DELIAN LEAGUE

• New alliance known as Delian League (478-77 BC)– Sparta created smaller

alliance called Peloponnesian League

• Purpose of Delian League was offensive and defensive– Athens dominated decision-

making process– Military commanders were all

Athenians– Athens administered finances

and took 50% of all loot• Athens dominated the Delian

League from the very start

EXPANSION OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

• Athenian democracy continued to evolve under reforms of Pericles– Fundamental motivation was military necessity

• With rise of Athenian naval power, the military importance of rowers increased– Generally poor men who did hard physical labor for low pay under

hazardous conditions– Generally were not citizens

• Began to pressure government for political participation and rights• Their demands were ultimately granted and thereby paved the way for an

expansion of democracy in Athens

CIMON vs PERICLES

• Pericles’ most powerful rival was Cimon– Successful general

and talented speaker– Advocated pro-

Spartan foreign policy• Pericles advocated

opposite policy– Advocated crippling

Sparta before she would take inevitable revenge on Athens

Pericles

Cimon

PERICLES WINS

• Cimon insulted by Spartans when he arrived to help them put down revolt by helots– Pericles used episode to work

up public opinion against Cimon

• Cimon ultimately ostracized

• Pericles’ anti-Spartan orientation became official Athenian policy

– Athens makes alliance with Spartan enemies, Argos and Thessaly

OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

• Hostility between Athens and Sparta escalated until it culminated in war in 459 BC– Spartan army was blocked from

returning from Boeotia by Athenian army

• Spartans retaliated by attacking Athens

– Resulted in Battle of Tanagra

– Spartans win but suffer enough losses that they return home instead of decimating Athens

ATHENS GAINS THE UPPER HAND

• Athenians regroup and attack Sparta’s allies between Attica and the Peloponnese– Especially Megara– Sparta is forced to deal

with Helot revolts and cannot help

– Blocked future invasion by Sparta

– By 457, Athens had cut off the attack route of the Spartans and had control over much of Greece

• Athens and Sparta sign 5 year truce in 455

CHANGES IN THE DELIAN LEAGUE

• Athens began to act unilaterally– Did not consult “allies” in

Delian League• Did not even hold

meetings anymore• Naxos and Thasos tried to drop

out of the League but Athens forced them to stay

• League funds began to be used exclusively for Athenian purposes

• By 446, Athens had clearly transformed the League into its personal empire

TROUBLE FOR ATHENS

• Argos left Delian League in 451 and made alliance with Sparta– Boeotia did same in 446– Megara broke free in 446

• Exposed Athens to land assault by Sparta

• Athens signs 30-year truce with Sparta– Prompted by these

reversals

SECOND PELOPONNESIAN WAR• Truce remained in force for 15 years

– Sparta was afraid that commitment to war would encourage another Helot uprising aided by Athenian naval power which would inevitably lead to attacks on her allies and Sparta itself

• Sparta went to war again against Athens in 446– Because of Athenian attempts to take over

Corinth and Megara• Athens lost everything because:

– its allies used war to assert independence– it wasted resources on useless attack on

Sicily– of internal turmoil after death of Pericles– Sparta was aided by Persia

SPARTAN PROBLEMS

• Sparta won but did not emerged unscathed– Citizen population decimated

• Still tried to establish empire in Greece– Broke down isolation which

had long preserved Spartan society

– Left it open to corrupting influences from rest of Greece

– Fundamental egalitarianism of city-state broke down

• Power struggles erupted between different factions

MORE SPARTAN PROBLEMS• Sparta experienced chronic manpower

shortage in its army– Increasingly forced to rely on

mercenaries• No longer had a citizen army• Drained Sparta of economic

resources• Committed fundamental foreign policy

errors– Attack on Persians in Ionia allowed

creation of anti-Spartan alliance in Greece

– Spartan forces defeated several times by members of alliance (notably Thebes)

• Slipped into the ranks of just another poor Greek city-state

END OF THE GOLDEN AGE

Thebes then emerged as the supreme power in Greece and immediately

tried to establish an

empire

Wasted its advantage in population and resources in a series of useless wars

By 336, Thebes was completely exhausted and all of Greece was in a state of chronic

decay

Too weak now to defend itself against any foreign invader

who decided to attack Greece

Thebes