About this episode

The episode discusses the catastrophic aftermath of the Sicilian Expedition and its implications for Athens.

Athens doesn’t just lose a battle in Sicily, it loses the foundation of its power. We start with Thucydides’ brutal assessment of the Sicilian Expedition: a fleet shattered, an army trapped, commanders executed, and survivors driven into captivity. Then we follow the story where it gets even more unsettling, back home in Athens, as rumors arrive that sound too impossible to believe. A city that has lived on naval dominance for generations suddenly has to imagine life without triremes, without...

People in this episode

Host: Mark Selleck

Topics covered

• Sicilian Expedition
• Athenian history
• naval dominance
• military defeat
• political consequences

Keywords

• Sicilian Expedition
• Thucydides
• Athens
• naval power
• military history
• political turmoil

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Athens, Sicily

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