Peace of Callias: Athenian-Persian Treaty, Aegean Dominance & Historical Debate

After the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes in 480, the Athenians led the Delian League in a campaign to liberate the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor. The Delian League (later the Athenian Empire) successfully in a short time liberated the coastal Greek cities of Asia Minor and forced them to join it. Most of the cities willingly joined since they would reap the benefits of the new league, especially trade and protection. The Athenians had soon made the Aegean Sea into their own lake, controlling it north and west of Cyprus. The period until 460 was a complete success for the Athenians, culminating in a series of battles at Eurymedon in the early 460s, a disaster in Egypt, and a renewed campaign at Salamis on Cyprus in 450 under Cimon, ultimately leading to peace with Persia.

The Athenians had engaged in a period of expansion, which led to their help in supporting the Egyptians in their rebellion against Persia in 460. A large fleet of 200 Athenian and Delian allies was already operating at Cyprus when Inaros, a Libyan warlord, moved to rebel against the Persians. After Xerxes’s murder, which resulted in civil disruption, his son, Artaxerxes, needed time to consolidate his power and deal with a revolt in Egypt, which opened opportunities for Athens. If Athens was successful, it would control all trade in the region, hinder Persia by preventing grain from reaching the empire, and establish a base for further expeditions. In this instance, the Greeks were the aggressors. The Athenians sailed up the Nile and conquered the city of Memphis in 459.

There is no further mention of the fleet for the next two years. Artaxerxes now sent a large army and a Phoenician fleet to Egypt. The Persians successfully drove the Athenians out of Memphis to the island of Propontis, where they were besieged for the next eighteen months. After the Persians diverted and drained the canal where the Athenian fleet was stationed, that made its fleet ineffective. The Greeks burned their ships and retreated to a fortress, where they surrendered in 454. The Persians then allowed them to move across the desert to Cyrene where the Greeks returned home. A relief squadron of fifty ships arrived and was defeated by the Phoenician fleet.

The Athenians had recalled Cimon from ostracism early, before the mandated ten-year period, and he campaigned in Cyprus with a new fleet of 200 ships; his death in 450 at the siege of Cition marked the high point of the Athenian Empire. The fleet then achieved a victory over the Phoenician and Cilician fleets, but it did not continue the war further without its leader.

The Peace of Callias was potentially established at that point. There has been debate as to whether it was an actual peace treaty or a later forgery. The case for the forgery lies in the ancient author Theopompus’s assertion that the treaty was a fake because the stele inscribed was in the Ionian alphabet, which Athens did not use until 404. In addition, the peace treaty is not directly mentioned by Thucydides or Herodotus. Counter to these arguments, the Peace of Callias is mentioned explicitly in the fourth century by Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, and others. Herodotus mentions that Callias was at Susa with King Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, around 450, potentially pointing to a later date for the peace. As to Theopompus’s view, the stele set up may have been in Ionian, but it may not have been the original text, but a later copy.

If the peace occurred, it would have been difficult for both sides to comprehend. Athens traditionally would not make peace or enact treaties with barbarians, which was how the Greeks considered the Persians; the Persians, meanwhile, would accept only those who submitted completely, the giving of earth and water If both sides realized that they could not defeat the other, they may have then have realized that coming to some kind of arrangement would be beneficial to both of them.

The date of the peace is also open to debate. One idea is that after Cimon won at the Battle of Eurymedon in the early 460s, the Persian king Xerxes wanted the two sides to come to an understanding. Callias, Cimon’s brother-in-law, was then probably sent to Xerxes to arrange the agreement, which set the boundaries of the combatants’ respective territories. A later historian, Diodorus, claimed that the treaty occurred after Cimon’s victory at Salamis in 450 under Artaxerxes (but Diodorus is known to have confused the two campaigns). A still later source indicated that there were two treaties, and it is possible that a treaty was established after Cimon’s victory at Eurymedon and was then reconfirmed after the Salamis campaign, as implied from Herodotus’s account of Callias being at Susa. The reconfirmation would have been part of the normal Persian practice since with the death of a king, the previous treaties would become null and void and the new king could decide to renew whichever ones he wished.

It may have been that after that, Callias returned to Susa and sought to have the treaty renewed. This would have made sense given the circumstances and events after Eurymedon. After Cimon had been victorious at Eurymedon, he returned home in triumph, bringing a victory and possible treaty. But he was then ostracized for pursuing a policy of accommodation with Sparta. At the same time, the peace treaty thwarted the expansionist group, curtailing their field of operations. With Cimon’s ostracism and Xerxes’s death after the initial peace treaty, Athens under Pericles decided to go on the offensive and attack Egypt. With the defeat of the fleet in Egypt, Athens would have been eager to come to some kind of accommodation.

With Cimon returning from ostracism and taking up the offensive against Persia, he hoped to reassert his position and create a situation where Athens would have a stronger negotiating position. He defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis on Cyprus. With Cimon’s death shortly after Salamis and another Athenian naval victory, the Persians under King Artaxerxes desired to make an agreement. The Athenians, having to deal with internal problems in the league and desiring to conclude with Persia, dispatched Callias again to Susa, where the treaty was reconfirmed. The peace treaty allowed Pericles to deal with the rebels and consolidate Athens’s position, while maintaining control over the Aegean.

The treaty laid down the following terms: Persia agreed that it would not send its fleet into the Aegean, recognizing that Athens controlled the region and the Greek cities of Ionia. Athens in turn agreed not to enter the region around the Phoenician coast. The Athenians must have sent an embassy to the Persian court, and the agreement must have been written down. The fact that both sides desired peace was crucial. The ambassador from Athens was Callias, the richest man in Athens; he was also married to Cimon’s sister, and the peace agreement probably reflected Cimon’s party or faction, which advocated for the Delian League and the Greek control of Asia Minor.

The Peace of Callias ended the first phase of the war with Persia and reflected Athens’s domination of the Aegean. There may in fact have been two negotiations—one after Eurymedon, in the reign of Xerxes, and the second after Salamis in 450. The peace also allowed the Athenians to concentrate on the Aegean.