Thucydides on Athens’ Goals in Sicily, 427-424 and 415-412 BC

In his review of my Areopagos book, Peter Rhodes (1990: 242) summarized my novel views of the pre-Ephialtic Areopagos and said, ‘With much of this I disagree; but Wallace argues carefully and courteously, and readers may judge that his interpretation of the evidence is to be preferred to mine’. I and my adviser Mr. Badian were moved by Peter’s kind words. Here I present another novel idea, on Thucydides’ statements that Athens’ two expeditions to Sicily aimed to conquer that island. These statements, which frame his accounts of these expeditions, seem inconsistent with various internal remarks, raising the question whether