THE EVOLUTION OF ATHENS' PRAGMATIC FOREIGN POLICY, 478-404 BCE

Abstract

The Delian League was formed as an anti-Persian alliance in 478 BCE. Originally meant to expel and defeat the Persian invaders from Greece once and for all, Athens-the other pre-eminent power besides Sparta-instead used it as the means and vehicle for its hegemonic aims. Throughout the remainder of the 5th century, Athens subjugated allied cities within the League, provoked rivals, and imposed its imperial system in whenever and wherever it could. In this thesis, I attempt to study Athens' broad foreign policy strategy in the 5th century by compiling a catalogue of sources. I examine six key characteristics: (1) whether a city revolted and, if it did, when, (2) territory size, (3) ethnicity, (4) political system, (5) recorded tribute, and (6) nautical distance from Athens. Alongside Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, the catalogue enables a large, decades-spanning overview of shifting Athenian strategies, if any, as well as diplomatic tensions between Athens and its allies. In this thesis, I argue that Athens' initially brusque pragmatic foreign strategy evolved and became more multi-faceted after the 450s with the incorporation of ideology.