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Delian League

Association of ancient Greek city-states under Athenian hegemony

13 dated entries naming Delian League, drawn from 13 separate years between 478 BCE and 431 BCE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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5th century BC

  • 478 BCEThe Delian League is establishedsource
  • 477 BCEGreek maritime cities around the Aegean Sea no longer wish to be under Spartan control and at Delos offer their allegiance, through Aristides, to Athens. They form the Delian League (also known as the Confederacy of Delos) with Cimon as their principal commander.source
  • 476 BCEUnder the leadership of Kimon, the Delian League continues to fight Persia and to remove the Ionian cities from Persian administration. The conquest of Eion on the Strymon from Persia is led by Cimon.source
  • 472 BCECarystus in Euboea is forced to join the Delian League after the Athenians attack the city (approximate date).source
  • 469 BCEThe island of Naxos wishes to secede from the Delian League, but is blockaded by Athens and forced to surrender. Naxos becomes a tribute-paying member of the Delian League. This action is considered high-handed and resented by the other Greek city states.source
  • 465 BCEThasos revolts from the Delian League. The revolt arises from rivalry over trade with the Thracian hinterland and, in particular, over the ownership of a gold mine. Athens under Kimon lays siege to Thasos after the Athenian fleet defeats the Thasos fleetsource
  • 460 BCEThe First Peloponnesian War breaks out between the Delian League (led by Athens) and a Peloponnesian alliance (led by Sparta), caused in part by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. The Athenians have built long walls for the Megarans to their port at Nisaea, thereby earning the enmity of Megara's old rival Corinth.source
  • 457 BCEAthens, the leader of the Delian League, comes into conflict with Corinth and its ally Sparta (leader of the Peloponnesian League) over Megara. Nicomedes of Sparta, regent for King Pleistoanax, leads an army of 11,500 hoplites into Boeotia to help Thebes put down a rebellion by Phocis.source
  • 455 BCEAthens, under Athenian general Tolmides, sends 100 ships around the Peloponnesus and they set fire to the Spartan naval base at Gythion. As a result, Athens gains the agreement of the Achaean cities to join the Delian League. Athenian forces then go on to attack the Spartan allies on the Corinthian Gulf. Athens is now able to confine Sparta to the southern Peloponnesus.source
  • 454 BCEPericles declares that the Delian League's considerable treasury at Delos is not safe from the Persian navy and has the treasury transferred to Athens, thus strengthening Athens' power over the League.source
  • 450 BCEAthenian general Cimon sails to Cyprus with two hundred triremes of the Delian League. From there, he sends sixty ships to Egypt to help the Egyptians under Amyrtaeus, who are fighting the Persians in the Nile Delta. Cimon uses the remaining ships to aid an uprising of the Cypriot Greek city-states against Persian control of the island. He lays siege to the Persian stronghold of Citium on the southern west coast of Cyprus. However, the siege fails and Cyprus remains under Phoenician (and Persian) control.source
  • 440 BCESamos, an autonomous member of the Delian League and one of Athens' principal allies with a substantial fleet of its own, quarrels with Miletus. Miletus, also a member of the Delian League, appeals to Athens for assistance. Pericles decides in favour of Miletus, so Samos revolts. Pericles then sails to Samos with a fleet to overthrow its oligarchic government and install a democratic one. Sparta threatens to interfere. However, at a congress of the Peloponnesian League, its members vote not to intervene on behalf of Samos against Athens.source
  • 431 BCEThe Spartans, led by King Archidamus II, invade Attica effectively starting the first phase of the Peloponnesian War, actually the second of such wars, between the Athens-led Delian League and the Sparta-led Peloponnesian League. The Spartans lay waste to the countryside around Athens. Athenian leader, Pericles, does not seriously oppose them, rather withdrawing the rural population of the country districts within Athens' city walls. Instead, he pursues active naval warfare and reduces any danger from the island of Aegina by replacing its native population with Athenians.source

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