11. An Impious General’s Defection
When the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC) against Sparta began, Alcibiades quickly gained a reputation for courage and military talent in battle. He also demonstrated that he was a charismatic and persuasive speaker in the Athenian Assembly. A hawk, by 420 BC Alcibiades had become one of Athens’ generals, and strongly opposed reconciliation with Sparta. In 415 BC, he convinced the Assembly to send a massive expedition to invade Sicily and conquer Syracuse. On the eve of sailing, however, statues of the god Hermes throughout the city were desecrated.
Suspicion fell upon Alcibiades, whose dissolute clique had a reputation for drunken vandalism and impiety. He demanded an immediate trial, but his enemies allowed the expedition, whose ranks were disproportionately comprised of Alcibiades’ supporters, to sail on with the charges still hanging over him. Then, after the city had been largely emptied of Alcibiades’ partisans, a ship was sent to Sicily to summon him to return to Athens. There, he would face trial before an Assembly in which his enemies were now a majority. Rather than obey the summons, Alcibiades fled, and defected to Athens’ mortal enemy, Sparta.