Decelea , modern
Dekeleia or
Dekelia,
Deceleia or
Decelia (previous
Modern Greek name
Tatoi, Τατόι), 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.