ABSTRACT
But that is precisely the diculty: how friendly were feelings between Athens and Sparta after the Persian repulse? ere are two problems. e rst is historiographical, the interesting but unanswerable question, how do ancient or any historians have access to states of mind, except by illicitly inferring motives from actions? e second is historical: is the statement likely to be true? e historical problem matters because it must aect our judgement of the circumstances in which the Athenians began their league; and therefore of the history of the next fty years and more. e diculty is this: ucydides constantly writes as if the Spartans acquiesced in the
formation of the Delian League (the modern name given to the organization of Greek states under Athenian leadership, whose common treasury was on the island of Delos in the centre of the Aegean Sea). He does this not merely when putting defensive speeches into the mouths of Athenian speakers, which would not be surprising, but in his own considered narrative (1. 95, end). ere is, however, other evidence which suggests that the Spartans’ ‘acceptance’ was forced on them.
