One day in 416 BC, a sailing ship docked at the port of Bailius, and several people jumped off the boat and crossed the harbor city and the long wall to the city of Athens. These men were envoys of Akiste in Sicily, and their country was under attack from Syracuse's ally, Trørensina, and sent them to Athens for assistance.
First, Athens decided to send troops to Sicily
The arrival of these people caused a fierce controversy in Athens. It turned out that at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, most of the city-states of Sicily, including Syracuse, joined the Spartan alliance. Although these city-states did not actually participate in the war, from 427 BC onwards, Athens often stationed fleets there to harass them.
In 424 BC, the Sicilian states negotiated peace and issued an eviction order, asking the Athenian ships to withdraw to their home countries. Athens has always been angry about this matter. Now that Agistai has come to his door for help, it is naturally a good time to re-insert himself into Sicily. But Athens had many difficulties in waging this war.
First, in the days of hand-cranked wooden ships, it was not easy for the Athenians to fight an enemy country thousands of miles away.
Second, Syracuse was powerful after the Persian War, and like Athens and Sparta, was known as one of the three great powers of the Greek world. It is quite difficult to defeat such a country.
Third, behind Syracuse stood a Peloponnesian league headed by Sparta. After Athens sent troops to Sicily, if Sparta moved from behind, Athens would be overwhelmed.
Therefore, General Nissias was adamantly opposed to sending troops to Sicily. However, the Athenians at that time were hot-headed, did not know how much power they really had, and seemed that no matter what they wanted, as long as they were determined to do it, they could do it. Assibid's words and deeds represent this tendency. He said that our fathers had defeated Persia by leaving the enemy behind and had built an empire. It is difficult for anyone to determine how big our empire should be, and history requires us to conquer new lands.
On these grounds, he actively advocated the invasion of Sicily. By taking Sicily, we "may be able to use this victory to become the master of Greece." At the citizens' assembly, Yassibid's opinion was adopted.
The difference between the two and three commanders
One day in the summer of 415 BC, 100 Athenian warships left the port of Bairius, bypassed the Peloponnese, and reached Corsila, where the allies converged. This army is quite large, it has 134 warships, 5,000 heavy infantry, 1,300 light infantry, plus bakers, masonry, carpentry and other auxiliary personnel, the total number of no less than 30,000 people. In addition, there were countless merchants who wanted to make war money, and in order to sell military supplies, booty and prisoners, they followed the fleet by boat. This army crossed from Cosillasi to Ligium at the southern tip of Italy.
In Lidim, the Athenian general disagreed on his next move. There were 3 Athenian generals in command of this fleet. One was Assibide, resourceful but capricious; one was Nissias, calm but indecisive; and La Marcus, bold but less influential.
Nissias advocated that the fleet sail to Percisina, forcing it to reconcile with Agiste, and then flaunting some force off the coast of Sisi and returning triumphantly. In essence, it is still a "and" word. This proposition was opposed by two other generals. They believed that Athens had come so far to "fight," not for "peace." However, the two men had differences on how to fight. Asibid advocated first winning over the city-states of Mesana (in the northwest corner of Sicily), and then with allies and bases, then Tusuragu.
LaMarcas believed that the Athenians should take advantage of the fact that the Athenians had come to cause panic to the enemy and immediately attack Syracuse. This would not only be better for victory, but also the grain and property of Syracuse would fall into the hands of the Athenians before they could be moved into the city. At that time, Syracuse's neighbors would also see the opportunity and fall to Athens.
Originally, to reconcile, the proposition of Nisias should have been adopted. To fight, one should accept La Macas's opinion. Historically, invaders should only fight quickly, otherwise they will fall into a quagmire. But of the 3 generals, Assibius was the most powerful, and the other two had to obey him.
3. Asibid returned to China for trial
When the plan was decided, the Athenian fleet sailed to Sicily to win over the allies. The Athenians ran several city-states, and not only did they ally themselves with them, but even refused him entry. Later, the Athenians, through intrigue and trickery, captured Katana and moved their base camp from Lijim here.
Just then, the Athenian warship Saraminia suddenly sailed to Katana, and the crew was ordered by the Athenian Citizens' Assembly to return as ahmed and several others to return home for trial.
It turned out that before the Athenian fleet set off, many of the statues of Thelmean god (the Greek god of handicrafts and commerce) in the streets were destroyed at night. Assibid's political enemies said that it was At's behest that Assibid had done it. Assibid knew that the intention of the political enemy was not to get him back to his country to be tried fairly, but to get rid of him from the political dance. So he pretended to be on trial, surrendered his military powers, and returned home by ship with the battleship Salaminia. When the ship reached Jorigi in southern Italy, he managed to escape. The Athenians learned of this and sentenced him to death in absentia.
Fourth, the Athenians' plan to move the tiger away from the mountain
Now, the expeditionary force was left with only two generals, Nicilis and La Macaso. They divided the army into two parts. By drawing lots, the respective armies to be commanded were determined. By this time it was the winter solstice, and if no action was taken, the Athenians would be more passive. So they decided to attack Syracuse.
One day, a Katanah came to Syracuse and claimed to be pro-Syracuse. He told the generals of Syracuse that the Athenians were far away from their weapons while they slept in Katana, and that if Syracuse attacked Katana at night, they would be able to defeat the Athenians by responding from within. General Syracuse believed it to be true, and immediately agreed with the visitors on the date of action. When the date arrived, they arrived at Katana at dawn. But here they did not find a single Athenian soldier. It turned out that this was a plan set up by the Athenians to move the tiger away from the mountain.
As soon as the Syracuses set foot on the road to Katana, all the Athenians of Katana boarded their warships, bypassed the ancient city of Syracuse, and landed on the west bank of the Grand Harbor to the south of the city. Occupy a place in the Olympion area and set up camp. But the Athenian occupation of this area was not a good idea, and did not deal a fatal blow to Syracuse. Soon they abandoned the area and returned to Katana and Naxos (a city-state north of Katarna). There they replenished their supplies and cavalry, preparing for another battle the following year.
5. The Siege of Syracuse in Athens
In the summer of 414 BC, the Athenians began an attack on the ancient city of Syracuse. The city is built on a land that protrudes into the sea, shaped like a duck, and consists of two parts: the inner city and the outer city. The inner city is on the south side, like a duck's head. The outer city is in the north, like a duck's back. There is a harbor in the southwest of the inner city called the Grand Port. Between the eastern part of the inner city and the outer city, there is a harbor called the little port. The eastern, southern and northern walls of the city are close to the coast, the walls are strong, and the coast is steep and cannot be climbed. Only the outer city is connected to the land to the west. To the west of the city is a plateau called Epipolis, overlooking the ancient city of Syracuse. The only way to capture the ancient city of Syracuse is to start from here.
One morning, the Syracuses were inspecting the heavily armored troops on the banks of the Anapes River southwest of the city, and the Athenians secretly climbed up Epipoli from the northwest corner. When the Syracuses heard the news, they immediately went to meet the enemy, but due to lack of order, they lost the battle, killing 300 people and retreating into the city. The Athenians pursued the attack and marched to Seki (meaning place where fig trees were planted) in central Endeburi, where they built a circular fortress called a ring fortress. Then, starting from the ring plug, the city wall was built in both the south and north directions. The Athenians intended to build from Troquilas on the north coast to the Grand Port to the south, and to build the wall into two parallel lanes, with garrisons in the middle.
As soon as this wall is repaired, it will completely cut off Syracuse's land connection with the rest of Sicily. In order to resist the Siege of athens, Syracuses twice built defensive walls perpendicular to the blockade walls, starting with the city, but both failed due to the Athenian attack (the Athenian general Ramacas was killed in the battle to destroy the wall). In the end, the walls of Athens were largely repaired (a small section to the north was not repaired, but heavily guarded), and Syracuse became an isolated city. The Syracuses were already desperate and began to discuss the terms of surrender with Nisias. However, at this critical juncture, Spartan reinforcements reached Sicily.
6. Spartan reinforcements arrive
Sparta had long wanted to send troops to Sicily, and the arrival of Jasibide made it finally determined. When Asibide heard that Athens had sentenced him to death in absentia, he angrily uttered the following words: "I want them to know that I am alive." When he was invited to Sparta, he added to the athenian expedition to Sicily: first to conquer Sicily, then to Italy, and then to Carthage. Then take the army of 3 regions and return to the division to attack the Peloponnese. After the victory over Sparta, Athens became the "master of the Greek world".
Assibide had been a general in Athens and one of the commanders of the expedition to Sicily, and was certainly clear about the purpose of the expedition to Athens. His words really made the Spartans shudder. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Assibide made two more proposals, one was to ask Sparta to send troops to Sicily, and the other was that Sparta would build a Dicilian fortress north of the city of Athens and garrison it for a long time. The Spartans accepted both recommendations and appointed Gillips as commander, immediately leading troops in support of Sicily.
Due to the tight schedule, Gillips took only 4 warships (carrying 700 warriors) first, and Corinth's 12 warships set off later. After Gillips arrived in Sicily, he gathered 3,000 native soldiers there and attacked the Epipolis from the west.
Seeing reinforcements, Syracuses suspended negotiations with Neseas and returned to battle. They fought with the Spartans and built a single wall from the ancient city of Syracus to the west through the blockade walls of Epipolis and Athens. Nissias saw that as long as the single wall of Syracuse was repaired, the north of the wall would become the domain of Syracuse, and Athens would lose contact with the outside world through the north, so he sent troops to occupy the Area of Primion on the south bank of the Grand Port to prepare a retreat for the Athenians.
VII. Athens changed from "besieger" to "besieged"
Soon, 12 warships led by the Corinthians arrived, and they helped the forces of the Syracians and Gillips to repair the defensive walls. As a result, Nisias's plan to blockade the ancient city of Syracuse was completely bankrupt.
With the arrival of enemy reinforcements, the defeat of the war, the failure of the blockade, and the successive blows, Nesias's mood was extremely heavy. Under such difficult conditions, his kidney disease became more and more serious, which made him feel more and more painful, and he thought left and right, there was no way out, and had to send a letter of help to Athens with a deep heart.
The letter said that the Athenians were in a very bad position in Sicily, and that the whole of Sicily had now united against the Athenians. Since the arrival of Peloponnesian reinforcements to Sicily, Athens has changed from besieger to besieger. Next, the enemy will take advantage of the superiority of the army to seize the Athenian fortress, and at the same time will send a navy to fight the Athenians. However, the Athenian warships were not dried, the bones were decayed, the slaves and Gentiles on board fled, the remaining sailors were exhausted by hunger and the torment of war, and the combat effectiveness of the navy was greatly reduced; the Allies here no longer supported Athens when they saw the opportunity. Thus the Athenian army could not compete with the enemy. Finally, Nissias asked Athens to withdraw this army, or to send another expeditionary force, and demanded that he be relieved of his duties and appointed another commander.
The Athenians read the letter and did not want to withdraw their troops. It was decided to send another large army to Sicily, and to send Demostinius and Ulyssimilten to command the battle with Nissias.