After the Persian Wars, which included Xerxes' invasion by land at the Battle of Thermopylae (the setting for the graphic novel-based movie 300), the various Hellenic poleis (city-states of Greece) divided into the sides on which they fought during the Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War was a major turning point in Greek history since in the following century, the poleis were not strong enough to stand up to the Macedonians under Philip and his son Alexander the Great. Strength is what some of the poleis were seeking when they turned to Athens to form the Delian League.
Formation of the Delian League
Following the victory at the Battle of Salamis, during the Persian Wars, the Ionian cities joined together in the Delian League for mutual protection. They placed Athens at the head (hegemon) because of her naval supremacy and because many of the Greek cities were annoyed with the tyrannical behavior of the Spartan commander Pausanias, who had been leader of the Greeks during the Persian War. This free confederation (symmachia) of autonomous cities, founded in 478 B.C., consisted of representatives, an admiral, and treasurers appointed by Athens. It was called the Delian League because its treasury was located at Delos. An Athenian leader, Aristides, initially assessed the allies in the Delian League 460 talents a year to be paid to the treasury, either in cash or ships.Athenian Supremacy in the Delian League
For ten years, the Delian League fought to rid Thrace and the Aegean of Persian strongholds and piracy. Athens, which continued to demand financial contributions or ships from its allies, even when fighting was no longer necessary, became more and more powerful as her allies became poorer and weaker. In 454, the treasury was moved to Athens. Animosity developed, but Athens would not permit the formerly free cities to secede.
"The enemies of Pericles were crying out how that the commonwealth of Athens had lost its reputation and was ill-spoken of abroad for removing the common treasure of the Greeks from the isle of Delos into their own custody; and how that their fairest excuse for so doing, namely, that they took it away for fear the barbarians should seize it, and on purpose to secure it in a safe place, this Pericles had made unavailable, and how that 'Greece cannot but resent it as an insufferable affront, and consider herself to be tyrannized over openly, when she sees the treasure, which was contributed by her upon a necessity for the war, wantonly lavished out by us upon our city, to gild her all over, and to adorn and set her forth, as it were some vain woman, hung round with precious stones and figures and temples, which cost a world of money.'"
"Pericles, on the other hand, informed the people, that they were in no way obliged to give any account of those moneys to their allies, so long as they maintained their defense, and kept off the barbarians from attacking them."
-- Plutarch's Life of Pericles
End of the Delian League
The Delian League was broken up when Sparta captured Athens in 404. It was later revived in 378-7 to protect against Spartan aggression, and survived until Philip II of Macedon's victory at Chaeronea (in Boeotia, where Plutarch would later be born).Print Resources on the Delian League
- A History of the Ancient World, by Chester Starr
- The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan
- Plutarch's Life of Pericles, by H. Holden
