How did the Persian war in 499 BC start?

Answer 1

As part of the ongoing war which went from 499 to 449 BCE, the Persians mounted a punitive expedition against Eretria and Athens for supporting the revolt of Greek city-states in Asia Minor. The expedition captured Eretria but was turned back at the battle of Marathon.

Answer 2

Everyone seems to be convinced that there was only one Persian War, when in fact there were two. The first was in 490 BC as Darius I of Persia attempted to invade Greece. The second was in 480 and 479 BC as his son Xerxes invaded Greece.

Another view:

The invasion of 490 was a limited punitive expedition directed against two cities only of the many cities in Greece - Athens and Eritea - for interfering in the Persian empire by supporting rebellions there by Greek cities within the empire. It was not Greece which was invaded. The object was to install Persian sympathisers to rule the two cities who would prevent further interference.

This failed, so the Persians decided to bring all of the mainland Greek cities within the Persian empire and so establish an ethnic fronter to stop ongoing external interference in the peace within the empire. In 480 it was a general invasion to achieve that result.

Incidentally, there were many wars involving the Greek worl and Persia over 200 years, terminated by Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire in the late 3rd Century BCE.

Answer 3

There were two Persian Wars, both won by the Greeks because the Persians were induced to leave. The Athenian general Miltiades won the first war at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Ten years later the second war began, and it was won by the Spartan king Pausanias at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.

Answer 4

The Ionian Revolt - a revolt by the Greek city-states against Persian rule.