Gylippus

Gylippus was the Spartan officer who turned the Athenian expedition to Sicily into a catastrophe. He was the son of Cleandridas, an exiled Spartan who had settled at Thurii in southern Italy, and Gylippus may have been a mothax — a man of non-Spartiate birth raised through the Spartan system — which would explain both his ability and his later disgrace. In 414 BC Syracuse, besieged by an Athenian force of unprecedented size, appealed to Sparta. Alcibiades, who had defected from Athens, argued that a Spartan commander should be sent even without an army, because what the Syracusans lacked was direction. Gylippus arrived with four ships and a small force of freed helots and Sicilian allies, landing at Himera and marching across the island. Nicias had been told he was coming and did not intercept him. He entered Syracuse through a gap in the incomplete Athenian siege wall — the wall had almost been finished, and a few days' delay decided the campaign. He then reversed the siege. He built a counter-wall across the Athenian line of circumvallation, took the forts at Plemmyrium, and rebuilt Syracusan morale enough to fight at sea in the confined Great Harbour, where Athenian seamanship counted for nothing and reinforced prows counted for a great deal. The Athenian fleet was destroyed in the harbour in 413 BC, the retreat overland was surrounded, and Nicias and Demosthenes were executed against Gylippus's wishes. He was later convicted of embezzling silver sent from the spoils of Athens and went into exile.

• Lived: 480 BCE – 400 BCE
• Nationality: Spartan
• Roles: general