sacked the burnt down: probably in retaliation for the destruction of the sanctuary at Sardis earlier in the revolt.

Ultimately, the fall of Miletus ended the Ionian revolt, even though parts of the region continued to hold out against the Persians until 494 BC.

The Ionian Revolt had far-reaching consequences. It showed the Greeks that if they could work together, they could achieve some genuine military success against the mighty Persian Empire.

However, it also made the Persians more cautious in their dealings with the Greeks. 

Even though the Ionian Revolt had begun with such promise, it ultimately ended in failure.

The Persians quelled the remaining elements of the uprising and regained full control of Ionia.

Darius also instituted a new policy of tribute and taxes, which made it more difficult for the Greeks to rebel in the future.

In addition, Darius was particularly enraged that Athens had supported the revolt and he vowed to take revenge on that city in particular.

so, in 490 BC, the Persians launched a major invasion fleet towards Greece in an attempt to punish Athens for its role in the Ionian Revolt.

This would begin the monumental Greco-Persian Wars.