First Persian War – Fact Sheet

Duration of 492-49BC
war
Main Mardonius - the leading Persian general in the wars
characters Datis - leading Persian general at the Battle of Marathon, essentially responsible for
Persian loss
Darius the Great - Leader of Persia
Aristagoras - seen as the spark that started the Ionian revolt.
Miltiades - the Athenian general at the battle of Marathon
Callimachus - the deciding vote on whether the Greek troops attack without Sparta
Pheidippides - the runner who ran from Marathon to Sparta, back to Marathon and
then to Athens and collapsed and died.
Hippias - responsible for convincing Darius to invade the Athenians, once a tyrant at
Athens
Possible The Ionian revolt is generally regarded as the catalyst for the first Persian war, when
reasons for Aristagoras tried to take Naxos back and the Ionian people fought back against the
the war and Persians who were occupying their land.
evidence
Events and The battle of marathon was a landslide win for the Greek forces, with the troops
results there slaughtering mass numbers, Herodotus saying around 6,400, and the Greeks
losing only 192 men. This proved to the rest of the world that Persia was a force
that could be beat, they weren’t entirely unstoppable.
Outcomes - Outstanding Persian defeat
- Withdraw of Persian forces from Greece
- Ended the first Persian War
- Persian army grew exponentially in preparation for retaliation against Greeks
at a later time