18/02/2020

Conflict with Persia: Formation of Delian League

Because of their geographical situation the mainland Greeks were for a long time free from direct
foreign pressure or attack--(they had frequent struggle with primitive people- For instance, in
Sicily they were repeatedly invaded by Carthage)--However, the city states of classical Greece
were engaged in constant rivalry and aggression against each other: this was their typical path of
expansion after the colonization process had come to an end in the late 6th century- military
conquest and tribute--
By about 500 B.C. the Greek city states had lost their kings (with the exception of Sparta) and had
embraced a new form of government through councils of citizens--Almost immediately, however,
these states were confronted by an invasion of the Persian Empire--
Greek history in the latter half of the sixth century BCE has to be viewed against the backdrop of
the westward expansion of the Persian Empire--King Darius (548-486) managed to build up the
Persian Empire—He ruled for a very long time—from 522 BCE to the mid-480s, around 486—
there survives in modern day Iran an extraordinary relief and inscription called the Behistun
Inscription—the inscription shows the King himself and some prisoners around him and then there
is an extensive text underneath and three different Eastern languages detailing Darius’s conquest
at the beginning of his reign-

Darius was a nobleman and he presided over a massive empire—it extends from Europe from
Tharcian coast all the way over into the western part of India—there were local governors, there

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were well established procedures for collecting revenues—It was the this empire that was going
to come into conflict with the Greeks--Persian expansion into western Anatolia, the Aegean and
mainland Greece coincided with the phase of tyranny and the beginning of the Classical period at
Athens. Between c. 500 and 480 BCE the states of the Greek peninsula were locked in a fierce
contest with the Achaemenids--Sparta was at this time the foremost military power on land-

Persian Empire
We talked about the establishment of the Athenian democracy and the reforms of Cleisthenes—
the first four years usually dated to around 508 BCE—this democracy immediately faced some
fairly serious challenges--Athens was the main naval power, though it also had a fairly strong
army--The Athenian Empire can be characterized as a maritime power- designed for the coercive
subjugation of the Greek city states of the Aegean—King Cleomenes of Sparta wanted to reassert
his influence in Athens around 506 BCE—Due to external threats the Athenians contacted
Asians—Athenian ambassador went to the court of a Persian governor, Satrap, as he was called
and asked for some financial help—The Governor agreed to provide some financial help—but in
exchange the Athenians had to give earth and water—means that they were giving themselves over
as subjects to the Persian King—For the Athenians, it may have just been a ritual of exchange, a
token of good will—But what happened next bring the Athenians into direct conflict with the
Persians--

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The Ionian cities had been brought under the Persian umbrella—it had to start paying taxes—
Moreover, the Persians had installed their own vassal governments there—In 499 Aristagoras, a
tyrant of the city of Miletus decided to rebel—He approached Sparta for help—When the Spartans
hear how far away Ionia is from Sparta, they say no—He went to Athens and the Athenians agreed
to help—Why would they risk their city-state and to this? Maybe because their expelled tyrant
Hippias was over in Persia and was planning, it seems, a return to power in Athens—the Athenians
agreed to help the Ionian revolt--The Athenians had built a strong navy which played a leading
role in the conflict with Persia—

The Athenians muster a fleet of 20 ships—Around 497 they made their way over to the coast of
Asia minor—they made their way inland and burned the ancient capital of Sardis which had
become a Persian outposts— The Persians felt that that an alliance had been betrayed—the alliance
of earth and water--King Darius was so furious—the Persian war machine rumbled into action—
In 494 the Ionian revolution was crushed—the city of Miletus was sacked and burned—this was a
revenge for the destruction of Sardis—Darius had in mind punishing those wo had gone against
him from the mainland—He made his way across the island—he demanded earth water—Many
of the Greek city states surrendered their autonomy, realizing their inability to resist a massive
empire—Herodotus tells us about an atrocity that occurred—When the Persian envoys got to
Athens to ask for earth and water, they were killed—When the Persian envoys got to Sparta the
Spartans threw them into a well and told them to get their own earth and water—This was a major
breach of protocol—Means, ambassadors had a special protection, immunity (otherwise they could
not conduct any sort of negotiations)—This was a serios religious crime as well—so retribution
occurred—

The Persians in 491 invaded the mainland Greece—They destroyed Eritrea and destroyed it—they
approached the coast of Attica—Herodotus tells us that Hippias was along with the Persian force—
The Athenians mount a hoplite defense—Miltiades, the Athenian general in charge put his best
troops, not on the front line, as one might expect, but off to the side—Where they can attack the
Persian flanks—Miltiades strategy worked well—Herodotus mentions that the final causalities
were 192 Greeks and over 6000 Persians dead—the Greeks versus the Persians now becomes

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real—a bloody conflict and the Greeks win their first encounter—Why did the Greeks win? It was
partly because of hoplite tactics—their heavy armor was much more effective than the Persian
armor—fighting in tight formation as hoplite Phalanx they had a great advantage over the more
loosely organized Persian force—they were also fighting for the liberty of their homeland--

Greeks vs Persians- a vase painting

Themistocles was the architect of Athenian naval strength--The Greeks pooled together their
resources under, the leadership of Athens and Sparta in order to resist the Persian onslaught--

Two massive Persian invasions-The decisive battles of Salamis (480 BCE) and Plataea (479 BCE)
had halted the Persian advance into the Aegean Sea--The Persians were badly beaten--By 479
BCE, the Greek forces had all conquered the Persian army and navy--Nevertheless, the threat of
further Persian campaigns still remained--It was generally assumed that the Persians would return
for a third attempt--The Greeks wanted to take anticipatory measures--The Greek states were
aware of the need to pool-
The Aftermath of the Persian Wars:
There were three practical results of the war: a) the Persian threat was effectively at an end, b)
there was at least briefly a sense of Greek unity (a kind of unity against barbarians—not cultural
unity, c) Athens and Sparta emerge as the two dominant or hegemonic polis in the group--At the
same time, after the Persian wars, Athens emerged as the most dominant political and economic
force in the Greek world—However, the Athenians founded a naval empire in 478, thus replacing

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Sparta as leaders of Greece--The Athenian polis managed to gain control of the confederation of
city-states, which gradually became the Athenian Empire--Therefore, a league was organized
under Athenian hegemony, with its administrative centre on the island of Delos. (therefore,
historians call it the Delian League)—Maintaining a large navy was really expensive—they had to
build ships, maintain them, outfit them—they also had to maintain the ports and the harbours and
the docks any the sailors—the Greeks city-states had to pool in their revenue to facilitate a large
and powerful navy—they had to form a league— means they had to develop a new way of thinking
about their inter-city state relations--the allies got tighter and Athens take over the leadership of
this voluntary confederation—the confederation was called the Delian League—Main goal, of
course was to defend against Persia—theoretically, there was equality and autonomy for all the
member states—but Athens was the first among the equals—this was because of the Athenian
ability to build ships, and to man these ships--

The Delian League within a decade or so cleared the Persian fleet from the Aegean--As the danger
lifted, the old desire for complete autonomy began to reassert itself, but Athens would not allow
withdrawal from the League and forcibly put down any ‘revolt’—The Athenian heavy hand is
starting to manifest itself—they argued that their dominance was for the collective benefit of the
league—The Spartans have probably been watching the growing Athenian activity with some
alarm—Naval power naturally supported the growth of commerce—this helped make Athens the
richest city in the Mediterranean—The Piraeus, Athens’ port city became the hub of an
international web of commerce that spanned the eastern Mediterranean, Aegean and Black seas--
They were considering their options to control the Athenians—Before they could do that, there
was a natural catastrophe—Around 464, there was a huge earthquake in Sparta—and subsequently
Helots rebelled—this was a threat to Sparta’s very existence—The crisis in Athens was so severe
that the Spartans asked the Athenians to help them—The Athenians decided to move the treasury
of the Delian league from Delos to Athens “for safe keeping”—the Athenians fleet was central
element helped to establish their dominance—the Athenians forced their allied states to use
Athenian coins, weight and measures—they suppressed oppositions--So, the League became an
Empire. For the next quarter-century the Athenian Empire was the most important single fact in
Greek affairs, and Pericles was the dominant figure in Athenian affairs.

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There are very few characters in history who have given their names to a period—Pericles is one
of them—He was born around 490--His policy was expansionist, though highly controlled and
disciplined--But Athenian relations with Sparta were increasingly difficult--Thus, two power
blocks came into open conflict in the 450s-
It was around this time, 450 to 430 BCE that Athens enjoyed its greatest period of success--This
period itself was dominated by the figure of Pericles and so the era has been called the Age of
Pericles--He was a great leader of the Athenian democracy--He offered many benefits to the
common people of Athens and as a result he earned their total support--As the historian Thucydides
pointed out 'he controlled the masses, rather than telling them control him'--From 450 BCE
onwards, Pericles rebuilt the city of Athens, a city ravaged by years of war with the Persians—The
Periclean building programme had a number of different stages--

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Under Pericles, Athens became the city of Socrates and other great scholars--At this time, Pericles
also adopted the path of aggressive imperialism--He put down rebellions and sent his Athenian
armies to colonize other areas of Asia Minor--Perry Anderson observes that the Periclean
imperialism had the tendency to control other city-states--At the same time, he also tried to foster
the intellectual improvement of the Athenian citizens by encouraged music and drama. Industry
and commerce were also flourished—Perry Anderson: Athenian expansionism had its own major
limitations—a) lack of an imperial bureaucracy (direct representation)—2) The lack of any
substantial hinterland rendered Athenian rendered Athenian military power-both in recruitment
and resources--
The Peloponnesian War 431-404 BCE:
Sparta feared Athenian power--They believed that Athens had grown too quickly both in terms of
population and military power--Athens, feared the Spartans because of their isolationist position-
- The cold war turned hot--The Peloponnesian war was catastrophe for Athens--The Peloponnesian
war lasted with interruptions from 431 to 404, ending in the total defeat of Athens and the
dissolution of the empire--The chief result of the war was that the Athenian Empire was divided--
The subject of the Delian league were liberated--direct democracy failed and Pericles was
executed--However, there is no simple and obvious explanation why Athens lost--
The Athenians also suffered a major loss--heir democracy gave way to the reign of the Thirty
tyrants--The major result was that the destruction of Athenian power made it possible for the
Macedonian conquest of Greece under Philip II--Macedonia flourished through diplomacy and
military aggression--Philip took advantage of the general disorder on the Attic Peninsula, and
extended his control into central Greece-