Rise And Fall Of Early Empires Essay

The Rise and Fall of Early Empires Although both Athens and the early Roman Republic were small city-states, they both acquired empires through victories in war. The Delian League in Athens, however, failed to last longer than a century whereas the Roman empire of provinces was able to endure for centuries. The Athenians were so determined to maintain their control that they essentially bullied the smaller city-states in the Delian League to try and keep them in line. They took advantage of money, resources and military. This tactic, unfortunately, was the ultimate cause for their untimely demise at the hand of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. The Romans, however, created a system of checks and balances that allowed for their empire to

(Delian League) All Greek city-states were encouraged to join in order to protect themselves fro the Persians. Athens, after helping some of the smaller city-states to defend the Ionian coast from Persian overlords, became overwhelmingly arrogant of their continued success and wanted to continue the League. They began to force smaller cities to remain in the League and to continue to pay their membership dues to the League treasury, which had been re-located to Athens shortly after their victory over the Persians. Athens then proceeded to use these dues to finance their rebuild of the city, building brash and costly structures such as the Acropolis and the Parthenon. (Rise and Fall of Athenian Greatness) Athens had also begun to exploit the League’s navy, using it for their own benefit and intentions. (Delian League) It wasn’t long before the other city-states began to get fed up with the way Athens was ruling and soon, Sparta challenged Athens by forming its own league, the Peloponnesian League and in 431 BCE, the Peloponnesian War ensued. Athens was unavoidably defeated and the Delian League was dissolved when the war concluded in 404 BCE. (Rise and Fall of Athenian