Athens emerged from the Persian War of 480-79 with her prestige immensely enhanced. Moreover, her naval power made her the natural leader in the continuing struggle to drive the Persians from the Aegean. Athenian political leadership was soon accompnaied by an astonishing cultural predominance.
The League Against Persia
With the withdrawal of the Persian army from Greek soil in 479 BC, the Greek city-states turned again to their own affairs. The Ionian cities, however, again revolted, and Athens took the lead in protecting them from Persian revenge. She organized a league of all the liberated Aegean states. As its treasury was at Delos, and its congress met on that island, this was known as the Delian League.
Within a few years the league had eradicated Persian bases in or near the Aegean, and achieved complete naval dominance in that sea. Athens, however, refused to call a halt to the hostilities, though opposition to the war grew amongst her allies. The important city of Naxos seceded from the League. The Athenians decided that secession could not be tolerated and forced Naxos back into the League as a non-combatant but tribute-paying member.
In 467 BC, the League navy destroyed the rebuilt Persian fleet at the river Eurymedon, in the Levant. This did not stop other League members from seceding, for by now the Athenians were no longer the popular liberators they had been. Their strict control of the League, together with increasing interference in the internal affairs of member states, had aroused widespread resentment.
The Imperial Republic
Athenian dominance was strengthened by the allies’ preference to pay tribute rather than contribute men and ships to the League war effort. As a result, Athens’ navy grew larger whilst that of her “allies” shrank. Several revolts were put down, and after each one a democratic government was installed.
Athens also started projecting her power further afield, winning victories and gaining allies in Boiotia at the expense of Thebes and in the Peloponnese at the expense of Corinth and even Sparta. They suffered a huge disaster in Egypt, attempting to support a revolt against the Persians, and lost a large fleet there (454 BC), which led, after some more inconclusive fighting, to the treaty (449 BC) ending the war between Athens and Persia. Further reverses at the hands of her Greek rivals led to Athens withdrawing from Boiotia and the Peloponnese and the signing the 30 Years Peace with Sparta (445 BC).
The Age of Pericles
By now, one statesman had dominated Athenian politics for more then fifteen years. His name was Pericles.
Pericles was a great orator, trusted by the Athenian assembly, and usually managed to persuade them along a particular course of action. He now persuaded the people to start building the great temple that would become known as the Parthenon.
During the next ten years this temple, as well as other magnificent buildings such as the Propylaia of the Acropolis, rose above the city. This building programme was not only done to beautify the city, but also to provide work for the Athenian poor, no longer needed to row Athens’ galley fleets against the Persians.
Not that the League, whose raison d’etre had been to fight the Persians, had been allowed to lapse. Far from it; Athens indeed tightened its grip over its “allies” (now, in reality, subject states), and it was the League tribute (with its treasury now transferred from Delos to Athens itself) that was used to finance the building.
To Athens came the finest artists from all over Greece to contribute to this programme. Other branches of high culture flourished too. Anaxagoras continued the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and sophist teachers such as Protagoras began the formal training in rhetoric and logic.
Most enduring of all, and exercising a profound influence on future Western literature, the Athenians themselves produced a series of great dramatists, first Aeschylus, then Sophocles, next Euripides and finally Aristophanes. The last two were to produce their finest works as Athens went down in defeat in the Peloponnesian wars.
Next:
The History of Ancient Greece, Part 8: The Peloponnesian Wars
Article © TimeMaps 2007.
Last updated: 13th August 2007
