Aspendos After the Battle of Eurymedon and a Look at the Pamphylian Political Situation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the political situation of Aspendos and Pamphylia after the battle of Eurymedon by reconsidering the evidence that is available to us.In one of the fragments of the Attica-Delos Tribute Lists inscription (IG I2 no. 6425)the letters.....öoç......uXiai have been found. Meritt and West (1934, 26 vd. fig. 13) suggest that these letters should be interpreted as ['ÂGJtevJöoç [ejı najK^juXiai and dated to ca. 425/424 BC. The linguistic interpretation of the fragments referring to Aspendos in Pamphylia is probable. Their date has been commonly accepted by many modern historians who have interpreted the fragments to date to the first half of the Peleponnesian War, during which the Pamphylian cities of Perge, Side and Aspendos paid tribute to the Attica-Delos League. This interpretation is commonly based on the Pamphylian cities appearing on the tribute lists, implying that after the Eurymedon victory in 468 B.C. Cimon brought over Aspendos with all the Pamphylian cities to the Attica-Delos League. Several passages from Thucydides (VIII. 81. 3; 87. 6; 108. 3) have been used to claim that around the year around 416-411 B.C. Pamphylia was reconquered by the Persians. This, however, was certainly not the case. The use of Aspendos and the mouth of the Eurymedon river as harbours for the Persian Satrap Tissaphernes' naval forces does not provide enough evidence to argue for the reconquest of Pamphylia by the Persians around this time.Considering the events in Aspendos and Pamphylia just before and after the Battle of Eurymedon may provide us with a clearer picture of the political situation. For instance it is obvious that after the founding of the Attica-Delos League in 477 B.C. until the Battle of Eurymedon, Aspendos and Pamphylia were under the dominion of the Persian Empire. Aspendos and other cities of Pamphylia could only have joined or been forced to join the Attica-Delos League only after the Battle of Eurymedon. However, while Cimon was in Pamphylia he neither attempted to conquer any Pamphylian city nor did he force any Pamphylian city to join the Attica-Delos League. According to ancient sources Cimon defeated the Persians on the same day both at sea and on land. When he learned that a Phoenician fleet consisting of 80 ships had sailed from Cyprus to the Pamphylian Gulf he immediately sailed towards then and won a decisive victory. Soon after the battle, Cimon sailed to the island of Thasus with his fleet, and after a two-years siege (between 466-464 B.C.) the Thasians surrendered. Afterwards he went to Athens and never returned to Pamphylia. Consequently, after the Battle of Eurymedon neither Aspendos nor any Pamphylian city paid tribute to the Athenians.Around the year 449/448 B.C. the Callias Peace was signed between the Athenians and the Persians. According to the Callias Peace treaty, the Chelidonian Islands and Phaselis formed the border between Persians and Athenians. Aspendos and the Pamphylian cities stayed under Persian control as before. In this way Aspendos and Eurymedon continued to be the main Persian naval harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean. After the Callias Peace until the second half of the Peleponnesian Wars, the Persians and the Athenians did not confront each other. None of the Persian warships entered the western parts of Phaselis. Similarly, none of the Athenian trieres sailed east of Phaselis. Of the Athenian allies mentioned by Thucydides in the Peloponnesian Wars, none passed Caria. And after Melesandrus' crushing defeat in Lycia in 429 B.C., none of the Athenian fleet passed Caria to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean. Aspendos and the mouth of Eurymedon was where the Persian naval forces were assembling. According to these straight-forward historical facts, Aspendos would not have paid tribute to the Attica-Delos League in ca. 425/424 B.C. In conclusion, none of the Pamphylian cities -Perge; Side; Aspendos- were originally members of Attica-Delos League. If the Pamphylian cities were forced to be members of the League and to pay tribute this could only have been in the years around 450 B.C., as after the Callias Peace in ca. 449/448 B.C. the Athenians left all rights east of Phaselis to the Persians.