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What I would like to ask today is your thoughts on the possibility of an Achaemenid conquest of Greece, and how it could've been accomplished.

Personally, I feel that both Darius' and Xerxes' invasions could have ended in Persian victory. Let's start off with Darius' invasion. Make it so Datis is able to win the Battle of Marathon in 490 against the Athenians and Plataeans and then conquers Athens, barricading himself in the city for the Spartans to arrive. Athens, one of the most powerful city-states in Greece, being defeated by the Persians would be devastating to Greek morale and would probably make many of the other cities consider Persian overlordship to save their own skin. Anyway, the Spartans then besiege him so Mardonius can perform a pincer movement by moving from Macedonia through Thessaly and Boeotia, all 3 of which are Persian ally states that could provide Mardonius with substantial numbers of hoplites, into Attica. Then, the Spartan army is either destroyed here by Datis and Mardonius or withdraws into the Peloponnese, leaving the Persians in control of Central Greece. Then, the two Persian generals invade the Peloponnese, where, with the assistance of Moreans opposed to Sparta such as the Argives, Arcadians, Messenians, and Achaeans, Sparta is besieged and conquered by a massive Persian force, and dominance is achieved over Greece.

The second scenario, of Xerxes' invasion, is not all that different in my view. The Athenian fleet is destroyed at Salamis or Artemisium and Mardonius triumphs over the Spartans at Plataea, bypassing the Isthmian defenses by sea, landing at Argos and laying siege to Corinth with the assistance of the Argives, the city falling after a short siege. Xerxes and Mardonius then proceed quickly to Sparta which is besieged and most likely burned to the ground, and Greece is left subdued as the Persian army has conquered the mainland and the Persian navy has island-hopped all across the seas.

Any other ideas for how the Persians could conquer Greece?
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