Tom Holland

And he's articulating something there that you might see in the American Revolution or the French Revolution or whatever, this idea that once you have cast off an autocratic regime, suddenly you have the joys of freedom and you fight with more determination.

And we actually did an episode on this.

It's episode 334, if you want to check it out.

All of which, of course, means that the Athenians are more likely to be open to Aristagoras' proposals.

So firstly, because like the French after their own revolution, the Athenians are keen to export their democracy.

You know, there's a kind of ideological drive there.

And so the fact that Aristagoras, when he comes there, can frame the Ionian revolt as being a revolt against, you know, autocratic rule of the kind that the Athenians had thrown off.

I mean, that immediately appeals to the demos, to the mass of the people in Athens.

But there's another reason as well.

And this is that...

Lots of the Athenians are anxious that they might already be at war with the Persians.

And the reason they're worried that they might be at war with the Persians is because back in 507, when they'd set up their democracy, and they were nervous that the Thebans and the Spartans might come and crush them, they had sent ambassadors to the Persian governor, Artafernes, in Sardis to see if they could negotiate an alliance.

And Artafernes had told them, well, you know,

we're the superpower we don't bother with alliances it's you know you either submit or it's nothing again quite donald trump in their approach to diplomacy and so the athenians thought well yeah we might as well and they had offered their submission according to herodotus in the form of earth and water you kind of make the offering of this to the persian king

And they thought that they'd done a good job.

But then they come back home.

It turns out that the Thebans and Spartans have been defeated, that the democracy is fine.

And so everyone in Athens says, what have you done?

That's a terrible move.

And the problem is, is that the Athenians have now kind of offered a formal submission to the Persians.