12. Alcibiades Wore Out His Welcome In Sparta by Sleeping With the King’s Wife
Once in Sparta, Alcibiades turned traitor and advised Athens’ enemy to adopt a strategy that annihilated the Sicilian expedition. The very force that he had organized, convinced Athens to send to Sicily, whose men he once led. The result was the most catastrophic defeat that was suffered by Athens during the war. Out of the tens of thousands of Athenians who took part, only a handful survived: the remainder were either killed outright, or enslaved and worked to death.
Alcibiades also persuaded the Spartans to alter their strategy of marching into Athens’ Attica region each year, burning and looting, then withdrawing and repeating the process the following year. Instead, he had the Spartans establish a permanent base in Attica, from which they could pressure Athens year round. He also went to Ionia, where he stirred Athens’ allies and client states into revolting. However, Alcibiades wore out his welcome in Sparta with another scandal: he was forced to flee for his life after getting caught in bed with Spartan King Agis II’s wife.
