The Moment Darius Remembered the Athenians

In 498 BC, when news reached the Persian court that a coalition of Greek rebels had captured and burned Sardis—the capital of a Persian province—King Darius reacted with cold fury. According to the historian Herodotus, the king first dismissed the Ionian Greeks as beneath his notice, knowing they would be punished soon enough. But the Athenians were different. Darius asked for his bow, fitted an arrow, and fired it into the heavens, crying out to his god: "Zeus, do not deny me the chance to punish the Athenians." He then ordered a servant to repeat three times at every meal: "Master, remember the Athenians."

This is the moment the Persian invasions of Greece became inevitable. The Athenians had crossed the Aegean, joined forces with Ionian Greeks living under Persian rule on the coast of modern Turkey, and torched Sardis—including a temple to the mother goddess Cybele. To the Persians, this was the ancient world's equivalent of the September 11 attacks: an act of terrorism by a distant rogue state that demanded an overwhelming response.

The Persian Empire: Built by Cyrus, Secured by Darius