Tom Holland

I mean, they're kind of vaguely aware of it, I think, but it's not like they can read about the Persians on the internet.

Yeah, they would, but I think that they...

I think they probably equate the Persians to the way that the Lydians had been.

You know, they're a kind of regional overlord.

They probably don't have a sense of just how vast the Persian Empire is and how immense the resources available to the Persian king.

I mean, whatever the reason is, they decide, yeah, okay, we'll join you.

And so in the spring of 498, the first ever

task force sent by a democracy to attack an Iranian army, sets sail across the Aegean, and it's a fleet of 20 ships.

And it doesn't sail alone, because there is another Greek city that falls for the blandishments of Aristagoras, and this is a place called Eretria, which is a merchant city on the nearby island of Euboea.

So if you think of the map of Greece, Attica sticking out into the Aegean, there's a kind of long, narrow island directly above the northern coast of Attica.

And that's Euboea, Evia as it's called today.

And in the words of Herodotus, terrible evils would stem from these ships, both for the Greeks and the barbarians, by which Herodotus means the Persians.

I think it does.

I think they very rapidly start to realize that they've bitten off much more than they could chew.

I mean, I think the burning of the Temple of Cybele is very unsettling for them because they are now anxious that they will draw down the wrath of the Mother Goddess.

And so they say, well, look, we're getting back.

This isn't going well at all.

And they head back from Sardis to the coast.

And as they're drawing near to the coast, the Athenians and the Ionians get attacked by Persian cavalry, which the Athenians have never come up against before.

And they're routed.