Members of the Delian League


The members of the Delian League/Athenian Empire can be categorized into two groups: the allied states reported in the stone tablets of the Athenian tribute lists, who contributed the symmachikos phoros in money, and further allies, reported either in epigraphy or historiography, whose contribution consisted of ships, wood, grain, and military assistance; proper and occasional members, subject members and genuine allies.

Analysis

The study of the symmachikos phoros provides the following insights: The amount of tax paid by each state is written in Attic numerals. One-sixtieth is dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city. The membership is not limited to Ionians or Greek city-states. Allied states of Western Greece are not categorized under a fiscal district the Thracian, Hellespontine, Insular, Carian and Ionian phoros of the eastern states; somehow comparable districts to the former Achaemenid satrapies of Skudra, Hellespontine Phrygia, the Yaunâ on this side of the sea, Karka, and the Yaûna across the sea. The categorization of members under these fiscal districts appeared first in the list of 443/2 BC. After 438 BC, the Carian phoros became part of the Ionian district and after c. 425 BC a new Aktaios phoros, comprising the coastal Troad, was created out of the Hellespontine district. During the Sicilian Expedition a fragmentary list suggests that the Athenian state had created a Magna Graecian district. The following names are readable: Naxians, Catanians, Sicels, Rhegians. The only references until now on the Pontic phoros are the list of 425/4 BC and 410/09 BC.
Paradoxically, although the modern current term for the alliance is "Delian League", inscriptions have not yet been found on the island related to the League, and the information about the transfer of the treasure comes from the chronologization of the first Attic tribute list in 454 BC and not by Thucydides, who just informs about the treasure and the center of the Athenian power/alliance being on Delos. The first inscription which records the Athenians and allies comes from Delphi, dating to c. 475 BC, is fragmentary, and the names of the allies are not readable or not mentioned. There is an epigraphical gap between 475 and 454 BC, although the phrase Athenians and allies is always present in historiography.
The exact location of several inscribed cities is still debated. Athenian cleruchies and colonies like Amphipolis are considered part of the Athenian state and not members of the League.

Fiscal districts (443-409 BC)

Insular ''phoros''

Nesiotikos phoros
Karikos phoros

Caria and Doris

Thrakios phoros

Pieria

Hellespontios phoros

Islands

The cities of the Aktaios phoros, the coastal Troad, separated from the Hellespontine district in 427 BC following the Mytilenaean revolt and first appearing in the tribute lists of 425/4 BC.
Pontikos phoros
Aegean
Cyprus
Egypt
Ionian Islands
West central Greece
Macedonia
Magna Graecia
Peloponnese
454/3 BC, 443/2 BC, 442/1 BC, 441/0 BC, 440/39 BC, 439/8 BC, 435/4 BC, 433/2 BC,
429/8 BC,
425/4 BC, 422/1 BC, 410/09 BC.

Secondary sources