I can imagine that, as a Persian satrap on the edge of the Empire, you're pretty nervous about the Athenians and their allies getting all up in your business. But let's not overstate the matter. After their initial campaigns against Western Asia Minor and the Hellespont in 479-7 BC, the Greeks only won 3 major victories against the Persians before the probable signing of the Peace of Kallias in 449/8 BC. At the Eurymedon in the early 460s BC, the Persian fleet and army were destroyed; in Egypt in the late 460s BC, the Athenians helped the rebellious Egyptians defeat the Persian army sent to restore order; and in Cyprus in the late 450s BC the Athenian expeditionary fleet again managed to crush a Persian fleet and landing force. That's pretty much it. And let's not forget the final result of all that bloodshed, either. The battle of the Eurymedon was a setback for Persia, to be sure. But the Athenian force in Egypt was wiped out a few years after its initial victory; over 200 of their triremes were burned, and many thousands of Greeks lost their lives. And at Cyprus, even though the Greeks were victorious, they lost their general, Kimon - thorn in your side for decades - and withdrew quietly back to Greece.

Most of these victories were in naval battles, or battles fought by a recently landed force. There was no attempt by the Delian League to advance further into Asia Minor. They knew their main strength was in the number of their triremes, and that the Greek settlements they sought to protect from Persian rule were near the coast. Given that you've already lost all those settlements to them, you have little reason to worry that any major Greek army will soon be descending upon you. Indeed, the treaty that was supposedly signed in 449/8 BC said that the Persians were to stay as far away from the coast as a horse can run in a day (Plutarch, Life of Kimon 13.4). Clearly the Greeks did not have designs on the inland parts of the Persian Empire; they only claimed the bits along the sea.

Still, we know that the Greeks occasionally venture inland to bother you, and that you also try to reach out and harm them if you can. The Athenian Tribute Lists show interesting fluctuations, with settlements deeper into Asia Minor suddenly paying tribute for one year, while others along the coast sometimes seem to disappear from the lists. All this suggests that there was definitely some low-level raiding and campaigning going on along the new border of your satrapy. But it also shows that fifth columns and regime change had a role to play in the war. This is, of course, how you're planning to win; by encouraging the wealthy in each city to throw off the Athenian yoke and establish oligarchic regimes favourable to Persia, you are gradually re-establishing your control over the region. You're definitely damaging the Athenian reputation and their bottom line by forcing them to respond to rebellions like those at Erythrai and Miletos in 454/3 BC.

Generally, this is a pretty good way to fight Greeks. They are poor, while you are rich; they can't afford to lose much, while you have vast resources of money, manpower and land. It is better to play on their greed and exploit their internal divisions than to force them into a corner and make them fight you. Buy them off; wear them out with long campaigns; play them off against each other; let them waste their strength on worthless things; let them see how much power they could have if they joined you instead of fighting you. Is it any wonder that they are constantly suspecting their best generals of taking Persian bribes? Artaxerxes tried to take this approach one step further after his defeat in Egypt, sending an envoy to pay the Spartans to declare war on Athens and thus draw the Athenian fleet away. Unfortunately the Spartans refused to play ball (Thucydides 1.109.2-3; Diodoros 11.74.5-6). But a time will soon come when they will prove more willing.

But what if the Greeks actually attack? Well, the situation will be a bit tricky. Not much is known about the battles the Persians won against the Greeks during the Ionian Revolt; we know more about the times when they lost.

One thing it seems you shouldn't do is rely on your own home-grown elite heavy infantry. This may be the pride of the Persian army - a mass of warriors formed up behind a wall of wicker shields and fighting first with the bow, then with the spear, then with swords and axes - but it doesn't work well against the Greeks. You see, the Greeks don't play by the rules. They don't use many arrows of their own; they rarely bring horsemen, against which your tactics are best suited. Rather, when they go into battle, they immediately commit all of their heavy infantry in a frenzied charge, piling into your shieldwall and rendering your carefully organised army ineffective. At this point it comes down to individual strength and bravery, and the savage Greeks, with their heavy shields and long spears and their insane disregard for their own lives, tend to have the advantage. This was how the Persians were eventually grinded down at Plataia, and at Mykale, and again at the Eurymedon (or so says Plutarch (Life of Kimon 13.2); Diodoros (11.61.2-6) claims the fight at the Eurymedon was a treacherous night attack).

But don't despair. The Persians have beaten the Greeks in pitched battle before. Greek hoplites don't always win even in close combat; at Marathon the Persian centre broke through the Athenian line. When they're stretched thin or outflanked, they're vulnerable. They're poorly organised and easily frightened. When they see some of their own side running, they tend to follow suit.

One way to even the odds in pitched battle is to use people who are used to fighting in the Greek manner. The Egyptians, with their long pikes and heavy tower shields, are best; but these won't be available to you in Asia Minor. You do have access to the Karians, though; the Phrygians also know how to fight as spearmen; and any Ionian or Aeolian Greeks you can persuade to fight for you will serve you well. Don't forget that you don't necessarily have to own Greeks yourself - they are always on sale in the mercenary market.

More importantly, when the Greeks go about by ship, they have no horsemen to support them. This gives you and your strong cavalry a great advantage. At the battle of Malene in 493 BC, the Persians defeated the Greeks by pinning them down with infantry and then charging them with their cavalry (Herodotos 6.29.1). Even safer would be to refuse battle altogether, but to ride down any Greeks that stray from their main body as they march about your lands, using your superior mobility to avoid getting bogged down in hand-to-hand fighting. They need to eat; in order to find food, they need to scatter; that's when you get them. In future, this will frequently allow the Persians to inflict serious casualties on the Greeks (Xenophon, Anabasis 6.4.24; Hellenika 3.4.22, 4.1.17-19). Innovations like the scythed chariot, designed to break up Greek formations, will help you in this task.

If you are satrap of Phrygia, you have access to Bithynians, who fight as peltasts and cavalry. These are a potent combination to field against hoplites. Again, all you have to do is avoid a pitched battle, and let attrition and exhaustion do its work. What use is it to them that they are good at close combat if the battle never comes to that? Your descendants will see Greek hoplites slaughtered "like cattle in a pen" by the Bithynians (Xenophon, Hellenika 3.4.2-5).

Take heart, then, in the knowledge that you are not helpless. For all their recent victories, the Greeks know they should fear you, and they will soon fear you again:

They saw an army drawn up in line of battle where their own road ran—Karians with white shields, the entire Persian force which happened to be at hand, all the Greek troops which each of the two satraps had, and horsemen in great numbers, those of Tissaphernes on the right wing and those of Pharnabazos on the left.

When Derkylidas learned of all this, he told the commanders of units and the lochagoi to form their men in line, eight deep, as quickly as possible, and to station the peltasts on either wing and likewise the cavalry—all that he happened to have and such as it was; meanwhile he himself offered sacrifice.

Now all that part of the army which was Peloponnesian kept quiet and prepared for battle; but as for the men from Priene and Achilleion, from the islands and the Ionian cities, some of them left their arms in the standing grain and ran away, while all those who did stand showed clearly that they would not stand very long.

-- Xenophon, Hellenika 3.4.15-17

Is there a way to have Reddit remind me to look at a thread in ... pulling a number out of my hat ... 3 days? There are always so many good questions that I never remember to go back and read the answers to.