The Persian expedition against the Scythes in southern Russia turned out to be a huge failure as we know. However, Darius army would have been surrounded and slaughtered if the Greek colonies in Asia Minor would not have remained loyal to him. Both parties drew wrong conclusions from this event: Darius that he could rely on the Greek colonies, and the Greek colonies that the Persian army was not undefeatable, and thus that the time had come to revolt.

The problems start in 499 in Asia Minor. The tyrant Histiaeus of the Greek colony Milete and his deputy Aristagoras believed that they could insinuate themselves in a role of authority. The Persians did not think so of course, and this all lead to a great patriotic outburst. The main reason of the revolt was most likely not because of hatred against the Persians, but more because the Greek colonies could not develop into mature Poleis as they were governed by pro-Persian tyrants. The Persians were know for their tolerant policy a towards other cultures so it seems likely that the Greeks did not revolt against the high king of Persia, but against the tyrants who were installed by him.

Messagers were sent out to the Greek homeland in an attempt to get support for their revolt. The only cities that decided to help their Ionic brothers were Athens and the insignificant Eretria who would sent 25 ships altogether. Sparta refused to help in any way. At the beginning it seemed as if luck was at their side, and the revolt spread out over more cities. Most of the Aeolian colonies in the north, most of the Ionic colonies in the centre, and some of the Dorian colonies in the south disposed their tyrants and joined the open revolt against the Persians. With a combined action they even managed to conquer and burn Sardis, the capitol of the old Lydian empire. Then the Persians had enough of it and hit back hard. They destroyed the Greek fleet at Lade, followed by the destruction of Milete in 494.