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The Purpose For The Formation Of The Delian League

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The Purpose For The Formation Of The Delian League
In order to discuss the success of the Delian League we must first discuss the reason given for the formation of the Delian League. The claim is that the Delian League was formed for the mutual protection of attack from, and to perform actions against, Persia. Athens was to lead the alliance and all of the members were to support it either through funds or ships. Assuming that this is the goal upon which to measure success, we will proceed.
In some senses the alliance was successful in their stated purpose. They had “notable military victories such as at Eion, the Thracian Chersonese and most famously, at the Battle of Eurymedon” (Cartwright, 2016, para. 4) against the Persians and were successful at repelling them from strongholds in Greece. I believe that these types of actions did indeed serve the stated purpose of the league and to that extent it could be considered to have a measure of success. However, I agree with others that in the end this was not the purpose of the Delian League. …show more content…
Thucydides viewed an evolution of the Delian League from an “alliance under Athenian leadership to an Empire under Athenian domination” (Rawlings, 1997, p. 6). This was brought to a head when the Athenians moved the treasury from Delos to Athens. Plutarch described the reaction of the members of the Delian League as though they were being controlled by a tyranny, as Pericles did not feel a need to account for the funds to the league members (Plutarch, 75 A.C.E., para 36-37). As unrest ensued, Athens would use its control of the Delian League to suppress revolts of members that wished to secede from the alliance. Eventually this lead to members of the league and Persia supporting Sparta in a war against
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