This handbook offers a comprehensive survey of the polity known as the Delian League, or the Athenian Empire. Founded under the leadership of Athens in 478 BCE and dissolved in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, it was one of the most distinctive imperial regimes of antiquity and a defining force in the political landscape of fifth-century Greece. This book

⁠places the League within a comparative history of empires across the ancient world

⁠presents cutting-edge scholarship by an international group of both established experts and younger Researchers

deals with source traditions, geopolitical settings, history, economic and political power structures, imperial society and culture, relations with external polities, as well as ancient opinions and receptions.

It will⁠serve as an authoritative reference for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the history of Athens and its empire, as well as the study of empires.