Breaking Boundaries and Preserving Alliances: Oaths and Kinship Ties as Crisis Management Tools in Interstate Relations in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries bc: Case Studies

Starting with the analysis of selected passages from Herodotus, this paper demonstrates the efficacy of oaths as tools for assessing the resilience of interstate relations among both Greeks and “Barbarians” during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. The focus will then shift to the history of the Delian League through sworn covenants. A series of decrees discovered in Athens pertaining to the cities of Erythrae, Colophon, Eretria, Chalcis, and Samos also undergo examination. Traditionally dated between the 450s and 430s of the fifth century BCE, these documents coincide with Thucydides’ (1.97.1) documentation of a transformation in the relationship between Athens and her allies, culminating in the League’s evolution into an arche, while numerous poleis rebelled against Athens. However, recent scholarship has challenged this chronology, suggesting that some of these documents belong to the years of the Archidamian War, a period marked by profound crisis in the relations between Athens and the Ionians. The revision of these documents facilitates a reconstruction of the stages of a specific strategy pursued by Athens, wherein oaths and appeals to the divine play pivotal roles in transcending boundaries and resolving conflicts. Indeed, sworn covenants emerge as a catalyst for the Ionians’ participation in various other ritual practices aimed at breaking boundaries and mitigating conflicts to reinforce kinship ties with Athens and ensure the resilience of the coalition.