Persians, namely the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor and on the Aegean islands. This was,
accordingly, a defensive alliance intended for protection against Persian aggression, and each member of
the alliance was required to furnish annually a number of manned warships depending on its size. In the
event that any of the allies were not in a position to supply the required number of ships or crews, they
were allowed to contribute an equivalent amount in cash, to be housed at the alliance’s treasury, located
on the small island of Delos. (For this reason, scholars today often refer to the alliance as the “Delian
League,” but its official designation was rather “the Athenians and their allies,” and the command of the
alliance’s military forces on campaign was in the hands of the Athenians.) Increasingly, members of the
alliance found it more convenient to contribute cash than ships and crews, so that the Athenians
increasingly found themselves using these financial contributions to fund their own navy. For the
Athenians were quite willing to build Athenian triremes and to pay Athenian crews at their allies’
expense. As the Athenian navy grew, the number of these crew members necessarily increased, and they
became an increasingly influential group of voters in the Athenian assembly. These sailors, then, had a
vested interest in the continuance of the alliance, which provided them with steady employment.
The alliance was quite successful in neutralizing the Persian presence in the waters of the Aegean. In fact,
the alliance was so successful that some of the allies began to wonder whether there was really a need for
its continuing existence. In the 460s, first Naxos and then Thasos tried to discontinue their membership of
the alliance, but they were forcibly prevented from doing so. By this point (if not, indeed, sooner) it began
to appear to many Greeks that the “alliance” was in effect an Athenian protectorate or even empire, and
the alliance’s “contributions” in effect a form of tribute. It often happens that the victor in a war takes on
some of the characteristics of the defeated foe, and Athens was seen to have assumed the role of the
Persian king, who demanded and received tribute from his subjects. When the alliance’s treasury was
moved from Delos to Athens in 454 BC, there could be no more uncertainty regarding the nature of this
alliance. The Athenians began to use the annual payment of the allies’ contributions as part of a very
public ceremony that demonstrated to themselves and their allies the authority that the city of Athens
wielded and the prosperity that this alliance conferred upon its citizens. Every year the magnificent
festival of the Dionysia opened with the 10 generals pouring libations to the god Dionysus and with a
procession in which the financial contributions of the allies were brought into the theater, talent by talent,
and placed on the stage to arouse the admiration of the assembled spectators (figure 42).