3028 land at Halieis in but victorious against a Peloponne- to back out of her alliance with , and made a sian fleet off Cecryphalea, between and . Thirty-year truce with Argos to clear its access to Alarmed by this Athenian activity in the , Ae- gina entered the war against Athens. In 458 BC in a great sea  After the Truce battle the Athenians captured seventy Aeginetan and Pelo- Freed from fighting in , the Athenians sent a fleet of ponnesian ships, landed on the island, and laid siege to the two hundred ships, under Cimon, to campaign in . Cit- town of Aegina. With substantial Athenian forces being tied ium in southeast Cyprus was besieged, but food shortage and down in Egypt and Aegina, judged it was a good time Cimon's death caused a general retreat northeastwards to Sa- to invade the Megarid. The Athenians scraped together a lamis. They were attacked by a Persian force of Cyprians, force of men too old and boys too young for ordinary military Phoenicians and Cilicians. The Athenians defeated this force service and sent it under the command of Myronides to re- by both land and sea then sailed back to Greece. lieve . The resulting battle was indecisive, but the After Xerxes' invasion in 479 BC the Persians had continu- Athenians held the field at the end of the day. About twelve ally lost territory and by 450 BC they were ready to make days later the Corinthians returned to the site but the Atheni- peace. In 449 BC Callias (supposedly?) negotiated the 'Peace ans issued from Megara and routed them. of Callias' ending hostilities between Athens and Persia. The treaty gave autonomy to the Ionian states, prohibited the es-  Sparta tablishment of Persian satrapies elsewhere on the Aegean In 458/7 BC a war broke out between Athens' ally and coast, and prohibited Persian ships from the Aegean. Athens , traditionally identified as the homeland of the was not to interfere with Persia's possessions in Minor, and having a longstanding alliance with Sparta. A Spartan Cyprus, Libya or Egypt. It was probably to mark the definite army under the general Nicomedes entered , which conclusion of the Persian War that proposed a Pan- was neutral, and forced the Phocians to accept terms. Mean- hellenic congress at Athens to consult about the rebuilding of while, the Athenians sent a squadron of fifty ships round the the ruined temples by the Persian invasion; but owing to the to Pegae to prevent the Spartan force returning refusal of Sparta to attend the project fell through. across the Corinthian Gulf. Nicomedes led his army back to Even though the war had ended, Pericles and his supporters Boeotia and the Athenians marched out to meet them. When intended continue collecting the tribute, on which Athens had the two armies met at Tanagra, the Thessalians deserted and come to depend. Payment seems to have been suspended in the Athenians were defeated, but both sides suffered heavy the first year of the peace; then Cleinias (d.447 BC), a member losses. The Spartans then marched home across the Isthmus. of the Alcmaeonidae family, proposed and carried a pro- A few months later the Athenians dispatched an army under gramme to tighten up the system of tribute collection. Under Myronides to Boeotia, and the Boeotian army gave battle at the protection of Athenian warships it was resumed, although Oenophyta (457 BC). The Athenians scored a crushing victory there was considerable resentment and passive resistance. and won control of Boeotia, Phocis and east . The Phocis in alliance with Athens had regained after the Athenians took this chance to complete the construction of Battle of Oenophyta. The bloodless (449- their , and it was probably during this time that 448 BC) began when the Spartans marched into Phocis and Naupactus was captured from the west . Shortly after restored Delphi to the . This action did this, Aegina was taken and forced to join the . not violate the truce, but challenged Athens' position in Cen- In 456 BC the Athenians sent a naval expedition under the tral Greece. In 448 BC Pericles led the Athenian army against general Tolmides to ravage the coasts of Peloponnese. He Delphi. Immediately after the Spartans left, he recaptured burnt the Spartan dockyards at Gytheum, captured the city of Delphi and gave it back to the Phocians. on the Corinthian Gulf, and then landed in the terri- In 447 BC Tolmides led a thousand north to restore tory of Sicyon and defeated the Sicyonians in battle. Athenian influence in , Chaeronea and other cit- In 455/4 BC Myronides led an expedition against ies in Boeotia where exiled oligarchs had overthrown the de- to punish them for their desertion at Tanagra and to restore a mocracies established after the Athenian victory there in 457 Thessalian exile, Orestes. But nothing was achieved against BC. Chaeronea was captured and a garrison installed. On its the Thessalian cavalry. Not long after, Pericles took a thou- return the Athenian army was attacked at Coronea by com- sand Athenian hoplites on a naval expedition starting from bined force of Boeotian, Euboean and east Locrian exiles and Pegae in the Megarid. There was a successful battle at Sicyon, defeated. Tolmides and some of his men were killed; others but with no long term results. With Achaean help Pericles were captured. Athens agreed to evacuate Boeotia in return crossed the Gulf of Acarnania and unsuccessfully besieged for the Athenians being allowed to leave Boeotia safely. Oeniadae, at the mouth of the Achelous. Further operations In 446 BC the states of revolted from Athens. Peri- were curtailed by news of the crushing defeat in Egypt in 454 cles took an army to restore order to the island. As the Athe- BC. The Athenians now took the opportunity, allegedly be- nian army moved northwards Megara took the opportunity cause of a possible Persian attack on , to transfer the and launched its own rebellion. Sparta and Corinth, eager to league's treasury from Delos to Athens. bring Megara back into the , sent an (c.46-120), however, indicates that many of Peri- army under (Agiad; r.459-409 BC) to help with an cles' rivals viewed the transfer as usurping the league's re- invasion of Attica. Pericles turned back to meet this new chal- sources to fund Pericles' elaborate building projects. Athens lenge. Pleistoanax, however, advanced only as far as also switched from accepting ships, men and weapons as dues and then suddenly withdrew. With the Peloponnesian threat from league members, to only accepting money. From this removed, Pericles reversed again and subdued the island. time the league can be described as the Athenian Empire. Cimon was recalled from exile as the statesman who could Thirty Years' Treaty (446-431 BC) best make peace with Sparta. In 451 BC he negotiated a five- The Spartans accused and exiled Pleistoanax for taking a year truce with Sparta, in which Athens retained most of her bribe, probably from Pericles, to withdraw. However, some territorial gains, including the island of Aegina, interests in believe that a more probable reason for the withdrawal was Boeotia, and a foothold in the Peloponnese itself. Argos chose that Pericles offered good terms for what would become the Thirty Years' Treaty. Athens surrendered all of its Peloponne-

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