Pylos 425 B.C.
The battle of Pylos (425 BC) was the first part of a two-part battle most famous the surrender of a force of Spartan hoplites trapped on the island of Sphacteria (Great Peloponnesian War). The occupation of Pylos wasn't the result of an official Athenian policy. In 425 BC the city if Messina on Sicily had revolted against Athens, and in response the Athenians decided to send a fleet to Sicily. Demosthenes was not one of the generals appointed to command this fleet, but he was allowed to accompany the fleet and suggest operations that they could carry out while sailing around the Peloponnese. Demosthenes already had a plan in mind when he joined the fleet. He wanted to occupy the rocky headland of Pylos in the south-west of the Peloponnese, fortify it and use it as a base to raid Spartan territory. The headland was forty-five miles to the west of Sparta in territory that had once belonged to the Messenia, a city that had been Sparta's great local rival two centuries earlier befo...