Wars of the Delian League The Wars of the Delian League ( 477 – 449 BC ) were a series of campaigns fought between the Delian League of Athens and her allies ( and later subjects ) , and the Achaemenid Empire of Persia . These conflicts represent a continuation of the Greco - Persian Wars , after the Ionian Revolt and the first and second Persian invasions of Greece . The Greek alliance , centered around Sparta and Athens , that had defeated the second Persian invasion had initially followed up this success by capturing the Persian garrisons of Sestos and Byzantium , both in Thrace , in 479 and 478 BC respectively . After the capture of Byzantium , the Spartans elected not to continue the war effort , and a new alliance , commonly known as the Delian League , was formed , with Athens very much the dominant power . Over the next 30 years , Athens would gradually assume a more hegemonic position over the league , which gradually evolved into the Athenian Empire . Throughout the 470s BC , the Delian League campaigned in Thrace and the Aegean to remove the remaining Persian garrisons from the region , primarily under the command of the Athenian politician Cimon . In the early part of the next decade , Cimon began campaigning in Asia Minor , seeking to strengthen the Greek position there . At the Battle of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia , the Athenians and allied fleet achieved a stunning double victory , destroying a Persian fleet and then landing the ships ' marines to attack and rout the Persian army . After this battle , the Persians took an essentially passive role in the conflict , anxious not to risk battle where possible . Towards the end of the 460s BC , the Athenians took the ambitious decision to support a revolt in the Egyptian satrapy of the Persian empire . Although the Greek task force achieved initial success , they were unable to capture the Persian garrison in Memphis , despite a 3 year long siege . The Persians then counterattacked , and the Athenian force was itself besieged for 18 months , before being wiped out . This disaster , coupled with ongoing warfare in Greece , dissuaded the Athenians from resuming conflict with Persia . In 451 BC , a truce was agreed in Greece , and Cimon was able to lead an expedition to Cyprus . However , whilst besieging Kition Cimon died , and the Athenian force decided to withdraw , winning another double victory at the Battle of Salamis - in - Cyprus in order to extricate themselves . This campaign marked the end of hostilities between the Delian League and Persia , and some ancient historians claim that a peace treaty , the Peace of Callias , was agreed to cement the final end of the Greco - Persian Wars . Sources & Chronology . Unfortunately , the military history of Greece between the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece and the Peloponnesian War ( 479 – 431 BC ) is poorly attested by surviving ancient sources . This period , sometimes referred to as the " pentekontaetia " by ancient scholars , was a period of relative peace and prosperity within Greece . The richest source for the period , and also the most contemporary with it , is Thucydides ' s " History of the Peloponnesian War " , which is generally considered by modern historians to be a reliable primary account . Thucydides only mentions this period in a digression on the growth of Athenian power in the run up to the Peloponnesian War , and the account is brief , probably selective and lacks any dates . Nevertheless , Thucydides ' s account can be , and is used by historians to draw up a skeleton chronology for the period , on to which details from archaeological records and other writers can be superimposed . Much extra detail for the period is provided by Plutarch , in his biographies of Aristides and especially Cimon . Plutarch was writing some 600 years after the events in question , and is therefore very much a secondary source , but he often explicitly names his sources , which allows some degree of verification of his statements . In his biographies , he explicitly draws on many ancient histories which have not survived , and thus often preserves details of the period which are omitted in Thucydides ' s brief account . The final major extant source for the period is the universal history ( " Bibliotheca historica " ) of the 1st century BC Sicilian , Diodorus Siculus . Much of Diodorus ' s writing concerning this period seems to be derived from the much earlier Greek historian Ephorus , who also wrote a universal history . However , from what little is known of Ephorus , historians are generally disparaging towards his history ; for this period he seems to have simply recycled Thucydides ' s research , but used it to draw completely different conclusions . Diodorus , who has often been dismissed by modern historians anyway , is therefore not a particularly good source for this period . Indeed , one of his translators , Oldfather , says of Diodorus ' s account of the Eurymedon campaign that " . . . the three preceding chapters reveal Diodorus in the worst light . . . " . There is also a reasonable body of archaeological evidence for the period , of which inscriptions detailing probable tribute lists of the Delian League are particularly important . Chronology . Thucydides provides a succinct list of the main events occurring between the end of the second Persian invasion and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War , but almost no chronological information . Various attempts have been made to reassemble the chronology , but there is no definitive answer . The assumption central to these attempts is that Thucydides is describing the events in the appropriate chronological order . The one firmly accepted date is 465 BC for the beginning of the Siege of Thasos . This is based on an anonymous ancient scholiast ' s annonations to one of the existing manuscripts of Aeschines ' s works . The scholiast notes that the Athenians met disaster at ' Nine - Ways ' in the archon ship of Lysitheus ( known to be 465 / 464 BC ) . Thucydides mentions this attack on the ' Nine - Ways ' in connection with the beginning of the Siege of Thasos , and since Thucydides says that the siege ended in its third year , the Siege of Thasos therefore dates to c . 465 – 463 BC . Similarly , the anonymous scholiast provides a probable date for the Siege of Eion . This annotation places the fall of Eion in the archonship of Phaidon ( known to be 476 / 475 BC ) . The Siege may therefore have been between either 477 – 476 BC or 476 – 475 BC ; both have found favour . The Battle of Eurymedon may be dated to 469 BC by Plutarch ' s anecdote about the Archon Apsephion ( 469 / 468 BC ) choosing Cimon and his fellow generals as judges in a competition . The implication is that Cimon had recently achieved a great victory , and the most likely candidate is Eurymedon . However , since the Battle of Eurymedon seems to have occurred after the Athenian siege of Naxos ( but before the Siege of Thasos ) , the date of Eurymedon is clearly constrained by the date of Naxos . Whilst some accept a date of 469 or earlier for this Naxos , another school of thought places it as late as 467 BC . Since the Battle of Eurymedon seems to have occurred before Thasos , the alternative date for this battle would therefore be 466 BC . The dating of Naxos is intimately connected with two other events in the Greek world which occurred at the same time . Thucydides claims that Pausanias , having been stripped of his command after the Siege of Byzantium , returned to Byzantium as a private citizen soon after and took command of the city until he was expelled by the Athenians . He then crossed the Bosporus and settled in Colonae in the Troad , until he was accused of collaborating with the Persians and was recalled by the Spartans for trial ( after which he starved himself to death ) . Thucydides again provides no chronology of these events . Shortly afterwards , the Spartans accused the Athenian statesman Themistocles , then in exile in Argos , of complicity in Pausanias ' s treason . As a result Themistocles fled from Argos , eventually to Asia Minor . Thucydides states that on his journey , Themistocles inadvertently ended up at Naxos , at that time being besieged by Athenians . The three events , Pausanias ' s treason , Themistocles ' s flight and the Siege of Naxos therefore occurred in close temporal sequence . These events certainly happened after 474 BC ( the earliest possible date for Themistocles ' s ostracism ) , and have generally been placed in around 470 / 469 BC . However there are several incongruities in the story of Themistocles if this date is accepted . A much later date for Pausanias ' s expulsion from Byzantium has been proposed , and if accepted , this pushes these three events into c . 467 BC , which resolves the problems regarding Themistocles , and also probably explains some incidental details mentioned in Plutarch ' s biography of Cimon . However , this modified timeline is not universally accepted by historians . The Egyptian and Cyprian campaigns are somewhat easier to date . Thucydides says that the Egyptian campaign lasted six years and that three years later , the Athenians and Spartans signed a five year truce . This treaty is known to date to 451 BC , so the Egyptian campaign dates from c . 460 – 454 BC . The Cyprian campaign , which directly followed the truce , thus dates to 451 – 450 BC . Background . The Greco - Persian Wars had their roots in the conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor , and in particular Ionia , by the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great shortly after 550 BC . The Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule , eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city . While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants , this was a form of government on the decline . By 500 BC , Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian place - men . The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to the actions of the tyrant of Miletus , Aristagoras . Attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian - sponsored expedition in 499 BC , Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy . This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia , and indeed Doris and Aeolis , beginning the Ionian Revolt . The Greek states of Athens and Eretria allowed themselves to be drawn into this conflict by Aristagoras , and during their only campaigning season ( 498 BC ) they contributed to the capture and burning of the Persian regional capital of Sardis . After this , the Ionian Revolt carried on ( without further outside aid ) for a further 5 years , until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians . However , in a decision of great historic significance , the Persian king Darius the Great decided that , despite successfully subduing the revolt , there remained the unfinished business of exacting punishment on Athens and Eretria for supporting the revolt . The Ionian Revolt had severely threatened the stability of Darius ' s empire , and the states of mainland Greece would continue to threaten that stability unless dealt with . Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece , beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria . In the next two decades there would be two Persian invasions of Greece , including some of the most famous battles in history . During the first invasion , Thrace , Macedon and the Aegean islands were added to the Persian Empire , and Eretria was duly destroyed . However , the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon . Between the two invasions , Darius died , and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I . Xerxes then led the second invasion personally in 480 BC , taking an enormous ( although oft - exaggerated ) army and navy to Greece . Those Greeks who chose to resist ( the ' Allies ' ) were defeated in the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium on land and at sea respectively . All of Greece except the Peloponnesus thus fell into Persian hands , but then seeking to finally destroy the Allied navy , the Persians suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Salamis . The following year , 479 BC , the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea , ending the invasion and the threat to Greece . According to tradition , on the same day as Plataea , the Allied fleet defeated the demoralised remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale . This action marks the end of the Persian invasion , and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco - Persian wars , the Greek counterattack . After Mycale , the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted , with the Persians now powerless to stop them . The Allied fleet then sailed to the Chersonesos , still held by the Persians , and besieged and captured the town of Sestos . The following year , 478 BC , the Allies sent a force to capture the city of Byzantium ( modern day Istanbul ) . The siege was successful , but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies , and resulted in Pausanias ' s recall . The siege of Byzantium was the last action of the Hellenic alliance which had defeated the Persian invasion . Delian League . After Byzantium , Sparta was eager to end her involvement in the war . The Spartans were of the view that , with the liberation of mainland Greece , and the Greek cities of Asia Minor , the war ' s purpose had already been reached . There was also perhaps a feeling that securing long - term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible . In the aftermath of Mycale , the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion . Xanthippus , the Athenian commander at Mycale , had furiously rejected this ; the Ionian cities were originally Athenian colonies , and the Athenians , if no - one else , would protect the Ionians . This marked the point at which the leadership of the Hellenic alliance effectively passed to the Athenians ; with the Spartan withdrawal after Byzantium , the leadership of the Athenians became explicit . The loose alliance of city states which had fought against Xerxes ' s invasion had been dominated by Sparta and the Peloponnesian league . With the withdrawal of these states , a congress was called on the holy island of Delos to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians . This alliance , now including many of the Aegean islands , was formally constituted as the ' First Athenian Alliance ' , commonly known as the Delian League . According to Thucydides , the official aim of the League was to " avenge the wrongs they suffered by ravaging the territory of the king . " In reality , this goal was divided into three main efforts - to prepare against any future invasion , to seek revenge against Persia , and to organize a means of dividing spoils of war . The members were given a choice of either offering armed forces or paying a tax to the joint treasury ; most states chose the tax . League members swore to have the same friends and enemies , and dropped ingots of iron into the sea to symbolize the permanence of their alliance . The Athenian politician Aristides would spend the rest of his life occupied in the affairs of the alliance , dying ( according to Plutarch ) a few years later in Pontus , whilst determining what the tax of new members was to be . Non - Persian campaigns . Military Expansion of the League . Thucydides provides just one example of the use of force to extend membership of the League , but since his account seems to be selective , there were presumably more ; certainly , Plutarch provides details of one such instance . Karystos , which had collaborated with the Persians during the second Persian invasion , was attacked by the League at some point in the 470s BC , and eventually agreed to become a member . Plutarch mentions the fate of Phaselis , which Cimon compelled to join the league during his Eurymedon campaign . Internal Rebellions . Naxos attempted to leave the League c . 470 / 467 BC but was attacked by the Athenians and forced to remain a member . A similar fate awaited the Thasians after they tried to leave the League in 465 BC . Thucydides does not provide more examples , but from archaeological sources it is possible to deduce that there were further rebellions in the following years . Thucydides leaves us under no illusions that the behaviour of the Athenians in crushing such rebellions led firstly to the hegemony of Athens over the league , and eventually to the transition from the Delian League to the Athenian Empire . Conflicts in Greece . During the period 479 – 461 , the mainland Greek states were at least outwardly at peace with each other , even if divided into pro - Spartan and pro - Athenian factions . The Hellenic alliance still existed in name , and since Athens and Sparta were still allied , Greece achieved a modicum of stability . However , over this period , Sparta became increasingly suspicious and fearful of the growing power of Athens . It was this fear , according to Thucydides , which made the second , larger ( and more famous ) Peloponnesian War inevitable . Athens sent troops in 462 BC to aid Sparta with the Messenian Revolt ( c . 465 – 461 BC ) , under the terms of the old Hellenic alliance . The Spartans however , in the fear that Athens might interfere in the political situation between the Spartans and their helots , sent the Athenians home . This event directly led to the ostracism of Cimon ( who had been leading the troops ) , the ascendancy of the radical democrats ( led by Ephialtes and Pericles ) over the previously dominant aristocratic faction ( led by Cimon ) in Athens , and the First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta ( and their respective allies ) . This conflict was really the Athenians ' own struggle , and need not have involved the Delian allies . After all , the League members had signed up to fight against the Persians , not fellow Greeks . Nevertheless , it does seems that at least at the Battle of Tanagra , a contingent of Ionians fought with the Athenians . The conflicts in Greece during these years are , however , not directly relevant to the history of the Delian League . It can be seen , however , that the First Peloponnesian War may have hastened the transition of the Delian League from an Athenian - dominated alliance to an Athenian - ruled empire . During the early years of the war , Athens and her non - Delian allies scored a series of victories . However , the collapse of the simultaneous Delian League expedition in Egypt in 454 BC cause panic in Athens , and resulted in decreased military activity until 451 BC , when a five - year truce was concluded with Sparta . During the panic , the treasury of the League was moved from Delos to the perceived safety of Athens . Although Athens had in practice had a hegemonic position over the rest of the league since the rebellion of Naxos was put down , the process by which the Delian league gradually transformed into the Athenian Empire accelerated after 461 BC . The transfer of the treasury to Athens is sometimes used as an arbitrary demarcation between the Delian League and the Athenian Empire . An alternative ' end - point ' for the Delian League is the final end of hostilities with the Persians in 450 BC , after which , despite the fact that the stated aims of the League were fulfilled , the Athenians refused to allow member states to leave the alliance . Campaigns against Persia . Thrace . Siege of Eion . According to Thucydides , the League ' s opening campaign was against the city of Eion , at the mouth of the Strymon river . Since Thucydides does not provide a detailed chronology for his history of the league , the year in which this campaign took place is uncertain . The siege seems to have lasted from autumn of one year into the summer of the next , with historians supporting either 477 – 476 BC or 476 – 475 BC . Eion seems to have been one of the Persian garrisons left in Thrace during and after the second Persian invasion , along with Doriskos . The campaign against Eion should probably be seen as part of a general campaign aimed at removing the Persian presence from Thrace . Even though he does not directly cover this period , Herodotus alludes to several failed attempts , presumably Athenian , to dislodge the Persian governor of Doriskos , Mascames . Eion may have been worthy of particular mention by Thucydides because of its strategic importance ; abundant supplies of timber were available in the region , and there were nearby silver mines . Furthermore , it was near the site of the future Athenian colony of Amphipolis , which was the site of several future disasters for the Athenians . The force which attacked Eion was under the command of Cimon . Plutarch says that Cimon first defeated the Persians in battle , whereupon they retreated to the city , and were besieged there . Cimon then expelled all Thracian collaborators from the region in order to starve the Persians into submission . Herodotus indicates that the Persian commander , Boges , was offered terms upon which he might be allowed to evacuate the city and return to Asia . However , not wanting to be thought a coward by Xerxes , he resisted to the last . When the food in Eion ran out , Boges threw his treasure into the Strymon , killed his entire household and then immolated them , and himself , on a giant pyre . The Athenians thus captured the city and enslaved the remaining population . Skyros . Following the action at Eion , and possibly in the same campaign , the Athenians , still under Cimon , attacked the island of Skyros . This was not an anti - Persian action , but a pragmatic assault on a native population that had lapsed into piracy . As a result of this action , the Athenians " liberated the Aegean " , and they sent colonists to the island to prevent the island returning to piracy . Chersonesos . Cimon returned a decade later to complete the expulsion of Persian forces from Europe . This action seems to have occurred concurrently with the Siege of Thasos , and so is generally dated to 465 BC . Evidently , even at this point , some Persian forces were holding ( or had re - taken ) some part of the Chersonesos with the help of native Thracians . Cimon sailed to the Chersonesos with just 4 triremes , but managed to capture the 13 ships of the Persians , and then proceeded to drive them out of the peninsula . Cimon then turned the Chersonesos ( of which his father , Miltiades the Younger , had been tyrant before the Greco - Persian Wars began ) over to the Athenians for colonisation . Asia Minor . Once the Persian forces in Europe had largely been neutralised , the Athenians seem to have gone about starting to extend the League in Asia Minor . The islands of Samos , Chios and Lesbos seem to have become members of the original Hellenic alliance after Mycale , and presumably were also therefore original members of the Delian League . However , it is unclear exactly when the other Ionian cities , or indeed the other Greek cities of Asia Minor , joined the league , though they certainly did at some point . Cimon ' s Eurymedon campaign itself seems to have begun in response to the assembly of a large Persian fleet and army at Aspendos , near the mouth of the Eurymedon River . It is usually argued that the Persians were the would - be aggressors , and that Cimon ' s campaign was launched in order to deal with this new threat . Cawkwell suggests that the Persian build - up was the first concerted attempt to counter the activity of the Greeks since the failure of the second invasion . It is possible that internal strife with the Persian empire had contributed to the length of time it took to launch this campaign . Cawkwell suggests that the Persian forces gathered at Aspendos were aiming to move along the southern coast of Asia Minor , capturing each city , until eventually the Persian navy could begin operating in Ionia again . Plutarch says that upon hearing that the Persian forces were gathering at Aspendos , Cimon sailed from Cnidus ( in Caria ) with 200 triremes . It is highly likely that Cimon had assembled this force because the Athenians had had some warning of a forthcoming Persian campaign to re - subjugate the Asiatic Greeks . According to Plutarch , Cimon sailed with these 200 triremes to the Greek city of Phaselis ( in Lycia ) but was refused admittance . He therefore began ravaging the lands of Phaselis , but with the mediation of the Chian contingent of his fleet , the people of Phaselis agreed to join the league . They were to contribute troops to the expedition , and to pay the Athenians ten talent s . By capturing Phaselis , the furthest east Greek city in Asia Minor ( and just to the west of the Eurymedon ) , he effectively blocked the Persian campaign before it had begun , denying them the first naval base they needed to control . Taking further initiative , Cimon then moved to directly attack the Persian fleet at Aspendos . Battle of the Eurymedon . Thucydides gives only the barest of details for this battle ; the most reliable detailed account is given by Plutarch . According to Plutarch , the Persian fleet was anchored off the mouth of the Eurymedon , awaiting the arrival of 80 Phoenician ships from Cyprus . Several different estimates for the size of the Persian fleet are given . Thucydides says that there was a fleet of 200 Phoenician ships , and is generally considered the most reliable source . Plutarch gives numbers of 350 from Ephorus and 600 from Phanodemus . Cimon , sailing from Phaselis , made to attack the Persians before the reinforcements arrived , whereupon the Persian fleet , eager to avoid fighting , retreated into the river itself . However , when Cimon continued to bear down on the Persians , they accepted battle . Regardless of their numbers , the Persian battle line was quickly breached , and the Persian ships then turned about , and made for the river bank . Grounding their ships , the crews sought sanctuary with the army waiting nearby . Despite the weariness of his troops after this first battle , Cimon landed the marines and proceeded to attack the Persian army . Initially the Persian line held the Athenian assault , but eventually , as at Battle of Mycale , the heavily armoured hoplites proved superior , and routed the Persian army . Thucydides says that 200 Phoenician ships were captured and destroyed . It is highly unlikely that this occurred during the apparently brief naval battle , so these were probably grounded ships captured after the battle and destroyed with fire , as has been the case at Mycale . According to Plutarch , Cimon then sailed with the Greek fleet as quickly as possible , to intercept the fleet of 80 Phoenician ships which the Persians had been expecting . Taking them by surprise , he captured or destroyed the entire fleet . However , Thucydides does not mention this subsidiary action , and some have cast doubt on whether it actually happened . According to Plutarch , one tradition had it that the Persian king ( who at the time would still have been Xerxes ) had agreed a humiliating peace treaty in the aftermath of the Eurymedon ( see below ) . However , as Plutarch admits , other authors denied that such a peace was made at this time , and the more logical date for any peace treaty would have been after the Cyprus campaign . The alternative suggested by Plutarch is that the Persian king " acted " as if he had made a humiliating peace with the Greeks , because he was so fearful of engaging in battle with them again . It is generally considered unlikely by modern historians that a peace treaty was made in the aftermath of Eurymedon . The Eurymedon was a highly significant victory for the Delian League , which probably ended once and for all the threat of another Persian invasion of Greece . It also seems to have prevented any Persian attempt to reconquer the Asiatic Greeks until at least 451 BC . The accession of further cities of Asia Minor to the Delian league , particularly from Caria , probably followed Cimon ' s campaign there . The Greeks do not appear to have pressed their advantage home in a meaningful way . If the later date of 466 BC for the Eurymedon campaign is accepted , this might be because the revolt in Thasos meant that resources were diverted away from Asia Minor to prevent the Thasians seceding from the League . The Persian fleet was effectively absent from the Aegean until 451 BC , and Greek ships were able to ply the coasts of Asia Minor with impunity . Egypt . The Egyptian campaign , as discussed above , is generally thought to have begun in 460 BC . Even this date is subject to some debate however , since at this time Athens was already at war with Sparta in the First Peloponnesian War . It has been questioned whether Athens would really commit to an Egyptian campaign under these circumstances , and therefore suggested that this campaign began " before " the war with Sparta , in 462 BC . However , this date is generally rejected , and it seems that the Egyptian campaign was , on the part of Athens , simply a piece of political opportunism . The Egyptian satrapy of the Persian Empire was particularly prone to revolts , one of which had occurred as recently as 486 BC . In 461 or 460 BC , a new rebellion began under the command of Inaros , a Libyan king living on the border of Egypt . This rebellion quickly swept the country , which was soon largely in the hands of Inaros . Inaros now appealed to the Delian League for assistance in their fight against the Persians . There was a League fleet of 200 ships already campaigning in Cyprus at this time , which the Athenians then diverted Egypt to support the revolt . Indeed , it is possible that the fleet had been dispatched to Cyprus in the first place because , with Persian attention focused on the Egyptian revolt , it seemed a favourable time to campaign in Cyprus . This would go some way towards explaining the apparently reckless decision of the Athenians to fight wars on two fronts . Thucydides seems to imply that the whole fleet was diverted to Egypt , although it has also been suggested that such a large fleet was unnecessary , and some proportion of it remained of the coast of Asia Minor during this period . Ctesias suggests that the Athenians sent 40 ships , whereas Diodorus says 200 , in apparent agreement with Thucydides . Fine suggests a number of reasons that the Athenians may have been willing to engage themselves in Egypt , despite the ongoing war elsewhere ; the opportunity to weaken Persia , the desire for a naval base in Egypt , the access to the Nile ' s huge grain supply , and from the viewpoint of the Ionian allies , the chance to restore profitable trading links with Egypt . At any rate , the Athenians arrived in Egypt , and sailed up the Nile to join up with Inaros ' s forces . The Persian king Artaxerxes I had in the meantime assembled a relief force to crush the revolt , under his uncle Achaemenes . Diodorus and Ctesias give numbers for this force of 300 , 000 and 400 , 000 respectively , but these numbers are presumably over - inflated . Battle of Pampremis . According to Diodorus , the only detailed source for this campaign , the Persian relief force had pitched camp near the Nile . Although Herodotus does not cover this period in his history , he mentions as an aside that he " saw too the skulls of those Persians at Papremis who were killed with Darius ' son Achaemenes by Inaros the Libyan " . This provides some confirmation that this battle was factual , and provides a name for it , which Diodorus does not . Pampremis ( or Papremis ) seems to have been a city on the Nile delta , and a cult centre for the Egyptian equivalent of Ares / Mars . Diodorus tells us that once the Athenians had arrived , they and the Egyptians accepted battle from the Persians . At first the Persians ' superior numbers gave them the advantage , but eventually the Athenians broke through the Persian line , whereupon the Persian army routed and fled . Some proportion of the Persian army found refuge in the citadel of Memphis ( called the ' White Castle ' ) , however , and could not be dislodged . Thucydides ' s rather compressed version of these events is : " and making themselves masters of the river and two - thirds of Memphis , addressed themselves to the attack of the remaining third , which is called White Castle " . Siege of Memphis ( 455 BC ) . The Athenians and Egyptians thus settled down to besiege the White Castle . The siege evidently did not progress well , and probably lasted for at least four years , since Thucydides says that their whole expedition lasted 6 years , and of this time the final 18 months was occupied with the Siege of Prosoptis . According to Thucydides , at first Artaxerxes sent Megabazus to try and bribe the Spartans into invading Attica , to draw off the Athenian forces from Egypt . When this failed , he instead assembled a large army under ( confusingly ) Megabyzus , and dispatched it to Egypt . Diodorus has more or less the same story , with more detail ; after the attempt at bribery failed , Artaxerxes put Megabyzus and Artabazus in charge of 300 , 000 men , with instructions to quell the revolt . They went first from Persia to Cilicia and gathered a fleet of 300 triremes from the Cilicians , Phoenicians and Cypriots , and spent a year training their men . Then they finally headed to Egypt . Thucydides does not mention Artabazus , who is reported by Herodotus to have taken part in the second Persian invasion ; Diodorus may be mistaken about his presence in this campaign . It is clearly possible that the Persian forces did spend some prolonged time in training , since it took four years for them to respond to the Egyptian victory at Pampremis . Although neither author gives many details , it is clear that when Megabyzus finally arrived in Egypt , he was able to quickly lift the Siege of Memphis , defeating the Egyptians in battle , and driving the Athenians from Memphis . Siege of Prosopitis . The Athenians now fell back to the island of Prosopitis in the Nile delta , where their ships were moored . There , Megabyzus laid siege to them for 18 months , until finally he was able to drain the river from around the island by digging canals , thus " joining the island to the mainland " . In Thucydides ' s account the Persians then crossed over to the former island , and captured it . Only a few of the Athenian force , marching through Libya to Cyrene survived to return to Athens . In Diodorus ' s version , however , the draining of the river prompted the Egyptians ( whom Thucydides does not mention ) to defect and surrender to the Persians . The Persians , not wanting to sustain heavy casualties in attacking the Athenians , instead allowed them to depart freely to Cyrene , whence they returned to Athens . Since the defeat of the Egyptian expedition caused a genuine panic in Athens , including the relocation of the Delian treasury to Athens , Thucydides ' s version is probably more likely to be correct . Battle of Mendesium . As a final disastrous coda to the expedition , Thucydides mentions the fate of a squadron of fifty triremes sent to relieve the Siege of Prosopitis . Unaware that the Athenians had finally succumbed , the fleet put in at the Mendesian mouth of the Nile , where it was promptly attacked from the land , and from the sea by the Phoenician navy . Most of the ships were destroyed , with only a handful managing to escape and return to Athens . Cyprus . In 478 BC the Allies had , according to Thucydides , sailed to Cyprus and " subdued most of the island " . Exactly what Thucydides means by this is unclear . Sealey suggests that this was essentially a raid to gather as much booty as possible from the Persian garrisons on Cyprus . There is no indication that the Allies made any attempt to actually take possession of the island , and shortly after they sailed to Byzantium . Certainly , the fact that the Delian League repeatedly campaigned in Cyprus suggests that the island was not garrisoned by the Allies in 478 BC , or that the garrisons were quickly expelled . The next time Cyprus is mentioned is in relation to c . 460 BC , when a League fleet was campaigning there , before being instructed to head to Egypt to support Inaros ' s rebellion , with the fateful consequences discussed above . The Egyptian disaster would eventually lead the Athenians to sign a five - year truce with Sparta in 451 BC . Thereby freed from fighting in Greece , the League was again able to dispatch a fleet to campaign in Cyprus in 451 BC , under the recently recalled Cimon . Siege of Kition . Cimon sailed for Cyprus with a fleet of 200 ships provided by the Athenians and their allies . However , 60 of these ships were sent to Egypt at the request of Amyrtaeus , the so - called " King of the Marshes " ( who still remained independent of , and opposed to Persian rule ) . The rest of the force besieged Kition in Cyprus , but during the siege , Cimon died either of sickness or a wound . The Athenians lacked provisions , and apparently under the death - bed instructions of Cimon , the Athenians retreated towards Salamis - in - Cyprus . Battles of Salamis - in - Cyprus . Cimon ' s death was kept a secret from the Athenian army . 30 days after leaving Kition , the Athenians and their allies were attacked by a Persian force composed of Cilicians , Phoenicians , and Cyprians , whilst sailing off Salamis - in - Cyprus . Under the ' command ' of the deceased Cimon , they defeated this force at sea , and also in a land battle . Having thus successfully extricated themselves , the Athenians sailed back to Greece , joined by the detachment which had been sent to Egypt . These battles formed the end of the Greco - Persian Wars . There would be no direct conflict between Persia and Greece until 396 BC , when the Spartan king Agesilaus briefly campaigned in Asia Minor . Peace with Persia . After the Battles of Salamis - in - Cyprus , Thucydides makes no further mention of conflict with the Persians , simply saying that the Greeks returned home . Diodorus , on the other hand , claims that in the aftermath of Salamis , a full - blown peace treaty ( the " Peace of Callias " ) was agreed with the Persians . Diodorus was probably following the history of Ephorus at this point , who in turn was presumably influenced by his teacher Isocrates — from whom we have the earliest reference to the supposed peace , in 380 BC . Even during the 4th century BC the idea of the treaty was controversial , and two authors from that period , Callisthenes and Theopompus appear to reject its existence . It is possible that the Athenians had attempted to negotiate with the Persians previously . Plutarch suggests that in the aftermath of the victory at the Eurymedon , Artaxerxes had agreed a peace treaty with the Greeks , even naming Callias as the Athenian ambassador involved . However , as Plutarch admits , Callisthenes denied that such a peace was made at this point ( c . 466 BC ) . Herodotus also mentions , in passing , an Athenian embassy headed by Callias , which was sent to Susa to negotiate with Artaxerxes . This embassy included some Argive representatives and can probably be therefore dated to c . 461 BC ( after forging of the alliance between Athens and Argos ) . This embassy may have been an attempt to reach some kind of peace agreement , and it has even been suggested that the failure of these hypothetical negotiations led to the Athenian decision to support the Egyptian revolt . The ancient sources therefore disagree as to whether there was an official peace or not , and if there was , when it was agreed . Opinion amongst modern historians is also split ; for instance , Fine accepts the concept of the Peace of Callias , whereas Sealey effectively rejects it . Holland accepts that some kind of accommodation was made between Athens and Persia , but no actual treaty . Fine argues that Callisthenes ' s denial that a treaty was made after the Eurymedon does not preclude a peace being made at another point . Further , he suggests that Theopompus was actually referring to a treaty that had allegedly been negotiated with Persia in 423 BC . If these views are correct , it would remove one major obstacle to the acceptance of the treaty ' s existence . A further argument for the existence of the treaty is the sudden withdrawal of the Athenians from Cyprus in 450 BC , which makes most sense in the light of some kind of peace agreement . On the other hand , if there was indeed some kind of accommodation , Thucydides ' s failure to mention it is odd . In his digression on the " pentekontaetia " his aim is to explain the growth of Athenian power , and such a treaty , and the fact that the Delian allies were not released from their obligations after it , would have marked a major step in the Athenian ascendancy . Conversely , it has been suggested that certain passages elsewhere in Thucydides ' s history are best interpreted as referring to a peace agreement . There is thus no clear consensus amongst modern historians as to the treaty ' s existence . The ancient sources which give details of the treaty are reasonably consistent in their description of the terms : Aftermath . As already noted , towards the end of the conflict with Persia , the process by which the Delian League became the Athenian Empire reached its conclusion . The allies of Athens were not released from their obligations to provide either money or ships , despite the cessation of hostilities . In Greece , the First Peloponnesian War between the power - blocs of Athens and Sparta , which had continued on - off since 460 BC , finally ended in 445 BC , with the agreement of a thirty year truce . However , the growing enmity between Sparta and Athens would lead , just 14 years later , into the outbreak of the Second Peloponnesian War . This disastrous conflict , which dragged on for 27 years , would eventually result in the utter destruction of Athenian power , the dismemberment of the Athenian empire , and the establishment of a Spartan hegemony over Greece . However , not just Athens suffered — the conflict would significantly weaken the whole of Greece . Repeatedly defeated in battle by the Greeks , and plagued by internal rebellions which hindered their ability to fight the Greeks , after 450 BC Artaxerxes and his successors instead adopted a policy of divide - and - rule . Avoiding fighting the Greeks themselves , the Persians instead attempted to set Athens against Sparta , regularly bribing politicians to achieve their aims . In this way , they ensured that the Greeks remained distracted by internal conflicts , and were unable to turn their attentions to Persia . There was no open conflict between the Greeks and Persia until 396 BC , when the Spartan king Agesilaus briefly invaded Asia Minor ; as Plutarch points out , the Greeks were far too busy overseeing the destruction of their own power to fight against the " barbarians " . If the wars of the Delian League shifted the balance of power between Greece and Persia in favour of the Greeks , then the subsequent half - century of internecine conflict in Greece did much to restore the balance of power to Persia . In 387 BC , Sparta , confronted by an alliance of Corinth , Thebes and Athens during the Corinthian War , sought the aid of Persia to shore up her position . Under the so - called " King ' s Peace " which brought the war to an end , Artaxerxes II demanded and received the return of the cities of Asia Minor from the Spartans , in return for which the Persians threatened to make war on any Greek state which did not make peace . This humiliating treaty , which undid all the Greek gains of the previous century , sacrificed the Greeks of Asia Minor so that the Spartans could maintain their hegemony over Greece . It is in the aftermath of this treaty that Greek orators began to refer to the Peace of Callias ( whether fictional or not ) , as a counterpoint to the shame of the King ' s Peace , and a glorious example of the " good old days " when the Greeks of the Aegean had been freed from Persian rule by the Delian League .