THE PENTEKONTAETIA
is, roughly put, the period of 50 years between the end of the Persian Wars (which Herodotus puts at the Athenian siege of Sestos 479/8) and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431. It is most noteworthy for the expansion of Athenian (later Athenian-imperial) power under the aegis of the Delian League.
The Delian League was founded in 478 as a confederate pact to provide mutual defense against the fear of a renewed Spartan invasion. The Athenians assessed the member states for the contribution of ships and tribute. At the start of the league, this varied considerably from city to city, but as the Athenians asserted more control, more often it was money/tribute instead of ships, until in 431 only a few major naval powers (Samos, Chios, Lesbos) were providing ships. The treasury was initially held on Delos, and its transference to Athens (in roughly 454) is when historians normally start referring to it as the Athenian Empire.
The League fought in a variety of actions, some offensive, like Cimon's defeat of the Persians in Asia Minor on both land and sea at the Battle of the Eurymedon River in (unknown, but 469/8?), and others punitive, like the successful sieges of Naxos and Miletus after they seceded from the League. The general policy was to secure the Greek islands for the League. Meanwhile, the Spartans were busy combating an expanding Argos, which resulted in outright war by 460. A Messenian revolt of around this time forced the Spartans to concentrate on internal affairs.
At this time the leading figures in Athens were Cimon, a successful military commander and admiral connected to the Alcmaeonidae; standing against him was the mysterious Ephialtes, another commander whose biographical details are lacking. While Cimon was on campaign in 462/1, Ephialtes reformed the Areopagite Council (giving its powers over the constitution to the other assemblies); when Cimon returned and tried to overturn the reforms, he was ostracized. Ephialtes was murdered soon afterward.
The First Peloponnesian War (460-446) started for reasons which are unsatisfactorily explained. Athenian aid to Argos is a likely culprit. Athens was initially successful enough in minor engagements to undertake a disastrous expedition to Egypt (460/59-54); a battle at Tanagra (457) was a Spartan victory and spurred the recall of Cimon and the construction of the Long Walls. Athens successfully besieged Aegina, and Cimon led an attack on Cyprus during which he died in 451/0. Athens was troubled by the failure to set up friendly governments in Boeotia and a revolt of Euboea that was put down by Pericles. The war was ended with the Thirty Years' Peace in 446, which forced Athens to abandon efforts to expand on land in Boeotia and the Megarid.
Pericles' ascendancy occurred during and after his success on Euboea. He presided over a large amount of temple construction, including the Parthenon, with funds allotted from the Delian League; he was supported by an alliance of influential families; his decree ensured that only the child of two citizens would be a citizen; under his control Athens passed a decree requiring that other members of the Delian League use Athenian coins, weights and measures and send their specie to Athens to be minted. A revolt on Samos was crushed in 440/39. Additionally, Athens founded the city of Amphipolis near the Chalcidice in 437/6.
The ultimate breakdown of the peace was due to Spartan concern over Athens' growing power and interventionist policies; the proximal causes are normally described as threefold. The first reason was civil strife in Epidamnos - Corinth attempted to aid one party and Corcyra (the mother city) the other; when Corcyra won the opening engagement, they appealed to Athens for aid. The second was a rebellion of Potidaea in the Chalcidice against Athens, which was helped by Corinth, who also appealed to Sparta for aid. Tension was also brewing because Athens had passed a decree stating that Megara was excluded from Athenian markets and harbors; Sparta's ultimatum had the repeal of this decree as their primary demand. When the Athenians refused to do so and responded intransigently, the Spartans declared war.
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