The Battle of Coronea took place between the Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

-led Delian League

Delian League

The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...

 and the Boeotian League in 447 BC

447 BC

Year 447 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macerinus and Iullus...

 during the First Peloponnesian War

First Peloponnesian War

The First Peloponnesian War was fought between Sparta as the leaders of the Peloponnesian League and Sparta's other allies, most notably Thebes, and the Delian League led by Athens with support from Argos. This war consisted of a series of conflicts and minor wars, such as the Second Sacred War...

.

In 457 BC

457 BC

Year 457 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pulvillus and Augurinus or Cincinnatus and Vibulanus...

 the Athenians had taken control of Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

 at the Battle of Oenophyta

Battle of Oenophyta

The Battle of Oenophyta took place between Athens and the Boeotian city-states in 457 BC during the First Peloponnesian War.In this period between the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, alliances and leagues sprang up and collapsed, although there was very little prolonged warfare...

, and spent the next ten years attempting to consolidate the League's power. In 454 BC

454 BC

Year 454 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Capitolinus and Varus...

 Athens lost a fleet attempting to aid an Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian revolt against Persia

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...

; fearing revolts by the other members of the Delian League, Athens moved the treasury to their city from Delos in 453 BC

453 BC

Year 453 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Quinctilius and Trigeminus...

, and signed the Peace of Callias

Peace of Callias

The Peace of Callias is a purported treaty established around 449 BC between the Delian League and Persia, ending the Persian Wars. The peace was agreed as the first compromise treaty between Achaemenid Persia and a Greek city....

 with Persia around 450 BC

450 BC

Year 450 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year of the decemviri...

.

The Delian League was essentially an Athenian empire, and while Athens was usually successful at holding their possessions in the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

, they were less successful on land. By 447 BC some of the men exiled from Boeotia after the Athenian victory there in 457 had returned home and began to take back some of the Boeotian towns. The Athenians under Tolmides, with 1,000 hoplites plus other troops from their allies, marched into Boeotia to take back the recaptured towns. They captured Chaeronea

Chaeronea

Chaeronea is a village and a former municipality in Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Livadeia, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 2,218...

, but were attacked and defeated by the Boeotians at Coronea. The Athenians were forced to give up control of Boeotia. Boeotia was allowed to leave the Delian League in return for allowing the Athenians to leave Boeotia safely. The defeat led to revolts on Euboea

Euboea

Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...

 and in Megara

Megara

Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...

, which in turn led to further conflict with Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

, contributing to the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

.