Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / Eretria: The City That Started the Persian Wars
Transcript
- Luna: We've talked so much about Athens and Sparta, but I feel like we keep circling around one city that doesn't get enough attention. Lucas: You mean Eretria. And you're right — it's almost like the forgotten protagonist of the Persian Wars. Because before Marathon became a household name, it was Eretria that Darius I sent his fleet to punish first. And he did it with brutal efficiency. Luna: Punish? For what? Lucas: For helping the Ionian Revolt. In 499 BCE, when the Greek cities of Ionia — on the coast of modern Turkey — rose up against Persian rule, Athens sent twenty ships to support them. But Eretria sent five. And you know what? That was enough. When Darius crushed the revolt, he swore revenge on both cities. Eretria was closer, so it got hit first. Lucas: And this is where it gets fascinating, because Eretria wasn't some minor backwater. In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, it was one of the most powerful states in Greece — a major naval power, with colonies stretching from Macedonia to Italy. It even fought a long, bitter war against its neighbor Chalcis over the fertile Lelantine plain — a conflict that drew in most of the Greek world. Luna: The Lelantine War — I've heard that mentioned but never really understood it. Lucas: Right, it's one of those early Greek conflicts that Thucydides mentions as the first 'Panhellenic' war, where alliances stretched across the Aegean. Eretria and Chalcis, both on the island of Euboea, fought for control of the Lelantine plain for decades. It was a war of hoplites and cavalry — Eretria was famous for its horsemen, called the hippobotai, or 'horse-feeders' — and it ended with Eretria weakened, though still a player. Lucas: But by 490 BCE, Eretria had recovered enough to be a real threat. When the Persian fleet approached, the city was divided — some wanted to flee to the hills, others wanted to surrender. But a faction led by a man named Aeschines — not the orator, different guy — decided to resist. They barricaded the walls and prepared for a siege. Luna: And what happened? Lucas: The Persians landed with a massive force — maybe 20,000 men, led by Datis and Artaphernes. They besieged Eretria for six days. On the seventh, two prominent citizens — Euphorbus and Philagrus — opened the gates from inside. The Persians poured in, looted the city, burned the temples to the ground, and rounded up the entire population. Every man, woman, and child was taken captive. Lucas: Herodotus tells us that the prisoners were marched to the coast, shipped to Asia, and eventually settled near Susa, in the heart of the Persian Empire. Darius gave them land at a place called Ardericca, about a day's journey from the Persian capital. It was a deliberate, calculated act of terror — meant to show what happens to anyone who defies the King of Kings. Luna: So Eretria was literally erased from the map? Lucas: Not permanently, but for a generation it was gone. The survivors who stayed in Greece — those who fled to the hills or escaped by sea — eventually returned. But the city never regained its former power. And yet, its fate had an enormous impact. The fall of Eretria sent a clear signal to Athens: you're next. And that's precisely what rallied the Athenians to face the Persians at Marathon — a battle they might not have fought so fiercely if Eretria hadn't been sacrificed first. Lucas: And there's a strange coda to the story. The playwright Phrynichus wrote a play about the fall of Miletus — another city destroyed by Persia — and the audience in Athens wept so bitterly that they fined him for reminding them of their own sorrows. But nobody wrote a play about Eretria. It's almost as if the city that started the war was deliberately forgotten. And yet, a colony of Eretrians lived on in Persian territory for centuries — a living remnant of a city that dared to resist. Luna: That's such a powerful story. And it's one of those things that makes you realize how much we miss when we focus only on the winners. Lucas: Exactly. And thinking about that — how the stories we remember are shaped by what later generations chose to preserve — reminds me how much this show depends on listeners like you. We don't run ads, we don't have corporate backing. What keeps us going is the support of people who want to hear these deeper, less-told stories. If that's you, you can help — at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Even a small gesture makes a big difference. Luna: Yeah, absolutely. It's what lets us take the time to dig into things like Eretria, instead of just sticking to the greatest hits. Lucas: So back to Eretria — what's really remarkable is that archaeology has confirmed parts of the story. Excavations on the acropolis of Eretria have uncovered destruction layers from around 490 BCE, with ash and burned debris that match Herodotus's account. You can still see the foundations of the Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros, which was sacked by the Persians and later rebuilt. It's a tangible connection to that moment of crisis. Luna: Wait — the Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros? What does that mean? Lucas: Daphnephoros means 'laurel-bearer' — Apollo was associated with the laurel tree, and the temple was one of the oldest in Greece, dating back to the 8th century BCE. The original building was a simple apsidal structure, but after the Persian destruction, they rebuilt it in the classical style. It's one of the earliest known peripteral temples — meaning it had columns all around — and it was a major landmark in its day. Lucas: And Eretria's decline also tells us something about Greek geopolitics. After the Persian Wars, Athens emerged as the dominant naval power and forced many Euboean cities into its empire. Eretria became a subject ally, contributing ships to the Delian League. But it never forgot its former independence. In 446 BCE, it joined a revolt against Athens — the so-called Euboean Revolt — which Pericles himself suppressed. After that, Eretria faded into the background, overshadowed by its more powerful neighbors. Luna: So it really is a city that got squeezed by both Persia and Athens. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what makes its story so compelling. Eretria was a once-great city that chose to take a stand, knowing the risk, and paid the price. Its name lives on mainly as a footnote — but without Eretria, there might not have been a Marathon, or a Salamis, or the golden age of Athens. It's the spark that lit the fire.