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| Greek State Alliances | |
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| Raphael
Sealey: The Hellenic League In 0481 many Greek states set up a League to resist the expected Persian attack. Little information has been preserved about this organization. Herodotus mentions two congresses of the League, a foundation congress held in 0481 at an unnamed place, and a congress in session at the Isthmus of Corinth early in the campaigning season of 0480. At both congresses, the member states were represented by envoys or deputies. At the first congress the members took an oath, which brought the League into existence. Apparently the oath bound the allies to one another permanently; the Athenians formally abrogated their tie with Sparta c0462, that is they still recognized the oath as binding until abrogated. No name is recorded for the League; it can be called "The Hellenic League of 0481." After the battle of Plataea the victors dedicated an offering to Apollo at Delphi; it was a gold tripod surmounting a bronze column, which had the shape of three intertwined serpents. On the serpent column the victors inscribed a list of states under the heading "These fought the war." The list included cities who had taken part in the fighting of 0480-0479, even if they were not members of the League of 0481. Thus Tenos was inscribed, because a Tenian ship deserted the Persians for the other side just before the battle of salamis. Even so, the list provides some clues to the membership of the League. An approximate classification of the entries on the serpent column into three groups can be discerned. The groups are, first, the Lacedaemonians and the Peloponnesian League; second, the Athenians, Plataeans, Thespians, and several islands including some cities of Euboea, and third, Corinth with her dependent colonies. Theories which would interpret these groups as three subordinate hegemonies within the League are insi\efficiently grounded; the grouping reflects primarily the convenience of those who drew up the list. But study of the list suggests one important inference about the League. A high proportion of the entries on the serpent column is provided by members of the Peloponnesian League. Out of the total of 31 states, 13 are Peloponnesian; the others include Aegina and Megara, which were usually allies of Sparta, and 4 colonies of Corinth, namely Poteidaea, Leucas, Anactorium, and Ambracia. Thus Sparta with her allies including Corinth and her dependencies accounted for 19 of the entries on the serpent column. . . A Century of Hegemonic Leagues After the defeats inflicted on the Persians in 0480 and 0479, the center of interest shifts to the attempts of the Greek states to fashion lasting structures for interstate cooperation. For a long time after 0479 these attempts took the form of hegemonic leagues. In particular in 0478/0477, the Athenians founded a new league, the Delian League (the name is modern), and in its subsequent development the Athenians achieved a much more authoritarian position than was held by the Spartans within the Peloponnesian League. rivalry between Athens and Sparta issues in three wars. The first, the so-called First Peloponnesian War (0460-0446), was a somewhat desultory struggle with indecisive results. The second war, called the Great Peloponnesian War, or more often simply the Peloponnesian War (0431-0404), ended with a severe defeat for Athens and the destruction of the Delian League. But the severe terms imposed on Athens in 0404 were the result of a single battle; they did not reflect the lasting balance of resources between Athens and Sparta. Hence after 0404 Athens soon made a considerable recovery and her resentment towards Sparta, together with that of other powers, issued in a complex struggle known as the Corinthian War (0395-0386). Within a devcade of its conclusion, Athens set about constructing a new league of less hegemonic and more egalitarian type. Leagues and Federations The history of classical Greece has often been regarded as a study in the behavior of fully independent cities, each intent on preserving its sovereignty unabridged. This approach needs to be corrected, since Greeks of different cities made complex and lasting efforts to develop leagues and federations of very various kinds. Part II of this book was concerned with leagues of hegemonic type, that is, leagues in which the leading city was very much predominant over the other members. The Athenian Empire was the most ambitious attempt to build up a league of this kind. However, there were also leagues of a more equal type. In these one city was the recognized leader, but its predominance was not unrestricted, and the rights of the other members were to some extent guaranteed. An important example is the Boeotian federation as restored in 0447/0446 and disbanded in 0387/0386. For federal purposes, Boeotia was divided into 11 parts. In some cases one city constituted one part, but in several instances two or three small towns were grouped together to form one of the eleven parts. Thebes together with places it had absorbed counter for 4 of the 11 parts by 0395. Final decision on federal affairs rested with a Council of 660 members, and each of the 11 parts supplied 60 members to the Council. Since Thebes supplied 240 councilors, it had a larger voice in federal decisions than any of the other cities, but it did not control a majority. Similarly, executive functions were exercised by an annual board of 11 officers, one being drawn from each of the 11 parts. Every one of the cities controlled its own local affairs. The Council of the Boeotian federation was a representative organ, drawing deputies from the different parts of the territory, and a similar pattern of organization may have been adopted in other local leagues of the period, such as the Chalcidian League founded in 0432 with its center at Olynthus. In the 04c, the evidence, although scanty, suggests that there were several attempts to found local federations; for example, Xenophon (Hellenica 4:3:15) says that "the Euboeans" fought on the side of the quadruple alliance against Agesilaus at Coroneia in 0394, and the designation suggests that a Euboean federation was in existence. Much interest will attach in Part III to a league of wide extent founded on relatively egalitarian principles. In 0378 the Athenians launched their Second Sea League, as it can conveniently be called, and the provisions adopted during the months of its foundation sought to safeguard the allies against Athenian encroachments. The questions will arise: How promising an experiment was this in cooperation between cities, and What causes later brought about the disintegration of the League? Epilogue For the winter of 0338/0337 [following the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea in 0338] Philip summoned a meeting of deputies of the Greek states to Corinth. This meeting set up a permanent organization, which has come to be called the League of Corinth. In form it was probably a treaty of common peach, with safeguards and additional provisions. The agreement embraced the Greek states south of Macedon; Sparta refused to join because the independence of Messene was recognized. The treaty provided for a Synedrion or congress of representatives, which was to meet at Corinth. The constitutions in force in the member states when they joined the League were guaranteed; federal action was to check any acts of subversion or aggression against member states. There was to be a federal army levied by drawing from the members contingents approximately proportionate to their size. Philip was declared commander of the federal forces and, in accordance with his plans, the Synedrion declared war on Persia. The explicit terms of the League of Corinth were neither the only nor the most significant feature of the settlement which Philip imposed on Greece in 0338. In addition, he installed garrisons at crucial positions, including the citadel at Corinth, the Cadmea at Thebes, and Ambracia. The League of Corinth borrowed some features, such as the Synedrion, from previous Greek alliances. Yet the settlement of 0338 was designed, not as a constructive experiment towards promoting federal union among the Greeks, but as a means enabling Philip to control Greece and to draw on Greek manpower for military purposes. The Battle of Chaeronea has often been held to mark the end of Greek freedom; from then until the Roman conquest, the Greek cities had to reckon constantly with the behavior and wishes of Macedonian princes. Yet the degree of Macedonian ascendancy varied, and was often relatively mild; in the 03rd and 02nd centuries, there was a good deal of free activity by Greek states. It would be nearer the mark to say that the Battle of Chaeronea caused a severe, though temporary, check to the federal movement among the Greeks. In the preceding part of the 04c, this movement had produced local leagues like those of the Boeotians and of the Euboeans, and one with more than local aspirations, the Second Athenian Sea League. In disbanding the latter, Philip may have taken a step of more symbolic than factual significance; by 0338, the Sea League probably had few powerful members left. The disbanding of the Boeotian League harmed a real power in central Greece. The fortunes of the Achaeans on the north coast of the Peloponnese are instructive. Very little is known about their early history, but links of some kind between their settlements may have persisted right from the age of migrations. Certainly the Achaean cities constituted an effective federation in the 05th and 04th centuries. But eventually, probably soon after 0302, the Macedonians dissolved the Achaean League. Its revival began in 0280, when four of the Achaean cities bound themselves together afresh; later, the others joined the League. Moreover, by absorbing Sicyon on 0251 and Corinth in 0243, this League learned to admit non-Achaean cities on an equal basis; thereafter, it expanded to gain much of the Peloponnese. Further north, the Aetolian League likewise began as a local federation, but expanded, absorbing some places outright and drawing more distant communities into association; for a time its links reached some cities of the Peloponnese, some islands of the Aegean, and even Calchedon on the Bosporus. In short, the Greek federal movement, checked in 0338, revived in the 03rd century and flourished until it was frustrated by a new conqueror, Rome.
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