Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
Sicilian Expedition to Aegospotami
(415-405 BCE)
Middle Phase of
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
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Disturbed Peace: 421-415 BCE
 Spartan/Boeotian alliance; Anti-Spartan
alliance of Athens, Argos, Elis, Mantinea
 Spartan victory over allies at Battle of
Mantinea (418 BCE)
 Massacre at Melos in 416 BCE (see Thucydides,
5.84-114)
 Rise of Alcibiades and the Sicilian Expedition of
415 BCE (see Thucydides, 6.9-32)
Athens and the West
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Embassy from Segesta to Athens (416 BCE)
Athenians vote for Sicilian Expedition (415413 BCE)
Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus as
Commanders
Launching of Sicilian Expedition (415 BCE)
Mutilation of the Herms
Recall of Alcibiades, who defects to Sparta
Greece and Sicily
Athenian Military Actions
Represented as Defensive Precautions
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Local Sicilian Dispute between Selinuntines and
Segestaeans
 Syracuse supports Selinuntines
 Segesta appeal to Athenians: “They put forward a
number of arguments, but the main one was that if
Syracuse, after driving out the people of Leontini,
were allowed to escape scot-free, and to go on
destroying the remaining allies of Athens, until she
acquired complete control of Sicily, the danger would
then have to be faced that at some time or other the
Syracusans…would come with a large force…in the
work of utterly destroying the power of Athens.”
(Thucydides, 6.6; cf. 6.18 [Alcibiades])
Launching the Sicilian Expedition (415 BCE)
(Thucydides, 6.24; cf. generally 6.8-32)
The Athenians…far from losing their appetite for the voyage because of the
difficulties in preparing for it, became more enthusiastic about it than
ever….There was a passion for the enterprise which affected everyone alike.
The older men thought that they would either conquer the places against
which they were sailing or, in any case, with such a large force, could come to
no harm; the young had a longing for sights and experiences of distant
places, and were confident that they would return safely; the general masses
and the average soldier himself saw the prospect of getting pay for the time
being and of adding to the empire so as to secure paid employment in the
future. The result of this excessive enthusiasm of the majority was that the
few who actually were opposed to the expedition were afraid of being
thought unpatriotic if they voted against it, and therefore kept quiet.
Magnitude of Sicilian Expedition
(Thucydides, 6.31)
Indeed the expedition became not less famous for its
wonderful boldness and for the splendor of its
appearance, than for its overwhelming strength as
compared with the peoples against whom it was
directed, and for the fact that this was the longest
passage from home attempted up until that time,
and the most ambitious in its objectives considering
the resources of those who undertook it.
Evil Omen: Mutilation of the Herms
(Thucydides, 6.27)
While these preparations were going on [preparations for the Sicilian
Expedition] it was found that in one night nearly all the stone Herms in
the city of Athens had had their extremities cut off. These are a
national institution, the well-known square-cut figures, of which there
are great numbers both in the porches of private houses and in the
temples. No one knew who had done this, but large rewards were
offered by the state in order to find out who the criminals were, and
there was also a decree passed guaranteeing immunity to anyone,
citizen, alien, or slave, who knew of any other sacrilegious act that had
taken place and would come forward with information about it. The
whole affair, indeed, was taken very seriously, as it was regarded as an
omen for the expedition, and at the same time as evidence of a
revolutionary conspiracy to overthrow the democracy.
Carving a Herm
Affair of the Herms
Athens, 415 BCE
Athenian Disaster in Sicily
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War centers on Athenian siege of Syracuse
(siege walls and counter-siege walls)
Spartan reinforcements under Gylippus
arrive to aid Syracuse
Battle in the Harbor; 40,000 Athenians
infantry flee; caught and massacred by
pursuing Syracusan forces
Fate of Athenian and Allied Survivors
(Thucydides, 7.87)
The prisoners in the quarries were at first harshly treated by the
Syracusans. Crowded in a narrow hole, without any roof to cover them,
the heat of the sun and the stifling closeness of the air tormented them
during the day, and then the nights which came on autumnal and chilly
made them ill by the violence of the change; besides, as they had to do
everything in the same place for want of room, and the bodies of those who
died of their wounds or from the variation in the temperature, or from
similar causes, were left heaped together one upon another, intolerable
stenches arose; while hunger and thirst never ceased to afflict them, each
man during eight months having only half a pint of water and a pint of
grain given him daily. In short, no single suffering to be apprehended by
men thrust into such a place was spared them. For some seventy days they
thus lived all together, after which all, except the Athenians and any
Siceliots or Italians who had joined in the expedition, were sold. The total
number of prisoners taken it would be difficult to state exactly, but it could
not have been less than 7,000.
Later Phases of Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)
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Renewed Hostilities and Conclusion: 414-404 BCE
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Alcibiades works in Spartan interest
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Sicilian Disaster (October, 413 BCE) and Spartan Occupation of
Decelea (413 BCE)
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Widespread rebellions against Athens in Ionia and Hellespontine
region (with financial backing of Persian satrap)
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Oligarchic coup at Athens in 411 BCE (Rule of the Four
Hundred); restoration of democracy in 410 BCE
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Athenian successes in eastern Mediterranean: 410-407 BCE
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Battle at Arginusae (406 BCE); Victory of Lysander (with
financial support of the Great King’s son Cyrus) at Aegospotami
(405 BCE); Athenian surrender in 404 BCE
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Long Walls destroyed; Pro-Spartan Tyranny of Thirty (404
BCE); civil war and restoration of democracy in 403 BCE
Summary: Career of Alcibiades
(ca. 450-404 BCE)
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Raised in household of Pericles; Pupil and friend of Socrates
Leader of extreme democrats (ca. 420 BCE)
Receives command (with Nicias and Lamachus) of Sicilian Expedition
(415 BCE)
Recalled for allegations of sacrilege (Affair of the Herms)
Defects to Sparta (advises Spartans to send able general to Sicily and
to occupy Decelea)
Causes Athenian subjects in Ionia to revolt (412 BCE), but falls out of
favor with Spartans and flees to Persian satrap Tissaphernes
Tries to win Persian support and stage oligarchic coup at Athens
Appointed general by Athenian fleet at Samos, directs successful
operations in Ionia and Hellespont (Cyzicus in 410 BCE)
Returns to Athens (407 BCE) to extraordinary command, but
withdraws after his general suffers naval defeat at Notium (406 BCE)
Spartans and Thirty Tyrants at Athens have him murdered in
Phrygia in 404 BCE
Thucydides (6.15) on Alcibiades
[H]e was very much in the public eye, and his enthusiasm
for horse-breeding and other extravagances went beyond
what his fortune could supply. This, in fact, later on had
much to do with the downfall of the city of Athens. For
most people became frightened at a quality in him which
was beyond the normal and showed itself both in the
lawlessness of his private life and habits and in the spirit
in which he acted on all occasions….Although in a public
capacity his conduct of the war was excellent, his way of
life made him objectionable to everyone as a person.
Alcibiades, Sparta, and Decelea
Spartan Occupation of
Decelea, 413 BCE
Arginusae and the Trial of the Generals
Arginusae, 406 BCE
Final Engagement: Lysander at Aegospotami
Aegospotami, 405 BCE
Lysander’s Victory
Lysander and Philocles
As for [the Athenian commander] Philocles, who
had thrown the Andrians and Corinthians
overboard, Lysander first asked him this question:
“What do you deserve for having been the first to
act like a criminal toward your fellow-Greeks?” He
then had his throat cut.
Aegospotami and Its Aftermath
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Aegospotami in the Hellespont:
 Athenians lose 171 ships (405 BCE)
Lysander, victorious Spartan commander:
 recall Athenians abroad; siege; capitulation after
eight months (May, 404 BCE)
Spartan Terms:
 Athenian fleet restricted to twelve ships
 Long Walls to Piraeus to be destroyed
 Tyranny of the Thirty (pro-Spartan Athenians)
Overthrow of Pro-Spartan, Oligarchic Regime
Restoration of Democracy (October, 403 BCE)
Destruction of Long Walls at Athens (404 BCE)
Thucydides (1.1.1-2) on the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war
between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at
the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be
a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had
preceded it. This belief was not without grounds. The
preparations of both combatants were in every department
in the last state of perfection; and he could see the rest of
the Greeks taking sides in the quarrel; those who delayed
doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this was
the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the
Greeks, but of a large part of the barbarian world—I had
almost said of mankind.
Summary of Peloponnesian War
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War involved most Greek states in alliance with either
Athens or Sparta
Longest-lasting war known to the Greeks (nearly thirty
years)
Change in Greek warfare (new levels of duplicity,
brutality, use of mercenaries)
End result: Athens loses empire; Spartan hegemony
From Bipolarity to (Brief) Unipolarity
Persian subsidies influence course of war
Military and financial exhaustion throughout Greek
world