In the original revolt appear to have been included only the cities of Ionia and AEolis.  Aristagoras felt that some further strength was needed, and determined to seek it in European Greece.  Repulsed from Sparta, which was disinclined to so distant an expedition, he applied for aid to cities on which he had a special claim.  Miletus counted Athens as her mother state; and Eretria was indebted to her for assistance in her great war with Chalcis.  Applying in these quarters Aristagoras succeeded better, but still obtained no very important help.  Athens voted him twenty ships, Eretria five and with the promise of these succors he hastened back to Asia.

The European contingent soon afterwards arrived; and Aristagoras, anxious to gain some signal success which should attract men to his cause, determined on a most daring enterprise.  This was no less than an attack on Sardis, the chief seat of the Persian power in these parts, and by far the most important city of Asia Minor.  Sailing to Ephesus, he marched up the valley of the Cayster, crossed Mount Tmolus, and took the Lydian capital at the first onset.  Artaphernes, the satrap, was only able to save the citadel; the invaders began to plunder the town, and in the confusion it caught fire and was burnt.  Aristagoras and his troops hastily retreated, but were overtaken before they could reach Ephesus by the Persians quartered in the province, who fell upon them and gave them a severe defeat.  The expedition then broke up; the Asiatic Greeks dispersed among their cities; the Athenians and Eretrians took ship and sailed home.

Results followed that could scarcely have been anticipated.  The failure of the expedition was swallowed up in the glory of its one achievement.  It had taken Sardis—­it had burnt one of the chief cities of the Great King.  The news spread like wildfire on every side, and was proclaimed aloud in places where the defeat of Ephesus was never even whispered.  Everywhere revolt burst out.  The Greeks of the Hellespont—­not only those of Asia but likewise those of Europe—­the Carians and Caunians of the south-western coast—­even the distant Cyprians broke into rebellion; the Scythians took heart and made a plundering raid through the Great King’s Thracian territories;4 vassal monarchs, like Miltiades, assumed independence, and helped themselves to some of the fragments of the Empire that seemed falling to pieces.  If a great man, a Miltiades or a Leondias, had been at the head of the movement, and if it had been decently supported from the European side, a successful issue might probably have been secured.