A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

From Confederacy to Empire 177
Peloponnesian war, the Athenians received six hundred
talents a year from their allies.
After the death of Pericles,
the popular orators gradually raised the sum total to thirteen
hundred talents.
was required for
It was not so much that the money
the expenses of a long and costly war,
as that these men had accustomed the people to largesses
of money, dramatic representations,
statues and temples.
III.
and the erection of
Change in the Constitution of the
Confederacy
At first the allies were independent and deliberated The confedcr3,cy
trflnS"
in a common assembly under the leadership of Athens, formed into
But in the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian ^° empire.
wars, by their military success and by policy in dealing '^^"''- '• ^7-
with the barbarian, with their own rebellious allies and
with the Peloponnesians who came across their path from
time to time, the Athenians made immense strides in power.
I have gone out of my way to speak of this period because
Greece, 152 f.;
the writers who have preceded me treat either of Hellenic worid, 186 f.
affairs pre\dous to the Persian invasion or of that invasion
itself; the intervening portion of history has been omitted
by all of them, with the exception of Hellanicus; and he, J
Ws^todan
where he has touched upon it in his Attic history, is very shortly bebrief,
and inaccurate in his chronology. The narrative ^es.
will also serve to explain how the Athenian empire grew up.
The causes which led to the defections of the allies were
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of different kinds, the principal one being their neglect to formation,
pay the tribute or to furnish ships, and, in some cases, Thuc. i. gg.
failure of military service. For the Athenians were exacting
and oppressive, using coercive measures toward
men who were neither willing nor accustomed to work
hard. And for various reasons they soon began to prove