Ionia (satrapy)

[note 1] Achaemenid conquest (c. 546 – 479 BC) In the mid-6th century BC, the Ionians were conquered by Cyrus the Great and according to Herodotus, they were placed in the same tax district (the first) as the Pamphylians, Lycians, Magnesians, Aeolians, Milyans, and Carians.

The main source, Herodotus, puts it down to the personal ambitions of two men of Miletus, Histiaeus and Aristagoras; modern scholars debate what the underlying reasons may have been; arguments for economic and political causes are variously put forward, but there are no clear sources which can give a definitive answer.

After the revolt was put down, the Ionian cities were subdued by some pragmatic and enlightened measures by the Persian satrap of Sardis, Artaphrenes.

Autonomy (479–387 BC) It was only after the Persians were defeated at Battle of Plataea in 479 that the Ionian cities had the confidence to revolt again, defeating the Persian forces at the Battle of Mycale in the same year.

Ionia remained under Persian rule until the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 334 BC.

Ionian delegation, relief at Apadana stairs of Persepolis
The Ionian fleet, here seen in 513 BC during the European Scythian campaign of Darius I joining with Persian forces, was part of the Achaemenid fleet at the Battle of Artemisium and the Battle of Salamis . 19th-century illustration.
Coinage of Phokaia , Ionia, circa 478–387 BC. Possible portrait of Satrap Tissaphernes , with satrapal headress.
Coin of Autophradates , Achaemenid Satrap of Sparda ( Lydia and Ionia ), circa 380s–350s BC.
Ionia, Achaemenid Period, emulating Achaemenid coinage . Uncertain satrap. Circa 350–333 BC