Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/224

 i8o Outlines of Europea?t History the treasury of the League. Athens had command of the com- bined fleet and collected the money. This treasure was placed for protection in the temple of Apollo, on the little Island of Delos. Hence the federation was known as the Delian League. It was completed within three years after Salamis. The transfor- mation of such a league into an empire, made up of states subject to Athens, could be foreseen as a very easy step. All thie was therefore viewed with increasing jealousy and distrust by Sparta. Fig. 88. Potsherd bearing the Name of Themistocles AND his Place of Residence The name of Themistocles is scratched in the surface of this fragment of a pottery jar [ostracon, p. 158). It was written there by some citizen of the six thousand who desired and secured his ostracism in 472 B.C., or may have served a similar purpose in the earlier but unsuccessful attempt to ostracize him Under the leadership of Cimon, the son of Miltiades the hero of Marathon, the fleet of the League now drove the Persians out of the region of the Hellespont entirely. Cimon did not under- stand the importance of Athenian supremacy, but favored a policy of friendship and alliance with Sparta. Hence political conflict arose at Athens over this question. Noble and wealthy and old-fashioned folk favored Cimon and friendship with Sparta, but progressive and modern Athenians followed The- mistocles and his anti-Spartan plans. Themistocles was unable to carry the Asseiiibly; he was