The aftermath of the defeat in Sicily
Alcibiades' desertion turned out to cause Athens more trouble after the catastrophic
end of the Sicilian expedition in 413.
While at Sparta he advised the Spartan
commanders to establish a permanent base of operations in the Attic
countryside.1 In 413 they acted on his advice. Taking advantage of Athenian
weakness in the aftermath of the enormous losses in men and equipment sustained in
Sicily, they installed a garrison at
Decelea2 in
northeastern Attica, in sight of the walls of Athens itself only a few miles distant.
Spartan forces could now raid the Athenian countryside year around instead of only for
a limited time, as in the earlier years of the war when the annual invasions
dispatched from Sparta could never linger longer than forty days in Athenian
territory. The presence of the garrison made agricultural work in the fields of Attica
too dangerous and forced Athens to rely on food imported by sea even more heavily than
in the past. The
damage to Athenian fortunes increased3 when twenty thousand slaves owned by the state and who worked in Athens'
silver mines4 ran away to seek refuge in the Spartan camp. The loss of these slave miners
put a stop to the flow of revenue from the veins of silver ore. So immense was the
distress caused by the crisis that an extraordinary change was made in Athenian
government:
a board of ten officials was appointed to manage the affairs of the
city, virtually supplanting the council of five hundred.5
