First Athenian Maritime Union

First Athenian Maritime Union in 431 BC. er

The First Athenian Maritime Union , also the Delian Union , the Delian Simmachia , is a union separated from the general union of the states of Hellas against the Persians after the Spartans who several times tried in vain to retain the naval hegemony behind the battle of Plathias , finally ceded it to the Athenians ( 477 year BC. e. ). Aristides and Cimon played a prominent role in the creation and expansion of the Athenian Maritime Union.

The goal of the alliance was to set up a war against the Persians, in order to liberate the Greeks still subject to them and to avenge the campaign against Hellas. The Athenians chose ten Hellentamias annually to supervise the union treasury, located on Delos , in the sanctuary of Apollo . The union was a simmachia for all time. He developed trade and ensured the security of communications, which is why he was supported by merchants and artisans. The main goal was reached with the conclusion of the peace of Kalliev supposedly around the year 449, from this point on, Athens’s desire to turn the union into its protectorate became more pronounced ^[1] . The Athenians managed the affairs of the union with the assistance of representatives of other allied states, but could easily put pressure on them, making up a majority of the representatives of small cities (all allied states had an equal right to vote). At first it was decided that states could serve the cause of the union by equipping ships or depositing money; but soon they began to prefer cash contributions ( foros ) in order to achieve greater uniformity in the equipment of ships and crew. The layout of these contributions was entrusted to Aristide . Only large states, like Samos , Chios , Lesbos , maybe Fazos and Naxos , were recognized as independent tax-paying units. The remaining cities were divided into three districts: Ostrovnoy, Ionian and Hellespont; subsequently two more were added: Thracian and Karii.

In 454, the union united 208 voluntary and forced members. The total amount of tribute was 460 talents per year, but in 425-424, Cleon increased it to 1,460 talents. Over time, the Allies more and more willingly agreed to contribute money instead of supplying ships. This increased the power of the Athenians in the union, who were now resolved to extort money from careless payers and, by conquering the fallen, to turn them into subjects; for the first time they demonstrated this approach on the Naxossians (469 BC).

Taking advantage of the rumor about the appearance of the Persian fleet in the Archipelago, the Athenians in 454 transferred the Allied treasury from Delos to Athens . By this time all cities except Samos, Chios, and Lesbos were tributaries of Athens; the Allied Sanhedrin was apparently destroyed, and the alliance became the Athenian naval power. 1/60 of the whole tribute began to go to the treasury of the goddess Athena. The Athenians began to interfere in the internal affairs of the allied cities, to keep garrisons in them, to demand the allies for trial on more important matters and on appeals to Athens and the like. Despite the strict measures of the Athenians, one after another, the cities began to fall away from the union. The most striking example is the story of the fall of the island of Samos in 440. The Athenians tried to reward themselves for dropping out new amounts of tribute. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (427 BC), they cruelly punished the retreating Mitiles and sent their clerics to their land. In the year 426, they showed themselves, like Peisistratus, "seaplanders", clearing Delos from graves and burial grounds, and forbidding to be born and die on the sacred island. After the Sicilian catastrophe , the mass falls of the Allies began, and by the end of the war the alliance ceased to exist.