Gylippus
Gylippos
Spartan mothax (son of the exiled Spartan commander Cleandridas by a helot mother — the mothakes were helot-born men raised alongside Spartiate boys and given partial citizenship on military merit), sent to Syracuse in spring 414 BC on the advice of Alcibiades, who had defected to Sparta with the Athenian plans (Thuc. 6.91.4 for Alcibiades's advice; Thuc. 6.93.2 for the Spartan decision to act on it). Landed at Himera in the autumn with only four ships and a small relief force but, by drawing on the Syracusan resources already in place, organised the counter-walls that broke the Athenian circumvallation (Thuc. 7.1–6, the decisive tactical pivot of the whole war) — after Gylippus arrived, Thucydides says plainly, the Athenians began to lose. Took Nicias's surrender in the marsh near Syracuse in September 413 (Thuc. 7.85) and wanted to lead him back to Sparta alive as a prize; the Syracusan and Corinthian commanders overruled him and had Nicias executed on the spot with Demosthenes. Disgraced in 404 BC for embezzling a portion of the Athenian tribute Lysander had sent home from Decelea — one of the first Spartan corruption scandals the post-war aristocracy could not cover up (Plut. *Lys.* 16–17 + *Nic.* 28).