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To what extent did the Delian League fulfil its aims?
The Delian had fulfilled its aims within the first ten years of its existence. These included
liberating the Ionian states from Persian control, driving the Persians from the coast of Asia
Minor and plundering Persian territory. After 468 the League ceased to be a mutual defence
pact and came under the control of Athens. By 440, its objective was solely the pursuit of
Athenian power in Greece and the Aegean.
In the decade following its formation, the Delian League devoted itself entirely to its
mandate: compensating its members for their losses during the war by plundering Persia,
protecting them from further Persian aggression, and liberating states still under Persian
control. During this period it succeeded in freeing every Greek city in Thrace and Asia Minor,
and expelled the Persians from the region.
This process was completed in 468 with the Battle of Eurymedon. Xerxes had gathered
another force of ships and soldiers, in the hope of regaining part of his empire. Cimon
decided to attack this force before Xerxes’ Phoenician ships could arrive. The Persian navy
navy was destroyed, and Xerxes’ land force was scattered. Cimon gathered a great deal of
booty from this victory, thereby fulfilling a key aim of the League. He then sailed south and
destroyed the Phoenician fleet. Xerxes’ hopes of another invasion were dashed, and he was
forced to sign a peace treaty in which he promised to keep his ships away from Asia Minor.
With this victory, the Delian League had fulfilled its original purpose. From this point on,
its aims changed to be those of Athens exclusively. The first evidence of this was in 468,
when the island of Naxos decided to secede. Athens argued that this was illegal, and used
the League’s forces to besiege it and force it to rejoin the League. Naxos was then obliged to
pay tribute rather than provide ships.
Thucydides points to this as a turning point in the transformation of the Delian League into
the Athenian empire. Increasingly, member states either preferred, or were required, to
contribute money, which Athens used to build ships that were manned by its own citizens.
Those ships, in practice, were under Athenian rather than League control, and could be used
to enforce Athenian authority.
That authority was used against restive members on several occasions between 468 and
441 BC. The earliest was in 465, when Thasos seceded from the League. The Athenians laid
siege to the island, and defeated it in 463. Then, in 446, Euboea revolted, and it too met the
same fate. Finally, Samos revolted in 440, only to be crushed by the League’s fleet.
Further evidence of the League becoming a tool of Athenian imperialism was the souring
of relations with Sparta. Up until 461 Athens had maintained friendly relations with its
powerful rival. However, this changed with the ostracism of Cimon. Athens now embarked
on a program of conflict with the Peloponnesian League.
Over the next twenty years, Athens attempted to establish a land empire for itself by
weakening the Peloponnesian League. It forged an alliance with Sparta’s enemies Argos and
Megara, made war on Aegina and forced it to join the Delian League, and sent troops to
Egypt to support a revolt against Persian rule.
Most of these foreign policy ventures failed, forcing Athens to negotiate a truce with
Sparta in 451. The Delian League then attacked the Persian navy off Cyprus and inflicted a
devastating defeat on it. In 448 Athens and Persia signed the Peace of Callias, ending the
conflict between them permanently. This was the sole example of the League returning to
its original aims after 468. Even then, however, Persia would not have been seen as a threat
had Athens not intervened in its affairs in Egypt.
Hence by 468, the Delian League had achieved its original aim of countering Persia. From
that point on, it gradually transformed into a tool of Athenian imperialism.