Alastair Blanshard

Up to 20,000 or so slaves flee. The countryside is no longer as safe as it used to be. Spartan raiding parties come out. So there's a lot of that. There's also, I think, an increasing dissatisfaction with things like the military capacity of their soldiers. So we start to see the rise of use of mercenaries. In fact, for the Sicilian expedition, they bring in a whole lot of mercenaries.

Up to 20,000 or so slaves flee. The countryside is no longer as safe as it used to be. Spartan raiding parties come out. So there's a lot of that. There's also, I think, an increasing dissatisfaction with things like the military capacity of their soldiers. So we start to see the rise of use of mercenaries. In fact, for the Sicilian expedition, they bring in a whole lot of mercenaries.

It all goes badly. So yes, there's all sorts of things. there. The mercenaries arrive too late to join the Sicilian expedition, and so they've got all these mercenaries, they don't know what to do with them. So they send them back home, and along the way, these mercenaries commit the most astonishing atrocities.

It all goes badly. So yes, there's all sorts of things. there. The mercenaries arrive too late to join the Sicilian expedition, and so they've got all these mercenaries, they don't know what to do with them. So they send them back home, and along the way, these mercenaries commit the most astonishing atrocities.

It all goes badly. So yes, there's all sorts of things. there. The mercenaries arrive too late to join the Sicilian expedition, and so they've got all these mercenaries, they don't know what to do with them. So they send them back home, and along the way, these mercenaries commit the most astonishing atrocities.

Most famously at the city of Mycalesus, they slaughter everyone, including a school full of children, as well as all the women and even the animals as well.

Most famously at the city of Mycalesus, they slaughter everyone, including a school full of children, as well as all the women and even the animals as well.

Most famously at the city of Mycalesus, they slaughter everyone, including a school full of children, as well as all the women and even the animals as well.

Again, it's a warfare that is changing its nature from the early ways in which warfare was done where two armies of hoplites would meet on a flat bit of battle and kind of duke it out to increasingly kind of vicious, nasty, brutish kind of war.

Again, it's a warfare that is changing its nature from the early ways in which warfare was done where two armies of hoplites would meet on a flat bit of battle and kind of duke it out to increasingly kind of vicious, nasty, brutish kind of war.

Again, it's a warfare that is changing its nature from the early ways in which warfare was done where two armies of hoplites would meet on a flat bit of battle and kind of duke it out to increasingly kind of vicious, nasty, brutish kind of war.

It is. And we see them thrashing around for all sorts of solutions. So, for example, in 4.11, they decide to abandon democracy and establish an oligarchy, which is extraordinary. But they think, look, democracy today hasn't succeeded. They increasingly become so desperate that the cult of the individuals starts to take hold. The idea that a great man will solve our problems for us.

It is. And we see them thrashing around for all sorts of solutions. So, for example, in 4.11, they decide to abandon democracy and establish an oligarchy, which is extraordinary. But they think, look, democracy today hasn't succeeded. They increasingly become so desperate that the cult of the individuals starts to take hold. The idea that a great man will solve our problems for us.

It is. And we see them thrashing around for all sorts of solutions. So, for example, in 4.11, they decide to abandon democracy and establish an oligarchy, which is extraordinary. But they think, look, democracy today hasn't succeeded. They increasingly become so desperate that the cult of the individuals starts to take hold. The idea that a great man will solve our problems for us.

That again represents a significant shift. In some ways, more of a significant shift than I think the lurch towards oligarchy is this idea that what we need is a saviour. The saviour figure on everyone's lips in this period is, of course, the extraordinary Alcibiades.

That again represents a significant shift. In some ways, more of a significant shift than I think the lurch towards oligarchy is this idea that what we need is a saviour. The saviour figure on everyone's lips in this period is, of course, the extraordinary Alcibiades.

That again represents a significant shift. In some ways, more of a significant shift than I think the lurch towards oligarchy is this idea that what we need is a saviour. The saviour figure on everyone's lips in this period is, of course, the extraordinary Alcibiades.

There was a bit of a cult of a personality around Pericles, but I'm not sure that Pericles was ever thought of as the saviour of Athens in quite the way that Alcibiades does. I talked about the political clubs, and one of the things we know that they'd start doing is starting to assassinate people who'd spoken out against Alcibiades. Wow.

There was a bit of a cult of a personality around Pericles, but I'm not sure that Pericles was ever thought of as the saviour of Athens in quite the way that Alcibiades does. I talked about the political clubs, and one of the things we know that they'd start doing is starting to assassinate people who'd spoken out against Alcibiades. Wow.

There was a bit of a cult of a personality around Pericles, but I'm not sure that Pericles was ever thought of as the saviour of Athens in quite the way that Alcibiades does. I talked about the political clubs, and one of the things we know that they'd start doing is starting to assassinate people who'd spoken out against Alcibiades. Wow.