Histiaeus

Histiaeus was tyrant of Miletus and is credited by Herodotus with starting the Ionian Revolt by tattooing a message on a slave's head. He ruled Miletus as a Persian client under Darius I, and served on the expedition against the Scythians around 513 BC. When the Persian army was beyond the Danube and its return uncertain, the Ionian tyrants guarding the bridge of boats debated destroying it and freeing themselves. Histiaeus argued against it, on the reasoning that each of them held power only because Persia backed him and that the cities would expel them all if Darius fell. The bridge was kept and Darius rewarded him with territory in Thrace. He was then summoned to Susa and kept there as an honoured adviser, which was a comfortable form of detention and which he resented. To provoke a revolt that would require his return, he is said to have shaved the head of a trusted slave, tattooed the message on the scalp, waited for the hair to grow, and sent him to Aristagoras at Miletus. The revolt broke out in 499 BC and lasted six years. Darius sent Histiaeus down to help suppress it and he never returned to court. He spent the rest of the war in shifting positions — refused entry to Miletus, operating out of Byzantium as effectively a pirate, seizing grain ships. He was captured by the Persian general Harpagus in 493 BC and impaled by a satrap who feared Darius would pardon him. Darius is said to have been angry at the execution and to have had the head buried with honour.

• Lived: 540 BCE – 493 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: ruler