Dominic Sandbrook

Sorry, I'm just trying to understand his sense of geography.

He wants to attack the Scythians, who are basically in, where are they?

Do you know what he hadn't done?

He hadn't listened to our excellent series about Charles XII and the Great Northern War.

But high risk, right?

I mean, the retribution of the Persians would be swift and merciless.

And the other strongmen, the Ionian strongmen, they're not going to go for this, are they?

So Artafernes, to remind people, is the Persian governor of Sardis.

He is Darius's brother, isn't he?

He's doing this presumably because he thinks...

It's this or nothing.

This is a strategy born of total desperation and despair, presumably.

And does he ever think at this point, do you reckon, that he could win?

So the Athenians are about to enter the story.

Come back after the break to find out what happens.

Welcome back, everybody, to The Rest Is History.

It is the winter of 499 BC, and we are in Athens.

So to remind people, Aristagoras, the former strongman of the city of Miletus, who has now become a born-again enthusiast for democracy, and has launched an open rebellion against the Persian emperor Darius, the king of kings.

He has arrived in Athens, and he can reasonably expect...

a good hearing.