Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE
It is unlikely that the Greeks who fought against the Persians at Plataea in 479 entered into any commitment relevant to this chapter. There may well be authentic material behind the various texts of an oath said to have been sworn before the battle (Tod, GHI 204, 21–51; Lycurg. Leoc. 80–1; Diod. XI.29.2–3: Theopomp. FGrH 115 f 153 rejected it as an Athenian fabrication), but the clause requiring temples destroyed by the Persians to be left in ruins does not appear in the inscribed version and is hard to accept. After the battle the Plataeans were promised freedom from attack on condition that they cared for the graves of the fallen (Thuc. II.72, III.58.4), but the Greek festival of freedom appears to be a Hellenistic institution, and Plutarch's combination with this of a Greek force to wage war against the barbarian is unlikely to represent a decision taken after Plataea (Diod. XI.29.1; Plut. Arist. 21.1–2).
However, if we may believe Herodotus, the question of carrying the war back to Persian territory and liberating Greeks under Persian rule was raised in 480–479. Thoughts of the future attributed to Themistocles (VIII.108.4, 109.5) may be suspect, but there is no need to doubt the envoys appealing for the liberation of Ionia early in 479 (VIII.132), or the futher appeal from Samos later in the year (IX.90). After the battle of Mycale, we are told, the Greeks considered abandoning Ionia and giving the Ionians new homes in Greece: the proposal was supported by the Peloponnesians, but successfully resisted by the Athenians, who claimed a special relationship with the Ionians; after which Samos, Chios, Lesbos and ‘the other islanders who were campaigning along with the Greeks’ (but not, it appears, any mainlanders) were admitted to the Greek alliance (IX. 106).
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