Alcibiades' Revenge

A result of the division of forces was the Peloponnesian's establishing a permanent garrison at Decelea in northern Attica. This was approximately fifteen miles from Athens itself. This forced the Athenians to give up the surrounding land and permanently live in the city. Thousands of slaves deserted to the Peloponnesians and industry and commerce shrank (Botsford and Robinson 218). This had a tremendous impact on Athens' economy and ability to finance the war.

With enemies at its back, Athens was unable to mass its forces in Sicily to conquer Syracuse. This hampered the expeditionjespecially in its lack of cavalry which Athens held back to defend Attica. Another failure was the Athenian utter disregard for operational security that greatly hampered the expedition.

During the Syracusan expedition the Athenian's lapses in security proved fatal to their campaign. A major error at the beginning of the campaign involved Alcibiades and the Athenian assembly's attempt to recall him. Immediately before the expedition's departure, the assembly suspected Alcibiades of religious sacrilege. Afraid of Alcibiades' power in the army, the Athenian assembly decided to wait until they departed to pursue the issue. The Athenian assembly indicted Alcibiades for sacrilege after he sailed for Sicily and ordered him to return to face charges.

On the return journey in a separate ship, Alcibiades escaped at Thurii and later went into exile in Sparta (218). The Athenians failed to anticipate Alcibiades' possible defection and take action to prevent it. A side consequence was that the assembly took the soul and tactical advantage out of the expedition by recalling Alcibiades. The expedition had a better chance of success if the command had gone to Alcib...

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To worsen matters, faced with these problems, Nicias became too cautious and would not listen to his subordinates. He repeatedly violated the principles of surprise, mass, maneuver and offensive. Nicias proved incapable of imposing his will on the Syracusans. He failed to anticipate their actions and consequently his forces could not quickly respond. It is little surprise that the Syracusans, when motivated and decently equipped, eventually defeated the Athenians. They understood these principles and used the Athenian lack of them to their advantage.

If the Athenians had used the proven principles of war, they would have had two courses of action. One, not become involved in the dispute,or two, take decisive action immediately and crush the Syracusans. Instead, as history points out, the Syraclisans defeated the Athenians who, as a result, lost their empire.