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With the capture of Miletus, the Greek rebellion shattered.
The burning of Sardis still fresh in their minds,
the Persians brutally stamped out the last isolated remnants of the uprising,
taking cleansing fire to cities, fields, and sanctuaries.
Ash and blackened bones were the only remaining testaments to the hubris of Aristagoras.
For most men, this would have been vengeance enough.
But for the Great King of Persia, retribution had to be absolute:
if a single rebel was seen to escape punishment,
then Darius would soon be dealing with recalcitrant Bactrians,
or the arrogant Babylonians again,
or the Egyptians, for whom peace was simply an interlude between uprisings.
No, there was still one enemy unpunished:
men who had sailed all the way across the Aegean just to pillage the Great King’s realm.
Three times each night at dinner, Darius had a servant whisper in his ear:
"Master, remember the Athenians."
So the Great King ordered the construction of a mighty fleet,
and entrusted it to his most dependable commander, Datis.
At the first fluttering of the Etesian winds,
Datis launched his deep-bellied warships into the Aegean, their prows pointed for Greece.
In those days, most fleets would travel along the coastline, returning to shore each night.
But Datis had a different plan:
he would cut a bloody swath straight through the islands of the Aegean, starting with Naxos —
where, all those years ago, the failure of Aristagoras had birthed such troubles for the Greeks.