The Night of the Herms 415 BC
Early summer 415 BC, Athens. The Assembly has voted to send 134 triremes to Sicily, and you are one of the generals who will lead the expedition. At dawn before the sailing, the herms all over the city are found with their faces smashed. You are Alcibiades, aged 35, and in the crowd packed into the agora someone speaks your name.
Historical background
After the Peace of Nicias halted the Peloponnesian War in 421 BC, the most conspicuous young man in the Athenian Assembly was Alcibiades, raised as Pericles' ward. He brought Argos and Mantinea over to Athens, and at the Olympic Games of 416 he entered seven chariots and took first, second and fourth places. When Segesta in Sicily asked for help in 415, he overrode Nicias' opposition and persuaded the Assembly to vote a great expedition against Syracuse. The generals were three: Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus. But one night before the sailing the city's herms were mutilated, and soon Alcibiades was accused of mocking the Eleusinian Mysteries with his friends. He asked to be tried at once, but the Assembly put off the trial until after the expedition.
After the fleet reached Sicily, the state ship Salaminia came to fetch him. On the way back Alcibiades vanished at Thurii in Italy, and Athens condemned him to death in his absence. Going to Sparta, he urged the Spartans to send the general Gylippus to Syracuse and to fortify Decelea in Attica. In 413 the expedition was destroyed at Syracuse; Nicias and Demosthenes were executed and the survivors were shut in the quarries. In 412 Alcibiades detached Chios and the Ionian allies from Athens, then, to escape Spartan suspicion, went over to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. When the oligarchy of the Four Hundred took power in Athens in 411, the fleet at Samos elected him general; he destroyed the Spartan fleet at Cyzicus in 410, recovered Byzantium in 408 and returned to Athens in 407. But in 406, when his helmsman Antiochus was defeated at Notium in his absence, he was driven out again and withdrew to his castle in Thrace, and in 405 the Athenian fleet was captured at Aegospotami. After Athens surrendered in 404 he was killed by assassins in a village in Phrygia.
Who you are
You begin as Alcibiades, aged 35, of the house of the Eurysacidae. Your father Cleinias fell at Coronea, your mother Deinomache was an Alcmaeonid, and Pericles raised you. You have no land, but you have plenty of gold, renown, Wit and a general's command. Your wife Hipparete died two years ago, and your son Alcibiades, born that same year, is in Athens. Your brother Cleinias, your teacher Socrates, and Nicias and Lamachus, who lead the expedition with you, are at your side, and Timaea, queen of Sparta, the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, Thrasybulus of Samos and Timandra, a hetaira from Sicily, enter this life in turn.
Two ways to start
This scenario can be started in two ways. As the character puts you in the place of the person described on this page, to live out their story. At this moment keeps the same year and the same world, but you choose your seat, gender, age and home region yourself; instead of the character's own story events, the great moments of that time reach you in a form that fits the seat you chose.
Seats you can choose “At this moment”
- Rower in the expedition fleet — A thete, one drachma a day
- Son of an accused cavalry family — One of Alcibiades' drinking companions
- Metic of the Piraeus — A shield-maker without citizenship
- Horseman of Syracuse — A family that follows Hermocrates
- Spartan warrior — A Spartiate who has finished the agoge
Or start as someone elsewhere and pick your home region yourself.
Turning point: If the Sicilian Expedition had succeeded
The backbone of this scenario is the turning point of 413 BC, "If the Sicilian Expedition had succeeded". When the Salaminia comes for you in 414 BC, vanishing at Thurii and going to Sparta moves the odds sharply towards the expedition's collapse, while staying with the trial put off until after the expedition, or returning acquitted from Athens, moves them sharply towards victory. If the expedition collapses, the branch of real history runs through Decelea and Chios, the garden of Tissaphernes, Samos, Cyzicus, Byzantium, your return, Notium and Aegospotami to "Fire at Melissa" in 404 BC; if it wins, a different branch, in which you become general of Ortygia, face Carthage and are urged in a victorious Athens to make yourself tyrant, goes on to 401 BC.
Sides you can take
- Stay with the expedition Have the trial put off until after the expedition, or win acquittal, and return to Sicily. This road leads to a world where Athens takes Syracuse.
- Go to Sparta Leave the ship at Thurii and go to Sparta. By urging Gylippus and Decelea you move the odds towards the road real history took.
Tips
Questions and answers
How close is this scenario to real history?
The chariot race at Olympia in 416 BC, the mutilation of the herms and the charge of profaning the Mysteries in 415, the Sicilian Expedition led with Nicias and Lamachus, the recall by the Salaminia and the flight at Thurii, the death sentence in absentia, the sending of Gylippus and the fort at Decelea in 413, the destruction at Syracuse, the revolt of Chios and Tissaphernes in 412, the Four Hundred and the fleet at Samos in 411, Cyzicus in 410, Byzantium in 408, the return on the day of the Plynteria in 407, Notium in 406, Aegospotami in 405, the surrender of Athens and the Thirty in 404, and the death in Phrygia are historical. Alcibiades and his family, Timaea and Timandra are real people too. The starting map, realms, real historical figures and the major events of the current of history follow actual history. The hero you play when you start “As the character” and their family are mostly real people, while some of the companions, rivals and loves around you are fictional people who could have lived in that age. Once you start, history may diverge according to your choices and those of the AI rulers.
What station do I start in?
You start as Alcibiades, a 35-year-old man of the Athenian cavalry class, belonging to Athens. You hold no land, you are a widower with a young son, and as general you lead the Sicilian Expedition.
Is it free? Can I play right away?
Yes. Crown & Plough is a free browser game with no account and nothing to install. The "Start in this scene" button on this page opens the scenario's intro screen directly, and progress is saved automatically in your browser. It works on phones too.