Questions as to keeping the truce, and the mutual distrust and jealousy
between these states increased their antagonism. Athens, now mistress of
the sea, had the ambition, under the incitement of the great Alcibiades,
to acquire complete sway in the Mediterranean.
Perhaps the most important and decisive event of the war was an attack
made (415 B. C.) by Athens upon Syracuse in Sicily, when the Spartans
helped the Syracusans, and which resulted in the total failure of the
expedition (413 B. C.), and great damage to the power of Athens. The
Athenians had sent a more powerful armament against Sicily than had ever
before been turned out in the history of Greece. The consequences of the
defeat of this force were felt all over Greece, the enemies of Athens
were stimulated to much greater activity, and thought that the fate of
that city was sealed.