Tom Holland

And I think this is the moment when the Athenians realize, actually, you know, this isn't

These aren't a bunch of women, even though they may wear trousers.

These are terrifying fighters.

And the cavalry in particular, Greece is not a land that encourages the use of cavalry, whereas the flat plateau of Iran absolutely encourages the use of cavalry.

Essentially, the heavy infantry that forms a Greek army, hoplites they're called, people with the hopla, the heavy kit.

If they get caught in open land by Persian cavalry, they are toast.

And this is pretty much what happens now.

The Athenian force is very brutally savaged.

Those who survive get back to their ships and they say, we are out of here.

we're not sticking around, you've basically lied to us, they tell Aristagoras, and Aristagoras is kind of begging them not to go.

But the Athenians say, no, we're off, and they sail back across the Aegean, and they ignore all future appeals.

And I think that their plan is basically

to hope that the Persians will forget all about it and they will pretend that it never happened.

It's like that scene in Seinfeld where George announces that he's leaving and then realises he's made a terrible mistake and just goes back in and tries to pretend that it had never happened.

I think that is basically the strategy, to pretend that it had never happened.

And to begin with, it looks a reasonable strategy because actually the Persian focus is very much on crushing the Ionians.

They are the ones who are the open rebels.

It takes them four years.

Of course, when victory finally comes, it is predictably merciless.

In 494, the Ionian fleet is destroyed off an island called Lade, which is an island just outside Miletus.