who asked him to help restore them to the control of the island. Seeing an opportunity to strengthen his position in Miletus by conquering Naxos, Aristagoras approached the satrap of Lydia, Artaphernes, with a proposal. If Artaphernes provided an army, Aristagoras would conquer the island in Darius's name, and he would then give Artaphernes a share of the spoils to cover the cost of raising the army. Furthermore, Aristagoras suggested that once Naxos fell, the other Cyclades would also quickly follow, and he even suggested that Euboea could be attacked on the same expedition. Artaphernes agreed in principle, and asked Darius for permission to launch the expedition. Darius assented to this, and a force of 200 triremes was assembled in order to attack Naxos the following year. Prelude The Persian fleet was duly assembled in the spring of 499 BC, and sailed to Ionia. Artaphernes put his (and Darius's) cousin Megabates in charge of the expedition, and dispatched him to Miletus with the Persian army. They were joined there by Aristagoras and the Milesian forces, and then embarked and set sail. In order to avoid warning the Naxians, the fleet initially sailed north, towards the Hellespont, but when they arrived at Chios they doubled back and headed south for Naxos. Herodotus recounts that Megabates made inspections of the ships (probably whilst beached for the night), and came across one ship from Myndus which had not posted any sentries. Megabates ordered his guard to find the captain of the ship, Scylax, and then had the captain thrust into one of the ship's oar holes with his head outside and his body inside the ship. News reached Aristagoras of the treatment of his friend and he went to Megabates and asked him to reconsider his decision. When Megabates refused to grant Aristagoras's wishes, Aristagoras simply cut the captain loose himself. Predictably, Megabates was furious with Aristagoras, who in turn retorted "But you, what have you to do with these matters? Did not Artaphernes send you to obey me and to sail wherever I bid you? Why are you so meddlesome?". According to Herodotus, Megabates was so enraged by this that he sent messengers to the Naxians to warn them of the approach of the Persian force. Modern historians, doubting that a Persian commander would have sabotaged his own invasion, have suggested several other possible scenarios. It is, however, impossible to know exactly