Athens half a day later.
A dove flew trough the air coming close to a sewer entrance.
Before it could land it got grabbed out of the air.
A dirty looking men took the small paper scroll stuck to the bird.
On the note just a few words were noticeable.
Let it blaze.
The men looked around before letting the dove go and returning to the sewers.
He moved deeper and deeper until he got to a open space lighted by candles.
"Sir I got orders from Sparta."
The filthy men said.
A few men looking like beggers were surrounding a map of Athens.
All weak points were noted and the routes to important infrastructure were marked.
Different plans were being worked out here.
And the information, and plans Deimos took back from the hand of Persia was a big help.
The head of the Spartan spy operation looked up to the informant.
They had been working as spies for the last two years.
And some even longer.
So it's finally time to make our move.
The same was happening in two other city's.
Named Thebes and Corinth.
Sparta would first cripple their fleets, so that they could not sent reinforcements to Athens during the upcoming war.
And they would cripple Athens so that they could not escape through the sea, and break the coming siege of Athens.
Athens would be isolated both by sea and land.
Deep in the night the spies of Sparta made their move.
Heloten slaves were orderd to infiltrate the Athenian military harbour.
The Spartans would take out the watch and the slaves would break the oil pots on the ships, and set them on fire.
The group of heloten made their way down a slope.
More than 200 ships were laying in the harbour.
Normally there would be less but a lot of ships returned for restorations before the war against Sparta.
But the more than 150 heloten who had been smuggled into Athens by the Spartan spies were trained to know no fear.
They would not shy away from this enormous task even if it cost them their lives.
Their families were still in Sparta, and they had been promised freedom if they succeeded in this task.
But even if they died here their families had been promised ownership of land, and their children would be true citizens of Sparta.
This undertaking would not go unnoticed normally, but Athens was too busy with itself to truely invest attention and energy in this war.
There was a tyrant ruling Athens at this time and a civilwar was up and coming.
The only reason they participated in the war against Sparta was because of the Oracle in Delphi.
But the bigger reason was because they could not pass this change, to either cut of the family line of agiad or give a heavy blow to the military strength of their rivals.
They were now in sweet oblivion not knowing a predator known as Sparta was growling before their gates.
They fashioned themselves the worshippers of Athena the goddess of strategic warfare.
Missing the ironie of their hubris.
They never thought Sparta would ever play foul in war that was their thing.
Political and strategic warfare was their expertise.
Sparta may have a more disciplined army and stronger men.
But they had tactics, they never saw this night coming.
Fire started spreading trough the Athenian ships crewmembers sleeping on board were burning alive.
Big dust and oil explosions were going of making the ships burn only faster and faster.
"Fire fire help with putting it out"
But no matter how much they threw dirt and water on the ships they only burned harder.
The oil kept spreading and burning over the water surface.
Catching other ships on fire and extending the chaos.
In the end 3/4 of the ship docked in the Athenian military harbour were burned and sank to the bottom.
Only 50 ships survived.
And before they could sail out of the harbour, they were blocked by a fleet of over 100 ships who had been on standby waiting for this day.
The Athenian ships got intercepted and took over by the Spartans.
The exhausted Athenian sailors could not muster up a good fight and were swiftly chained.
The harbour was taken over by the Spartans who were now waiting for the troops led by Leonidas so that they could barricade Athens.
And lay siege to the city.
On the sea battles were being fought between Athens patrolling warships and Spartans fleets.
Some battles were won and some were lost.
The point was that the Athenian could not go and support Athens, and they could not restock their supplies making it a long drawn out battle.
That got more in Sparta's favor the longer it kept going.
Three days later Leonidas finally arrived at Athens gates.
Panic had already set in for the Athenians realizing they could not get out of this now.