Aristagoras

Also known as: the Milesian · Family: Milesian · Role: ruler of Miletos · First appears: Book 5 · §29–35

In Book 5, Aristagoras, son of Molpagoras, ruled Miletos and was both son-in-law and cousin to Histiaios. After receiving Histiaios’s message, he resolved with his supporters to revolt. At Miletos he publicly revolted against Dareios, pretending to resign his despotic power in favor of equality; across Ionia he deposed other despots and told the cities to appoint their own commanders. He then set out to seek an alliance, but Cleomenes drove him out of Sparta, and he proceeded to Athens.

At Athens, Aristagoras persuaded the citizens to send twenty ships to help the Ionians. While the force marched on Sardis, he remained in Miletos and appointed his brother Charopinos to command the Milesians. Sardis was taken and burned, but afterward the Athenians abandoned the Ionians and refused Aristagoras’s appeals for help. In Book 6, the account says he had deprived Aiakes (son of Syloson) of his rule in Samos. Before sailing to Thrace, Aristagoras entrusted Miletos’s government to Pythagoras; he and his army perished at the hands of the Thracians.