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Grundy (p. 84 f.) sees in this incidental reference to conspirators an indication that the plan of revolt had been made before the expedition to Naxos. He holds that the other conspirators would never have admitted to their councils a tyrant in the Persian interest, who had just been engaged in an attempt to enslave a free Greek island, unless he had been beforehand implicated in the conspiracy: nor could Aristagoras have ventured to ask for aid in European Greece, unless he had some defence to offer for the attack on Naxos. He further points out how improbable it is that Megabates (cf. 33 n.) betrayed the intended expedition to the Naxians, and suggests that Aristagoras was the real culprit. On these and other grounds he forms the hypothesis that the object of Aristagoras in proposing the expedition was to bring about the mobilization and concentration of the Ionian fleet, the only possible means of securing that combination between the Greek cities necessary for the success of a revolt. But, as he admits, proof is impossible. Herodotus, by the inconsistencies and prejudices (97 n., 124 n.; vi. 3 n.) visible in his account, lays himself open to damaging criticism, but the reconstruction proposed has no secure basis. Patriotic Greeks in Ionia or Europe might gladly welcome the man who had seen the error of his ways and renounced Medism and Tyranny. Naxos may have been warned without Aristagoras' intervention, and it is quite after the manner of H. to introduce us suddenly to a fully fledged conspiracy without telling us exactly the steps by which it was formed. In fine, while we may legitimately doubt the fairness and accuracy of H., we have no sufficient grounds for rewriting the whole story. Discontent with the Persian and the tyrant was doubtless rife in Western Asia (ch. 124 n.); the means by which it was brought to a head, and the motives of the agents, remain uncertain.
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