The Siege of Syracuse
Introduction
The Siege of Syracuse was fought in 415 B.C., in Syracuse, Sicily. Although the Athenians finally lost to the Syracusans this changed Greece forever. There were three main points of the battle the war and warfare, the days of the retreat, and also the important people. The groups who fought this war were the Syracusans, the Athenians, and also the Spartans. This battle also had an ending that was unexpected by the Athenians and all the city- states in Greece.
War and Warfare
The battle plans of the war were brilliantly executed by building walls to cut off supplies. This was done by the Athenians because they had to get the Athenians to get out of their village unprepared for battle. But the Syracusans built counter walls which made it impossible to surround the village. Then both sides brought reinforcements, but Athens had terrible losses, and also were supposed to retreat. They didn’t retreat because instead Nicias saw a full moon and got the wrong understanding because of this religious belief. This was thought by Nicias to have meant to stay 27 extra days. Within this 27 days the Syracusans blocked the mouth of the harbor, so the Athenians couldn’t do anything besides retreat into the desert.
Nicias is not the only one who is to blame for the ultimate disaster. Some Athenians,including the popular leader Hyperbolus, wanted even bigger things, like an attack on Carthage. For the time being, however, the official plan was to support the allies only, and the unstated aim was to conquer the island. (“Lendering” 1)
By having a plan to retreat the Athenians still had hope to win the battle, but it was not executed the way it had to be.(“Wright”43)
Days of the Retreat
When they retreated they...
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...t he stopped the war for 27 days because of a full moon. Even though he stopped the war, he was just doing what he believed in. Every ruler had an end to their rule, so did Nicias. He surrendered after being defeated at the Great Harbor. That same day he was executed(“Sicilian”) Even though we aren't sure about the important leaders of Syracuse we still have strong evidence of who they were.
Like all battles this one also had an ending that included leaders being executed at the end, the Syracusans defeated the Athenians. This was predicted by most people at this time because the Athenians did not have a strong land force, they had a strong navy, but they didn’t use it. The reason this was so important to history was because it changed Athens forever.
All these battles had significant impacts to either the war or the moral of the Greek Army. The most significant Battles were The Battle of Salamis and The Battle of Plataea. These battles also saw the contributions of many key individuals, which lead to the victory of the Greeks in the ends as well as the rise of the Greek navy. These Key individuals included Leonidas, Themistocles, Eurybiades and Pausanias. They all had major roles and all contributed differently through out the Persian invasions leading to the victory of the Greeks of the
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