Why did the Persians attack Athens around 490BC?

Answer 1

Darius was a young leader for his time which also meant great drive, motovation, determination, and strength on behalf of himself. Usually this personality often results into general conflict, argument, or even war. In his case however, war. His young, inexperienced mindset brought him down a brutal violent road. Self restrictantcy was the key to all sucsess, and obviously, juding by his character, he did not meet these standards. Another theory for this historical attack was to gain revenge from the Persians. About 30 years before his reign, Persia had led an attack on southern Greece trying to gain acsess to the coast. This was unsucsessful and led to great arousal by Darius. For more questions or thoughts to my response, please be sure to send me a message at hockey1045@aim.com

Answer 2

Before the wars, Greeks had settled in Ionia in Asia Minor. They built 12 coastal cities in Lyonia and Caria. Ionia was conquered by the Persians in 540 BC, but the Persians found the Greek settlers difficult to rule, so they appointed native puppets as tyrants to rule each city. Under the Persians, the Ionians had to pay taxes and serve in the Persian Army. The Ionians revolted in 499, after Aristagoras, tyrant of the city of Miletus, thought he was going to be deposed by the Persian governor of the province, so he engineered a rebellion of the cities to protect his own interest, and the cities were more than happy to participate. They drove the Persians out and burned the provincial capital to the ground. The Greek city-states of Athens and Eretria sent troops to support the Ionians. Ultimately, the Greeks never had a chance. The Persian Army regrouped and retook Ionia, and burned Miletus to the ground. Then, the Persians decided to punish the Greek city-states for their support by conquering Greece.