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[[File: PEP FIVE.jpg|thumbnail|200px|A tower that was once part of ancient Syracuse]]
==The Sicilian Expedition==
Athens was a radical democracy and every male citizen could vote on matters such as the declaration of peace and war. Its political system energized the Athenians and made them very formidable. However, Thucydides, a former Athenian general believed that Athenian democracy was flawed and that it leads to dangerous policies <ref>Thucydides, 4, 7</reref>. He makes clear that one such policy was the Sicilian Expedition. When Sparta and Athens agreed to the Peace of Nicias in 421, the Athenians for the first time in years were at peace. Instead of using the peace to re-build their strength the Athenian popular assembly voted to send an expedition to Sicily, to conquer the island. Thucydides believed that this was an example of Athenian arrogance and was a failure of the radical democracy in the city, which gave power to those with no education or experience.<ref> Thucydides, 7. 2</ref>. Alcibiades had been one of the main promoters of the invasion of Sicily. He was popular in the city because of his charisma and his success at the Olympics<ref> Plutarch. The rise and fall of Athens (Penguin, London, 1978), p. 67</ref>. He was a consummate politician but also utterly amoral. He was initially voted to be one of the generals in charge of the expedition. The Athenian general Nicias was given command of the huge Athenian armada. He was a competent but over-cautious general <ref>Plutarch. p. 89</ref>. Many believe that the expedition was doomed from the start as the Athenians failed to consider the sheer scale of the challenges involved in conquering Sicily<ref> Donald Kagan, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (Cornell, Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 67</ref>.When the Athenian navy arrived in Sicily they had some success. This large and rich island was divided among several Greek city states in the center and east of the island. In the west of the island, the Carthaginians had established several large settlements. At first, the expedition went well. Several cities allied themselves with the Athenians. However, soon the Athenian generals quarreled among themselves <ref>Kagan, p 78</ref>. Eventually, they agreed that they would attack and seize Syracuse, which was the greatest Greek city-state in Sicily. Alcibiades urged caution and wanted the Athenians to find more allies before it attacked the great city of Syracuse.
Syracuse was led by a very capable politician and general Hermocrates. He acted swiftly and established an anti-Athenians coalition among many Sicilian city-states and allied Syracuse with Sparta and the Peloponnesian League <ref>Thucydides. 7. 2<ref>. Despite this, the Athenians secured much of the east of the island of Sicily after defeating a Syracuse army. Hermocrates, whom Thucydides likens to Pericles then prepared his city for a siege and could persuade several Athenian allies to remain neutral. Now, there was a scandal in Athens and Alcibiades was implicated in it. He was charged with impiety and was summoned back to Athens, he refused fearing for his life and fled. This was a blow to the expedition as he was arguably the Athenians best general <ref>Kagan, p 145</ref>. Nicias was then in complete control of the expedition and he decided to besiege the city of Syracuse. He had the Athenian army build a string of fortification around the city and used the large Athenian armada to blockade the city by sea. The Athenians tried many times to take the city but each time they were beaten back. They could receive reinforcements under the general Demosthenes<ref>Plutarch. p. 145</ref>. Hermocrates could secure support from Sparta and their allies. Despite this, the Athenians could continue to besiege the city <Plutarch, p. 179</ref>. In 413 BC, the Spartans suspecting that the Athenians had overextended themselves declared war on Athens and ended the Peace of Nicias. This meant that the Athenians could no longer send reinforcements to Sicily. One by one Athens allies in Sicily abandoned her. The army and the navy under Nicias continued the siege but with Spartan support, the Syracuse’s launched a counter-attack and their ships defeated the Athenian navy<ref> Kagan, Donald, The Fall of the Athenian Empire (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987), p. 215</ref>. The Athenian army raised the siege after the Syracuse Navy defeated the Athenian fleet. Nicias ordered a retreat and in a subsequent battle at the River Anapus, the retreating Athenians were almost annihilated. Thucydides describes the defeat graphically ‘At last, when many dead now lay piled one upon another in the stream, and part of the army had been destroyed at the river, and the few that escaped from thence cut off by the cavalry’, <ref> Thucydides, 7-85. Those Athenians who were not killed in the battle were enslaved and many worked to death in the quarries near Syracuse.
[[File: PEP SIX.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Athenian and Syracuse Ships in a battle]]
The Athenian Empire was not doomed by the defeat outside Syracuse but it made it more likely. Athens did secure some victories but by 404 BCE the city was left at the mercy of its enemies after the Spartans, with the help of the Persians, after their navy was shattered at the Battle of Aegospotami. Sparta and its allies besieged Athens and it was forced to surrender. It later was stripped of its Empire and the city’s walls.
[[File: PEP ONE.jpg|thumbnail|200px|A bust of Pericles]]
==The Oligarchy in Athens==
The great defeat in Sicily not only weakened the city militarily but also politically. Many of the traditional elite and the aristocracy had never been reconciled to the democracy. They wanted a return to oligarchy, that is the rule of the few<ref> Kallet, p. 234</ref>. They attributed the defeat to the democrats and they believed that if the city was to be saved that Athens had to change its form of government. Then there was the fiscal strain produced by the defeat outside Syracuse. The Athenian democracy began to make more and more demands on the rich of the city and these were so exorbitant that many wealthy people were left penniless. This caused great resentment among the old aristocracy<ref>Kallet, p. 235</ref>. However, the democracy was still supported by the mass pf citizens, especially the hoplites and the oarsmen. Alcibiades and others became involved in a plot to oust the democracy. During a difficult time for the Athenians, the plotters took their chance and seized power from the democrats. The oligarchy was known as the 400 and it ended the radical democracy in the city. They did continue the war, even though many of them were secretly pro-Spartan. The oligarchy was divided and it was succeeded by a more moderate form of oligarchy government the 5000 <ref>Kagan, p. 313</ref>. The Athenians all the while continued their war and after a victory at the Battle of Cyzicus took place in 410 BC, when an Athenian fleet destroyed a Spartan navy. This led to a backlash against the oligarchy and it soon fell and was replace, once more by democracy. The disaster in Sicily was to exacerbate political divisions in Athens and led to great political instability. This was to undermine the Athenian efforts in the war. For example, it failed to capitalize on its great victory at Cyzicus<ref>Kagan, p. 323</ref>. The aftermath of the Sicilian Expedition was that it divided Athens between democrats and oligarchs and this undermined its efforts.
