8 THE IONIAN REVOLT, 498 494 BC Maria Brosius In 498 BC some of the Ionian cities led by Miletus rose in rebellion against the Persian king Darius I; the unrest then spread south as far as Cyprus and north to the Bosporus, although quite how closely connected the various actions were is uncertain, since some of the challenges to Persian rule may have arisen as various communities saw their opportunity to bid for freedom. 1 The majority of our information on these events comes from Herodotus, and his presentation was complicated by the difficulty of understanding the actions of the leading individuals, especially Histiaeus of Miletus, who variously appears as a loyal servant of King Darius, a fomenter of anti-persian action, and a selfish privateer. The origins of the revolt lay in the complexities of local ambition on the fringes of a massive empire. Its instigator was Aristagoras, son of Molpagoras and son-inlaw of Histiaeus. Aristagoras had controlled Miletus on behalf of the Persians as tyrant. Histiaeus had been summoned to Susa, a move that could be interpreted as advancement to the center of power for a trusted adviser or, contrariwise, as a precaution to bring under closer scrutiny a potentially dangerous subordinate. Histiaeus had left Aristagoras to govern Miletus during his absence, a position that gave Aristagoras an opportunity of uncertain duration to establish a locus of power for himself. An opening presented itself when some leading citizens from the island of Naxos, who were friends of Histiaeus, came to Miletus to secure help after they had been exiled in a change of regime in their own state. Aristagoras realized that he needed Persian backing for such an enterprise and so approached the satrap at Sardis, Artaphernes, with promises of money and the possibility of extending 1 Source: Hdt. 5.30 56; 5.97 6.43. Modern discussions: Burn (1962); Wallinga (1984); Murray (1988); Cawkwell (2006) 61 86. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Battles, First Edition. Edited by Michael Whitby and Harry Sidebottom. 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2 Archaic Greece and the Near East FIGURE 8.1 Royal hero killing a lion. Relief in a doorway of the 100-column Hall at Persepolis, a building begun by Darius I in the sixth century BC in present-day Iran. Source: Maria Brosius. Persian control into the central Aegean and westward toward Euboea. Artaphernes secured the consent of his brother Darius, and his cousin Megabates led a force of 200 triremes carrying a land force to attack the island. Aristagoras, however, fell out with Megabates over the leadership of the expedition, and the attack on Naxos had to be abandoned after four months of unproductive siege. On returning to Asia Minor, Aristagoras was in a difficult position: he had spent substantial funds on the expedition but could not deliver on the promises he had made to Artaphernes; he had quarreled with a powerful member of the Persian royal family; and in general he had lost face. As a result, he staged the revolt. His solution was to seek broader popular support by renouncing Persian authority and proclaiming an end to tyranny in the Ionian cities with the introduction of isonomia, equality before the law. Aristagoras rejected advice to seize the substantial temple treasures at Apollo s great oracular shrine at Didyma, but military support was sought from cities on the Greek mainland; King Cleomenes of Sparta refused to send hoplite forces to Ionia, in spite of the offer of a large bribe, and only Athens and Eretria agreed, offering limited naval support.
The Ionian Revolt, 498 494 BC 3 Sardis and Ephesus (498) The Ionians directed their attack at Sardis, the satrapal center and former capital of the Lydian kingdom. The Ionian ships sailed to Ephesian territory, supported by 20 ships from Athens under the command of Melanthius and five from Eretria under Eualcidas. The land forces were led by Aristagoras brother Charopinus and another commander named Hermophantus, while Aristagoras himself remained at Miletus. The rebel army approached Sardis by marching up the Caicus river and crossing over Mount Tmolus. Artaphernes withdrew himself and his forces to the lofty acropolis of Sardis, with the result that the Ionians initially met no resistance when they entered the lower city. In the course of their attack, however, civilian houses made of reeds and brick houses roofed in thatch caught fire. The resulting conflagration drove the locals, along with any Persians left in the lower city, together into the market square, where they prepared to repel their assailants. This show of resistance deterred the Ionian rebels so that they withdrew from the city, but their destruction was extensive: much of the lower city burned down, including the temple of the city s main deity, the goddess Cybele. News of the attack brought Persian reinforcements from across western Asia Minor, but before their arrival the Ionians had withdrawn to Tmolus and then escaped to Ephesus. The Persians now pursued the Ionians back to their ships, catching up with them near Ephesus and inflicting a heavy defeat in which the casualties included the Eretrian commander Eualcidas. The city of Ephesus surrendered to the Persians, while the other Ionians dispersed to their respective cities. Unwilling to give further support to the revolt, the Athenian and Eretrian ships returned to Greece. Perhaps the most significant result of this rather ineffectual assault was that the Athenians participation drew their city to Persian attention. Herodotus recounts that Darius, on hearing of the destruction of Sardis, was less concerned about the Ionians, whose punishment he believed to be secure, than he was about the independent Athenians, whose interference in Persian affairs could not be allowed to go unnoticed. This action in Ionia sparked three further uprisings on the western fringes of the Persian empire in 497: to the south in Caria, in the Hellespontine region in the north, and on Cyprus. On Cyprus there was already discontent at Persian rule. Onesilus, the brother of Gorgos, king of Salamis, used the situation in Ionia to usurp the throne. He took advantage of the pro-persian Gorgos absence from the city to seize power, and with the support of other Cyprian cities besieged the Phoenician settlement at Amathus, which had remained loyal to Persia. The Ionians sailed from Ephesus to the Hellespont, where they took control of Byzantium and other cities to ignite rebellion there, while in Caria the apparent success of the destruction of Sardis prompted rebellion. All three uprisings were met with immediate Persian counterattacks and were quashed by 496. By midsummer 497 the Persian Artybios had sailed with the Phoenician fleet to Cyprus, while a land force was moved from Cilicia across to the island and
4 Archaic Greece and the Near East approached Salamis via the pass of Cyrenia. On learning of the Persian approach, Onesilus had requested assistance from the Ionians, who sent a squadron of ships. In the ensuing confrontation, the Ionians faced the Phoenician fleet while Onesilus deployed his troops on the plain of Salamis. His army consisted of infantry and war chariots from Salamis but included no cavalry. The men of Salamis and Soli were placed opposite the Persian forces, while Onesilus faced Artybios. At sea the Ionians triumphed, with the Samian contingent fighting particularly well, although the fact that some of Herodotus information on the revolt may have come from contacts among the Samian aristocracy might render this information suspect. On land the Cypriots were superior to the Persians, whose commander Artybios died at the hands of Onesilus. But Stesanor of Curium and his troops deserted the battlefield, to be followed by the Salaminian war chariots, so that the outcome of the battle changed in favor of the Persians: the rebellion on Cyprus was crushed, casualties were heavy in the rout, and both Onesilus and king Aristocyprus of Soli, son of Philocyprus, were killed. Gorgos was restored as king of Salamis and the remaining rebellious cities were occupied by the Persians. Soli continued to withstand Persian forces but was captured in early 496 after a five-month siege when the Persians managed to undermine its walls. In the Hellespontine region, Daurises, Hymaees, and Otanes (all sons-in-law of Darius), who had been responsible for the Persian victory at Ephesus, were in charge of crushing the rebellion. During 497 Daurises quickly took Dardanus, Abydos, Percote, Lampsacus, and Paesus, but before he could retake Parium news of developments in Caria summoned him back south. Hymaees continued the successful campaign in the Troad, taking Cius and crushing the Aeolians and Gergithai in an encounter near Troy, but then succumbed to disease. Further south Otanes then took up the assault in collaboration with Artaphernes, regaining the cities of Clazomenae and Cyme. Meanwhile Daurises, after marching to Caria, fought a battle by the river Marsyas in autumn 497 in which the Carians suffered heavy losses, estimated at 10,000, against 2,000 Persian dead. The Carian survivors sought sanctuary in the precinct of the Temple of Zeus-of-the-Armies at Labraunda, where the arrival of military support from Miletus persuaded them to renew the struggle. The second battle resulted in an even worse defeat, in which the Milesian contingent suffered the heaviest losses. The Carians, however, fought on to defend their cities and managed to ambush the Persian forces during a night march toward Pedasus; three Persian commanders, including Daurises, were killed. This sequence of reverses prompted Aristagoras to reflect on his position. He debated whether to escape to settle on Sardinia, which seems to have been regarded as a land of opportunity for refugees from the Persians, or to move to Thrace, where Histiaeus had established a bolt-hole at Myrcinus. The future historian Hecataeus advised against both, recommending instead that Aristagoras establish a base on the island of Leros from which he would be able to threaten Milesian territory, but this advice was rejected; Aristagoras entrusted affairs at Miletus to a competent commander called
The Ionian Revolt, 498 494 BC 5 Pythagoras and departed with some supporters to Thrace, where he was killed in a trap while attacking a town near Myrcinus. The years 497 496 marked the end of the Ionian offensive and no major campaigns were fought in 495 as the Persians prepared to attack Miletus, the center of the revolt. The unrest, however, had been sufficient to prompt King Darius to send Histiaeus back to his homeland; Histiaeus had made great promises to Darius, including the submission of Sardinia to Persian authority, but he found it impossible to collaborate with Artaphernes, whether because the Persian satrap suspected duplicity or because he did not want a Greek rival to annex credit for the recent successes. Histiaeus subsequent actions are obscured by the difficulty of establishing motivation. He moved from Sardis to Chios, where he first had to convince the islanders that he was not operating in Persian interests. On the other hand, he also remained in communication with Persian friends at Sardis, although Artaphernes then eliminated these on suspicion of treachery. An attempt to regain control of Miletus failed, since the citizens did not relish the return of their pro- Persian former tyrant, and Histiaeus was wounded while attempting to force his way into the city by night. Histiaeus then secured eight ships from Lesbos after failing to persuade the Chians to support him, and he now sailed to Byzantium, where he seized all ships leaving the Black Sea unless they agreed to follow his instructions. This last action perhaps offers a clue to his overall strategy. He was undoubtedly an opportunist, keen to build up his personal power; his dispute with Artaphernes is not surprising, since the royal Persian would not have welcomed the presence of a Greek confidant of the king, so that Histiaeus had to strike out on his own if he were to deliver his promises to Darius; his control of shipping traveling through the Bosporus would mean that he could divert supplies toward, or away from, any city that he chose, so that he could offer significant support to the Persians in their blockade of Greek coastal and island communities. It is possible that through all the apparent tergiversations of Herodotus account there was a consistent thread of actions to secure the return of Miletus to Persian allegiance, of course under the personal control of Histiaeus. Lade (494) In spring 494 the Persian army launched a concerted attack by land and sea on Miletus. The Ionian fleet consisted of 353 triremes made up of 80 ships from Miletus, 100 from Chios, 70 from Lesbos, and 60 from Samos. The rest consisted of 12 ships from Priene, 3 from Myus, 17 from Teos, 8 from Erythrae, and 3 from Phocaea. The Milesian ships formed the eastern wing of the battle line, the Lesbian and Samian ships the western wing. The navy was commanded by Dionysius of Phocaea, who instituted a tough regime of daily training in naval maneuvers and military exercises; after a week of this discipline, the Ionian crews rebelled against such unfamiliar treatment from a leader whose community could only
6 Archaic Greece and the Near East provide three ships, and thereafter they remained on land, awaiting the Persian approach. On the Persian side, Phoenician ships were joined by naval contingents from Cyprus, Cilicia, and Egypt, amounting to a total of 600 ships. As the Ionian ships formed the battle line, the western wing collapsed when the Samians, followed by the Lesbians and other Ionian ships, fled. The Samians had already been approached by the Persians to persuade them to defect, and allegedly the refusal of other Greeks to persist with Dionysius professional training had persuaded them of the futility of resistance; this excuse for treachery was probably retailed to Herodotus by local informants who were subsequently ashamed of their state s medizing, or going over to the Persian side. The 100 ships from Chios, each with 40 armed men on board, and the remaining Ionian fleet withstood the Persian navy, fighting with some success but also suffering heavy losses until the seaworthy ships finally escaped to Chios; those ships that were too damaged to sail away were beached on the promontory of Mycale, from where their crews attempted to return home overland only to be killed in a skirmish outside Ephesus. Dionysius had managed to sink three ships before escaping to Phoenicia, where he captured various merchantmen and secured valuable booty; with this he set sail for Sicily, where he continued to pillage Carthaginian and Etruscan shipping, but not Greek vessels. On land, Miletus fell after a brief siege, which included the sapping of the city walls; most of the male population was killed while the women and children were taken into slavery, and the wealthy extramural temple at Didyma was ransacked. Survivors from Miletus population were taken to Mesopotamia, where they were resettled near the head of the Persian Gulf; the priests of Apollo s temple at Didyma, the clan of the Branchidae, were eventually settled further east in Bactria, where over 150 years later Alexander the Great exterminated them for their treachery to the Greek cause, another indication of the complexities of allegiances in this conflict. The destruction of Miletus sent shock waves through the Greek world, especially at Athens. The Samian desertion at Lade was rewarded when their island was spared reprisals, but opponents of the accommodation with Persia preferred to sail west into exile in southern Italy, being joined by a few Milesians who had escaped the destruction of their city. Other rebel cities in Caria were taken or negotiated their surrender. The Ionian Revolt ended with the fall of Miletus. On hearing the news, Histiaeus left Byzantium, where he was still seizing Ionian trading ships, and sailed to Chios. There he took advantage of the weakness resulting from the heavy losses at Lade to subjugate the island, another action that is likely to have been in the Persian interest. His next campaign was against Thasos, where personal concerns may have predominated, but on learning that the Persian fleet was moving from Miletus to subdue other Ionian states he hurried back to Lesbos. While attempting to gather supplies on the mainland he was captured by the Persians in a skirmish; he hoped to be taken to Darius, whom he was confident would understand his actions, but at Sardis his rival Artaphernes had him crucified and dispatched his pickled head to the
The Ionian Revolt, 498 494 BC 7 king; Darius was displeased and insisted that Histiaeus receive a burial that befitted a friend to the Persians. Between 494 and 492 the Persians reestablished their power over the eastern Aegean and northward to the Hellespont and the Bosporus. In 492 Darius son-in-law Mardonius arrived in Ionia with an army and naval forces and proceeded to reorganize the Ionian cities, remove the current unpopular regimes, and establish democracies. References Burn, A. R. (1962), Persia and the Greeks: The Defense of the West c. 546 478 BC, 193 220. London. Cawkwell, G. (2006), The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia, 61 86. Oxford. Murray, O. (1988), The Ionian Revolt, in J. Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond, D. M. Lewis, and M. Ostwald, eds., Cambridge Ancient History IV, 461 490. Cambridge. Wallinga, H. (1984), Ionian Revolt, Mnemosyne 37: 401 437.