Lesson 3: Pericles and the Athenian Empire
From League to Empire
From as early as 470 BC, there had already been a certain amount of disaffection within the League of Delos. In that year, the island of Naxos, which was now no longer willing to provide money and ships for the use of the League, tried to withdraw from the League.
This did not go down well with the Athenians.
Naxos was forcibly re-incorporated into the League. It had to give up its fleet, and its defensive walls were pulled down. What was more, the Naxians now were obliged to contribute a fixed sum of money to the League instead of making a military contribution.
Then, in 465 BC, it was the turn of the island-state of Thasos to try and withdraw from the League. This attempt also met with a violent response from Athens and the other members of the League.
Thasos was besieged, and, after a prolonged defence, eventually capitulated. Like Naxos, Thasos was stripped of its defensive walls and its fleet, and had to pay an indemnity to the League.
There is no precise date from which we can consider the Delian League to have been transformed into an Athenian 'empire'. This never actually happened in an overt sense. Instead, the Athenians continued to maintain the fiction of a 'voluntary league' throughout.
However, most historians consider that from about the time at which the League's treasury was moved from the island of Delos to the Athenian Acropolis (454 BC), the nature of the League can be considered to have changed into an 'imperial' structure in which Athenian hegemony was paramount.
