ABSTRACT
Modern scholars tend to explain political action as the result of motives which are ultimately economic, rather than to do with morality and status. Economic motives should always be looked for; in the case under review a desire to protect Athenian lives and property against Sparta was obviously important. Athens’ shift away from Sparta, towards Argos and Thessaly, had interesting implications for the Delian League. The Athenians built walls from Megara to its eastern port of Nisaia, on the Saronic Gulf, to protect the city from siege, and installed a garrison of their own troops. Scholars have disputed whether more than a minority of the original 200 triremes were involved in the defeat at Prosopitis. Aigina is the first state recorded as having been forced into the League in spite of its having fought alongside Sparta and Athens against Persia in 480 and 479.
