The following inscription comes from a war memorial of one of the ten Athenian tribes, Erechtheis. Its brevity belies its historiographical significance for it shows how much historically significant information could stand in a mundane memorial inscription:
Of (the tribe) Erechtheis the following men died fighting in Cyprus, in Egypt, in
Phoenicia, at Halieis, on Aegina, in Megara in the same year: . . . (Fornara, Nr.
78; below the superscript stand three columns of names)
Most important are the words "in the same year" - clearly the large number of fronts on which the Athenians were waging war made an impression even at the time. In fact, these words in the inscription are written larger than the others and take up an entire line by themselves. Thucydides mentions much of this fighting, but he says nothing of any fighting in Phoenicia. The brief inscription provides this piece of highly valuable information. Moreover, it is this inscription which shows that the fighting at Halieis and in Megara as well as the siege of Aegina all took place during the Egyptian expedition (460-454). Accordingly, the inscription plays an outsize role in establishing the chronology of these years.
Towards the end of the year 457 the Phocians invaded the Doris (Thuc. I 107; Diod. XI 79,4-5), a small region in central Greece, which counted as the ancestral homeland of all the Dorians (including the Lacedaemonians) (see chap. 3). The Doris may have been insignificant, but it meant something to the Dorians as a whole; and the Phocians’ invasion of it shocked the Lacedaemonians who, still bogged down with the siege at Mt. Ithome, finally realized that they had to do the hitherto unthinkable: negotiate with Helots. Greek states commonly kept collections of oracles (Hdt. V 90 and VI 57), and the Lacedaemonians searched their own collection until they found an oracle which they thought might serve them in their present need. The oracle spoke of releasing “the suppliant of Ithomaean Zeus”; so even if many Helots (not just one) were involved, the Lacedaemonians employed the oracle as a face-saving device and consented to let the Helots on Mt. Ithome go - on condition that they indeed went and never came back (Thuc. I 103; Diod. XI 84). This occurred, probably, very early in the year 456 - so the Helots’ Revolt and the Siege of Ithome ended “in the tenth year,” having begun in 465.
Free of the siege, a Lacedaemonian army of 1,500 Spartiates and 10,000 allies in the spring of 456 was ferried across the Gulf of Corinth to Phocis. The Phocians, who had never expected such a response, immediately came to terms (Thuc. I 107; Diod. XI 79). The Athenians - though still heavily committed in the eastern Mediterranean and on Aegina - marched out against the largest
Lacedaemonian army in central Greece since 479. The two sides came together at Tanagra, a small town in Boeotia. Here the two sides fought each other to an effective draw, and both apparently counted themselves fortunate to have escaped a clear defeat. For after the battle the Lacedaemonians were mostly concerned to get back to the Peloponnese quickly, and the Athenians for their part did not attempt to prevent the Lacedaemonians from going as they too had no desire for another battle (Thuc. I 108; Diod. XI 80 - see below). Special commendations were due to the partisans of the ostracized Athenian politician Cimon - at his encouragement they had fought exceptionally and ostentatiously well. The Athenians, in a special dispensation, recalled Cimon from his ostracism early (Plut. Cim. 17), before five years had elapsed (Theopompus, BNJ 115, Fr. 88).
Meanwhile the Lacedaemonian army was at a loss as to how to return to the Peloponnese - the Athenians controlled Megara and the roads leading through it (Thuc. I 107); and crossing the Gulf of Corinth was no longer an option since, in a bold maneuver, an Athenian fleet had circumnavigated the Peloponnese (see also Thuc. I 108). Tolmides, who commanded this fleet, had carried out raids along the way, and, although Thucydides does not say so, had apparently also managed to pick up the Helots who had left Mt. Ithome. He was now present in the Gulf of Corinth (Thuc. I 107 and 108; Diod. XI 84). In the end the Lacedaemonians decided to return by land, and, as noted above, the Athenians had little inclination to hinder their departure (Thuc. I 108). In the absence of a Lacedaemonian army to oppose them the Athenians invaded Boeotia, defeated the Boeotians at Oenophyta a mere 61 days after Tanagra, and conquered Boeotia. Additionally, they gained control of Phocis and Eastern Locris (Thuc. l. c.; Diod. XI 81-83). Athens’ land empire - Megara, Boeotia, Phocis, Eastern Locris - had grown large indeed.
The Athenians now took a hundred of the wealthiest Eastern Locrians as hostages (Thuc. I 108) and demanded the strategic port of Naupactus which lay on West Locrian territory just within the bottleneck of the Corinthian Gulf. The Eastern and the Western Locrians were related and always maintained close ties (see chap. 1); the Eastern Locrians had founded Naupactus in the early fifth century on Western Locrian territory (Fornara, Nr. 47), but the Western Locrians had recently come into possession of the colony (Thuc. I 103). Now, to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Locrians, they surrendered it to the Athenians who settled in it the Helots with Tolmides’ fleet (Thuc. l. c.; Diod. XI 84; see also Badian 1993, in the Further Reading to Chapter 11, pp 163-169). Athens had gained an important base on the Gulf of Corinth and had settled in it people whose hatred of Sparta was absolute. The “Messenians in Naupactus” - that is their technical name - were reliable Athenian allies during the Peloponnesian War. To cap the year 456, the Aeginetans too surrendered, and Aegina became a tribute-paying ally (Thuc. I 108; Diod. XI 79). The Athenian Empire stood at the height of its powers.
Unfortunately, it was all too good to last. In 454 the Persians reconquered Egypt and crushed the Athenian army there (Thuc. I 109-110; Diod. XI 77). After Pericles’ minor campaigns in Sicyon and Acarnania (Thuc. I 111; Diod.
XI 88), Athenian expansion ground to a halt. In fact, Thucydides announces that he is leaving the next three years blank (Thuc. I 112), apparently for want of anything significant to report. The parallel account in Diodorus, however, mentions the establishment by Pericles and by Tolmides of cleruchies in the Chersonese and on Naxos respectively (Diod. l. c.).
In 451 the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians negotiated a peace for five years. Thereupon the Athenians made another expedition to Cyprus so as to liberate the island yet again from Persian rule (Thuc. I 112; Diod. XII 3). (The Cyprians, incidentally, appear to have fought against their would-be liberators - what the Athenians called “liberation” may well have seemed more like “conquest” to the Cyprians.) Cimon, who was advanced in years by now, commanded the expedition and died during the campaign, but his fleet still managed to defeat the Persians in a major sea battle. Thereafter the fleet returned home (Thuc. l. c.; Diod. l. c.), and it appears that the Peace of Callias was renewed (Diod. XII 4; Aristodemus, BNJ 104, Fr. 13; Fornara, Nr. 95 L - all based on Ephorus).
World History
