Greece in Conflict, 479-446 BC

Question 1

Who are the main sources for the Pentecontaetia period?

Answer 1

Thucydides, Diodorus, and Plutarch

Question 2

What were the key principles of the Peloponnesian league?

Answer 2

1) If any city of the league was attacked by a non-member, Sparta was duty-bound to come to its aid,
2) The league was bi-cameral (two voting blocks), one block was the Spartan assembly, and the other was a congress of all the other allied states, each with one vote. If the Spartan assembly voted for war or peace, then it needed a majority in the congress for the vote to be carried.
3) If the Peloponnesian league declared war, then Sparta levied the league army and provided its commander-in-chief.

Question 3

What building programmes did Themistocles urge the Athenians to complete? and why?

Answer 3

The long walls down from Athens down to both Piraeus and Phaleron, allowed Athens to have guaranteed access to their ports, and therefore imports of food and other goods, even in war.

Question 4

When were the Long walls actually built?

Answer 4

458 BC

Question 5

According to Thucydides, what was the seed for future conflict between Sparta and Athens?

Answer 5

When Sparta had learnt of the Athenian rebuilding of their walls (The history of the Peloponnesian war, 1.92)

Question 6

What events of 478 BC does Thucydides describe?

Answer 6

Pausanias’ campaign in Cyprus and Byzantium, in which he was victorious.

Question 7

Why did the Ionians resent Pausanias? and what did they do in response?

Answer 7

The Ionians resented Pausanias for the arrogant way in which he treated them and asked the Athenians to take command instead. A number of sources spoke of Pausanias’ arrogance and treachery at this time; it is clear at least that he was unpalatable to the other Greeks.

Question 8

How does Plutarch describe the Greek ally falling out with Pausanias?

Answer 8

Brings two Athenians to the fore, Aristeides and Cimon. Both aristocratic Athenians with conservative views. Aristeides was famous for his fairness, and would become a key figure in the establishment of a new alliance. Cimon had great pedigree as the son of Miltiades (Battle of Marathon), and would emerge as the military commander of this new alliance in its early years. Plutarch maintains that Chios, Samos, and Lesbos were key instigators of the plot of the removal of Pausanias from command.

Question 9

When did the Delian league form? and what was it?

Answer 9

477 BC, a naval alliance established by the Athenians and their allies.

Question 10

What was the initial task of the Delian league in the Spring of 477 BC, as described by Thucydides?

Answer 10

To assess which cities would provide ships and which would provide money for the upkeep of the navy.

Question 11

What are some of the possible Athenian motives for the formation of the Delian league?

Answer 11

1) That while the Athenians declared that it was to take revenge on the Persians, the hidden agenda was to build a naval empire.
2) Another interpretation maintains that the original motive was to take revenge on the Persians, but later shifted as time went on and Athens grew in power.

Question 12

What information does Thucydides give about the structure of the Delian league?

Answer 12

1) Treasury set at Delos, with managers being elected representatives from Athens citizen body,
2) Two likely scenarios in governance; first, akin to the Hellenic league - each city having one vote; second that the Athenians had one voting block and the other city states had one together - like the Peloponnesian league.

Question 13

What does Thucydides outline as the achievements of the Delian League in its early years?

Answer 13

1) Defended against Persia; all but one Persian garrisons were driven out of the northern Aegean,
2) Piracy was suppressed,
3) The Greeks expanded their control down to the south-west of Asia minor,
4) Greatest victory came in the early 460s BC at the mouth of the River Eurymedon. The Athenian force, under Cimon, destroyed a Persian fleet and then routed the accompanying Persian army.

Question 14

When did Xerxes die and who succeeded him?

Answer 14

Xerxes died in 465 BC and Artaxerxes took the throne.

Question 15

What did Artaxerxes do upon taking the Persian throne?

Answer 15

Changed policy towards the Greeks; unknown whether this was due to the Battle of Eurymedon.

Question 16

What does Thucydides say about Athenian rule in the Delian league? and what was the first showcase of this?

Answer 16

That it was becoming oppressive to those who wished to leave the alliance (History of the Peloponnesian war 1.98). Thucydides shows this when naxos tried to secede from the league in 470 BC, the original constitution of the league was broken and an allied city lost their independence.

Question 17

Who revolted against the Athenians in 465 BC and why?

Answer 17

The island of Thasos following Athenian interference in its valuable trade markeyts and a mine it controlled nearby Thrace.

Question 18

Who did the Thasians appeal to help? and why couldn’t they answer?

Answer 18

The Spartans; intended to help but were stopped by an earthquake back home.

Question 19

When did Athens and Sparta break their alliance?

Answer 19

461 BC

Question 20

What result of the earthquake in Sparta led to souring relations in Athens? What tells us this in Athens?

Answer 20

After the Spartan earthquake and helot revolt, the Spartans dismissed Athenian troops. The Athenians responded by denouncing the treaty of alliance they had through the Hellenic league in 481 BC, and formed an alliance with Argos, the second biggest city state in the Peloponnese. Additionally, formed an alliance with Thessaly in the north of Greece, who Sparta had been at war with in the 470s BC.

Question 21

Who was ostracised from Athens in 461 BC

Answer 21

Cimon for his pro-spartan views, was ostracised for 10 years.

Question 22

Which two Spartan allies fought in 461 BC?

Answer 22

Corinth and Megara, Corinth won resulting with Megara suceding from the Peloponnesian league and allying with Athens.

Question 23

Why was the Megara alliance so important for the Athenians? and who did it set them against?

Answer 23

Provided them a land buffer against a Peloponnesian attack. Set Athens against Corinth.

Question 24

When did the first Peloponnesian war break out, and when did it end?

Answer 24

460-446 BC

Question 25

When was the first engagement between Sparta and Athens? who won?

Answer 25

457 BC at the battle of Tanagra, ended in a Spartan victory

Question 26

Who did the Athenians return against and win a battle against? what was the result of this victory?

Answer 26

In Boeotia, against the local peoples at Oinophyta. Resulted in Athenian control over a wide area of central Greece; Phocis, Eastern Locris, and the whole of Boeotia except for Thebes.

Question 27

Who did the Athenians force to join the Delian league in 457 BC?

Answer 27

Aeginetans

Question 28

In 460 BC, where did the Delian league expand its operations against the Persians?

Answer 28

Sent troops to Persian-controlled Egypt in support of the rebellion by Inaros, a Libyan prince.

Question 29

Why did the Athenians have their sights set on Egypt?

Answer 29

1) Potential trade links,
2) Weakens Persian power in the mediterranean,
3) Access to the rich grain supply of the Nile valley.

Question 30

How long did the Athenian-led Greek force campaign in Egypt? and what happened there?

Answer 30

The Greeks campaigned there for six years, and, initially, had great success. This changed in 454 BC when the Persians sent a task force to face the rebels and routed them. The Athenians lost most of their fleet of 250 ships and withdrew from the region.

Question 31

What did this defeat in Egypt cause the Athenians to do?

Answer 31

Relocate the treasury of the Delian league to Athens in 454/3 BC (Diodorus 12.38.2)

Question 32

From 454/3 BC onwards what was found in Athens, relating to the Delian league?

Answer 32

Tribute Quota Lists - annual inscriptions on stone giving 1/60th of the tribute offered by each city-state to be dedicated to the treasury of Athens.

Question 33

What are these quota lists known as today?

Answer 33

The first fifteen lists are known as the First Stele.

Question 34

Who had now emerged as a key political and military leader in Athens?

Answer 34

Pericles

Question 35

What happended in 451 BC?

Answer 35

A five year peace between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians.

Question 36

What did the Athenians do as a result of the peace of 451 BC? what was the result of this?

Answer 36

Initiated a campaign in Cyprus under the leadership of Cimon, now back in Athens. Cimon died in the conflict, but the Greeks managed to win on land and sea.

Question 37

What does Diodorus claim these Athenian victories force the Persians to do?

Answer 37

Propose a peace treaty, Athenians sent a delegation under Callias to negotiate the terms of peace in 450/49 BC, now known as the peace of Callias.

Question 38

What were the terms of the Peace of Callias?

Answer 38

1) All the Greek cities were to live under laws of their own making,
2) The Satraps of the Persians were not to come nearer to the sea than a three days’ journey and no Persian warship was to sail inside of the Phaselis or the Cyanean rocks,
3) If these terms were followed by the Persian king and his generals, the Athenians were not to invade Persian territory.

Question 39

What does Theopompus of Chios claim of the peace of Callias? what supports this?

Answer 39

That it was a fabrication; an exaggeration of the achievements of the Athenians in light of their reduced status at the time. Thucydides made no comment of the peace of Callias

Question 40

By 450 BC, who was providing ships for the Athenian navy?

Answer 40

Only Chios, Samos and Lesbos besides Athens.

Question 41

What had changed in the Tribute Quota Lists by this point? What demonstrates this change?

Answer 41

The language used to refer to the Delian league, from ‘the Athenian alliance’ to language that dictated that the cities owed their allegiance to Athens. Demonstrated clearly by the Chalkis Decree in 446 BC.

Question 42

What happened in 448 BC?

Answer 42

Conflict flared up over control of the sanctuary at Delphi.

Question 43

Who left the Delian league in the early 440s BC?

Answer 43

The Boeotians revolted and defeated the Athenians ultimately at Coronea, regaining their independence.

Question 44

What happended in 446 BC relating the Delian league?

Answer 44

Euboea revolted from Athens, Pericles took a force there, but had to deal with a revolt closer to home. Megara had also rebelled, reversing their defection from the 460s BC, inviting the Peloponnesians, including Corinth, to help them. A Peloponnesian force, under the command of Spartan king Pleistoanax, invaded western Attica but withdrew soon after. Later learn in Thucydides that Pleistoanax was exiled for supposedly taking a bribe to withdrew his troops, Plutarch reports that it was Pericles who paid this bribe. Once the Peloponnesians had withdrew, Pericles returned to Euboea and regained Athenian control of the island.