Decelea

Decelea (Greek: Δεκέλεια), modern Dekeleia or Dekelia, Deceleia or Decelia, previous name Tatoi, was an ancient village in northern Attica serving as a trade route connecting Euboea with Athens, Greece. The historian Herodotus (9.73) reports that its citizens enjoyed a special relationship with Sparta. The Spartans took control of Decelea around 413 BCE. With advice from Alcibiades in 415 BCE, the former Athenian general wanted on Athenian charges of religious crimes, the Spartans and their allies, under Agis the Spartan king, fortified Decelea as a major military post in the later stage of the Peloponnesian War, giving them control of rural Attica and cutting off the primary land route for food imports. This was a serious blow to Athens, which was concurrently being beaten in the Sicilian Expedition it had undertaken in the west.