Nesiotic League

The League of the Islanders (Ancient Greek: τὸ κοινὸν τῶν νησιωτῶν, to koinon tōn nēsiōtōn) or Nesiotic League was a federal league (koinon) of ancient Greek city-states encompassing the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. Organized under the auspices of Antigonus Monophthalmus in ca. 314/3 BC, it remained under Antigonid control until ca. 287 BC. It then passed under the aegis of the Ptolemaic Kingdom until Ptolemaic control over the central Aegean collapsed and the League was dissolved sometime in the mid-3rd century BC. The Cycladic islands reverted to independence, except for a few that passed under Macedonian control. The league was re-established ("Second Nesiotic League") under the leadership of Rhodes in ca. 200 BC, and survived until ca. 167 BC.

The history of the League of the Islanders is relatively obscure, as no literary sources about it have survived. The only evidence comes from inscriptions. In 314/3 BC, Antigonus I Monophthalmus sent a fleet under his nephew Dioscurides to the Aegean islands, in order to defend them against the fleet of Ptolemy I and secure their allegiance to his cause. Although the League of the Islanders does not appear until 306 BC, modern scholarship is unanimous in placing its establishment in the immediate aftermath of that campaign. The League was centred on Delos and stood under the protection of Antigonus, in whose honour annual games, the Antigoneia (Ἀντιγόνεια), after 306 BC alternating with games (Δημητρίεια, Dēmētrieia) in honour of Antigonus' son Demetrius Poliorcetes, were celebrated. Despite the defeat and death of Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Demetrius retained control of the Antigonid fleet and thus of the League until ca. 287/6 BC, when he was defeated and captured by Seleucus I. As a result, the islands passed under the hegemony of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and the games were renamed as Sotēria Ptolemaia (Σωτήρια Πτολεμαῖα) and Philadelphia (Φιλαδέλφεια) in honour of Ptolemy I Soter and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

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