Fear, Honor, Advantage: The Rise of the Athenian Empire

In Thucydides’ narrative of the Congress of Sparta, the Athenians defend their empire by claiming that hegemony was given to them by the Greeks who would become their subjects and that its transformation into domination... [ view full abstract ]

In Thucydides’ narrative of the Congress of Sparta, the Athenians defend their empire by claiming that hegemony was given to them by the Greeks who would become their subjects and that its transformation into domination arose from fear, honor, and advantage. The first claim is verifiably true, but what about the second? How did the Delian League, that voluntary alliance for security against Persia, become the coercive Athenian Empire? Does Thucydides believe the Athenian claims that their actions were motivated “mostly by fear, then honor, and lastly by advantage”?
Presenting a section of my thesis, which focuses on Thucydides’ theories on alliances, I argue that Thucydides intentionally omits “turning points” in his history of the growth of Athens in order to present a continuous, creeping narrative that blurs the distinctions among fear, honor, and advantage. However, a temporal perspective shows that the Athenians did experience three phases of growth, each laying the foundation for the next and being motivated by fear, honor, and advantage in that order. Thucydides, then, agrees with the Athenian contention that he records.