06-02-2005, 06:27 PM
That seems unlikely to me, first of all the rebels were not troops, second they were natives rebelling against foreign Persians, so it would be unwise to recruit men from a rebellious country to be sent with an army in campaign. In states with a national identity it is useful to start foreign wars to divert the attention from internal problems, but here we have an Empire ruled by a small minority facing continuous revolts, Xerxes could consider the Greek expedition as a way to gain prestige, even a show of power, we could even guess he was expecting a cheap victory
AKA Inaki