Transfer of the Delian Treasury to Athens

In 454 BC, the treasury of the Delian League was moved from the sacred island of Delos to Athens. The official reason was safety, following a major Athenian defeat in Egypt that raised fears of a Persian naval attack in the Aegean. The move, however, confirmed what the League had become. From this point, the tribute paid by more than 150 member cities was kept in Athens under Athenian control, and a sixtieth of each payment was given to the goddess Athena as an offering. Records of these offerings were carved on large marble slabs known as the Athenian Tribute Lists, which survive and allow historians to track the allies and their payments. With control of the money, Athens increasingly treated the League as its own empire. Allies had to use Athenian coins, weights and measures, and serious legal cases were tried in Athenian courts. Under Pericles, part of the tribute helped fund the grand building program on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. Critics, both then and now, saw this as Athens using its allies' money for its own glory.