Nicias

The Plutarch Podcast

Nicias helps us understand why losers are still worth studying. Like Cassandra, he prophesied for the Athenian people that they could not defeat Syracuse and then when selected as a leader for the expedition, he comes quite close to overturning his own prophecy.
See the full show notes here.
Parallel: Crassus

Important People

• Cleon - The first demagogue to exert influence after Pericles's death, he prosecuted the war against Sparta fairly succesfully, though at much greater loss of life than Pericles had, only to die about 10 years after the war had begun in a battle to regain a former Athenian conquest: Amphipolis.
• Alcibiades - Brazen and unpredictable, this student of Socrates will get his fair treatment in the life right after this one. He makes an appearance here as a pro-war demagogue, talented general, and traitor to the Athenians.
• Lamachus - One of the original three generals sent to Syracuse. He dies in a duel he initiated against a Syracusan commander.
• Demosthenes - Not the orator of a couple generations later. A talented general during the Peloponnesian War that is sent to replace Alcibiades and Lamachus and bring fresh perspective and troops.
• Gylippus - The Spartan general hired by the Syracusans to lead their troops and defeat Athens. With the help of the Corinthian naval commander Gongylus, he succeeds.

Important Places

Delos - An island in the middle of the Aegean Sea, sacred to Apollo, on which Nicias funds an elaborate choral festival. It used to be the site of the taxes collected for the Delian League, but under Pericles this money had been moved to Athens. Many historians take this move to signal the death of the League and the beginning of the Athenian Empire.

Syracuse - Largest and wealthiest polis on the island of Sicily, Syracuse had made enough enemies who sought the help of Athens in freeing them from Syracuse's oversight.

Egesta (Segesta) and Leontini - The smaller Sicilian poleis that ask Athens for help against Syracuse.

Plemmyrium (see map below) - The strategic promontory which Nicias controls for much of the battle against Syracuse. Control of this promontory allows him access to his supply lines back in Athens by means of the sea. When he loses access to this, his situation grows dire rather quickly as retreat is almost entirely cut off.

Epipolae (see map below) - A triangular plateau rising above the city of Syracuse allowing a view inside the city. Since it is surrounded on all sides by cliffs, it's also an easily defensible position. While Nicias captures this strategically important landmass, he also uses its position to oversee the siege of Syracuse as he orders his soldier to build a wall around the entire polis, about the same size, according to Plutarch, as the wall around Athens.

Thapsus - Nicias's chosen landing point, about 5 miles north of Syracuse (not on the map below). Fun fact: it happens to be the archaeological site in which archaeologists have found the oldest signs of an inhabited town on the island of Sicily.

Support the show