<P> After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war . The Spartans were of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the war's purpose had already been reached . There was also perhaps a feeling that establishing long - term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible . In the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion . </P> <P> Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had furiously rejected this; the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies, and the Athenians, if no - one else, would protect the Ionians . This marked the point at which the leadership of the Greek alliance effectively passed to the Athenians . With the Spartan withdrawal after Byzantion, the leadership of the Athenians became explicit . </P> <P> The loose alliance of city states which had fought against Xerxes's invasion had been dominated by Sparta and the Peloponnesian league . With the withdrawal of these states, a congress was called on the holy island of Delos to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians; hence the modern designation "Delian League". According to Thucydides, the official aim of the League was to "avenge the wrongs they suffered by ravaging the territory of the king ." </P> <P> In reality, this goal was divided into three main efforts--to prepare for future invasion, to seek revenge against Persia, and to organize a means of dividing spoils of war . The members were given a choice of either offering armed forces or paying a tax to the joint treasury; most states chose the tax . League members swore to have the same friends and enemies, and dropped ingots of iron into the sea to symbolize the permanence of their alliance . The Athenian politician Aristides would spend the rest of his life occupied in the affairs of the alliance, dying (according to Plutarch) a few years later in Pontus, whilst determining what the tax of new members was to be . </P>

What military general organized the delian league and created conflict between the spartans