Delian League. History

After the Athenians and the Greeks defeated Persia at Salamis in 480, they decided to create a united league to free the Greek city-states still under Persian control, especially in Asia Minor and to defend against any returning attacks. Initially, the Greek forces were under the command of Sparta, and victories at Plataea and Mycale in 479 pushed the Persians out of Greece and allowed the Greeks to seize the eastern Aegean Sea for themselves.

The Spartan commanders, especially Pausanius, the victor of Plataea, then behaved poorly, acting arrogantly and demanding cities give them more control, however, and the Greek representatives requested that Athens take over the naval forces. The leading advocates for this change were the islands and cities on the coast of Asia Minor, Ionia, which had been under Persian control. It was with this change in command that the Athenians and their allies decided to create a naval league called the Delian League.

The stated purpose of this league was to free the cities under Persian control and punish the Persians; to accomplish this task the cities in the league would pay for the league’s activities. In theory, all city-states, regardless of their size, received one vote in a representative body. Each then determined its contribution to the league based upon its economic ability to pay. As a result, some cities, like Athens, contributed significant amounts, while others, like Delos, contributed inconsequential amounts. The delegates requested that Aristides of Athens, also known as Aristides the Just, determine each city’s contribution.

The levy could be paid in the number of ships to be outfitted each year for campaigns, or else a monetary contribution equivalent to outfitting the ships. Many smaller cities realized that contributing money was safer since if a ship was lost, destroyed, or captured, the city would need to replace the ship next year, a cost that often exceeded the monetary contribution. Those cities that only gave money, however, saw their influence diminished since they did not have significant power to oppose the larger states, especially Athens that had ships and military power to control small cities. Cities that contributed ships were recognized as more important than cities giving money.

Since each of the 150 members of the Delian League had a single vote, Athens was able to counter any of the other cities that contributed ships. Athens could coerce the members who paid small amounts of tribute since it dominated the setting of policy and provided most of the resources. The Athenians were to provide the commander-in-chief and determine the field of operations. In addition, the Athenians selected ten treasurers, who oversaw the money contributed to the league. According to Thucydides, the first assessment equaled 460 talents, where a talent was roughly equal to the cost of a warship. Ultimately, the Athenians decided upon on how the money could be spent.

With Athens in command, the league quickly began operations against the Persians. The league was supposed to protect the city-states and move against the Persians when possible to retaliate for their attack on Greece. The city-states met once a year on the sacred island of Delos, where the treasury was maintained.

The cities took an oath to remain in the league forever, and to seal the oath, each city’s representative threw an iron bar into the sea and declared that only when the bar floated could the league be dissolved. The major cities that contributed ships included Athens, Lesbos, Samos, Thasos, and Chios. Although the command of the fleet was initially under Aristides, he quickly disappeared, possibly because he was ostracized by his political opponents. His successor was Cimon, son of Miltiades, the victor at the Battle of Marathon. The league elected its generals yearly.

The league’s first task was the taking of Sestos on the Hellespont, which provided an entry into the Black Sea region, with Cimon leading the fleet; he also took Byzantium at the same time. He led the league’s fleet and army as one of its generals, a position he would continue to hold until exiled in 461. In 476, Cimon expelled the Persians from Eion at the Strymon River, the most important stronghold in Thrace and west of the Hellespont, and he established Athenian settlers there to hold the region. Eion’s governor, Boges, refused to surrender, and when the town ran out of food, he built a funeral pyre, killed his wife, children, concubines, and slaves and then jumped into the flames himself.

The next year, Cimon led operations against local, non-Greek pirates at Scyros in the northern Aegean on the way from Athens to Thrace and sent Athenian colonists there. Athens now annexed the island, not as a colony but as a territory. He also allegedly found the bones of Theseus, the great Athenian king who had defeated the Minotaur, and took them back to Athens. This act endeared him more to the Athenians than any of his other accomplishments.

During this early time, participation in the league was voluntary, but in the early 460s, Cimon decided to force Carystus, on the southern edge of Euboea, to become a member since it was too close to Athens to remain outside the league, and it could potentially threaten Athens. Athens argued that Carystus was benefiting from the league’s protection without paying any of the costs. This sentiment would have rung loudly with many of the cities that paid tribute.

Next, the island of Naxos in the Cyclades, a member of the league, attempted to secede, saying that the league had achieved its original goal and now the league had been altered against its original purpose so cities could leave if they wish. Athens disagreed and Cimon and the fleet reduced Naxos, a member of the league and an ally of Athens, which was the first time an ally was forced to submit to Athenian rule. Again, Athens could argue that the league was simply upholding the prerogative of the sacred oath sworn by all of the cities. Although all it was doing was upholding the oath, it was criticized for acting like a tyrant.

If the rebellion by Naxos had succeeded, that could have been a rallying point for other league members to resist as well, but Cimon was able to provide new opportunities to keep the league focused against Persia with an attack in Asia Minor in southern Lycia that defeated the Persians there and successfully increased the league membership. In 468, at the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia, the Greeks achieved a great military victory over the Persians.

The Persians, seeing the increase in Athens’s power and control in Asia Minor, tried to retake the region by bringing a large army and navy to the mouth of the river. Cimon attacked them in the small river basin mouth, destroying 200 Persian ships and defeating the land forces. Then the Persian camp was sacked and a Persian relief naval force from Cyprus was annihilated. The victory at Eurymedon ended the Persian Wars with nearly all of the coastal cities of Asia Minor falling under the league’s control. The victory allowed the Greek trading ships access to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant once again.

Cimon now decided to enhance the Delian League by moving north to Thrace in the Chersonese, forcing the Persians to evacuate. But now the league faced another rebellion, that of Thasos in the north. The Thasians had found a new gold mine and, with Athens encroaching upon the region that Thasos was laying claim to, a dispute arose concerning ownership of the mines. Athens asserted that it controlled them in the name of the league, while Thasos said that it owned them by right of possession.

Thasos resented Athenian commercial interests in the nearby Thracian mainland, as well as the city-state’s arrogance and overbearing manner, and seceded from the league in 465. The Athenians spent two years besieging the island, which finally surrendered to Cimon, losing its mainland possessions, gold mines, and defenses.

What was at stake here was not the activities and goals of the league, but the rise of Athenian power. After the defeat of Thrace, many of the other states began to look upon Athens with contempt and fear. Cimon defeated Thasos after a long blockade, destroyed their walls, and relegated them to paying tribute instead of outfitting a fleet.

At this point, there were three types of cities in the league. The first were nontributary allies who contributed ships. These were Athens, who contributed the most, followed by the three largest and wealthiest islands, Lesbos, Chios, and Samos. They maintained some independence, and their fleets probably ensured that their wishes were at least heard and they could influence some of the policies and planning.

The second class of cities was tributary allies, which were independent. These cities had their assessments converted to cash, and although independent, they probably could not influence policy or planning. The third group included tributary allies subject to Athenian control. This group paid an assessment but had no say in the running of the league.

Athens, of course, wanted to have as many cities in the second and third classes since then it could control the policies of the league without fear of rebellion. Without ships, a city did not stand a chance against Athens. Any new city that joined the league were never given absolute independence, and any city that revolted, like Thrace, lost its freedom. As new cities entered the league, Athens made sure that they were also bound to Athens by an individual treaty, one requiring that they have the same type of government as Athens (namely, democratic).

Some of these cities would even have an Athenian military garrison. Most important, each city was required to contribute soldiers to the league in times of war in addition to whatever tribute they paid. These new arrangements now altered the original structure of the league, changing it from a purely maritime group to a land and sea force. All league members but the three naval states, Chios, Lesbos, and Samos, contributed soldiers.

Cimon’s political opponents at home began to move against him, however, notably the young Pericles, who desired that Athens become the premier city in Greece. Cimon succeeded since he avoided any land-based activities; he did not wish to engage in a power struggle with his allies, the Spartans. But this peace was one of the criticisms made against him by his enemies.

The key event occurred when an earthquake occurred in Sparta, prompting a helot rebellion, and Sparta asked Athens for help. Cimon arrived in 462 in response, but after he failed to take the helots’ stronghold, Sparta dismissed Cimon and the Athenians. This humiliation of Cimon made him vulnerable to his enemies at home. While he was gone, Ephialtes and Pericles made radical reforms to the Athenian constitution, making the city-state a full democracy. Upon his return, Cimon was ostracized and banished.

With Cimon’s pro-Spartan policy abandoned, the Delian League became more interested in securing more territorial conquests and rights. This occurred under the leadership of Pericles, who now moved it into Athens’s empire and made it no longer a representative league against Persia. When an expedition by the league to Egypt failed in 454, Athens decided to move the treasury from Delos to itself, ostensibly for safety.

In reality, though, this meant that the league’s contributions would come directly to Athens, and its treasury and the Athenian treasury were one and the same. Athens also decided to discontinue the assembly meetings in Delos, so now it could decide the course of action as it saw fit, not as the league felt. At this time, the league became an empire, one based not at Delos but at Athens.