Sicilian Expedition
E80798
The Sicilian Expedition was a massive Athenian military campaign against Syracuse in Sicily (415–413 BCE) that ended in catastrophic defeat and marked a major turning point in the Peloponnesian War.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sicilian Expedition canonical | 19 |
| Sicilian Expedition narrative | 1 |
| Sicilian phase of the Peloponnesian War | 1 |
| Siege of Syracuse | 1 |
| siege of Syracuse | 1 |
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Athenian military expedition
ⓘ
military campaign ⓘ |
| armySize | thousands of hoplites and light troops ⓘ |
| authorizedBy |
Athenian Assembly (Ekklesia)
ⓘ
surface form:
Athenian Assembly
|
| belligerent |
Delian League
ⓘ
surface form:
Allies of Athens
Arcadians ⓘ
surface form:
Allies of Syracuse
Athens ⓘ Syracuse ⓘ |
| cause |
Athenian ambition to expand influence in Sicily
ⓘ
Athenian desire to aid Egesta against Selinus ⓘ |
| characterizedAs | one of the greatest military disasters in Athenian history ⓘ |
| civilization |
Greek Antiquity
ⓘ
surface form:
Ancient Greece
|
| commander |
Alcibiades
ⓘ
Lamachus ⓘ Nicias ⓘ |
| conflict | Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
| consequence |
encouragement of revolts among Athenian allies
ⓘ
increased Spartan confidence ⓘ severe loss of Athenian ships and men ⓘ weakening of Athenian military power ⓘ |
| counterTactic | Syracusan counter-walls ⓘ |
| describedIn | History of the Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
| endDate | 413 BCE ⓘ |
| era | Classical Greece ⓘ |
| fleetSize | over 130 triremes in initial force ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | major factor in eventual Athenian defeat in the Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
| involved | ostracized leader Alcibiades recalled to stand trial ⓘ |
| location |
Sicily
ⓘ
Syracuse ⓘ |
| notableEvent |
Athenian failure to capture Syracuse
ⓘ
Athenian naval defeat in the Great Harbor of Syracuse ⓘ arrival of Spartan general Gylippus in Sicily ⓘ retreat and destruction of Athenian land forces ⓘ |
| opposingCommander |
Gylippus
ⓘ
Hermocrates ⓘ |
| outcome |
capture of many Athenian soldiers
ⓘ
destruction of Athenian expeditionary force ⓘ |
| partOf | Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
| politicalContext | Athenian democracy during the Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
| precededBy | Athenian debate over the expedition in the Assembly ⓘ |
| primarySourceAuthor | Thucydides ⓘ |
| result |
catastrophic Athenian defeat
ⓘ
decisive Syracusan victory ⓘ |
| startDate | 415 BCE ⓘ |
| strategy | attempt to besiege Syracuse ⓘ |
| tactic | construction of siege walls around Syracuse ⓘ |
| turningPointIn | Peloponnesian War ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sicilian Expedition Description of subject: The Sicilian Expedition was a massive Athenian military campaign against Syracuse in Sicily (415–413 BCE) that ended in catastrophic defeat and marked a major turning point in the Peloponnesian War.
Referenced by (23)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Siege of Syracuse
this entity surface form:
Sicilian Expedition narrative
this entity surface form:
siege of Syracuse
this entity surface form:
Sicilian phase of the Peloponnesian War