Athens, having become entangled in the affairs of the Persian satrap Pissuthnes, who had revolted in 420 against his Achaemenid overlord, and subsequently with his natural son Amorges, sends mercenary help to Pissuthnes and perhaps to Amorges.

The Persian aristocrat Tissaphernes, dispatched by his king to Lydia, manages to incite a rebellion under Pissuthnes' Greek mercenaries, and achieving this offers negotiations.

Pissuthnes, upon his arrival at the place of the talks, is arrested, sent to Darius, and executed; Tissaphernes succeeds Pissuthnes as satrap of Lydia in about 415 BCE.

During his first years, he still must fight against Pissuthnes' son Amorges, who continues the struggle, possibly with Athenian help.

After the Athenian defeat at Syracuse, Darius, angered by the Amorges affair and determined to recover the Greek coastal cities of Asia Minor, which have been under Athenian control since 448, decides to back the Spartans.

The satraps of Asia Minor are ordered to collect overdue tribute.

As satrap of Lydia and Caria and general of the Achaemenid forces in Anatolia, Tissaphernes allies with Sparta against Athens in 413 and urges Athens’s colonies in Asia Minor to revolt.