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So, the Persians win at Marathon, occupy Attica and raze Athens. The Spartans and them stalemate, with neither the Spartans able to force their way to Attica nor the Persians able to cross into the Peloponnese. Afterwards the Persians retreat to their original borders (in Macedonia I think they were), but leave a small (but not too small) force in Attica to keep in check the Spartans and make sure that they don't go and conquer the rest of Greece now that Athens is gone.
So, the question is: in this scenario, how long would take for Athens to recover? Would the Persians restore it to serve as a center for their new Satrapy of Attica, would they just build a city from scratch or would they use another city as an administrative center? If the answer is the last one, which cities in Atrica could replace Athens?
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