<P> With the death of Cleon and Brasidas, zealous war hawks for both nations, the Peace of Nicias was able to last for some six years . However, it was a time of constant skirmishing in and around the Peloponnese . While the Spartans refrained from action themselves, some of their allies began to talk of revolt . They were supported in this by Argos, a powerful state within the Peloponnese that had remained independent of Lacedaemon . With the support of the Athenians, the Argives succeeded in forging a coalition of democratic states within the Peloponnese, including the powerful states of Mantinea and Elis . Early Spartan attempts to break up the coalition failed, and the leadership of the Spartan king Agis was called into question . Emboldened, the Argives and their allies, with the support of a small Athenian force under Alcibiades, moved to seize the city of Tegea, near Sparta . </P> <P> The Battle of Mantinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War . The Lacedaemonians, with their neighbors the Tegeans, faced the combined armies of Argos, Athens, Mantinea, and Arcadia . In the battle, the allied coalition scored early successes, but failed to capitalize on them, which allowed the Spartan elite forces to defeat the forces opposite them . The result was a complete victory for the Spartans, which rescued their city from the brink of strategic defeat . The democratic alliance was broken up, and most of its members were reincorporated into the Peloponnesian League . With its victory at Mantinea, Sparta pulled itself back from the brink of utter defeat, and re-established its hegemony throughout the Peloponnese . </P> <P> In the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse . The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian (as were the Spartans), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian . The Athenians felt obliged to assist their ally . </P> <P> The Athenians did not act solely from altruism: rallied on by Alcibiades, the leader of the expedition, they held visions of conquering all of Sicily . Syracuse, the principal city of Sicily, was not much smaller than Athens, and conquering all of Sicily would have brought Athens an immense amount of resources . In the final stages of the preparations for departure, the hermai (religious statues) of Athens were mutilated by unknown persons, and Alcibiades was charged with religious crimes . Alcibiades demanded that he be put on trial at once, so that he might defend himself before the expedition . The Athenians however allowed Alcibiades to go on the expedition without being tried (many believed in order to better plot against him). After arriving in Sicily, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens for trial . Fearing that he would be unjustly condemned, Alcibiades defected to Sparta and Nicias was placed in charge of the mission . After his defection, Alcibiades claimed to the Spartans that the Athenians planned to use Sicily as a springboard for the conquest of all of Italy and Carthage, and to use the resources and soldiers from these new conquests to conquer the Peloponnese . </P>

Why did the spartans and athenians go to war