48: Anatolia, Conflicts Continue

Casting Through Ancient Greece

The Ionian Greeks along with their allies from Athens and Eretria had entered and burn Sardis, though they failed to take the Acropolis. They withdrew back to the coast where the Persian would catch up to them and fight the battle of Ephesus. The Greeks would be defeated with the survivors making for their cities, the Athenians and Eritreans sailing home to take no more part in the revolt.

With no more aid coming from Greek lands, the Ionians would now take measures that would see the revolt spread throughout other parts of Anatolia. By 497, Much of Aeolia, the Hellespont, Caria and even as far south as Cyprus would be in open revolt. Though, with the revolt spreading, the Persians would be arranging a response to punish those responsible and bring these lands back under their control.

Multiple Persian armies would operate throughout the western parts of the empire seeing that Cyprus would once again become a Persian possession. Further operations would also see the trade rich areas of the Hellespont coming back under Persian control. Caria and Ionia would prove slightly more of a challenge. Caria would see hard fighting and would see the Persians having to deal with partisan operations. While In Ionia, a major set piece battle would be fought before the Persians could begin reducing the Ionian cities one by one. Eventually, western Anatolia would be back in Persian hands.

Persia’s attention would then shift west to Greek lands, where the Ionians, now Persian subjects once again would be part of the forces marching west. They would make up a sizable portion of the Persian navy during both the first and second Persian invasions. With the Greek victory over Persia during the invasions, the war would enter Persian lands in Ionia. The Ionians would now be encouraged to revolt for the second time, with the spark being lit during the battle of Mycale. The region would become important during future operations, with events and decisions leading to unintended consequences for a new generation of Greeks.
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