Athens, Rhodes, and the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores two challenges faced by the Athenians, through focus on the allied island polis of Rhodes: how the Athenians attempted to exploit the lucrative region of the eastern Mediterranean beyond the scope of their primary sphere of power, a region into which Rhodes was better integrated; and how Athenian power overlapped and interacted with that of the influential island in its Aegean vicinity. First, it analyses the various strategies, from military intervention to indirect extraction, employed by the Athenians to access and exploit the eastern Mediterranean, particularly Egypt. It considers the role that allied communities, including Rhodes, played in facilitating Athenian exploitation, as well as exploring the overlapping fiscality of the Athenian and Achaemenid empires, and the unusual function of Athenian coinage in regional exchange. The chapter then turns to Rhodes more specifically and its immediate context in the southern Aegean. Digging deeper into the variations in tribute assessment for Rhodes and its environs identified in Chapter 2, it explores what Rhodian power in the region may have looked like in the fifth century, and how the Athenians responded to it. Rhodian and Athenian power, it argues, were not always in competition; rather the Athenians at times tolerated local Rhodian influence, with their interests in alignment.