1. Historical Framework

The unprovoked assault of the Spartan Sphodrias against Athens was the main for the foundation of the Second Athenian League. The rupture with Sparta led Athens to establish regular relations with various states in Thrace, the Aegean and the coasts of Asia Minor in order to protect the autonomy of those cities against the Spartan oppression.

2. Foundation of the League

The Second Athenian League has its roots in 377 BC. The original inscription with the resolution concerning the foundation of the league has been preserved.¹ The reasons for the foundation of the league were the protection of the freedom and territorial integrity of the Greek city-states against Spartan invasions and the maintenance of the “King’s Peace” (386 BC). Apart from the cities of Asia Minor, 15 states of eastern Greece joined the league.

In 377 BC Mausolus became the independent tyrant of Caria. Instigated by him, Chios, Rhodes, Kos and Byzantium defected from the Second Athenian League during the allied war. Despite Athenian efforts the above states were not made to surrender.² In 376 BC Sparta under the admiral Pollis blockaded Attica. The Athenians equipped 83 triremes and sailed under the admiral Chabrias. The latter accompanied to Piraeus the wheat ships blockaded at Gerastos before he sailed to Naxos. Pollis hastened to help the city and the naval battle took place in the strait between Paros and Naxos. The Athenians won a clear victory and consolidated their supremacy in the Aegean. Moreover, lots of Cycladic cities joined the league. Chabrias returned to Piraeus with 49 enemy ships, 3000 captives and 110 talents. From the summer of 376 BC onwards the Thebans started to recapture various Boeotian cities and extend their rule. Thus, the Boeotian confederacy managed to include almost the entire Boeotia again. The only positions the Spartans maintained were Orchomenos and Chaeronea. At Tegyra in 375 BC, along the road from Orchomenos to Locris, the Thebans under Pelopidas and his Sacred Band³ managed to decimate the Spartans and exterminate their leaders. The moral impact was more serious than the casualties. The Athenians in 375 BC launched naval operations in the Aegean. In the spring of 375 BC Chabrias plundered Istiaia, sailed the Aegean and then headed for Abdera. He saved the city from the Triballoi and other Thracian tribes who were going to besiege it. While leaving Abdera, they were attacked by the Abderans and raided again. Chabrias’ operations on the Thracian coasts finished with a treaty of alliance with the Macedonian King Amyntas III and had the opportunity to be provided with timber.⁴

On the initiative of the Persian ruler a general peace congress was held in Sparta in 371 BC with the participation of states belonging neither to the Athenian nor the Spartan Hegemony and representatives of Persia, Syracuse and Amyntas of Macedon. A peace treaty was signed prepared after the “King’s Peace”. In 367 BC diplomatic delegations from Athens and Thebe were sent to Susa. The Theban representative, Pelopidas, asked Artaxerxes to declare that Amphipolis was independent from Athens. However, the Persian King’s opinion on the independence of Amphipolis displeased the Athenians, thus resulting in the abolishment of the peace treaty and an immediate clash in 365 BC.