oxford

5
The Conquest of Greece
THERE is no real evidence for why the Persians invaded Greece in
480. The pretty debate furnished by Herodotus at the start of book 7 of
his History is almost certainly the product of his imagination; it is highly
unlikely that he had any evidence about the parts played by Mardonius
and Artabanus in the innermost councils of the King. But there is no
need to ask why empires expand. Extension of power is the natural
consequence of power. No less than Rome, Persia aspired to imperium
sine fine and from the moment that the expedition was mounted against
Naxos in 499 it was plain that Greece would face invasion. 1
Herodotus did not entirely concur, and the view that the Persian
invasion was inspired by Athenian help for the Ionian Revolt is freely
expressed in his book. Mardonius is made to argue that not only would
Greece be a desirable acquisition but also the King must punish Athens
and dissuade anyone else from attacking his land; Xerxes responds
in similar terms (7. 5. 2, 3 and 8p i). Likewise, the Spartans in winter
480/479 are made to assert that the invasion was caused by Athens (8.
142. 2). All this reflects perhaps no more than Greek wrangling, and is
of no great consequence. But it is a serious question whether the invasion
of 490, for which Herodotus provides in part the same motivation
(6. 94. i), was indeed of limited scope and directed at the punishment
of Athens and Eretria for their part in the raid on Sardis. If the expedition
of Datis and Artaphernes, which ended ingloriously at Marathon,
had succeeded in its aim, would no more have ensued than that the
Athenians would have shared the fate of the Eretrians, deportation to
a remote place in Asia, or would Athens have been made the base for
the Persian conquest of Greece and the capital of a new satrapy?
The answer would seem to be provided by Herodotus' report of
Darius sendingmessengers to Greek cities to demand 'earth and water',
the tokens of submission. Darius is presented as wishing to subject those
Greeks who refused (6. 94. i). They included, it later emerges, not just
Athens but also Sparta (7.133. i). No other mainland states are named,
though the Aeginetans and 'the other islanders' submitted (6. 49. i, 99.