Datis

Datis commanded the Persian expedition that was defeated at Marathon. He was a Mede, and the surviving sources give him no career before 490 BC and none after it, which is itself informative: he was a competent professional rather than a member of the royal house. Darius I sent him and Artaphernes the Younger, the king's nephew, with a fleet across the Aegean rather than by the land route Mardonius had attempted and failed with two years earlier. The expedition's purpose was punitive and limited. Athens and Eretria had sent ships to help the Ionian Revolt and had participated in the burning of Sardis, and Darius is said to have kept a servant to remind him of the Athenians daily. Datis took Naxos, which had resisted a Persian attack a decade before, and burned its temples. At Delos he did the opposite, anchoring off the island, sending the inhabitants a message that he would not harm the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and burning three hundred talents of frankincense on the altar — the distinction between punishing rebels and respecting Greek religion was deliberate. Eretria was betrayed after six days and its population deported to Persia. He then landed at Marathon on the advice of the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias, who was with the fleet and expected local support. The Athenians and Plataeans attacked and broke both Persian wings. Herodotus gives 6,400 Persian dead to 192 Athenians. Datis re-embarked, failed to reach Athens before the army marched back, and sailed home. He is the only Persian commander at Marathon whose name most Greeks remembered.

• Lived: 550 BCE – 480 BCE
• Nationality: Persian
• Roles: general