The Athenians had used the Delian League for their advantage in which they abused the power of the League in order to create an Athenian Empire. Firstly, the Athenians held much power many league positions, mainly the Hellenotamiai. From this position, the Athenians had power to influence the uses of the treasury for their advantage. The Athenian, Aristides, was also the one that had determined the tributes of each member by himself. Athenians made a large majority of the League forces as well where they offered to fill the ships with Athenians while members paid the expenses. This allowed the Athenians justification for having more influence in league matters because they were the ones that had placed their people in wars to ensure the safety of the League, therefore Athens should have more control in the League. Second, the Athenians were "first among equals." This meant that even though Athens had one vote in the League assembly like everyone else, they could sway the vote in their interest because they were the most powerful and influential of the members in the League. Other members feared the wrath of the Athenians and they would vote the same way as them in order to avoid Athenian disfavor.
From League to Empire
The actions of the Delian League were done to secure the establishment of the Athenian Empire where Athens was the one who directly benefited from many of the decisions and activities of the League. This abuse of League power was demonstrated in many cases, which brought allies and enemies of the League to question the true motive behind the creation of the Greek alliance.
The Athenians had taken the city and made it more of an outpost rather than a colony. This directly benefited the Athenians who used the colony to ensure the safe shipping of their grain to the city, and did not profit the League in any major way.
Naxos was a powerful island in the Cyclades who had seen no more use for the League and had attempted to leave the alliance because the Persians were no longer a threat to Greece. However, Athens had pointed out that Naxos could not leave because the alliance lasted forever and they feared that other members may follow Naxos. Therefore, Naxos was besieged and blockaded by Athens and the League after it tried to secede and Naxos soon surrendered. As a result of their actions, Naxos was punished by being forced to rejoin the alliance and the island had lost their independence. This incident showed the control Athens had over the league and its allies and the extents it went to in preserving the alliance mainly for Athenian advantage.
Was the first offensive against Persia where the Delian League attacked Persian holdings in Asia Minor led by the Athenian General Cimon. The League was successful and had ended Persian shipping in the Aegean, suppressed Persian threat, and added more allies to the League. The victory left much booty for the League, but instead of dividing it up between all the allies, it was decided that the spoils of war would go to the Athenians for the rebuilding of the Acropolis that was destroyed during the Persian sack of Athens in 479 B.C. This directly benefited the Athenians who mostly fought the war but did not give any of the plunder to the other League members who paid for the war expenses.
Was an ally island off the coast of Thrace that had many resources including mainland silver mines and much lumber to compliment their large navy. They became threatened by Athens when the large city planned to establish a colony called Drabescus near the land holdings of Thasos that would allow them to tap into the vast resources of the island. Thasos revolted and Athens besieged the island in order to keep the vast wealth of the island in the hands of the League. After Spartan help for Thasos did not appear because of an earthquake in the Peloponnese, Thasos had to surrender to Athens in 463 B.C. As punishment, Thasos had to rejoin the League, destroy the city walls and give up their mainland holdings to Athens. This incident brought much disfavor upon Athens who were seen as tyrants that did not treat their allies fairly.
This period also marked a drastic increase in hostility in Athenian-Spartan relations. The tension began after the Persian Wars when Athens began their rebuilding projects that Sparta had objected to. Athens rebuilt their walls for defense, which made Sparta nervous because there were no walls in their city. In retaliation Sparta made a decree that no one outside of the Peloponnese was allowed to have any walls because the Persians would destroy them again if they were to invade. Yet, Athens continued to build them which made the Peloponnesians angry. The recall of Pausanias and the shift of Greek leadership from Sparta to Athens had also rallied the tension between the two cities. There was also continuous political quarrels between Spartan Pausanias and Athenian Themistocles who each accused one another of medism which was viewed as one of the worst crimes in the post-Persian Wars era. However, one of the main sparks of the increased hostility between the two was the Helot revolt in Sparta that occurred after the Peloponnesian earthquake. The Spartans had asked the Athenians for help because of their experience in siege warfare, and the Athenians agreed because of Cimon's pro-Spartan policy. Once the Athenians arrived with reinforcements, the Spartans turned them away because they feared that Athens would create more problems by influencing the Peloponnesians with Athenian ideas and extend the Helot revolt. Athens was deeply offended when Sparta turned them away and officially dropped out of the Helledic League and allied with the Argos the traditional enemy of Sparta thus, ending the friendly relations between Sparta and Athens.
created by Michael Manzano,
mmanzano@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
last modified: April 6, 2003
URL: http://www.ualberta.ca/~mmanzano/empire.html