Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)

Sicilian Expedition to Aegospotami

(415-405 BCE)

Middle Phase of Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)

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

Embassy from Segesta to Athens (416 BCE) Athenians vote for Sicilian Expedition

(415-413 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

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])

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.

Launching the Sicilian Expedition (415 BCE)(Thucydides, 6.24; cf. generally 6.8-32)

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 HermsAthens, 415 BCE

Athenian Disaster in Sicily

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)

Renewed Hostilities and Conclusion: 414-404 BCE Alcibiades works in Spartan interest Sicilian Disaster (October, 413 BCE) and Spartan Occupation of

Decelea (413 BCE) Widespread rebellions against Athens in Ionia and Hellespontine

region (with financial backing of Persian satrap) Oligarchic coup at Athens in 411 BCE (Rule of the Four Hundred);

restoration of democracy in 410 BCE Athenian successes in eastern Mediterranean: 410-407 BCE 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

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)

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

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.

Lysander and Philocles

Aegospotami and Its Aftermath

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

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