2. The Plan to Isolate Alkibiades Backfired on Athens in a Major Way
Rather than obey the summons to face trial in Athens, Alkibiades fled, and defected to Sparta. He advised the Spartans to adopt a strategy that led to the near-complete annihilation of Athens’ Sicilian expedition – the force he had organized, convinced Athens to send to Sicily, and whose men he had once led. It was the most catastrophic defeat suffered by Athens during the war. Of the tens of thousands of Athenians who took part, only a relative handful ever saw Athens again. Those not killed in combat or massacred afterward were enslaved, and sent to Sicilian quarries were they were worked to death.
Alkibiades also convinced the Spartans to abandon their strategy of marching into Athens’ home region of Attica each campaigning season, burning in looting, then retreating and repeating the cycle the following year. Instead, he had the Spartans establish a permanent fortified base in Attica, which allowed them to exert direct pressure on Athens year-round. He also went to Ionia, where he stirred up a revolt against Athens by her allies and subject cities in Asia Minor. However, Alkibiades was notoriously unable to keep it in his pants, and it backfired on him when he was caught in bed with the wife of Sparta’s King Agis II.
