Dangerous Counsel: Accountability and Advice in Ancient Greece by Matthew Landauer;

Author:Matthew Landauer; [Landauer, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL000000 POLITICAL SCIENCE / General
ISBN: 9780226654010
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2019-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

IV. Conclusion

I want to close with a discussion of the Sicilian expedition, the Athenian defeat that serves as the climax of Thucydides’ narrative. Thucydides’ portrayal of the debates over the decision to invade Sicily both confirms and undermines Diodotus’ and Cleon’s analyses of Athenian discursive practices. In 415 BCE, at the urging of their allies the Egestans, the Athenian assembly votes to send an expedition—led by Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus—to Sicily to aid the Egestans in a conflict against the Selinuntians (6.8). Notwithstanding this pretext, Thucydides claims that they were really motivated by a wish “to rule over the whole island”: to expand their empire into the western Mediterranean (6.6.1). This was an ambitious and audacious plan, not least because, although now at peace with the Spartans (since 421 BCE), relations were still unstable. Without even knowing it—Thucydides stresses Athenian ignorance of Sicily’s population and size—Athens was committing itself to a second “war on almost the same scale as that against the Peloponnesians” (6.1.1). A second assembly meeting is held to discuss the outfitting of the expedition, and here Thucydides records the speeches of Nicias and Alcibiades. Nicias speaks against the expedition, urging the Athenians to reconsider “whether it is right to send the ships at all” (6.9.1); Alcibiades speaks in favor. When it looks as though the Athenians will follow Alcibiades’ advice, Nicias takes a risk: “realising that he could now no longer deter them by repeating his original arguments but that he might perhaps change their minds by stressing the scale of the resources required” (6.19.2), he proceeds to describe the immensity of the undertaking (6.19–23). As Thucydides writes, “The result was just the opposite of what he had expected—they thought that he had given them good advice and that now the safety of the enterprise would be fully assured. Everyone alike had fallen in love with the voyage. . . . And so, in the face of this extreme passion on the part of the majority, anyone who felt otherwise was afraid of seeming disloyal if he voted against and therefore held his peace” (6.24). The assembly subsequently votes to send a massive expedition to Sicily. The Athenians are ultimately thoroughly defeated with a tremendous loss of resources and lives. As Thucydides’ concludes the Sicilian narrative, “Few out of many returned home” (7.87.6).

Scholars have long seen parallels between Thucydides’ depiction of the Sicilian debate and Herodotus’ depiction of Xerxes’ war council before the invasion of Greece (analyzed above, in chapter 3). The decision to invade Sicily, like Xerxes’ decision to invade Greece, is the result of an overwhelming (even tyrannical?) desire for empire.56 Both debates take place “after a decision has already been made.”57 Alcibiades and Mardonius are each cast in the role of agitator, attempting to persuade a decision-maker to undertake an invasion that may not be in their best interest. Each does so in part out of personal motives: Mardonius wishes to become governor of Greece, and Alcibiades believes that his successful command of the expedition will “promote both his personal wealth and his reputation” (6.

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