The Peloponnesian War was a war pitting Athens and Sparta. Although Athens was the cultural heart of ancient Greece, it had provoked the war. By 415, both sides had suffered defeats and celebrated victories. A tenuous peace was in place, but everyone knew the war would be revived soon. The Athenian assembly was looking for a way to get the upper hand. The hawks proposed an attack on Syracuse. Syracuse was the strongest power on Sicily and an ally of Sparta. The charismatic Alcibiades argued for the expedition. The leading dove was Nicias. He had negotiated the current peace treaty and opposed the plan. He tried to get the expedition torpedoed by claiming that the expedition would need a large fleet and contingent of hoplites to be successful. The assembly called his bluff and agreed. And it forced Nicias to go along as one of the generals. The other two were Alcibiades and a veteran soldier named Lamachus. Thus began a series of violations of the rules of war and just plain poor decision-making. Division of command was a totally avoidable mistake. When the expedition reached Sicily, Nicias argued for showing the flag and then going home, Alcibiades wanted to win allies on the island, and Lamachus suggested an immediate attack to take the Syracusans by surprise. Nicias had the best idea and Alcibiades the worst, but Lamachus reluctantly broke the tie by siding with Alcibiades. Before Alcibiades plan could be put in effect, he was recalled to Athens to stand trial. It seems some hooligans had gone around town breaking the penises off statues called Hermai. Many homes had these statues out front for good luck, so this was a sacrilege which his political opponents blamed on Alcibiades. Rather than be the victim of a show trial, Alcibiades escaped and went to Sparta! There he advised the Spartans on how to defeat Athens. What a character. Meanwhile, on Sicily the Greeks finally got down to business. After a failed attempt to storm Syracuse, they started building a wall to cut off Syracuse from the rest of the island. This started a wall race as the Syracusans built a counter wall to block the Greek wall. They ended up building two counterwalls, but the Greeks kept going. Unfortunately, in one of the battles, Lamachus was killed. This left the indecisive Nicias in command. He did not push construction of the wall of circumvallation. At this point, the Syracuse got reinforcements from Sparta, led by Gylippus. Gylippus was a great leader and quickly took the initiative. His counterwall finally stopped the Athenians and Syracuse was saved. It was time for Athens to give up on this pipe dream. Nicias sent a message saying that without large reinforcements, he would have to withdraw. He was surprised when Athens answered his plea with a huge fleet and soldiers. Athens had made the classic military mistake of feeding failure. 216 triremes arrived with 45,000 soldiers. Athens had now committed half its military power to the expedition. And it still had to face Sparta in Greece! Demosthenes brought vigor, but his attacks failed. He decided it was time to go home, but now Nicias argued against it. Possibly because he wanted to avoid the humiliation. Precious time passed as he dithered. Finally, he agreed to the retreat. But a naval battle to break out of the port was defeated.
https://www.historynet.com/athens-vs-sicily/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Expedition
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