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The Worst Military Decision in Ancient History
Description
In 415 BCE, Athens made an extraordinary decision: invade Sicily.
The expedition was enormous. Confidence was high. And one of its chief architects was Alcibiades—a brilliant, charismatic, and notoriously unpredictable Athenian politician and general.
Then everything began to unravel.
Before the campaign was properly underway, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens to face charges of sacrilege. Instead of returning, he defected to Sparta—and began advising Athens' greatest enemy on how to defeat the expedition he had helped create.
Over the next two years, strategic mistakes, political interference, disease, and Spartan intervention turned the campaign into catastrophe. The Athenian fleet was destroyed, its army surrendered, and thousands of survivors were imprisoned in the stone quarries of Syracuse.
The disaster devastated Athenian power during the Peloponnesian War.
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