Athens’ Empire

We often tend to think of the Athenians being the beacon of democracy in the ancient world. They stood up to the dictatorial Persians alongside their greek allies and invented direct democracy in a world full of monarchs. However the reality that we are faced with when we begin to scratch the surface of Athenian political history is far more complex, and far less encouraging.

The Athenian golden age began shortly after the defeat of the Persian Empire during the Grecco-Persian war of 490-479 BCE. Whereafter the Athenians along with their “allies” created the Delian League in 478, an ancient maritime alliance to take the fight back to the Persians. Allies were asked to provide ships and sailors or tribute to the league so that ships and sailors could be purchased. The treasury was initially located on the neutral island of Delos to ensure that no one became too greedy with the league tribute.

As fate would have it the Athenians decided the treasury would be better kept in Athens in 454. At which point the Athenians embarked on a building spree for the ages. At the same time Athens began forcibly keeping its allies in the league it now depended on for building funds, including sieges of Naxos and Thasos, and forced democratization of its allies at the hands of the Athenian navy.

Eventually the Delian League came up against the Peloponnesian League and in 404 BCE the Delian league fell and Athens was forced to give up its naval hegemony in the Aegean sea. But what lessons can we learn from this episode of history?

1. The majority is not always correct. Often times during the rise of Athens in the mid 5th century BCE the demos wielded power in damaging ways, not the least of which was their propensity to ostracize generals who lost major battles. This led them to deplete their best and brightest military leaders akin to the great purges of Stalin with the Red Army. The demos was tasting the power that was usually reserved to the monarchs of the Ancient world and the power proved to be corrupting.
2. Military alliances should not be unilaterally controlled. Athens’ near total control over the Delian league led to its downfall both in its confrontations of the Peloponnesian league and its lack of capable generals from the above paragraph.
3. Democracy is not always the protector of rights that we think of it as today. During the seige of Melos the Athenian historian Thucydides says that “The strong do as they wish, the weak suffer what they must.” This type of oppression by the majority was not uncommon for the Athenians during the age of the Delian League and we must keep this in mind as Americans broadcast our own particular version of Democracy as being the vanguard of freedom throughout the world.

The Athenians give us a treasure trove of lessons that can be applied to our modern world, and particularly to the United States and its position in the world currently. However we must know them to remember them.