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The Samian War from 440 to 439 was an Ancient Greek military conflict
between Athens and Samos. The war was initiated by Athens's intervention in a
dispute between Samos and Miletus. When the Samians refused to break off their
attacks on Miletus as ordered, the Athenians easily drove out the oligarchic
government of Samos and installed a garrison in the city, but the oligarchs
soon returned, with Persian support. A larger Athenian fleet was dispatched to
suppress this agitation. This fleet initially defeated the Samians and
blockaded the city, but Pericles, in command, was then forced to lead a
substantial portion of the fleet away upon learning that the Persian fleet was
approaching from the south. Although the Persians turned back before the two
fleets met, the absence of most of the Athenian fleet allowed the Samians to
drive off the remaining blockaders and, for two weeks, control the sea around
their island; upon Pericles's return, however, the Athenians again blockaded
and besieged Samos; the city surrendered nine months later. Under the terms of
the surrender, the Samians tore down their walls, gave up hostages, surrendered
their fleet, and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity over the next 26 years.
During the course of the war, the Samians had apparently appealed to Sparta for
assistance; the Spartans were initially inclined to grant this request, and
were prevented from doing so primarily by Corinth's unwillingness to
participate in a war against Athens at the time. In 433, when Corcyra requested
Athenian assistance against Corinth, the Corinthians would remind the Athenians
of the good will they had shown at this time.
Prelude and dispute:
In 440 Samos was at war with Miletus about Priene, an ancient city of Ionia on
the foot-hills of Mycale. Worsted in the war, the Milesians came to Athens with
loud complaints against the Samians. Miletus was militarily weak, having been
compelled to disarm and pay tribute after rebelling from Athens twice, once in
the 450s and again in 446; Samos, meanwhile, was one of only three remaining
fully independent states in the Delian League. The Athenians, for reasons that
scholars continue to disagree over—some believe that the Athenians were
influenced by a desire to protect the Milesian democracy against the Samian
oligarchs, while others believe that they were concerned for the credibility of
their rule if they failed to protect a state that they themselves had
disarmed—intervened on behalf of Miletus. A fleet of forty triremes,
commanded by Pericles, was dispatched to Samos; Pericles established a
democracy, and then, after taking 100 hostages to the island of Lemnos and
leaving a garrison at Samos, returned home. This had all been achieved with
remarkable ease, and this, in comparison with the stiff resistance that the
Samians put up later, suggests that they had not expected such a harsh response
from the Athenians.
Rebellion:
Pissuthnes, the Satrap of Lydia and Ionia supported the Samian revolt. The
settlement thus imposed did not last long, however. A group of oligarchs fled
to the mainland, secured the support of Pissuthnes, the Persian satrap of
Lydia, who provided them with mercenaries and also rescued their hostages from
Lemnos. With their hands thus freed, the oligarchs, collaborating with allies
in the city, invaded with the 700 mercenaries of Pissuthnes, defeated the
democrats, and handed all the Athenians in the city over to Pissuthnes for
imprisonment. Athens now found itself facing a serious crisis in the open
revolt of a powerful subject state, and the situation was made more severe by
simultaneous revolts in other parts of the empire, the most critical of which
occurred in Byzantium; the powerful city of Mytilene, meanwhile, stood ready to
revolt upon receiving a promise of Spartan support. The Athenians immediately
dispatched 60 ships to deal with the situation in the Aegean. 16 of these ships
were sent on various independent missions, leaving only 44 to face the Samian
fleet of 50 triremes and 20 transports. In a battle off the island of Tragia,
the Athenians were victorious, and the Samians soon found themselves blockaded
by land and sea. The Athenians constructed walls around the city of Samos, and
meanwhile were reinforced by 65 more ships from Athens, Chios, and Lesbos. At
this point, with the rebellion seemingly well in hand, Pericles received word
that the Persian fleet was on its way to attack him, and, taking 60 ships with
him, he sailed off to Caria to meet it. In his absence the Samians made a sally
and drove the Athenians off. For 14 days they ruled the sea and brought in
supplies, but at the end of that period Pericles returned and reestablished the
blockade. The siege lasted 9 months, at the end of which the Samians
surrendered, tore down their walls, converted their government to a democracy,
gave up their fleet, and agreed to pay Athens a war indemnity of 1,300 talents
over a period of 26 years. The end of the revolts elsewhere in the empire
followed rapidly on this success.
Sparta:
Although Athens did succeed in restoring order to the empire, the situation in
440 was very severe, particularly because of the threat of Spartan
intervention. Thucydides reports that in 433, when Corinthian and Corcyraean
ambassadors were making their cases at Athens regarding Corcyra's request for
assistance against Corinth, the Corinthians stated that in 440, "when the
rest of the Peloponnesian powers were equally divided on the question whether
they should assist [the Samians],...we told them to their face that every power
has a right to punish its own allies." Modern scholars have generally
regarded this as an accurate report, and have taken it to mean that Sparta was
willing to go to war against Athens, but that the Corinthians, whose powerful
navy would have been necessary for the Peloponnesians to participate
effectively in such a war, derailed the plan with their opposition.
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