Leagues Hellenic and Delian

Nature of the Hellenic League

1.  Xerxes is preparing to invade since finishing with Egypt in 485.

2. Greeks knew of this; not a surprise attack.

a. They made a concerted effort to cooperate.

3. What bound the League? Where did it come from?

4. The Athenians refuse a peace with Xerxes in 479:

Again, there is the Greek nation -- the community of blood and language, temples and ritual; our common way of life; if Athens were to betray all this, it would not be well done. We would have you know, therefore, if you did not know it already, that so long as a single Athenian remains alive we will make no peace with Xerxes.

5.  This is Panhellenic rhetoric of Hdt.'s own day.

6. In late 6th century medism was OK?

a. Athenian alliance with Persia (Hdt. 5.73) to defend vs Cleomenes.

Retrospect: The Peloponnesian League

1.  How we think of Spartans:  hard to move, also xenophobic.

2. Spartans have a 6th century "empire" of sorts.

a. Non-tribute paying alliance, built up in 2nd half of 6th BC.

1. Sparta's war with Tegea led to 1st (?) alliance c. 550 (Hdt. 1. 65-68)

2. That's the bones of Orestes episode.

3. Then add Corinth, Megara, Elis, Sicyon, some towns of Arcadia.

b. Mainly a defensive alliance vs Argos and anyone else who might threaten.

1. Battle of the champions with Argos, c. 544. (Hdt. 1. 82)

2. Next known conflict with Argos is 494.

c. By the debate over Hippias (Hdt. 5. 90-93) the Pelop. League is formed.

1. Shift from bilateral alliances to League cannot be dated.

2. It's clear by late 6th: all abide by League decisions.

Retrospect: Spartan Policy vis-a-vis Asia

1.  Croesus is supposed to have requested Spartan aid vs Cyrus. 

a. They refused? Hdt. 1. 69-70 says they were preparing a fleet.

b. Believe in 'alliance' by gift exchange. Doubt intended expedition.

c. A few years later, another appeal to Sparta from Ionian and Aeolian Greeks.

d. Later Spartan propaganda reflected in story of Lakrines (Hdt 1. 152).

1. A Spartan ambassador warns Cyrus: don't harm the Greeks!

2. 525 BC: Sparta sends troops to try to overthrow Polykrates of Samos.

a. Hdt. 3. 54-56 says this involved a large Spartan force.

b. But the Spartans left after a siege of 40 days.

c. Cf. Thuc. 1. 18: "The Spartans put down tyranny all over Greece."

d. That's the motive here; Samians are Ionian not Dorian.

3. New Spartan policy follows: no overseas intervention.

a. This policy not articulated, but visible with hindsight.

b. Cleomenes supposedly rejected alliance with Skythians c. 514 BC.

1. Hdt mentions in context of Cleomenes' madness (6.84).

c. Cleomenes rejects the overtures of Aristagoras.

4. But active intervention to points north.

a. Expels Hippias in 510, aids Isagoras in 507.

b. Invades Argos in 494; an attempt to bring Argos into the League?

1. Hdt. 6. 76-82.

c. Result was revolution at Argos: the rule of the "slaves".

Sparta and the Peloponnesian League in the Persian Wars

1.  491, heralds of Darius demand earth and water.  

a. Aigina medizes; Athens urges Cleomenes to punish them.

b. Cleomenes tries to take hostages from Aigina.

c. This leads to his deposing Demaratus.

d. Tempting to say Demaratus represents pro-Persian faction at Sparta.

1. Though this is applying hindsight.

2. Hard to reconstruct because later policy villainized Persia.

a. But there are traces of pro-Persian sentiment.

b. E.g. Sperthias and Boulis may be peace overture in mid 480's.

Hellenic League of 481/0

1.  Leadership of Sparta was unquestioned at first. 

a. Suggests this League was modeled on the Peloponnesian one.

b. Hdt. mentions League oath vs. the medizing states (7. 132).

1. But this is not the basis of the League.

2. It implies a similar oath: to join vs the Persians.

3. League members listed on the serpent column (ML 27).

c. During the war there are war councils.

1. Generals from the League members attend.

2. But final authority seems to rest with the Spartan commander.

3. Hdt. 8. 63, Themistokles convinces Eurybiades.

2. Wars among League members automatically ended.

3. Nature of the League should be clear.

a. From the first it is a hegemonic league.

4. Consider strategy after Salamis.

a. Fight on land at the Isthmus, or in Boeotia?

b. Athenians forced the issue by threatening to accept Mardonius' offer.

5. Compare what happened after victory at Plataia.

a. League forces failed to pursue the late Mardonius' army.

b. Siege of Thebes was mainly Athenian agenda.

Transition to Delian League

1.  Mycale is a clear departure:  offensive operation. 

2. League begins to split with siege of Sestos on Chersonese peninsula.

a. This lasted through winter 479/8.

b. Was it a League operation?

c. You would not know from Hdt. 9. 114:

So the Peloponnesians sailed off, and the Athenians crossed over from Abydos into the Chersonese and besieged Sestos.

d. But Thuc. 1. 89. 2 mentions allies from Ionia.

e. These would have to be islanders.

1. Mainland Ionians not in the League yet.

3. Pausanias

a. The last Spartan commander, in 478.

b. Leads League fleet vs Cyprus, Byzantium.

1. Note small size of Athenian contingent: 30 ships.

4. How the Athenians became hegemon of the League.

a. Thuc. 1. 95

But the violence of Pausanias had already begun to be disagreeable to the Hellenes, particularly to the Ionians and the newly liberated populations. These resorted to the Athenians and requested them as their kinsmen to become their leaders, and to stop any attempt at violence on the part of Pausanias. The Athenians accepted their overtures, and determined to put down any attempt of the kind and to settle everything else as their interests might seem to demand.

b.  Should we suspect Thuc.'s attributing the initiative to the Ionians?

1. No. Aggressively imperial Athens is his picture.

Conclusion on Leagues

1.  League or Empire?

2. The original league is voluntary submission in face of greater threat.

3. It follows that acid test for League vs. Empire is whether threat exists.

4. Hence the centrality of the Peace of Kallias debate.