How Did The Delian League Stabilize Its Alliance

Athens and Sparta were both dominant powers in ancient Greece. However, a legendary rivalry existed between the two. When Athens ended its alliance with Corcyra in 433 B.C. and began to surround Potidaea, it threatened Corinth’s position. Sparta feared that Athens was becoming too powerful and tried to avert war. The Spartans believed that peace was possible if the Athenians would revoke measures against Sparta's ally, Megara. The Athenian leader, Pericles, refused to concur with this because Sparta and Athens had earlier agreed that conflicts would be solved by negotiation. If the Athenians would yield to Sparta's request, they would in fact be accepting Sparta’s orders. This was unacceptable, and as a result, war broke out. Athens and its Delian League were attacked by Sparta and its Peloponnesian League. Diodorus mentions that the Spartans did not just declare war, but sought additional support from Persia.

In his ambitions to conquer Sicily and then move on to Italy and the Peloponnesus, he also shows this thirst.12 The Athenians recognized Alcibiades's brilliance and ruthlessness so they elected Nicias as a general to "[temper] his rashness."13 Alcibiades resorted to violence to gain glory, Pericles, on the other hand, attempted to prolong peace and settle matters with diplomacy. He once tried to persuade the cities to send delegates to meet in Athens to discuss restorations of temples destroyed during the war with Persia, but nothing came of his plan because of Spartan opposition.14 He even went so far as to bribe the chief magistrates of Sparta to buy time to prepare for war, which he knew was inevitable.15

Explain the methods used by the Athenians to transform the Delian League into the Athenian Empire. (25 marks) There is certainty no evidence to suggest that the Athenians had any long-term plans, in the years 479-470 BC, to change the Delian League into an empire, although from the beginning the potential to develop into an imperial power were there. Because from the beginning, Athens had considerable power as she was the permanent hegemon.The most important aspects involving the transformation of League into empire was the changing relationships between Athens and her allies, Periclesʼ imperial policy, Athensʼ selfish self interest in gaining more power by using the Leagueʼs power and establishing laws onto her allies such as the Coinage

It is apparent that the objective of the Iroquois was to socially bond and gradually diffuse their cultures to those in the North American region. However, the Delian League had an isolationist perspective, with the goals of resisting foreign pressures and protecting those admitted into the league. The background leading up the formation of the league composed of political struggles between the Greeks and Persians. The Delian League, founded in 478 BC, was an association of Greek city-states under the leadership of Athens. However, a series of Greek revolutions against Persian rule led to further Persian attacks across the land, most notably Xerxes’ second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous army and navy to Greece, letting all of Greece except the Peloponnesus thus having fallen into Persian hands. However, Greece defeated the Persian invasion force in the following year, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece, and hence boosting Greek nationalism and hence the desire to create a

The Athenians used the Delian League to enhance their prestige. They bettered themselves by strengthening their army and weakened other by taking resources for them. The Delian League gave Athens

Originally, The Delian League was an alliance created to continue the onslaught on the Persia after the Greeks successfully repelled the second Persian invasion - the founding principle was "offense is the best line of defense" and speculations that Persia could one day arrange another invasion (Butler, 2007).

Each of the city-states was well protected from external aggressions until Athens who was the leader of the league employed a tyrannical reign on members of the league. In describing the scenario, Brand (n.d.) emphasized that “As the years went by, however, Athens began treating other city states in the League less as allies and more as subjects” (p. 28). In other words, Athens had a hidden agenda from the inception of the league but that did not make the Delian League less successful as its formative mission was accomplished- rebuff the Persian Empire and reclaim all Persian seized Greek states “The League's main goals were to liberate the Ionian Greeks from Persian rule and to safeguard the islands in the Aegean from further Persian aggression” (The Flow of History, n.d., para 3). All reclaimed states eventually joined the league and increased the strength of the Delian league as a formidable fighting force and prosperous

Both Henry II and Pericles were highly driven and ambitious. But while Henry was fueled by the desire to glorify himself and his reign, Pericles wished to glorify Athens and its people. Henry II wanted to reclaim lands that were previously under his grandfather’s rule. He used force and threats to claim lordship over Wales, Scotland, and Ireland (Hinds 12). In his mind, it was his birthright. As a general and statesman, Pericles also helped reclaim land (noticeably Delphi) for Athens (“Pericles”, Bio). But rather than conquering neighboring

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why

Following the successful defeat of Persia, the separation of the Spartan and Athenian alliance occurred and the Delian League was formed. Without the motivating force of Sparta, Athens looked to the surrounding city-states of Greece and created a tremendous power that consisted of over 300 Greek city-states. Together they took a stand against the remaining Persians to ensure no revenge attacks would occur. Athens however, grew extremely powerful over the years and took advantage of that power with no regard to the costs of others; they obtained the funding and the resources to build a successful empire.

The Delian League was fashioned by Athens and other city-states of Greece and the primary motive of creating the Delian League was to protect the Greece from Persian attack and dominion. But after the second Persian war (after 479 BCE) some allies were no longer interested to enter war against Persia. One of the ally was Sparta became a major rival of Athens. However, other allies who were keen to continue war were still with Athens. According to the Delian League policy each ally had to contribute ships, money or silver to the treasury fund.

The Delian League is a modern term for the group of Greek cities that formed an organisation which was referred to in the fifth century BC as ‘The Athenians and their Allies’. The aim of the Delian League was originally to form an alliance for an offensive war against Persia and to liberate the Greeks in Asia Minor from Persian control. Thucydides wrote in The Peloponnesian War, the aim of the League was “to compensate themselves for their losses by ravaging the territory of the King of Persia.” While many factors contributed to the slow transformation of the Delian League into the Athenian Empire, a large part of the change derives from Athens’ leadership of the League and their eventual use of the other states for private matters. The fulfillment of the aim of the Delian League demonstrates the turning point from the League to the empire.

Although the Delian League was successful in holding off the Persian invasions, Athens had taken advantage of their naval military might. To this extent, the formation of the Delian League was unsuccessful. The members of the Delian League grew tired of Athens’ abusive power, which eventually led to the Peloponnesian War led by Sparta against Athens. The eventual result of the war devastated and humbled Athens (Brand, n.d., pp. 28).

Described by Thucydides as “the foremost Athenian and most able in speech or action [at the time of the Peloponnesian War,]” Pericles ushered in what was widely known as the “Golden Age of Athens” (31). He often exercised great prudence in his decision making and was widely admired by the Greek people. The man stressed justice, the worth of the Empire, and cleaving one’s personal interests to those of the city. Through his eloquent speeches and definitive actions he captured both the hearts of the Athenians and territory as a premier military commander. The people readily accepted his authority, and became accustomed to it. This would only lead to problems down the road, however, as other rulers took up the mantle of Athens. They would only be but a gilded echo of Pericles, unable and unwilling to follow his path. Therefore, though Pericles did not intentionally set Athens up to fail, because of the oratorical skill, leadership style, and character he possessed, success could only be truly achieved by and through him.

The Parthenon would not have been possible without the efforts and supervision of Pericles, one of the greatest historical leaders. Pericles dominated Greek politics for over twenty years. He gained his political start with the help of Ephialtes, together they reorganized the voting process to involve a popular assembly destroying the power of the Areopagus or the old noble council. This action completely reformed the democratic system in Athens. This reform was affluential part to the legend of the power of Athenian democracy. (PBS)