Quote:
Originally Posted by FireGilbert
The Sicilian Expedition (415-413BC): The Peloponnesian War between Athens and allies and Sparta and allies reached a turning point with the Athenian expeditionary force to Sicily. Athens had aligned itself with Sicilian city states against Syracuse and after a request for aid mobilized the expedition. The goals of the expedition were unclear from the start and posed significant risks sending a large force far from home with enemies in their rear. Despite initial success due to unprepared defenders the force quickly lost momentum due to incompetence in a divided leadership structure. The defences of Syracuse held while a Spartan force showed up in numbers to assist. Eventually the entire Athenian land and sea force was killed or captured into slavery. This loss was a significant portion of the overall Athenian forces and turned the war against them. Soon new allies joined the Spartans and 10 years later Athens surrendered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Expedition
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Love ancient Greek history..yeah that was a massive blunder. Also late in the war, Athens sentencing several of their own naval commanders to death after a pivotal naval battle win (???) over Sparta, due to citizen claims of inappropriate conduct in battle during a session in the Athenian democratic process. Which essentially left them with no experienced naval commanders leading into another massive naval battle with Sparta, which effectively knocked Athens out of the war. The blunder was used as an example by non-democratic states for centuries after, as an example why democracy is ineffective.
I really hate the Spartans ha-ha, such meatheads. I also wonder how many people after the movie 300 who loved their defiance in the name of freedom against the Persians, realize those same Spartans less than a century later went crawling back to the Persians begging for help against fellow Greeks in the war (Athens was FAR superior to Sparta in naval warfare), and effectively sold Greek freedom to Persia in the process. Frauds.
EDIT: actually I just realized today is in fact the 2,424th anniversary of the Athenian surrender to Sparta, and end of the Peloponnesian War (and temporary end of democracy).