The Siege of SyracuseIntroductionThe Siege of Syracuse took place in 415 BC, in Syracuse, Sicily. Although the Athenians ultimately lost to the Syracusans, it changed Greece forever. There were three main points of the battle: the war and the war, the days of retreat and also the important people. The groups that fought this war were the Syracusans, the Athenians and also the Spartans. This battle also had an unexpected end for the Athenians and all the city-states of Greece. War and Warfare The battle plans of the war were brilliantly executed by building walls to cut off supplies. This was done by the Athenians because they had to drive them out of their village unprepared for battle. But the Syracusans built counter-walls which made it impossible to encircle the village. Then both sides brought in reinforcements, but Athens suffered terrible losses and also had to retreat. They did not withdraw because Nicias saw the full moon and had a misunderstanding because of this religious belief. Nicias thought this meant staying another 27 days. During these 27 days, the Syracusans blocked the entrance to the port, so that the Athenians could do nothing but retreat into the desert. Nicias is not solely responsible for the ultimate disaster. Some Athenians, including the popular leader Hyperbolus, wanted even bigger things, like an attack on Carthage. But for now, the official plan was to only support the allies, and the unspoken goal was to conquer the island. (“Ready” 1) By having a retreat plan, the Athenians still had hope of winning the battle, but it was not executed as it was supposed to be. ("Wright" 43) Days of the Retreat When they retreated, they... ... middle of paper ...... he stopped the war for 27 days because of the full moon. Even though he stopped the war, he was only doing what he believed in. Every ruler had an end to his reign, Nicias too. He surrendered after being defeated at the Grand Port. The same day he was executed (“Sicilian”). Although we are not sure of the important leaders of Syracuse, we still have strong evidence of who they were. Like all battles, this one also had an ending which included the execution of leaders at the Eventually, the Syracusans defeated the Athenians. This was predicted by most people at that time because the Athenians did not have a strong land force, they had a strong navy, but they did not use it. The reason this was so important to history is because it changed Athens forever..