The expedition to Sicily It began in the year 415 B.C. and culminated in 413 B.C. The complex situation created after the Peace of Nicias brought Alcibiades to power, a character with a controversial personality, who seduced the Athenians and was elected Strategist in 420, signing with Argos. Mantinea and Élide the so-called Quadruple Alliance which was to last a hundred years, thus alarming the Corinthians and Spartans and leading to an abusive policy against Sparta that led to new conflicts in Mantinea and Melos, which suffered the Athenian rigor and embarked Athens on the disastrous expedition to Sicily (415-413 BC)
The Sicilian Expedition (415-413 BC)
Causes and approaches
After the Congress of Cela, held in the year 424, peace was agreed in Sicily, but there was great agitation among its cities, caused largely by fear of the primacy achieved by Syracuse.
Thucydides dedicates Books VI and VII of his History of the Peloponnesian War to this famous expedition. His opinion is that the failure was due to an initial planning error, but he was frustrated by subsequent events and failures.
The direction of the expedition was entrusted to three Strategists with extraordinary powers:Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus, making a great human and economic effort to provide the fleet with the Athenian contingent and with the reinforcements of the allies with whom they would join in Corcyra. .
According to Thucydides, "four thousand hoplites, three hundred horsemen and one hundred Athenian triremes, plus fifty triremes from Lesbos and Chios and many other allies" were recruited. The total military power sent for the expedition was 5,100 hoplites plus 1,500 light infantry, plus 260 ships.
The expenses of the expedition exceeded 3,500 talents, so in addition to having the amount collected from the payment of the Forums, part of their reserves had to be taken.
When the preparations for this great undertaking were already advanced, some events described as sacrilegious occurred that moved the Athenians:the mutilation of the Hermes and the parodies of the Eleusinian Mysteries , attributed to Alcibiades and his friends.
Alcibiades was included among those guilty of the events, possibly due to the intrigues of his enemies, who, however, did not succeed in having him tried before his departure for Sicily, although he might have been acquitted and the trial was postponed until the return of the expedition.
First problems and the flight of Aicibíades
The difference of opinion in the strategic plan to be followed between the three generals, together with the order to Alcibiades to return to Athens, again accused of sacrilege for the mutilation of the Hermes, hindered and delayed the allied military maneuvers and caused the flight of Alcibiades, who took refuge in Sparta, under the protection of King Agis.
In the year 414 BC, the Athenians had managed to become strong against Syracuse:They took the plateau of the Epipolas and much of Syracuse Bay, blocking the entrance to its Grand Harbor.
The Spartans, advised by Alcibiades, sent Strategist Gilipo in aid to Syracuse, freeing it from the blockade. Gilipo's actions and the arrival of Corinthian aid alarmed the Athenian Strategists, who asked Athens for reinforcements, triggering the war again.
Alcibiades in Sparta
On the advice of Alcibiades, Agis of Sparta began the invasion of Attica in the spring of 413 BC, taking Decelia, which they fortified, thus cutting off Attica by land and giving rise to the second part of the Decelia War.
Situation in Athens
The situation in Athens then became very conflictive as they had to maintain two fronts, one in their own territory and the other in Sicily. A new effort was still attempted sending Demosthenes and Eurymedon to Sicily .
The Athenian army was overtaken and annihilated . His Strategists, Nicias and Demosthenes, executed, his fleet destroyed and his warriors killed. The few survivors ended their days as slaves in the Syracusan quarries.
The magnitude of the disaster in Sicily is expressed in the last paragraphs of Book VII of Thucydides: