Datis

Datis (pers. Dâtish ) was a Median general in the 5th century BC

The Persian Great King Darius I hired him for a punitive expedition against those Greek poleis of the mother country, which had supported the Ionian revolt against Persian rule on the west coast of Asia Minor. Datis led a small expeditionary force, which will have probably comprises no more than several thousand men. On the drive through the Aegean, he threw Rhodes and Naxos and visited the sanctuary of Apollo at Delos - this episode shows that the Persians tried to accompany her campaign and propaganda. However, the aim of the campaign were Eretria and Athens. Add to Eretria by a relatively late report of Plato, the Persian army systematically with human chains have scoured on the manhunt the entire landscape and the entire population sold into slavery. The historical reliability of this report is, however, controversial, as sources of the fifth century BC report anything about it.

After the Persian expeditionary force landed in Attica. The Athenian tyrant Hippias expelled, who accompanied the Persian campaign and should be restituted in Athens, Datis advised to a landing in Marathon, because there he hoped influx of old supporters of tyranny in Athens. After several days it came to the battle of Marathon, which was lost by the Persians. In order for the expedition of Datis had failed, but still had the Persian rule extended over the Cyclades. Later reports, which are found in Diodorus, according to which Datis the Athenians formed an alliance to have offered - with reference to a common mythical ancestry - are not historically credible. Make possibly represents a projection of subsequent events before the battle of Plataea, when the Persian commander Mardonius end the Athenians actually wanted to move to overflowing. The fate of Datis nothing is known. Later Greek sources who want to know about the death of Datis at the Battle of Marathon, probably earn no faith.

Was proverbial - especially in the comedies of Aristophanes - in Athens later the term " Song of Datis ". For a radebrechendes Greek was meant. It probably goes back to the fact that Datis himself tried hard in his campaign, the Greeks - about Delos - even in their own language to speak.