Alcibiades' Fall

A History of Mankind (120)

Welcome! I'm David Roman and this is my History of Mankind newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone kind and decent forwarded it to you.

If you fit into the latter camp and want to subscribe, then you can click on this little button below:

To check all previous newsletters in the History of Mankind, which is pretty long, you can click here.

The arrival of Spartan troops at Syracuse was the beginning of the end for the Athenian war effort.

A disheartened Nicias wrote to Athens arguing that either the expedition was massively reinforced, or it was withdrawn, again hoping that prudence would win the day; again, he was terribly wrong, and the tenuous Athenian position was reinforced, to his chagrin.

The Syracusans and the Athenians then clashed at sea with extensive use of grappling hooks, while an Athenian night assault on the Epipolae was repulsed with heavy losses for Nicias’ men.

Just as the Athenians were preparing to sail home, a lunar eclipse on August 28, 414 BC, was interpreted as a positive omen by their priests, who urged the anxious Nicias to wait. As he waited, much of the Athenian fleet was destroyed by the Syracusans, leaving the Athenians in a pretty desperate situation. On September 13, a decision was made to withdraw by land, and the maneuver quickly became a rout.