Samian War The Samian War ( 440 - 439 BC ) was an Ancient Greek military conflict between Athens and Samos . The war was initiated by Athens ' intervention in a dispute between Samos and Miletus . When the Samians refused to break off their attacks on Miletus as ordered , the Athenians easily drove out the oligarchic government of Samos and installed a garrison in the city , but the oligarchs soon returned , with Persian support . A larger Athenian fleet was dispatched to suppress this agitation . This fleet initially defeated the Samians and blockaded the city , but Pericles , in command , was then forced to lead a substantial portion of the fleet away upon learning that the Persian fleet was approaching from the south . Although the Persians turned back before the two fleets met , the absence of most of the Athenian fleet allowed the Samians to drive off the remaining blockaders and , for two weeks , control the sea around their island ; upon Pericles ' return , however , the Athenians again blockaded and besieged Samos ; the city surrendered nine months later . Under the terms of the surrender , the Samians tore down their walls , gave up hostages , surrendered their fleet , and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity over the next 26 years . During the course of the war , the Samians had apparently appealed to Sparta for assistance ; the Spartans were initially inclined to grant this request , and were prevented from doing so primarily by Corinth ' s unwillingness to participate in a war against Athens at the time . In 433 BC , when Corcyra requested Athenian assistance against Corinth , the Corinthians would remind the Athenians of the good will they had shown at this time . Prelude and dispute . In 440 BC Samos was at war with Miletus about Priene , an ancient city of Ionia on the foot - hills of Mycale . Worsted in the war , the Milesians came to Athens with loud complaints against the Samians . Miletus was militarily weak , having been compelled to disarm and pay tribute after rebelling from Athens twice , once in the 450s and again in 446 BC ; Samos , meanwhile , was one of only three remaining fully independent states in the Delian League . The Athenians , for reasons that scholars continue to disagree over — some believe that the Athenians were influenced by a desire to protect the Milesian democracy against the Samian oligarchs , while others believe that they were concerned for the credibility of their rule if they failed to protect a state that they themselves had disarmed — intervened on behalf of Miletus . A fleet of forty trireme s , commanded by Pericles , was dispatched to Samos ; Pericles established a democracy , and then , after taking 100 hostages to the island of Lemnos and leaving a garrison at Samos , returned home . This had all been achieved with remarkable ease , and this , in comparison with the stiff resistance that the Samians put up later , suggests that they had not expected such a harsh response from the Athenians . Rebellion . The settlement thus imposed did not last long , however . A group of oligarchs fled to the mainland , secured the support of Pissuthnes , the Persian satrap of Lydia , who provided them with mercenaries and also rescued their hostages from Lemnos . With their hands thus freed , the oligarchs , collaborating with allies in the city , invaded with 700 mercenaries , defeated the democrats , and handed all the Athenians in the city over to Pissuthnes . Athens now found itself facing a serious crisis in the open revolt of a powerful subject state , and the situation was made more severe by simultaneous revolts in other parts of the empire , the most critical of which occurred in Byzantium ; the powerful city of Mytilene , meanwhile , stood ready to revolt upon receiving a promise of Spartan support . The Athenians immediately dispatched 60 ships to deal with the situation in the Aegean . 16 of these ships were sent on various independent missions , leaving only 44 to face the Samian fleet of 50 triremes and 20 transports . In a battle off the island of Tragia , the Athenians were victorious , and the Samians soon found themselves blockaded by land and sea . The Athenians constructed walls around the city of Samos , and meanwhile were reinforced by 65 more ships from Athens , Chios , and Lesbos . At this point , with the rebellion seemingly well in hand , Pericles received word that the Persian fleet was on its way to attack him , and , taking 60 ships with him , he sailed off to Caria to meet it . In his absence the Samians made a sally and drove the Athenians off . For 14 days they ruled the sea and brought in supplies , but at the end of that period Pericles returned and reestablished the blockade . The siege lasted 9 months , at the end of which the Samians surrendered , tore down their walls , converted their government to a democracy , gave up their fleet , and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity of 1 , 300 talent s over a period of 26 years . The end of the revolts elsewhere in the empire followed rapidly on this success . Sparta . Although Athens did succeed in restoring order to the empire , the situation in 440 BC was very severe , particularly because of the threat of Spartan intervention . Thucydides reports that in 433 BC , when Corinthian and Corcyra ean ambassadors were making their cases at Athens regarding Corcyra ' s request for assistance against Corinth , the Corinthians stated that in 440 , " when the rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally divided on the question whether they should assist [ the Samians ] . . . we told them to their face that every power has a right to punish its own allies . " Modern scholars have generally regarded this as an accurate report , and have taken it to mean that Sparta was willing to go to war against Athens , but that the Corinthians , whose powerful navy would have been necessary for the Peloponnesians to participate effectively in such a war , derailed the plan with their opposition .