What was the Ionic Rebellion?

Answer 1

The Greek city-states of western Asia Minor rebelled against Persian rule. It was incited by Aristagoras the Greek tyrant of Miletus who had got himself into trouble by involving the Persian provincial governor in a failed attack on Naxos.

As he knew that Persian retribution was looming, he persuaded the other Greek cities to rebel, hoping to save himself. The revolt lasted from 499 to 493 BCE.by which time the Persians had re-established control and restored peace.

There was a wider flow on effect - Eretria and Athens had sent military assistance to the cities, and in the process had burnt down the Persian provincial capital of Sardis. After the revolt was settled, Persia sent a retaliatory raid to suppress these two cities and appoint Greek tyrants to rule them and keep them quiet. This raid was defeated at Marathon, and this convinced the Persians to take over all the cities of the Greek mainland to establish control and keep the peace.

This invasion was led by king Xerxes 480-479 BCE, but it also failed. War went on sporadically until 449 BCE, when the Persians gave up and left the Greek cities to go back to the usual incessant fighting amongst each other.