Teaser: Architects or Accidental Founders

WEBVTT
00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:26.879
Hello everyone and welcome back to our bonus episode on Patreon for September 2026, where this time we'll continue with our look at the Dilian League with the episode Architects or Accidental Founders.
00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:34.159
Last bonus episode, we looked at Aristides and the important role he would play in the creation of the Dilian League.
00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:37.439
In doing so, we deliberately left one question unanswered.
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.280
What exactly did Aristides believe he was helping to create?
00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:48.719
This is where we need to be careful not to allow hindsight to influence how we view the decisions being made at the time.
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.759
We know what the Dilian League would eventually become.
00:00:52.079 --> 00:01:01.439
Athens would increasingly dominate its members, attempts to leave would be met with force, and the treasury itself would eventually be transferred from Delos to Athens.
00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:08.480
What had begun as an alliance of Greek cities would develop into what we now commonly refer to as the Athenian Empire.
00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:12.640
But Aristides didn't know any of this in four hundred seventy eight BC.
00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:20.879
When the representatives gathered on Delos, they were dealing with a situation that existed in their own time.
00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:31.920
Persia had only recently been driven back, Greek cities along the Anatolian coast had gained their freedom, and there was no guarantee another Persian attempt to regain control wouldn't follow.
00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:36.560
Their immediate question was how to protect what had just been won.
00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:45.200
So are we judging Aristides' intentions by what existed in 478, or by what the Delian League eventually became?
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:54.000
Perhaps he genuinely believed he was creating an alliance of relatively equal Greek states, with Athens leading because it would be best placed to do so.
00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:59.280
Or perhaps Athens already recognized the opportunities such as leadership would provide.
00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:02.799
There is also another possibility.
00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:14.800
The League was created as a genuine alliance, responding to a genuine threat, but its organization placed powers into Athenian hands that would become increasingly important as circumstances changed.
00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:27.120
So rather than asking whether Aristides created the Athenian Empire, perhaps we should ask, did he intend to create an empire, or did he simply help create the conditions that would eventually allow one to emerge?
00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.280
To begin answering this, we need to look at what was established on Delos in four hundred seventy eight.
00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:43.439
Not so much at how the different parts of the League functioned, as we covered that last episode, but at what these arrangements might tell us about what the Greeks thought they were creating.
00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.840
Perhaps the most obvious place to begin is Delos itself.
00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:52.879
The League wasn't established in Athens, nor was its treasury initially placed there.
00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:03.439
Delos was centrally located in the Aegean, was an important religious centre associated with Apollo, and perhaps most importantly for our purposes, it wasn't Athens.
00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:13.520
If the intention from the beginning had simply been to create an Athenian Empire, we might ask why the Athenians established the League around a supposedly neutral centre at all.
00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:16.879
The Allies met on Delos and the treasury was kept there.
00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:26.960
This doesn't mean Athens had no ambitions, but it does suggest the League was presented as something belonging to its members, rather than simply an extension of Athenian power.
00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.639
We can see something similar in how decisions were supposed to be made.
00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:41.520
Each member was represented within the synod, and, at least in theory, possessed an equal vote, regardless of size or contribution.
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.039
A small island community could therefore possess the same vote as a larger member.
00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:53.120
Again, this seems a strange arrangement if the League had simply been designed as an empire from the outset.
00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:57.759
Then we have the oath sworn between the members.
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:06.719
The alliance was intended to be permanent, symbolized by the iron bars thrown into the sea that would only allow it to end when they floated back to the surface.
00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.120
With what happened later, it's tempting to see something sinister in this permanence.
00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:15.280
However, the Eastern Greeks had only recently escaped Persian control.
00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:24.000
If the alliance was going to provide meaningful security, members needed confidence that the others wouldn't simply abandon them when circumstances became difficult.
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.199
Permanence didn't necessarily mean subjugation.
00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:31.279
At this point, it could just easily represent collective security.
00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.399
However, this is where the picture becomes more complicated.
00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:42.800
For all the apparent equality built into the League, Athens occupied a privileged position from the beginning.
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:44.800
Athens was the hegemon.
00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:54.480
Athenian commanders led military operations, Athenian officials oversaw contributions, and Athens possessed by far the largest naval force available to the Alliance.
00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:59.439
So what was created on Delos contained something of a contradiction.
00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:05.839
The members were supposedly equals, but one of those equal members had been placed in leadership over the others.
00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:09.279
Perhaps this wasn't seen as threatening in four hundred seventy eight.
00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:21.839
An alliance needed leadership, Sparta had little interest in a permanent naval commitment in the Eastern Aegean, and Athens possessed the fleet, experience, and Ionian connections needed to take on the role.
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:30.399
For the Eastern Greeks, Athenian leadership may have appeared less a threat to their independence than the means through which it would be protected.
00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:40.079
This is why describing the early Delian League as either completely equal or already an Athenian Empire doesn't really capture what had been created.
00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:50.720
There were genuine mechanisms giving the Allies a voice, but the practical realities of defending the Aegean also gave Athens powers and responsibilities no other member possessed.
00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.800
This then brings us back to Aristides himself.
00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:59.439
We have already seen why he was trusted with assisting the Allies.
00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:04.480
The more difficult question is what he intended the wider league to achieve.
00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:09.120
One interesting point is that Aristides wasn't Themistocles.
00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:15.120
Before the second Persian invasion, the two had supported different ideas about the directions Athens should take.
00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:27.759
Aristides had been associated with the more conservative position, favoring Athens continuing to rely upon its hoplite class and strength on land, while Themistocles pushed Athens towards the sea.
00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:30.959
This creates an interesting problem.
00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:44.319
If Aristides had opposed the naval direction Athens was taking before Xerxes' invasion, why do we find him only a few years later helping establish an alliance, whose power would rest primarily upon the Athenian fleet?
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:49.360
I think the answer probably lies in just how much the Greek world had changed.
00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:54.800
Before the invasion, Athens had defeated the Persians at Marathon through the strength of its hoplites.
00:06:54.959 --> 00:07:07.040
By 478, Aristides had lived through the evacuation and destruction of Athens, witnessed the importance of the fleet at Salamis, and taken part in the campaigns that pushed the Persians back out of Greece.
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:14.319
Athens' interests had also changed, its security was now increasingly connected to what took place across the Aegean.
00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:27.040
Greek communities along the Anatolian coast had broken away from Persian control and were looking towards Athens for protection, while Sparta was becoming reluctant to maintain the naval commitment needed to protect them.
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:34.480
So perhaps what we are seeing with Aristides isn't a complete change in outlook, but a pragmatic response to a new reality.
00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:39.360
This also fits with the role he appears to have played in establishing the League.
00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:42.959
We don't hear of him attempting to reduce the Allies to subjects.
00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:49.759
Instead, he became famous for determining what each member could reasonably contribute towards their collective defense.
00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:59.519
His reputation for fairness mattered because the Allies needed to believe these assessments weren't simply Athens, exacting as much wealth from them as possible.
00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:05.040
However, Aristides was still an Athenian statesman, acting on behalf of Athens.
00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:17.600
Leadership of the Alliance offered obvious advantages, greater influence throughout the Aegean, security for Athenian maritime interests, and leadership of a coalition Sparta was increasingly unwilling to lead.
00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:23.120
We therefore don't need to choose between Aristides acting in the interests of the Allies or Athens.
00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:26.240
In 478, those interests could overlap.
00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:35.360
The Eastern Greeks wanted protection from Persia, while Athens wanted Persian influence kept away from the Aegean and possessed the naval power to achieve this.
00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:44.960
Perhaps Aristides could genuinely believe the League was protecting the independence of the Eastern Greeks, while also recognizing that leadership strengthened Athens.
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:49.519
He may have wanted Athens to lead without believing the Allies should become its subjects.
00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:54.080
The real test would come when Athenian and Allied interests no longer aligned.
00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:00.480
There is also something important in the fact that the Eastern Greeks themselves were looking towards Athens.
00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:06.159
Aristides was not imposing Athenian leadership upon communities that had shown no interest in it.
00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:12.320
At this early stage, Athenian leadership answered a need that many of the Allies themselves recognized.
00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:19.679
That makes it much harder to project the later relationship between ruler and subject back on the League at its creation.
00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:29.759
There is another issue we need to keep in mind, the temptation to talk about Athens as though it were a single individual, with a clear plan for the following decades.
00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:38.399
Athens wasn't a single voice, it was a city of competing politicians, social groups, and ideas about what directions it should take.
00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.320
We have already seen this with Aristides and Themistocles.
00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:48.559
Later figures such as Chimon would emerge with their own ideas about how Athens should use its position.
00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:58.879
The Athens that created the Dilian League in 478 wasn't necessarily the same Athens that would suppress revolts or eventually transfer the treasury from Delos.
00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:04.879
The institutions continued, but the people operating them and circumstances surrounding them changed.
00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:12.240
So we need to be careful when looking backwards from the Athenian Empire and assuming everything was part of a long-term plan.
00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:19.039
The fact Athens benefited enormously from the League doesn't mean all those benefits have been planned from the outset.
00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:25.279
Decisions made to solve immediate problems could produce consequences nobody fully anticipated.
00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:33.039
At the same time, we shouldn't present Athens as simply stumbling into power without recognizing what was happening.
00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:42.399
Its fleet operated across the Aegean, its commanders directed league campaigns, and its officials were involved in managing the contributions that funded them.
00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:47.919
Aristides and other Athenians surely understood that leadership was strengthening Athens.
00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:56.639
The important distinction is between recognizing an opportunity for greater Athenian influence and deliberately planning an empire.
00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.200
Aristides could have wanted Athens to lead without wanting Athens to rule.
00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:08.240
Later generations would inherit these institutions created in 478 and adapt them to their own circumstances.
00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:20.639
Rather than looking for a single moment when Athens decided to create an empire, it may be more useful to look at how a series of decisions gradually change the relationship between Athens and its allies.
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.320
This brings us to perhaps the most important part of our question.
00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:32.720
Even if Aristides didn't intend to create an empire, did the system he helped establish make one possible?
00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:38.000
Athens as hegemon provided the commanders directing League campaigns.
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:46.639
This made practical sense, but it also meant Athens increasingly determined where the League fought and how its military resources were employed.
00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:55.840
Aristides' assessment was designed to distribute the burden of maintaining the alliance fairly, yet Athenian officials oversaw those contributions.
00:11:56.080 --> 00:12:05.759
The Treasury remained on Delos, but Athens already occupied an important position between the resources supplied by the Allies and the operations those resources funded.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:13.039
Perhaps the most significant development came from allowing some members to contribute money rather than ships and crews.
00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:16.080
There were good reasons for this.
00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:24.879
Smaller communities might not be able to maintain ships for extended campaigns, while money allowed them to contribute in a way that reflected their capabilities.
00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.720
But over time this could have an unintended consequence.
00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:35.600
The more members that provided money instead of ships, the fewer maintained significant naval force of their own.
00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:41.519
Athens, meanwhile, could use those contributions to maintain the fleet carrying out league operations.
00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:48.799
The Allies were still paying for their security, but the military power providing it was becoming increasingly Athenian.
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:51.279
This created something of a cycle.
00:12:51.440 --> 00:13:06.000
Allied payments helped Athens maintain the fleet needed to protect them, as Athenian naval power grew relative to the other members, those members became increasingly dependent upon Athens, widening the difference in power between the supposed equals of the League.
00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:12.480
And this is where a practical arrangement could slowly begin changing the character of the alliance.
00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:17.759
A city that stopped maintaining ships did not simply change the form of its contribution.
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:23.120
Over time it also surrendered some of its ability to act independently at sea.
00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:29.120
Athens, by contrast, was maintaining the very military instrument upon which the League increasingly depended.
00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:35.840
Again, none of this requires us to imagine Aristides secretly designing a system to weaken the Allies.
00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:41.360
Allowing smaller states to contribute financially may have been the fairest solution in four hundred seventy eight.
00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:45.440
The problem was what could happen if this arrangement continued for decades.
00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.159
Then there was the permanent nature of the membership.
00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:54.080
In the context of the Persian threat, permanence made sense.
00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.639
Collective security only worked if members could depend upon one another.
00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:04.320
But what happened when a member no longer believed the threat justified continued participation?
00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:10.480
Athens could argue that an attempt to leave meant breaking an oath and weakening ever insecurity.
00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:18.399
From the perspective of the city attempting to leave, however, an alliance that had once protected its independence could begin to restrict it.
00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:24.240
Taken together, these features created a system in which power could increasingly flow towards Athens.
00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.080
Aristides wasn't an accidental founder of the Dilian League.
00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.799
His role in organizing it was deliberate.
00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:37.759
What he may have been was an accidental founder of some of the conditions that would allow an Athenian Empire to emerge.
00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:42.960
So far we have looked at what the League structure made possible.
00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:51.919
To see whether these concerns actually developed, we need to move briefly beyond Aristides and look at what happened when the system was tested.
00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:55.120
Perhaps the first major test was Naxos.
00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:00.159
We covered the revolt previously, so what matters here is what the response tells us.
00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:04.960
Naxos attempted to leave the alliance, and Athens prevented it from doing so.
00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:07.600
There was an argument for this response.
00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:18.480
The members had sworn themselves to a permanent alliance, and if the cities withdrew, once they believed the immediate danger had passed, the system of collective security could begin to unravel.
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:25.120
Those leaving could potentially continue benefiting from the security in the Aegean without contributing towards it.
00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:29.360
But from Naxos' perspective, there was an obvious contradiction.
00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:36.799
If it had voluntarily joined an alliance to protect its independence, but was no longer free to leave, how independent was it?
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:40.879
Athens was no longer simply leading willing allies against a common enemy.
00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:45.759
It was prepared to use military superiority to keep an ally within the system.
00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:48.960
This is why Naxos is important to look at.
00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:53.519
The question was no longer simply whether membership had originally been voluntary.
00:15:53.840 --> 00:16:00.159
It was whether that original consent could bind a city permanently, even after its own interests had changed.
00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:03.679
The answer Athens provided was effectively yes.
00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:13.120
Then we come to Thassos, where the distinction between League interests and specifically Athenian interests becomes harder to identify.
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:18.559
The dispute involved Athenian and Thessaian economic interests around the Thracian coast.
00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:24.240
When Thassos revolted, Athens responded militarily and eventually forced it back into the League.
00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:28.320
This wasn't simply a question of maintaining collective defense against Persia.
00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:31.120
Athens had direct interests involved.
00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:35.679
When Athens acted as hegemon, whose interests was it actually defending?
00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:40.240
Thassos therefore takes the problem one step further than Naxos.
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:46.399
With Naxos, Athens could at least claim it was defending the principles of permanent membership.
00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:55.519
With Thassos, specifically Athenian interests were now much harder to separate from the authority Athens exercised as leader of the League.
00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:00.240
In 478, Athenian and League interests largely aligned.
00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:04.720
Both wanted Persian influence removed and maritime security maintained.
00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:11.599
But as the Persian threat became less immediate, disagreements between Athens and individual members became more significant.
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:18.720
The same military machinery created to protect the Allies from Persia could now enforce Athens' decisions upon them.
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:27.759
Then in four hundred fifty four BC came perhaps the most symbolic development, the transfer of the League Treasury from Delos to Athens.
00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:33.519
Whatever practical arrangements existed for moving it, the symbolism was difficult to ignore.
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:45.519
The treasury Aristides had helped establish on neutral Delos was now located within the city leading the alliance, further weakening the distinction between League resources and Athenian power.
00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:58.559
If we compare the League Aristides helped establish with the one that suppressed Naxos, fought Thassos, and transferred its treasury to Athens, it becomes difficult to argue that nothing had fundamentally changed.
00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:03.759
Yet there may not have been one moment when the Dilian League suddenly became the Athenian Empire.
00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:10.400
Instead, decisions that could individually be justified gradually changed the balance within the same institutions.
00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.880
Athenian leadership had acquired the ability to become Athenian control.
00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:20.319
The question then is how much of this Aristides could reasonably have foreseen.
00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:26.079
Obviously, we can't know what Aristides was thinking when the League was established.
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:28.799
Our sources don't provide this sort of insight.
00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:35.440
But we can ask what someone in his position could reasonably have understood about the system he was helping to create.
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:41.200
Aristides surely understood that Athens was entering as the most powerful naval member.
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.960
That was the reason Athens was being looked towards for leadership.
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:53.839
He must also have understood that military command and Athenian involvement in overseeing contributions would provide Athens with considerable influence.
00:18:54.640 --> 00:19:00.720
So we shouldn't imagine Aristides as unaware that the arrangements on Dilos would strengthen Athens.
00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:06.480
There was no reason why strengthening Athens and protecting the Eastern Greeks had to be competing objectives.
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.359
He could quite comfortably have wanted both.
00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:17.920
But recognizing that Athens would become more influential is very different from predicting what that influence would eventually become.
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.319
Could he have known the Persian threat would gradually become less immediate?
00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:31.599
That increasing numbers of allies would provide money rather than ships, or that Athens would eventually possess such an overwhelming share of the League's naval power?
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:39.759
Could he have anticipated military force being used against members attempting to leave, or the treasury eventually being transferred to Athens?
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:45.680
This is where we need to distinguish between foreseeable consequences and later historical developments.
00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.640
Aristides could foresee that Athenian leadership would provide considerable influence.
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:58.240
What he couldn't necessarily foresee was how changing circumstances would transform the meaning of those powers.
00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:04.000
So it would be unfair to hold Aristides responsible for everything the League eventually became.
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:08.000
But equally we shouldn't completely separate him from that development.
00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:13.759
He helped establish a system in which Athenian powers could expand as circumstances changed.
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:21.200
He may not have foreseen the Athenian Empire, but he could surely see the League would make Athens considerably more powerful.
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:26.880
So where does that leave us with the question we started with?
00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:35.200
Did Aristides create something noble that later generations corrupted, or did he lay the foundations of Athenian dominance from the beginning?
00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:39.440
I think the answer lays somewhere between these two positions.
00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:46.480
It would be difficult to argue that Aristides was the architect of the Athenian Empire in the form that eventually emerged.
00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:49.920
The League was responding to a genuine strategic problem.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:58.640
Persia remained a threat, and the Eastern Greeks had only recently gained their independence, and many had actively looked towards Athens for leadership.
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.359
The Allies also possessed real agency.
00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:09.759
They had representation within the synod, theoretically possessed an equal vote, and the treasury was established on Delos, rather than Athens.
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:14.640
But Aristides wasn't creating a league of completely equal states either.
00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:17.039
Athens was its hegemon.
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:27.680
Athenian commanders directed military operations, and Athenian officials oversaw contributions, and Athenian naval power provided much of the strength upon which the League depended.
00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:33.519
Aristides must have understood this would increase Athens' influence throughout the Aegean.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:43.279
So perhaps Aristides was an architect of Athenian leadership, but probably not an architect of the Athenian Empire, that that leadership would eventually develop into.
00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:50.640
Importantly, that transition didn't require someone to sit down and decide the Delian League should become an empire.
00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:57.359
Many individual decisions that moved power towards Athens made sense within their immediate circumstances.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:01.200
Athens possessed the largest fleet, so it led operations.
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:07.680
Some allies found it easier to provide money than ships, so Athens increasingly supplied the naval force.
00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:14.480
Maintaining collective security required members to honour their commitments, so attempts to leave were resisted.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:20.880
When Athenian and Allied interests came into conflict, Athens possessed the power to enforce its position.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.559
None of these decisions taken individually require a grand plan for empire.
00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:32.480
But, accumulated over decades, they produced something very different from what had been established on Delos.
00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:39.119
This brings us back to the previous bonus episode, and whether the Dilian League was a league by choice.
00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.920
Initially, for many members, it clearly was.
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:49.200
The Eastern Greeks had good reason to seek an alliance, and Athens had good reasons to accept the leadership being offered.
00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:57.759
The problem was that that system created to protect their independence gradually developed in a way that limited their ability to exercise that independence.
00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:01.440
Perhaps this is the real irony of Aristobul's involvement.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:09.119
A man remembered as the just helped establish a system designed to distribute the burdens of collective security fairly.
00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:19.440
Yet that same system helped concentrate military power into the hands of one member until the balance upon which the original alliance depended began to disappear.
00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:26.559
In other words, the weaknesses was not necessarily that Aristobis could design the League badly.
00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:31.680
In many respects, the arrangements made sense for the world of 478 BC.
00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:39.920
The problem was that a system designed around one set of circumstances remained in place as those circumstances changed.
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:46.880
That doesn't mean Aristobadis secretly intended to create an empire, nor does the Athenian Empire emerge completely by accident.
00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:51.200
It deliberately helped design an alliance in which Athens would lead.
00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:56.880
What he probably didn't design was an empire that would eventually emerge from that leadership.
00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.440
And perhaps that is the most important point to take away from these lustrial facilities.
00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:05.119
Empires don't always begin with someone deciding to create one.
00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:10.240
Sometimes they emerge gradually as temporary solutions become permanent institutions.
00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:14.880
Leadership becomes dependence, and influence slowly develops into control.
00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:20.960
Thank you all once again for supporting me here on Patreon.
00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:29.039
I greatly appreciate it, and look forward to next month, where we'll continue to look at themes and questions coming from within this interesting period.
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:35.920
Next episode, we'll take a deeper look at Aristobides and his role in the creation of the Dillion League.
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:39.920
Until then, thank you all for listening, and I'll see you next month.