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The Peace of Callias is a purported treaty established around 449 BC between the Delian League
Delian League

The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Ancient Greece city-states under the leadership of Classical Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco?Persian Wars....
 (led by Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
) and Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, ending the Persian Wars.

The peace was negotiated by Callias
Callias

Callias was the head of a wealthy Athens family, and fought at the Battle of Marathon in priestly attire. His son, Hipponicus, was also a military commander....
, an Athenian politician. Persia had continually lost territory to the Greeks
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 after the end of Xerxes I's invasion in 479 BC, and by 450
450 BC

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 they were ready to make peace. The Peace of Callias gave autonomy to the Ionia
Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
n states in Asia Minor, prohibited the establishment of Persian satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
ies elsewhere on the Aegean
Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
 coast, and prohibited Persian ships from the Aegean.






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The Peace of Callias is a purported treaty established around 449 BC between the Delian League
Delian League

The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Ancient Greece city-states under the leadership of Classical Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco?Persian Wars....
 (led by Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
) and Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, ending the Persian Wars.

The peace was negotiated by Callias
Callias

Callias was the head of a wealthy Athens family, and fought at the Battle of Marathon in priestly attire. His son, Hipponicus, was also a military commander....
, an Athenian politician. Persia had continually lost territory to the Greeks
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 after the end of Xerxes I's invasion in 479 BC, and by 450
450 BC

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 they were ready to make peace. The Peace of Callias gave autonomy to the Ionia
Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
n states in Asia Minor, prohibited the establishment of Persian satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
ies elsewhere on the Aegean
Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
 coast, and prohibited Persian ships from the Aegean. Athens also agreed not to interfere with Persia's possessions in Asia Minor, Cyprus
Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
, Libya
Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
 or Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 (Athens had recently lost a fleet aiding an Egyptian revolt against Persia).

Arguments for the existence of a peace treaty

It is possible that the treaty never officially existed, and if did exist, its importance is disputed. Thucydides
Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
 did not mention it, nor does Herodotus, and Plutarch
Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
 thought it had either been signed after the Battle of the Eurymedon
Battle of the Eurymedon

The naval Battle of the Eurymedon took place in 466 BC on the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia in Asia Minor, and was fought between the Athens-led Delian League and Achaemenid Empire....
 in 466 BC, or that it had never been signed at all. In any case, there seems to have been some agreement reached ending hostilities with Persia after 450/449, which allowed Athens to deal with the new threats from the other Greek states such as Corinth and Thebes
Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, Greece, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain....
, as well as Euboeoa which rebelled from the Delian League shortly after this. These conflicts arose when the other Greeks felt there was no longer a justification for the Delian League
Delian League

The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Ancient Greece city-states under the leadership of Classical Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco?Persian Wars....
, which had developed from the Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
n-led Hellenic League that defeated Xerxes' invasion, as Persia was no longer a threat. As Athens demanded more and more tribute and exerted more control over its allies, it has been argued that the League became more of a true empire, and many of Athens' former allies began to rebel. Although Callias was also responsible for a peace (The Thirty Years' Peace
Thirty Years' Peace

The Thirty Years' Peace was a treaty, signed between the ancient Greek city-states Athens and Sparta, in the year 445 BCE. The treaty brought an end to the conflict commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, which had been raging since 460....
) with Sparta in 446
446

Events...
–445 BC, the growing Athenian threat would eventually lead to the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War which lasted from 431-404BC was an Ancient Greece military conflict, fought by Athens and its Athenian empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta....
.

There was no direct fighting between the Greeks and the Persians after 450, but Persia continued to meddle in Greek affairs over the next twenty years, and was to become instrumental in securing a Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
n victory in the Peloponnesian War.

Further reading

  • De Ste. Croix, G.E.M.,The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, London 1972 (especially the Appendices).
  • Rhodes, P.J. The History of the Classical World 478-323BC, 2005.


See also

  • List of treaties
    List of treaties

    This list of treaties contains historic agreements, pacts, peaces, and major contracts between states, armies, governments, and tribal groups....