The Sicilian Expedition was a disastrous military campaign undertaken by Athens in Sicily from 415 to 413 BC during the Peloponnesian War. Hoping to acquire a wealthy tributary state in Magna Graecia through a quick and easy victory, Athens sent a 30,000-strong expedition to besiege and subdue the Sicilian city-state of Syracuse, but the Athenian forces besieging the city were themselves blockaded by a Spartan fleet responding to the Syracusans' request for help. The trapped Athenians were worn down and surrendered; all of their leaders were killed, and every last Athenian soldier was killed, captured, or sold into slavery.
Background[]
By 415 BC, Athens and Sparta had been in an uneasy state of peace for six years, having formally made peace with the 421 BC Peace of Nicias, yet fought at Mantinea in 418 BC and refused to end their occupations of their rivals' lands. Athens was now politically divided between Nicias' peace party and Alcibiades' war party. In 416 BC, the Magna Graecian city-state of Segesta sent to Athens for help against the Sicilian city-state of Selinus, and they offered a large drachmae reward if Athens would send aid; however, they exaggerated their own riches in order to tempt the Athenians into sending a fleet. Nicias advised the people's assembly that sending an expedition to Sicily would expose Athens to attack by the Peloponnesian League and would open hostilities with enemies too numerous and too difficult to conquer and rule. However, Alcibiades appealed to the enterprising spirit that had won Athens her Delian League empire, and claimed that most of Sicily's city-states would support the Athenian expedition. Ultimately, the assembly enthusiastically embraced Alcibiades' proposal and arranged a force of 100 ships and 5,000 hoplites. Just before the fleet set sail, Alcibiades' opponents accused him of destroying stone markers to Hermes around the city and put him on trial, preventing him from leading the expedition. Instead, overall command passed on to Nicias, who had been its chief opponent.
Expedition[]
Many people in Syracuse suspected that Athens was using this opportunity to intervene in Sicily to attack their city, and the Syracusan general Hermocrates sought help from other Sicilian cities and from Carthage. The tyrant Athenagoras claimed that Hermocrates and his allies were trying to instill fear in the population and overthrow the government, so Syracuse was initially left unprepared.
Divisions in the Athenian leadership[]
However, the Athenians were equally unprepared. Nicias proposed that the Athenians force a settlement between Selinus and Segesta and then return home unless the Segestans were willing to pay them for the full cost of the expanded expedition; Alcibiades proposed that the Athenians seek allies on the island and then attack Selinus and Syracuse; finally, Lamachus suggested that they sail directly for Syracuse and attack the city, hoping to take them by surprise. Ultimately, Lamachus endorsed Alcibiades' plan. The Athenians had little luck in finding Sicilian allies, and they also learned that Segesta did not have the money that it had promised them. Again, the Athenian leaders argued over their next course of action. Nicias suggested that the Athenians make a show of force and return home; Alcibiades proposed encouraging revolts against Syracuse and then attacking Syracuse and Selinus; and Lamachus suggested that the Athenians attack Syracuse right away. Alcibiades was arrested at Catania, only for him to escape to Sparta and inform the Spartans of the Athenians' plans. Ultimately, Lamachus' plan was chosen as the Athenians' course of action.
Attack on Syracuse[]
The Athenians and their allies engaged in a brief battle with the Syracusans outside of their city walls, defeating the Syracusan army before the Syracusan cavalry prevented the Athenians from giving chase. The Athenians then returned to Catania, and, from the winter of 415 to the spring of 414 BC, Hermocrates reorganized the Syracusan army and reduced the number of generals from fifteen to three. Meanwhile, the Syracusans fortified their city and asked Corinth and Sparta for help. Athens sent for aid from the Carthaginians and Etruscans, but they were ultimately forced to send reinforcements of their own.
Soon after, the 3,000-strong Spartan army under Gylippus landed at Himera to assist the Spartans, while a Corinthian fleet arrived to reinforce Syracuse. Nicias now believed that it would be impossible to capture Syracuse, and Athens chose to send reinforcements under Demosthenes and Eurymedon. Gylippus' 80 Syracusan ships attacked the Athenian fleet off Syracuse as Gylippus defeated the Athenians on land, and, while the Athenians killed 800 Corinthians (including all but one of Corinth's ambassadors), Gylippus convinced all of the neutral cities of Sicily to ally with Syracuse. Demosthenes and Eurymedon then arrived with 73 ships and 5,000 hoplites, and, while they succeeded in breaching the city walls, they were then attacked by the Boeotians in the Spartan contingent. Many Athenians fell off the cliff to their deaths, while others were killed as they fled down the slope. Nicias and several of his men fell sick while encamping near a marsh, and, while Demosthenes suggested that the Athenians return to Greece to defend Attica from Spartan invasion, Nicias refused to return home in defeat. Nicias initially sought to maintain the siege until the pro-Athenian faction in Syracuse could rise up, but, when Athens refused to send reinforcements, Nicias agreed that the Athenians should leave. After a lunar eclipse, the superstitious Nicias decided against retreating. The Syracusans then attacked the Athenian fleet and killed Eurymedon, and the Athenians themselves were blockaded at Syracuse. In September of 413 BC, the Athenians under Demosthenes surrendered, but the Syracusans ambushed and massacred Nicias' men as they fought over drinking water from the Assinarus River. Demosthenes and Nicias were executed by the Syracusans against Gylippus' orders, and the surviving Athenians were enslaved.
Aftermath[]
In the aftermath of the Expedition's utter defeat, many neutral Greek city-states allied with Sparta, believing that Athens' defeat was imminent. Many of Athens' Delian League allies were persuaded to revolt, and, while Athens easily replaced its lost ships, it could not easily replace the 30,000 experienced oarsmen lost in Sicily, instead relying on ill-trained slaves to replace them. In 411 BC, the Athenian democracy was overthrown in favor of an oligarchy, and the Persian Empire joined the war on the side of Sparta, financing the construction of a Spartan fleet and providing Sparta with manpower for building and crewing their ships. The defeat at Syracuse ultimately led to Athens' surrender to Sparta in 404 BC.