In or quite soon after the mid-540s BC – when Cyrus, son of Cambyses, and his Persians conquered Lydia in Anatolia – the Spartans first became aware that the grand strategy they had articulated for the defence of their regime and way of life might not be adequate. It was then that they first sized up their future foe and realised that the resources commanded by the Great King (as the Persian emperor was known) dwarfed those that their Peloponnesian alliance could deploy.
In consequence, in the half-century that followed, they for the most part exercised caution, hoping that the gaze of the Mede would not come to rest on the southernmost reaches of the Balkan peninsula. They eschewed provocation while, nonetheless, discreetly attempting to place obstacles in the Persian monarch’s way and trying to prevent cities on the Greek mainland from forging alliances with him.
When the Persians subdued the Greek cities on the Anatolian coast, the Spartans considered their plea for help and baulked at the prospect. When the former took to the sea and roped in the islands along that coast, Sparta remained quiet.
Excavating Berkshire