Decelea

Decelea (Greek: Δεκέλεια), modern Dekeleia or Dekelia, Deceleia or Decelia, previous name Tatoi, was an ancient village in northern Attica serving as a source of supplies and trade route connecting Euboea with Athens, Greece. The Spartans took control of Decelea around 413 BCE. With advice from Alcibiades in 415 BCE, the former Athenian General wanted on Athenian charges of religious crimes, the Spartans fortified Decelea as a major Spartan army base in the later stage of the Peloponnesian War, giving them control of rural Attica and isolating Athens from food supplies delivered by land. Rural Attica was a primary land route for delivery of food sources such as livestock from Euboea to Athens, and this decimated Athens, which was concurrently being beaten in the Sicilian Expedition it had undertaken in the west.

Furthermore, the Spartan presence in the rural Attic region, in a deviation from previous policy where Spartans returned home for the winter months, was maintained year round. In conjunction with the addition of Spartan patrols through the Attic countryside, this curtailed the Athenian ability to continue exploiting the Laurium silver mines in southeastern Attica that were the primary source of wealth for the Athenian Empire. With the Spartan control of Decelea, it is estimated by Thucydides, that 20,000 slaves escaped from the mines of Laurium and Thorika along the southeastern coast, to Decelea, from 413 until the close of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE.

References

• Fine, John V. A. The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History. Harvard University Press, 1983.
• McGregor, Malcolm F. The Athenians and their Empire. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1987.

External links

• Decelea by Jona Lendering

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