Athenian empire (454 – 404 BC)

The Athenian Empire arose from naval power acquired to face the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC. The Hellenic league, formed to combat the Persians, was clearly headed by Sparta. Sparta presided at meetings and provided both land and sea commanders.

The Athenians were interested in trade with the Greek cities still ruled by Persia, and they wanted to liberate their fellow Greeks from Persian rule.

At Athens, the Athenians began rebuilding their walls. The Spartans opposed the rebuilding. Themistocles tricked the Spartans by delays until the Athenian walls were rebuilt. Clear lines of power and strategic moves.

Sparta and its allies on the Peloponnese peninsula withdrew from the war, leaving Athens as the most influential among those cities continuing the war. Athens created a new league of states – a voluntary association called the Delian League.

The Delian league was a new alliance against the Persians, but under Athenian leadership. By 446/5 the Delian League had become the Athenian empire. Peace had been made with Persia, but Athens had firmly retained her hold over the allies.

League forces liberated Greek communities from Persian control and dominated the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Most subjects paid an annual tribute, with Athens using the monies to build and man warships.

The Delian league's first action, in 476/5, was to take over Eion, a Persian fortress on the Strymon river.

Next the Athenians expelled pirates from Scyrus (near Euboea) and settled it themselves. A few years later, they subdued Carystus, a Euboean city that had medized during the Persian war. Then in 467, Naxos revolted and was subdued. The pattern is clear: attack Persians, take over territory, force a city to remain in the league.

Athens arrogated to itself the role of policeman within its alliance. Athens forced back into its alliance a city that had broken its oath to remain in the league. It suppressed petty wars within the league and intervened in disputes within member cities, favoring those who supported democracy. Athens was beginning to be imperial.

To further strengthen Athens's grip on its empire, Pericles in 450 BC began a policy of establishing kleruchiai—quasi-colonies that remained tied to Athens and which served as garrisons to maintain control of the League's vast territory.

In 437, Amphipolis was founded as an Athenian colony on the Chalcidice. It grew to be an important city, because of the natural resources it could draw on: timber, pitch, metals. The empire was a self-propelling device in terms of economy and military. The fleet was an economic and military tool.

Ultimately, fear of Athens’ growing power sparked the Peloponnesian War with Sparta and its allies, a long and costly war of attrition. Athens’ defeat in 404 BC led to the loss of the empire.
Athenian empire (454 – 404 BC)

Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC

In 490 BC Datis (admiral under Darius the Great) landed a substantial force at Marathon, north of Athens, where Athenian and Plataean hoplites drove the Persians back to their ships. Ten years later King Xerxes led a much larger invasion by land and sea.

In 481 BC massive preparations, shipbuilding and preparing of supplies and magazines were in train. These preparations were quite open and the Persian aim was obviously to subjugation of Greece.

By the Winter of 481/480 BC Xerxes preparations were complete and his forces gathered at Sardis before crossed the Hellespont.

Xerxes personally led the Persian invasion of Greece with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. According to Herodotus there were 1.7 million strong man from Persia.

The Athenians sent a messenger to ask the Spartans to commit their army, an army which could be considered a special forces unit in modern terms. Normally the special forces make up only a small portion of the military. The Spartans, however, were all highly trained killing machines. The Spartan king Leonidas knew that if the Spartans did not show up then the Persians would easily conquer Athens, and eventually Sparta.

Victory over the allied Greek states at the famous Battle of Thermopylae allowed the Persians to torch an evacuated Athens and overrun most of Greece.

Heroic Spartan resistance at Thermopylae failed to prevent Xerxes from sacking Athens, but his navy was mauled at Salamis and in 479 Greek hoplites were victorious at Plataea.
Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC