The Sicilian Expedition is the decisive event in the Peloponnesian war, and in his account, Thucydides makes sure the reader is aware of this fact. Thucydides conveys the importance of this event through direct statements and also literary and narrative techniques in his writing.

In the beginning of book six of his history, Thucydides makes an allusion to Troy, which stresses an air of historical importance for the narration of the Sicilian expedition. Although the Trojan war and the campaign in Sicily are very different in respect to time period and outcome, they do contain several similarities. One similarity is the size of the armies in both expeditions . Although most likely exaggerated, the multitude that left to sack Troy was definitely a sizable force involving enough men for ten years of war. The numbers that Thucydides gives in his account of the Athenian host shows that it too...