Siege of Naxos

Significance

The Siege of Naxos in 498 BCE was the opening act of the Greco-Persian Wars, a conflict that would continue for fifty years. The operation was led by Aristagoras, the Milesian tyrant, acting with Persian support and in the name of Darius the Great, against the island of Naxos. The expedition ended in failure. Though the immediate military outcome is not recorded in detail, the siege's significance lies in its place at the origin of the broader Greco-Persian confrontation: the failure of Aristagoras and the Persian commander Megabates to subdue Naxos set in motion the sequence of events that produced the wider wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek world.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)