Athens and Sparta relationship

• Hellenic League


  Group of Greek States
• What did the Hellenic League do?


  fight Xerxes invasion

  Sparta was in control and had best army with Peloponnesian League Athens contributed great naval power

  led to victory at Salamis
• Pausanias -Spartan commander


  Spartan commander (Pausanias) took fight to Greek towns in Persian Empire → Persian-held cities were besieged
• Pausanias - Hellenic League Outcome


  Greeks worried that he was too violent so Athenians took charge → Spartans were also dealing with Helot revolt so they were busy
• Helot Revolt


  Slaves in Sparta revolt against the Spartans
• Peloponnesian League


  group of Peloponnesian cities who would vote to go to war together
• Delian League


  Ambassadors from Greek cities met on Delos and formed Delian League
• Why was Delos chosen for Delian League

  Delos chosen as place as it is very religious (birthplace of gods Artemis and Apollo)
• Why was Delian League set up


  Delian League set up to protect Greek cities/islands from Persians
• (According to Thucydides) Athens was in charge of the League and all the ‘tribute’ (money and supplies) were given to Athens to help protect Greece from Persia
• Athenians exert power from being in charge of the Delian League and forces Carystus and Euboea to join League
• Naxos revolts from Delian League however Athens force it back into Delian League
• Athens besieged Thasos for 2 years when they rebelled - they asked Sparta for help however they were dealing with an earthquake
• Sparta would gather the army from across Peloponnesian league
• •Megara and Aegina were in the Peloponnesian League, despite being close to Athens
• thirty city-states form the Hellenic League to fight Xerxes’ invasion


  Sparta was in overall control and had the best army, with the Peloponnesian League

  Athens contributed the greatest naval power which enabled victory at Salamis
• Battles of Plataea and Mycale = decisive defeat of the Persian invasion
• Cimon attacks the island and settles it with Athenians


  Cimon claims to find the bones of Theseus on Scyros
• Plutarch, Life of Cimon 8: the inhabitants had become pirates & Athens relied on the seas being safe
• Athens forces Carystus on Euboea to join the League
• Carystus had been attacked by Datis on his way to Marathon; it refused to join the Delian League so the Athenians forced it
• The Athenians besieged Naxos and forced it back

  Naxos revolts from the League
• Thucydides 1.98: 'Naxos was 'the first allied state to lose its freedom - something quite contrary to Greek norms, which would subsequently happen to the others one by one''
• Rebellion probably about Athenian control of silver mines near Thasos
• Thasos asked for Spartan help, and the Spartans agreed: but a massive earthquake in the Peloponnese prompted the helots to revolt so Sparta didn't get involved with Thasos
• Athens besieged Thasos for two years, then forced Thasos to demolish their walls and hand over their ships
• Corinth asked Sparta to call a meeting of the Peloponnesian League: they invited cities from all over Greece to bring their complaints against Athens


  The Athenians went too, and gave a speech warning Sparta not to get involved - Athens said they didn’t want to fight, but were ready for war

  Having heard what they had to say, Sparta voted for war in 432 and launched a full military invasion of Attica the following year
• The Thirty Year Peace, 446/5
• Euboea revolts from Athens (446/5)

  Pericles went with forces to sort out Euboea

  Sparta takes advantage and sends their king Pleistoanax to invade Attica

  Pericles solves the invasion diplomatically - money changes hands

  (Pleistoanax is accused of accepting bribes, and is exiled)

  Athens’ neighbour and ally Megara flips its allegiance back to Sparta
• The Thirty Year Peace Terms

  1.Neither Athens nor Sparta was to interfere with the others’ allies

  2.Neutral states were free to join either alliance

  3.Disagreements between the leagues were to be settled through arbitration, not force

  4.No allies could switch sides (i.e. members of the leagues were now fixed, and Athens gave up the mainland territory which had just rebelled)

  5.Athens and Sparta could each use force to resolve conflicts in their own leagues
• •Sparta may always have been looking for reasons to take advantage of Athenian weakness, out of fear of Athens’ strength
• Samos revolts

  Athens demands that the dispute with Miletus be sorted by arbitration: Samos refuses and revolts

  Athens sends a fleet of 40 ships to Samos
• Samian oligarchs get help from the local Persian satrap and successfully re-take the island


  (If there was a treaty between Athens and Persia, the Persians have now broken it)

  Democrat reformers on Samos were imprisoned; Athenians were handed over to Persians
• Pericles arrives with a larger fleet in Samos and sorts things out

  All ten strategoi were sent to deal with the revolt

  Siege lasted nine months

  Heavy tribute payments demanded for Athens from now on
• Byzantium revolted at the same time, but re-joined the Athenian Empire
• Samos “had almost managed to take their control of the sea from the Athenians”

  Thucydides
• Megara

  Megara was a close neighbour and potentially powerful rival to Athens

  They were allied to Sparta, so Athens couldn’t attack them without breaking the Thirty Years’ Peace

  Athens blockaded their economy (Megarian Decree) so Megara complained to Sparta which added to the argument for an invasion
• Dispute arose with neighbour Miletus over control of Priene


  Miletus and Samos were both Athenian allies

  Miletus, and Samian democratic reformers, asked Athens for help

  Samian ruling oligarchs asked Sparta for help - Sparta would have gone, but Corinth voted against
• Corinth and Corcyra

  Corinth set up a colony on the island of Corcyra

  clashed over control of another colony that Corcyra had founded

  democratic faction went to Athens for help and oligarchs went to Corinth

  Corinth agreed to invade Corcyra

  Corcyra was free to join the Athenian Empire if it wanted, so it asked Athens for protection against Corinthian invasion

  Corcyra was second-most powerful naval power after Athens - controlled trade routes to Italy
• Corinth and Corcyra after asking for help

  Corinth warned Athens not to get involved, reminded Athens that their vote stopped Spartans invading during revolt of Samos

  Athens enters defensive alliance with Corcyra and sends a fleet (commanded by Cimon’s son) to scare Corinthians away from Corcyra

  The ‘defensive alliance’ stops Athens from breaking the terms of the Thirty Years’ Peace