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

178 The Delian Confederacy
Imperialism
and democracy
go hand
in hand.
Arist. Const.
Aih. 24.
less agreeable leaders than at first. They no longer fought
upon an equality with the rest of the confederates, and
they had no difiiculty in reducing them when they revolted.
Now the allies brought all this upon themselves;
for the majority of them disliked military service and absence
from home, and so they agreed to contribute a
regular sum of money instead of ships. Whereby the
Athenian navy was proportionately increased, while they
themselves were always untrained and unprepared for
war when they revolted.
Afterwards as the citizens of the (Athenian) state had
acquired confidence and a great quantity of money had
accumulated, he (Aristeides) advised them to lay hold on
the leadership, and to come in from the country and live in
the city, assuring them that there would be a livelihood
for all,—some serving in the army, others in garrisons,
others attending to administrative work,—and that thus
they would secure the leadership. Adopting this policy
and usurping the imperial power, they began to treat their
allies more despotically, with the exception of the Chians,
Lesbians, and Samians, whom they retained as guards of
their empire, leaving them their own constitutions and the
Thus
dependencies which they severally chanced to rule.
they established for the multitude an abundant supply
of provisions, as Aristeides had pointed out; for it resulted
that from the tributes and the taxes more than twenty
thousand men derived their support.
STUDIES
1. How did Themistocles contrive to have the walls of Athens
rebuilt? How did the growth of Peiraeus affect Athenian politics?
2. What had Pausanias done to bring ill repute upon the Spartans
{Greece, 146; Ancte?it World, 184)? What object of the Confederacy