Alcibiades's Defeat For The Athenian

The Sicily expedition is known in history as a great preparation of the Athens and then, great loss. The Athenians put all their money and treasures in this mission, the best troops and ships. It all was done to glorify the Athenian power on the whole Greece. The generals of the expedition were the most professional one, and the Alcibiades played a big role in the art of negotiations and had army’s confidence, to loose him was one of significant losses. The Athens was in depression and did not want to believe in the defeat, the whole state was embarrassed. They lost troops, ships, money and the most important – courage and got the anger of their enemies on a new level. That was the end of the great expedition that became a great defeat for the Athenians. The countless losses only increased the criticism of the conduct of the general as well as political and even soothsayers, responsible for a defeat from unacceptable proportions. The prestigious

First, I want to highlight that the invasion of Melos, the Athenians were under the influence of their military and power success over Melos, especially that they proved to Melians the greatness and the importance of power, not justice. Thus, under the snowball effect, and as the great power they (Athens) wanted to have more and more power, that might played part in the decision making process during the expedition assembly. If the Athenians had not been that sure about their strength and had not such a huge desire to gain a lot of glory being a hegemon, they might have extracted some other meanings from the Melian dialogue. Thucydides emphasized the idea that force without any limits or sense of justice, could generate an uncontrollable desire for infinite gain to enlarge the Empire, especially when there were no logical limits to do