Delian League

The Delian League was a naval alliance of Greek city-states, founded in 478 BCE under Athenian leadership after the victory at Plataea. Members swore an oath and met in congress in the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos. Each could supply ships or troops, and most chose to pay money into a common treasury, which Thucydides says was first assessed at 460 talents and kept on Delos. Its own name was “the Athenians and their allies.”

Athens ran the machinery. Ten Hellenotamiai, one from each Athenian tribe, received the tribute. Thucydides places the turn from alliance to hegemony around Thasos, which was besieged for over two years after it left in 465 BCE and had to give up its walls, land, ships and mines. The treasury moved from Delos to Athens in 454/453 BCE; from 453 the Hellenotamiai paid one-sixtieth of the tribute to Athena, and the allied payments were inscribed on stelae on the Acropolis. Historians usually call the later league the Athenian Empire. Its members stayed separate cities with their own territory throughout.

The league ended with the Peloponnesian War. Peace came in spring 404 BCE. Samos, the last allied city, surrendered that summer, the Long Walls were pulled down under the peace treaty, and the office of the Hellenotamiai was abolished. A Second Athenian League was set up by the Decree of Aristoteles in 378/377 BCE, with no tribute and one vote for each city; it was a new foundation and lasted until 355 BCE.