Download The Delian League – packages of information

The Delian League – packages of information
1. Formation of the Delian League:

Following the victories at Plataea and Mycale, the Greek fleet was sent to Asia Minor in
478 BC to help the Ionian cities liberate themselves from Persian rule. However, its
Spartan commander, Pausanias, behaved so arrogantly that he alienated the people he
was there to liberate. The Spartans replaced him, but his successor was no better. The
Ionian cities asked Athens to take over command of the Hellenic League.

Sparta now chose to return to its traditional policy of isolationism, so ceded command
of the League to Athens. Most of the other Peloponnesian states also withdrew from
the League, so the new union consisted mainly of the seafaring states. People at the
time referred to it as “the Athenians and their Allies”, but modern scholars call it the
Delian League.
2. The aims and structure of the Delian League:

The Delian League had three principal aims: to compensate its members for their losses
during the war “by ravaging the state of Persia”; to protect them from further Persian
aggression; and to liberate states still under Persian rule. A further aim was to promote
trade in the Aegean.

The Athenian general Aristides was given responsibility for organising the League, due
to the respect he had gained at Marathon, Salamis and Plataea. (He was referred to as
Aristides the Just, because of his fairness.)

The island of Delos was chosen as the League’s headquarters because it had a good
harbour, was half way between Athens and Asia Minor, and was a centre of Ionian
culture.

All the Ionian cities joined the League, as did the cities in Thrace, Euboea, Thessaly and
Propontis.

The various member states were required to contribute either ships or money,
according to their capacity to pay.

It is not known how the League’s voting structure worked, only that Athens was able to
dominate proceedings. Athens was the League’s permanent leader (hegemon), provided
the largest number of ships and men, plus had responsibility for collecting tribute and
enforcing the League’s decisions. In addition, Miltiades’ son Cimon was fleet
commander.

Thucydides suggests that Athens always intended to turn the League into an empire. We
don’t know if this was true, but it certainly had the capacity to do so if it wished.
3. Activities of the Delian League, 478 -468 BC:

During this period the League liberated every Greek city in Thrace and Asia Minor, and
expelled the Persians from the entire region. It also plundered Persian territory.

However, as the Persian threat diminished so too did the willingness of individual states
to contribute to the League’s operations.

In 472 BC Carystus, an independent city state in the south of Euboea, was forced to join
the League.

Then in 468, the island of Naxos tried to leave, though Thucydides gives no reason for
this. Cimon used League forces to besiege Naxos and force it to rejoin. It was then
obliged to pay tribute rather than provide ships.
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
Thucydides points to this as a turning point in the transformation of the League into the
Athenian Empire. Increasingly, members either preferred to, or were required to,
contribute money, which Athens then 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.
4. The Battle of Eurymedon, 468 BC:

In 468 Xerxes gathered another force of ships and soldiers, in the hope of regaining part
of his empire. He sailed this force north to the Eurymedon River, to the south of Asia
Minor. Cimon decided to attack it before Xerxes’ Phoenician ships could arrive.

The Persian ships were destroyed, and their land force scattered. Cimon gathered a
great deal of booty from this victory, which was shared between Athens and its allies.
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.

The Delian League had now fulfilled its original purpose. From this point on it ceased to
be an instrument of defence against Persia, and increasingly became a tool of Athenian
power.
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