100 Historical Stories That Unlock Teenage Wisdom

Chapter 45 5 The Athenian Expedition to Sicily Failed

Chapter 55 The Athenian expedition to Sicily failed miserably
——The truth will never be outnumbered. The persistence of the people does not necessarily represent the correct direction. Sometimes the truth is in the hands of a few people.As long as it is correct, we must stick to it, no matter how many people support you, as long as we stand on the side of the truth and believe that we will never be wrong.

After the Greek coalition defeated the Persians and won the Hippo War, the Greeks did not usher in the peace they dreamed of.Because in the days that followed, Athens and Sparta fought against each other for hegemony and fought against each other for 26 years. This was the Peloponnesian War.

Disaster begins with the Battle of Sicily.

In 416 BC, Segesta, an ally of Athens in Sicily, and its neighbor, Selinus, had turned against each other and planned a war. Alcibiades, the leader of the war faction, had a heated debate at the citizens' assembly.Nicias insisted that the expedition to Sicily was unnecessary, pointed out the great difficulties that might be encountered in carrying out the expedition, and exposed Alcibiades' selfish purpose to his face, asking the Athenians to "beware of this extravagant young man, and not use He has the opportunity to endanger the country for his own glory."The eloquent Alcibiades confronted each other, claiming to be a country, and he didn't care about attacks on him personally.He said: "The Sicilians are just a bunch of rabble, and it is easy to conquer them. Our national power in Athens has reached such a point that we have to plan to conquer new places. If we acquire the huge land of Sicily, we may gain the hegemony of the whole of Greece." .

As a result, Alcibiades' opinion prevailed at the Citizens' Assembly.The assembly decided to go on an expedition, and Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamarchus were solely responsible for the expedition.

In the early summer of 415 BC, the massive preparations for battle were completed, and the Athenians assembled a huge army, including 136 warships, 5100 heavy infantry, 1200 light infantry, and about 26000 oarsmen.At dawn on the day of departure, at the port of Perius, the Athenians sent out all over the city to see off the soldiers of the expedition. "Everyone is full of expeditionary enthusiasm. The older ones think they will conquer the places they will go. The younger ones want to see exotic places and gain fascinating experiences. The common people and soldiers look forward to their paychecks, And receive permanent income from the expansion of the territory".

The expeditionary force first joined the Allied support forces at Corcyra and continued to advance.Two events at this time cast a shadow over the future of the expeditionary force.One thing is that after the expeditionary army contacted Segesta who had asked them to send troops, they found that Segesta was very poor and could not afford to pay for the expeditionary army.In this way, the hope of the expeditionary army to make a fortune was dashed, the excitement during the expedition suddenly disappeared, and the morale of the army was shaken.Another thing is that Alibides, one of the three commanders, defected to Sparta.It turned out that on the eve of the departure of the expeditionary force, someone destroyed the face of the statue of Hermes, which was used to guide the way at the streets of Athens.Hermes is the son of the god Zeus in Greek mythology, and the Athenians believe that it can protect roads and maintain social order.Therefore, the destruction of the idol caused serious unrest in the city of Athens.The state encouraged whistleblowers to track down the perpetrators, and Alcibiades was accused of participating.Alcibiades was furious and asked to find out whether he was involved in this case before departure, but his political opponents knew that he had prestige in the army and was deeply loved by the soldiers, so they dared not attack him in advance until after the fleet set off. Only reported him.So the Athens Citizens Assembly decided to recall Alcibiades for trial.Alcibiades knew that there would be bad luck after returning home, so he ran away on the way.He reinforced Syracuse to Sparta and besieged Athens.The Spartans were overjoyed at Alcibiades' arrival and readily accepted his proposal.

After Alcibiades defected, Nicias still led his fleet to continue westward, and fought a fierce battle with the Syracusans as soon as they arrived in Sicily.Due to the long journey and Nicias' indecision, the Athenian expeditionary force failed to grasp several fighter opportunities, and the war soon fell into a stalemate.In order to break the stalemate, in the spring of 414 BC, Nicias and Lamarchus commanded the expeditionary force to launch a powerful offensive. They first captured Epipole, the commanding height outside the ancient city of Syracuse, and then built the city wall surrounding Syracuse from the land.In the fierce battle between building the wall and counter-building the wall, Lamachus died in battle, and Nicias became the only commander.He then commanded the navy to enter the port of Syracuse, and basically completed the encirclement of the enemy's water and land, leaving only a gap more than one kilometer away from the sea in the north that was under construction.

When the Syracusans panicked because the city was almost completely besieged, the Spartan army arrived in Sicily under the leadership of Kirebus, rushed through the gap of the Athenians into Syracuse, and fought with the morale-boosting Syracuse defenders. Rendezvous, and soon organize troops to counterattack.

After fierce fighting, they not only smashed the Athenian plan to completely surround Syracuse, but also recaptured the commanding heights of Epipole and captured the fortress Plymion.At the same time, Corinth's fleet also broke through the Athens naval blockade and entered the port of Syracuse, joined forces with the Syracuse navy, and launched a fierce counterattack against the Athens fleet.Seeing that the situation had reversed, Nicias immediately withdrew his troops and took a defensive position. He wrote a letter and sent it to Athens, asking for reinforcements.After receiving the letter, the Athens Citizens Assembly immediately named the generals Demosthenes and Eurymiton, led 73 warships, 5000 heavy infantry and more light infantry to Sicily for reinforcements, determined to carry the war to the end.

After Demosthenes led the reinforcements to Sicily, relying on superior forces, shortly after landing, he took the initiative to launch a night attack on the Epipole Heights that the enemy had regained control.The coalition forces of Syracuse and Sparta resisted tenaciously and killed 2000 Athenian troops, defeating the Athenians' attempt.Only then did Demosthenes realize that the situation was worse than expected, especially the morale was low, and the officers and soldiers were looking forward to returning home.In addition, the military camp was set up in a swampy area, and the number of soldiers who became ill was increasing day by day.Therefore, he proposed to Nicias to retreat immediately.But Nicias was afraid of taking responsibility for failure and insisted on continuing to fight.At this moment, Sparta sent reinforcements to Sicily, the Syracusans recruited more troops, and the Athenian army's superiority in numbers was lost.Nicias was shocked when he heard the news, and finally decided to evacuate as soon as possible.

The whole army boarded the warship and prepared to return home.Perhaps it was God's will in the dark, just at this time, a lunar eclipse occurred.Nicias, who was always cautious, immediately ordered to stop the action, and summoned a fortune teller to make a fortune teller. The inscription was that the army could not be moved until another three nine days, that is, 3 days later.So the withdrawal was delayed again.At the moment when decisions were most needed, Nicias kept making decisions, pushing the expeditionary army to a dead end.The Syracusans and Spartans did not stop fighting because of the eclipse, and they launched a fierce attack on the Athenians. On September 9, a fierce battle broke out in the bay. 27 Syracuse warships defeated 9 Athenian warships, and the Athenian general Eurymidon died in battle.The wrecked ship was forced to return to its berth.The Syracusans took the opportunity to block the exit of the bay and completely blocked the Athenian navy.

At this point, Nicias could no longer care about God's will, and ordered all the troops, except those left behind, to board the ship and fight the enemy overnight.The next day, a fierce battle never seen before took place in the harbor of Sicily.After the warships approached and collided, the soldiers on both sides used javelins, stones, and feathered arrows to kill them.The battle lasted for a long time, and the Athenians finally failed to withstand it and collapsed first.Nicias had no choice but to evacuate the warship with the remnants and retreat inland.

Naval battles were the specialty of the Athenians, while land battles were the forte of the Spartans.Under the siege and interception of the Syrian and Sri Lankan coalition forces, the Athenians fell in batches.On the morning of the sixth day, the coalition forces surrounded Demosthenes' 6 defenders and forced them to surrender. Then they caught up with Nicias. The main forces of the two sides fought fiercely. Captured, the Athenian army was wiped out.

After the war, the Syracusans and Spartans broke their promise and executed Nicias and Demosthenes.All but a few captured Athenian soldiers were sold into slavery.

In the Battle of Sicily, Athens lost nearly [-] people, and its national strength was greatly damaged.Since then, the Athens Maritime Alliance began to disintegrate, and the dream of dominating Greece disappeared.

Wisdom Interpretation:

At the meeting of the Athenians before the expedition, Nicias' opinion was rejected, which resulted in the annihilation of the entire army, and completely shattered Athens' dream of dominating.Expedition is something that most people decide, but it is proved to be wrong, and only Nicias is right.This just shows that the truth is often in the hands of a few people.

Truth will not be outnumbered, if one day you hold the fire of truth in your hands, then please always believe that strong winds cannot blow it, heavy rain cannot water it, and no amount of people can move it.

(End of this chapter)