Athenian Democracy at War

Type:

Book

Author:

David M. Pritchard

Published:

2018

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Before the Persian Wars the Greeks did not rely on public fi nance to fi ght each other. Th eir hoplites armed and fed themselves. But in the confrontation with Persia this private funding of war proved to be inadequate. Th e liberation of the Greek states beyond the Balkans required the destruction of Persia's seapower. In 478 Athens agreed to lead an alliance to do just this. Already it had Greece's largest fl eet. Yet, each campaign of this ongoing war would need tens of thousands of sailors and to go for months. No single Greek state could pay for such campaigns. Th erefore the alliance agreed to adopt the Persian method for funding war: alliance members would pay annually a fi xed amount of tribute. Th is enabled Athens to force Persia out of the Dardanelles and the Anatolian seaboard. Nevertheless the Athenians also realised that their military might depended on tribute and so tightened their control of its payers. In so doing they turned the alliance into an empire.

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