1. Greek History After the Persian Wars
Athens and Empire
Greek History After the Persian Wars

2. Delian League: Athenian-Led Confederacy
Purpose: Fight Persians
Treasurers: Hellenotamiae (Athenian)
Aristides and the First Assessment (460 talents)
Ships or Money Payments
Allied Treasury at Sacred Island of Delos
Principal military commander: Cimon, son of Miltiades, proxenos of Sparta, opponent of Themistocles

3. Delian League

4. Pentekontaetia: “Fifty Years” (Thucydides, 1.89-117)
Themistocles: Athens rebuilt and fortified; Piraeus (Thucydides, )
“Pausanias affair” and Athenian allied leadership (Thucydides, )
Themistocles: Ostracized in 472, defects to Persians, dies 459 as governor of Magnesia
Athens takes over leadership of the allied Greek confederacy by default (Delian League)

5. Athens Fortified: Long Walls

6. Allied Actions (470’s and 460’s BCE)
Eion (ca. 477): Persian outpost in Thrace
Scyros (ca. 477): Pirate stronghold in Aegean
Carystos (470s): Greeks who collaborated with Persians
Eurymedon (469?): Greek victory led by Cimon
Naxos and Thasos (early 460s): states wishing to leave Delian league

7. Military Action by the Delian League

8. Cimon and Pericles: Differing Political Values
“Hoplite” democracy
Aristocratic leanings
Favored strong relationship with Sparta
Symbolic victory: Marathon
Pericles:
Democracy of the fleet
Lower class sympathies
Oppositional attitude toward Sparta
Symbolic victory: Salamis
Both men: strong supporters of expanding Athenian power throughout the Aegean world
Bust of Pericles

9. Cimon, Pericles, and Athenian Foreign Policy
Cimon’s Outmoded Policy (Sparta and Athens as the “yoke-fellows” of Greece against Persia)
Cimon, 4000 Athenian hoplites aid Sparta in Messenian Revolt (462)
Ephialtic Reforms of 462/61 BCE (pay for jury duty, stripping of Areopagus)
Ostracism of Cimon (ca. 462 BCE); obsolescence of Cimonian policy; “Peace of Callias” in 449 BCE?
Delian League treasury moved to Athens in 454

10. Moses Finley’s Typology of Imperialism
Finley’s Typology of State Power exercised over other states:
1. Restriction of freedom of action in interstate relations
2. Political/judicial/administrative interference in internal affairs
3. Compulsory military/naval service
4. Payment of some form of tribute
5. Confiscation of land of other states
6. Various forms of economic exploitation/subordination

11. Athenian Imperial Controls
Athenian Courts for Athenian/Allied Litigation
Athenian Weights, Measures and Currency for Allied States
Proxenoi and Fostering Democratic Constitutions in other Greek States
Cleruchies--10,000 holdings? (Finley)
Tribute Lists (ATL)

12. Athenian Tribute Lists
Fragments of Marble Stele
440/39 BCE (IG I3 272)
Athens Epigraphical Museum 5384

13. Coinage Decree Athenian “Owl”

14. Imperial Economy: Infrastructure
Fleet (100 active triremes, 200 reserves)
Dock workers, shipwrights, around 20,000 rowers, rope and cable industry, pitch manufacture, sail production, crew trainers
Building Program
Architects, sculptors and stone cutters, day laborers for public works projects
Athenian and Inter-State Administration of Justice
Lodging and consumer spending for non-Athenians in Athens
Pay for jury duty; inter-state cases tried in Athens
Bureaucracy of the empire: 700 officials (Arist. Ath. Pol. 24.3)
Imperial Citizenship and Democracy

15. Imperial Ideology: Panathenaea Athenian Cultural Symbols of Power and Dominance
Poetic, musical, and athletic contests; torch race
Presentation of the peplos to cult statue of Athena
Tributary states required to send official delegation to the festival; contribution of cow and panoply by each state; bringing in of tribute
Tribute assessments announced for the next year

16. From Alliance to Empire: Summary
Immediate Aftermath of Persian War
Spartan Incompetence and Irresolution
Themistocles and Athens’ Fortification
Athenian Command of Delian League
470’s and early 460’s
Cimonian Policy: Continuation of Persian War
Revolts of League members and subjection
Greek states as tribute-paying subjects of Athens
Ascendancy of Pericles
Ephialtic reforms of 462/61 BCE
Change in Foreign Policy: Sparta as Enemy
Athenian Empire
Athens rules over 179 states
Five administrative districts
Approximately 2 million people lived in the Empire

17. Pericles, the Parthenon, and Athenian Imperialism
Cultural Politics and Ethics of Empire

18. Athens and the Second Persian War
Abandonment of City
Destruction of Temples (“Old Parthenon” of Pisistratid times)
Pericles’ “Congress Decree”
Building Program of 440’s and 430’s BCE
Athens as the “School of Greece” (Thucydides, 2.41)

19. Some Basic Information on the Parthenon
Temple to Athena Parthenos
Constructed between 447 and 432 BCE; Iktinos and Kallikrates architects; Phidias sculptor of cult statue
Dimensions: 228 ft. x 101 ft. on top step
Architectural Features: Doric order with Ionic elements; 8 columns at end (usually 6) and 17 columns on sides

20. Parthenon and Acropolis (from west)

21. Parthenon and Propylaea from the Pnyx (1910)

22. Destruction of Parthenon in 1687

23. Spatial Diagram of Sculptures

24. Full-Scale Replica of Athena Parthenos
Original of Ivory and Gold
41 Feet 10 inches in Height

25. Reconstruction of Athena in situ

26. West Façade of Parthenon

27. South Pteroma (outer portico) of Parthenon

28. Parthenon from the North-West

29. The “Living and Breathing” Parthenon
Entasis and “Curvature”

30. Parthenon and Its Curves

31. Platform of Parthenon with Curvature

32. Exaggerated Curvature of Parthenon

33. Artistic Features
Pediment Statuary: Athena born from the head of Zeus (east); Contest between Poseidon and Athena for Athens (west)
Metopes (mythical combats): Lapiths vs. Centaurs (south); Gods vs. Giants (east); Greeks vs. Amazons (west?); Trojan scenes (north?)
Frieze (low relief): Panathenaic Procession

34. Frieze of Panathenaic Procession
Cast of East Frieze (V))
East Frieze (V)
Eponymous Heroes and Marshalls

35. Frieze of Panathenaic Procession

36. Relief Sculpture on South-West Corner of Parthenon

37. Relief Sculpture on West Façade Relief of Parthenon

38. South Metopes I: Lapiths vs. Centaurs

39. Parthenon and Athenian Imperialism: Summary
Metope Sculpture: Hellenic (Athenian) Superiority over Barbarian (Persian) Emotionality
Acropolis as Destination Point of Panathenaic Procession (Tribute-Bearers)
Depiction of Panathenaic Procession on Inner Frieze (Gods and Athenians: Hybris?)
Chryselephantine Athena (Ivory and Gold)
Imperial Statement: Blending of Ionic and Doric Capitals; Larger Dimensions than Typical Greek Temple

40. Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 12
But there was one measure above all which at once gave the greatest pleasure to the Athenians, adorned their city and created amazement among the rest of mankind, and which is today the sole testimony that the tales of the ancient power and glory of Greece are no mere fables. By this I mean his [Pericles’] construction of temples and buildings; and yet it was this, more than any other action of his, which his enemies slandered and misrepresented. They cried out in the Assembly that Athens had lost its good name and disgraced itself by transferring from Delos into its own keeping the funds that had been contributed by the rest of Greece… “The Greeks must be outraged,” they cried. “They must consider this an act of bare-faced tyranny, when they see that with their own contributions, extorted from them by force for the war against the Persians, we are gilding and beautifying our city, as if it were some vain woman decking herself out with costly stones and statues and temples worth millions.”