Peace of Callias

The Peace of Callias is a purported peace treaty that supposedly was established around 449 BC between the Delian League (led by Athens) and the Achaemenid Empire and ended the Greco-Persian Wars. The peace would then be the first compromise treaty between Achaemenid Persia and a Greek city.

The peace was negotiated by Callias, an Athenian politician. Persia had continually lost territory to the Greeks after the end of Xerxes I's invasion in 479 BC. The exact date of the treaty is debated, but it is usually placed after the Battle of the Eurymedon (469 or 466) or the Battle of Cypriot Salamis (450).

If it existed, the Peace of Callias gave autonomy to the Ionian states in Asia Minor, prohibited the encroachment of Persian satrapies within three days march of the Aegean coast and prohibited Persian ships from the Aegean. Athens also agreed not to interfere with Persia's possessions in Asia Minor, Cyprus, Libya or Egypt.[1] Athens had at the time lost a fleet, which was aiding an Egyptian revolt against Persia.[2]

  1. ^ Diodorus Siculus 12.4
  2. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, i. 104, and 109-10

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