                                      75 AD
                                     NICIAS
                                   ?-413 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
NICIAS

  CRASSUS, in my opinion, may most properly be set against Nicias, and
the Parthian disaster compared with that in Sicily. But here it will
be well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not to think
that I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically, vividly,
and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond himself,
expressed by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like folly with
Timaeus, who, hoping in his history to surpass Thucydides in art,
and to make Philistus appear a trifler and a novice, pushes on in
his descriptions, through all the battles, sea-fights, and public
speeches, in recording which they have been most successful, without
meriting so much as to be compared, in Pindar's phrase, to-

                "One that on his feet
         Would with the Lydian cars compete."

He simply shows himself all along a half-lettered, childish writer; in
the words of Diphilus-

               " ---of wit obese,
         O'erlarded with Sicilian grease."

Often he sinks to the very level of Xenarchus, telling us that he
thinks it ominous to the Athenians that their general, who had victory
in his name, was unwilling to take command in the expedition; and that
the defacing of the Hermae was a divine intimation that they should
suffer much in the war by Hermocrates, the son of Hermon; and,
moreover, how it was likely that Hercules should aid the Syracusans
for the sake of Proserpine, by whose means he took Cerberus, and
should be angry with the Athenians for protecting the Egesteans,
descended from Trojan ancestors, whose city he, for an injury of their
king Laomedon, had overthrown. However, all these may be merely
other instances of the same happy taste that makes him correct the
diction of Philistus, and abuse Plato and Aristotle. This sort of
contention and rivalry with others in matter of style, to my mind,
in any case, seems petty and pedantic, but when its objects are
works of inimitable excellence, it is absolutely senseless. Such
actions in Nicias's life as Thucydides and Philistus have related,
since they cannot be passed by, illustrating as they do most
especially his character and temper, under his many and great
troubles, that I may not seem altogether negligent, I shall briefly
run over. And such things as are not commonly known, and lie scattered
here and there in other men's writings, or are found amongst the old
monuments and archives, I shall endeavour to bring together; not
collecting mere useless pieces of learning, but adducing what may make
his disposition and habit of mind understood.
  First of all, I would mention what Aristotle has said of Nicias,
that there had been three good citizens eminent above the rest for
their hereditary affection and love to the people, Nicias the son of
Niceratus, Thucydides the son of Melesias, and Theramenes the son of
Hagnon, but the last less than the others; for he had his dubious
extraction cast in his teeth, as a foreigner from Ceos, and his
inconstancy, which made him side sometimes with one party, sometimes
with another, in public life, and which obtained him the nickname of
the Buskin.
  Thucydides came earlier, and, on the behalf of the nobility, was a
great opponent of the measures by which Pericles courted the favour of
the people.
  Nicias was a younger man, yet was in some reputation even whilst
Pericles lived; so much so as to have been his colleague in the office
of general, and to have held command by himself more than once. But on
the death of Pericles, he presently rose to the highest place, chiefly
by the favour of the rich and eminent citizens, who set him up for
their bulwark against the presumption and insolence of Cleon
nevertheless, he did not forfeit the good-will of the commonalty, who,
likewise, contributed to his advancement. For though Cleon got great
influence by his exertions-

                                     "---to please
         The old men, who trusted him to find them fees,"

yet even those, for whose interest and to gain whose favour he
acted, nevertheless observing the avarice, the arrogance, and the
presumption of the man, many of them supported Nicias. For his was not
that sort of gravity which is harsh and offensive, but he tempered
it with a certain caution and deference, winning upon the people, by
seeming afraid of them. And being naturally diffident and unhopeful in
war, his good-fortune supplied his want of courage, and kept it from
being detected, as in all his commands he was constantly successful.
And his timorousness in civil life, and his extreme dread of accusers,
was thought very suitable in a citizen of a free state; and from the
people's good-will towards him, got him no small power over them, they
being fearful of all that despised them, but willing to promote one
who seemed to be afraid of them; the greatest compliment their betters
could pay them being not to contemn them.
  Pericles, who by solid virtue and the pure force of argument ruled
the commonwealth, had stood in need of no disguises nor persuasions
with the people. Nicias, inferior in these respects, used his
riches, of which he had abundance, to gain popularity. Neither had
he the nimble wit of Cleon to win the Athenians to his purposes by
amusing them with bold jests; unprovided with such qualities, he
courted them with dramatic exhibitions, gymnastic games, and other
public shows, more sumptuous and more splendid than had been ever
known in his or in former ages. Amongst his religious offerings, there
was extant, even in our days, the small figure of Minerva in the
citadel, having lost the gold that covered it; and a shrine in the
temple of Bacchus, under the tripods, that were presented by those who
won the prize in the shows or plays. For at these he had often carried
off the prize, and never once failed. We are told that on one of these
occasions, a slave of his appeared in the character of Bacchus, of a
beautiful person and noble stature, and with as yet no beard upon
his chin; and on the Athenians being pleased with the sight, and
applauding a long time, Nicias stood up, and said he could not in
piety keep as a slave one whose person had been consecrated to
represent a god. And forthwith he set the young man free. His
performances at Delos are, also, on record, as noble and magnificent
works of devotion. For whereas the choruses which the cities sent to
sing hymns to the god were wont to arrive in no order, as it might
happen, and, being there met by a crowd of people crying out to them
to sing, in their hurry to begin, used to disembark confusedly,
putting on their garlands, and changing their dresses as they left the
ships, he, when he had to convoy the sacred company, disembarked the
chorus at Rhenea, together with the sacrifice, and other holy
appurtenances. And having brought along with him from Athens a
bridge fitted by measurement for the purpose, and magnificently
adorned with gilding and colouring, and with garlands and
tapestries: this he laid in the night over the channel betwixt
Rhenea and Delos, being no great distance. And at break of day he
marched forth with all the procession to the god, and led the
chorus, sumptuously ornamented, and singing their hymns, along over
the bridge. The sacrifices, the games, and the feast being over, he
set up a palm-tree of brass for a present to the god, and bought a
parcel of land with ten thousand drachmas which he consecrated; with
the revenue the inhabitants of Delos were to sacrifice and to feast,
and to pray the gods for many good things to Nicias. This he
engraved on a pillar, which he left in Delos to be a record of his
bequest. This same palm-tree, afterwards broken down by the wind, fell
on the great statue which the men of Naxos presented, and struck it to
the ground.
  It is plain that much of this might be vainglory, and the mere
desire of popularity and applause; yet from other qualities and
carriages of the man one might believe all this cost and public
display to be the effect of devotion. For he was one of those who
dreaded the divine powers extremely, and, as Thucydides tells us,
was much given to arts of divination. In one of Pasiphon's
dialogues, it is stated that he daily sacrificed to the gods, and
keeping a diviner at his house, professed to be consulting always
about the commonwealth, but for the most part inquired about his own
private affairs, more especially concerning his silver mines; for he
owned many works at Laurium, of great value, but somewhat hazardous to
carry on. He maintained there a multitude of slaves, and his wealth
consisted chiefly in silver. Hence he had many hangers-on about him,
begging and obtaining. For he gave to those who could do him
mischief no less than to those who deserved well. In short, his
timidity was a revenue to rogues, and his humanity to honest men. We
find testimony in the comic writers, as when Teleclides, speaking of
one of the professed informers, says-

      "Charicles gave the man a pound, the matter not to name,
       That from inside a money-bag into the world he came;
       And Nicias, also, paid him four; I know the reason well,
       But Nicias is a worthy man, and so I will not tell."

So, also, the informer whom Eupolis introduces in his Maricas,
attacking a good, simple, poor man:-

         "How long ago did you and Nicias meet?
          I did but see him just now in the street.

          The man has seen him and denies it not,
         'Tis evident that they are in a plot.

          See you, O citizens! 'tis fact,
          Nicias is taken in the act.

          Taken, Fools! take so good a man
          In aught that's wrong none will or can."

  Cleon, in Aristophanes, makes it one of his threats:-

    "I'll outscream all the speakers, and make Nicias stand aghast."

Phrynichus also implies his want of spirit and his easiness to be
intimated in the verses-

        "A noble man he was, I well can say,
         Nor walked like Nicias, cowering on his way."

  So cautious was he of informers, and so reserved, that he never
would dine out with any citizen, nor allowed himself to indulge in
talk and conversation with his friends, nor give himself any leisure
for such amusements; but when he was general he used to stay at the
office till night, and was the first that came to the council-house,
and the last that left it. And if no public business engaged him, it
was very hard to have access, or to speak with him, he being retired
at home and locked up. And when any came to the door, some friend of
his gave them good words, and begged them to excuse him, Nicias was
very busy; as if affairs of state and public duties still kept him
occupied. He who principally acted this part for him, and
contributed most to this state and show, was Hiero, a man educated
in Nicias's family, and instructed by him in letters and music. He
professed to be the son of Dionysius, surnamed Chalcus, whose poems
are yet extant, and had led out the colony to Italy and founded
Thurii. This Hiero transacted all his secrets for Nicias with the
diviners; and gave out to the people what a toilsome and miserable
life he led for the sake of the commonwealth. "He," said Hiero, "can
never be either at the bath or at his meat but some public business
interferes. Careless of his own and zealous for the public good, he
scarcely ever goes to bed till after others have had their first
sleep. So that his health is impaired and his body out of order, nor
is he cheerful or affable with his friends, but loses them as well
as his money in the service of the state, while other men gain friends
by public speaking, enrich themselves, fare delicately and make
government their amusement." And in fact this was Nicias's manner of
life, so that he well might apply to himself the words of Agamemnon:-

         "Vain pomp's the ruler of the life we live,
          And a slave's service to the crowd we give."

  He observed that the people, in the case of men of eloquence, or
of eminent parts, make use of their talents upon occasion, but were
always jealous of their abilities, and held a watchful eye upon
them, taking all opportunities to humble their pride and abate their
reputation; as was manifest in their condemnation of Pericles, their
banishment of Damon, their distrust of Antiphon the Rhamnusian, but
especially in the case of Paches who took Lesbos, who having to give
an account of his conduct, in the very court of justice unsheathed his
sword and slew himself. Upon such considerations, Nicias declined
all difficult and lengthy enterprises; if he took a command, he was
for doing what was safe; and if, as thus was likely, he had for the
most part success, he did not attribute it to any wisdom, conduct,
or courage of his own, but, to avoid envy, he thanked fortune for all,
and gave the glory to the divine powers. And the actions themselves
bore testimony in his favour; the city met at that time with several
considerable reverses, but he had not a hand in any of them. The
Athenians were routed in Thrace by the Chalcidians, Calliades and
Xenophon commanding in chief. Demosthenes was the general when they
were unfortunate in Aetolia. At Delium they lost a thousand citizens
under the conduct of Hippocrates; the plague was principally laid to
the charge of Pericles, he, to carry on the war, having shut up
close together in the town the crowd of people from the country who,
by the change of place, and of their usual course of living, bred
the pestilence. Nicias stood clear of all this; under his conduct
was taken Cythera, an island most commodious against Laconia, and
occupied by the Lacedaemonian settlers; many places, likewise, in
Thrace, which had revolted, were taken or won over by him; he shutting
up the Megarians within their town, seized upon the isle of Minoa; and
soon after, advancing from thence to Nisaea, made himself master
there, and then making a descent upon the Corinthian territory, fought
a successful battle, and slew a great number of the Corinthians with
their captain Lycophron. There it happened that two of his men were
left by an oversight, when they carried off the dead, which when he
understood, he stopped the fleet, and sent a herald to the enemy for
leave to carry off the dead; though by law and custom, he that by a
truce craved leave to carry off the dead was hereby supposed to give
up all claim to the victory. Nor was it lawful for him that did this
to erect a trophy, for his is the victory who is master of the
field, and he is not master who asks leave, as wanting power to
take. But he chose rather to renounce his victory and his glory than
to let two citizens lie unburied. He scoured the coast of Laconia
all along, and beat the Lacedaemonians that made head against him.
He took Thyrea, occupied by the Aeginetans, and carried the
prisoners to Athens.
  When Demosthenes had fortified Pylos, and the Peloponnesians brought
together both their sea and land-forces before it, after the fight,
about the number of four hundred native Spartans were left ashore in
the isle Sphacteria. The Athenians thought it a great prize, as indeed
it was, to take these men prisoners. But the siege, in places that
wanted water, being very difficult and untoward, and to convey
necessaries about by sea in summer tedious and expensive, in winter
doubtful, or plainly impossible, they began to be annoyed, and to
repent their having rejected the embassy of the Lacedaemonians, that
had been sent to propose a treaty of peace, which had been done at the
importunity of Cleon, who opposed it chiefly out of a pique to Nicias;
for, being his enemy, and observing him to be extremely solicitous
to support the offers of the Lacedaemonians, he persuaded the people
to refuse them.
  Now, therefore, that the siege was protracted, and they heard of the
difficulties that pressed their army, they grew enraged against Cleon.
But he turned all the blame upon Nicias, charging it on his softness
and cowardice, that the besieged were not yet taken. "Were I general,"
said he, "they should not hold out so long." The Athenians not
unnaturally asked the question, "Why, then, as it is, do not you go
with a squadron against them?" And Nicias standing up resigned his
command at Pylos to him, and bade him take what forces he pleased
along with him, and not be bold in words, out of harm's way, but go
forth and perform some real service for the commonwealth. Cleon, at
the first, tried to draw back, disconcerted at the proposal, which
he had never expected; but the Athenians insisting, and Nicias
loudly upbraiding him, he thus provoked, and fired with ambition, took
upon him the charge, and said further, that within twenty days after
he embarked, he would either kill the enemy, upon the place, or
bring them alive to Athens. This the Athenians were readier to
launch at than to believe, as on other occasions, also, his bold
assertions and extravagances used to make them sport, and were
pleasant enough. As, for instance, it is reported that once when the
people were assembled, and had waited his coming a long time, at
last he appeared with a garland on his head, and prayed them to
adjourn to the next day. "For," said he, "I am not at leisure
to-day; I have sacrificed to the gods, and am to entertain some
strangers." Whereupon the Athenians, laughing, rose up, and
dissolved the assembly. However, at this time he had good-fortune, and
in conjunction with Demosthenes, conducted the enterprise so well
that, within the time he had limited, he carried captive to Athens all
the Spartans that had not fallen in battle.
  This brought great disgrace on Nicias; for this was not to throw
away his shield, but something yet more shameful and ignominious, to
quit his charge voluntarily out of cowardice, and voting himself, as
it were, out of his command of his own accord, to put into his enemy's
hand the opportunity of achieving so brave an action. Aristophanes has
a jest against him on this occasion in the Birds:-

          "Indeed, not now the word that must be said
           Is, do like Nicias, or retire to bed."

And, again, in his Husbandmen:-

         "I wish to stay at home and farm,
                               What then?
          Who should prevent you?
                        You, my countrymen;
          Whom I would pay a thousand drachmas down,
          To let me give up office and leave town.
          Enough; content; the sum two thousand is,
          With those that Nicias paid to give up his."

  Besides all this, he did great mischief to the city by suffering the
accession of so much reputation and power to Cleon, who now assumed
such lofty airs, and allowed himself in such intolerable audacity,
as led to many unfortunate results, a sufficient part of which fell to
his own share. Amongst other things, he destroyed all the decorum of
public speaking; he was the first who ever broke out into
exclamations, flung open his dress, smote his thigh, and ran up and
down whilst he was speaking, things which soon after introduced,
amongst those who managed the affairs of state, such licence and
contempt of decency as brought all into confusion.
  Already, too, Alcibiades was beginning to show his strength at
Athens, a popular leader, not, indeed, as utterly violent as Cleon,
but as the land of Egypt, through the richness of its soil, is said-

                   "---great plenty to produce,
         Both wholesome herbs, and drugs of deadly juice,"

so the nature of Alcibiades was strong and luxuriant in both kinds,
and made way for many serious innovations. Thus it fell out that after
Nicias had got his hands clear of Cleon, he had not opportunity to
settle the city perfectly into quietness. For having brought matters
to a pretty hopeful condition, he found everything carried away and
plunged again into confusion by Alcibiades, through the wildness and
vehemence of his ambition, and all embroiled again in war worse than
ever. Which fell out thus. The persons who had principally hindered
the peace were Cleon and Brasidas. War setting off the virtue of the
one and hiding the villainy of the other, gave to the one occasions of
achieving brave actions, to the other opportunity of committing
equal dishonesties. Now when these two were in one battle both slain
near Amphipolis, Nicias was aware that the Spartans had long been
desirous of a peace, and that the Athenians had no longer the same
confidence in the war. Both being alike tired, and, as it were by
consent, letting fall their hands, he, therefore, in this nick of
time, employed his efforts to make a friendship betwixt the two
cities, and to deliver the other states of Greece from the evils and
calamities they laboured under, and so establish his own good name for
success as a statesman for all future time. He found the men of
substance, the elder men, and the land-owners and farmers pretty
generally all inclined to peace. And when, in addition to these, by
conversing and reasoning, he had cooled the wishes of a good many
others for war, he now encouraged the hopes of the Lacedaemonians, and
counselled them to seek peace. They confided in him, as on account
of his general character for moderation and equity, so, also,
because of the kindness and care he had shown to the prisoners taken
at Pylos and kept in confinement, making their misfortune the more
easy to them.
  The Athenians and the Spartans had before this concluded a truce for
a year, and during this, by associating with one another, they had
tasted again the sweets of peace and security and unimpeded
intercourse with friends and connections, and thus longed for an end
of that fighting and bloodshed, and heard with delight the chorus sing
such verses as-

               "----my lance I'll leave
         Laid by, for spiders to o'erweave,"

and remembered with joy the saying, In peace, they who sleep are
awaked by the cock-crow, not by the trumpet. So shutting their ears,
with loud reproaches, to the forebodings of those who said that the
Fates decreed this to be a war of thrice nine years, the whole
question having been debated, they made a peace. And most people
thought, now, indeed, they had got an end of all their evils. And
Nicias was in every man's mouth, as one especially beloved of the
gods, who, for his piety and devotion, had been appointed to give a
name to the fairest and greatest of all blessings. For in fact they
considered the peace Nicias's work, as the war the work of Pericles;
because he, on light occasions, seemed to have plunged the Greeks into
great calamities, while Nicias had induced them to forget all the
evils they had done each other and to be friends again; and so to this
day it is called the Peace of Nicias.
  The articles being, that the garrisons and towns taken or, either
side and the prisoners should be restored, and they to restore the
first to whom it should fall by lot. Nicias, as Theophrastus tells us,
by a sum of money procured that the lot should fall for the
Lacedaemonians to deliver the first. Afterwards, when the
Corinthians and the Boeotians showed their dislike of what was done,
and by their complaints and accusations were well-nigh bringing the
war back again, Nicias persuaded the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians,
besides the peace, to make a treaty of alliance, offensive and
defensive, as a tie and confirmation of the peace, which would make
them more terrible to those that held out, and the firmer to each
other. Whilst these matters were on foot, Alcibiades, who was no lover
of tranquillity, and who was offended with the Lacedaemonians
because of their applications and attentions to Nicias, while they
overlooked and despised himself, from first to last, indeed, had
opposed the peace, though all in vain, but now finding that the
Lacedaemonians did not altogether continue to please the Athenians,
but were thought to have acted unfairly in having made a league with
the Boeotians, and had not given up Panactum, as they should have
done, with its fortifications unrazed, nor yet Amphipolis, he laid
hold on these occasions for his purpose, and availed himself of
every one of them to irritate the people. And, at length, sending
for ambassadors from the Argives, he exerted himself to effect a
confederacy between the Athenians and them. And now, when
Lacedaemonian ambassadors were come with full powers, and at their
preliminary audience by the council seemed to come in all points
with just proposals, he, fearing that the general assembly, also,
would be won to their offers, overreached them with false
professions and oaths of assistance, on the condition that they
would not avow that they came with full powers; this, he said, being
the only way for them to attain their desires. They being
over-persuaded and decoyed from Nicias to follow him, he introduced
them to the assembly, and asked them presently whether or no they came
in all points with full powers, which, when they denied, he,
contrary to their expectation, changing his countenance, called the
council to witness their words, and now bade the people beware how
they trust or transact anything with such manifest liars, who say at
one time one thing, and at another the very opposite upon the same
subject. These plenipotentiaries were, as well they might be,
confounded at this, and Nicias, also being at a loss what to say,
and struck with amazement and wonder, the assembly resolved to send
immediately for the Argives, to enter into a league with them. An
earthquake, which interrupted the assembly, made for Nicias's
advantage; and the next day the people being again assembled, after
much speaking and soliciting, with great ado he brought it about
that the treaty with the Argives should be deferred, and he be sent to
the Lacedaemonians, in full expectation that so all would go well.
  When he arrived at Sparta, they received him there as a good man,
and one well inclined towards them; yet he effected nothing, but,
baffled by the party that favoured the Boeotians, he returned home,
not only dishonoured and hardly spoken of, but likewise in fear of the
Athenians, who were vexed and enraged that through his persuasions
they had released so many and such considerable persons, their
prisoners, for the men who had been brought from Pylos were of the
chiefest families of Sparta, and had those who were highest there in
place and power for their friends and kindred. Yet did they not in
their heat proceed against him, otherwise than that they chose
Alcibiades general, and took the Mantineans and Eleans, who had thrown
up their alliance with the Lacedaemonians, into the league, together
with the Argives, and sent to Pylos freebooters to infest Laconia,
whereby the war began to break out afresh.
  But the enmity betwixt Nicias and Alcibiades running higher and
higher, and the time being at hand for decreeing the ostracism or
banishment, for ten years, which the people, putting the name on a
sherd, were wont to inflict at certain times on some person
suspected or regarded with jealousy for his popularity or wealth, both
were now in alarm and apprehension, one of them, in all likelihood,
being to undergo this ostracism; as the people abominated the life
of Alcibiades, and stood in fear of his boldness and resolution, as is
shown particularly in the history of him; while as for Nicias, his
riches made him envied, and his habits of living, in particular his
unsociable and exclusive ways, not like those of a fellow-citizen,
or even a fellow-man, went against him, and having many times
opposed their inclinations, forcing them against their feelings to
do what was their interest, he had got himself disliked.
  To speak plainly, it was a contest of the young men who were eager
for war, against the men of years and lovers of peace, they turning
the ostracism upon the one, these upon the other. But-

         "In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame."

And so now it happened that the city, distracted into two factions,
allowed free course to the most impudent and profligate persons, among
whom was Hyperbolus of the Perithoedae, one who could not, indeed,
be said to be presuming upon any power, but rather by his
presumption rose into power, and by the honour he found in the city,
became the scandal of it. He, at this time, thought himself far enough
from the ostracism, as more properly deserving, the slave's gallows,
and made account, that one of these men being, despatched out of the
way he might be able to play a part against the other that should be
left, and openly showed his pleasure at the dissension, and his desire
to inflame the people against both of them. Nicias and Alcibiades,
perceiving his malice, secretly combined together, and setting both
their interests jointly at work, succeeded in fixing the ostracism not
on either of them, but even on Hyperbolus. This, indeed, at the
first made sport, and raised laughter among the people; but afterwards
it was felt as an affront, that the thing should be dishonoured by
being employed upon so unworthy a subject; punishment, also, having
its proper dignity, and ostracism being one that was appropriate
rather for Thucydides, Aristides, and such like persons; whereas for
Hyperbolus it was a glory, and a fair ground for boasting on his part,
when for his villainy he suffered the same with the best men. As
Plato, the comic poet, said of him:-

         "The man deserved the fate, deny who can;
          Yes, but the fate did not deserve the man;
          Not for the like of him and his slave-brands,
          Did Athens put the sherd into our hands."

  And, in fact, none ever afterwards suffered this sort of punishment,
but Hyperbolus was the last, as Hipparchus the Cholargian, who was kin
to the tyrant, was the first.
  There is no judgment to be made of fortune; nor can any reasoning
bring us to a certainty about it. If Nicias had run the risk with
Alcibiades whether of the two should undergo the ostracism, he had
either prevailed, and, his rival being expelled the city, he had
remained secure; or, being overcome, he had avoided the utmost
disasters, and preserved the reputation of a most excellent commander.
Meantime I am not ignorant that Theophrastus says, that when
Hyperbolus was banished, Phaeax, not Nicias, contested it with
Alcibiades; but most authors differ from him.
  It was Alcibiades, at any rate, whom when the Aegestean and Leontine
ambassadors arrived and urged the Athenians to make an expedition
against Sicily, Nicias opposed, and by whose persuasions and
ambition he found himself overborne, who, even before the people could
be assembled, had preoccupied and corrupted their judgment with
hopes and with speeches; insomuch that the young men at their
sports, and the old men in their workshops, and sitting together on
the benches, would be drawing maps of Sicily, and making charts
showing the seas, the harbours, and general character of the coast
of the island opposite Africa. For they made not Sicily the end of the
war but rather its starting-point and headquarters from whence they
might carry it to the Carthaginians, and possess themselves of Africa,
and of the seas as far as the pillars of Hercules. The bulk of the
people, therefore, pressing this way, Nicias, who opposed them,
found but few supporters, nor those of much influence; for the men
of substance, fearing lest they should seem to shun the public charges
and ship-money, were quiet against their inclination; nevertheless
he did not tire nor give it up, but even after the Athenians decreed a
war and chose him in the first place general, together with Alcibiades
and Lamachus, when they were again assembled, he stood up, dissuaded
them, and protested against the decision, and laid the blame on
Alcibiades, charging him with going about to involve the city in
foreign dangers and difficulties, merely with a view to his own
private lucre and ambition. Yet it came to nothing. Nicias, because of
his experience, was looked upon as the fitter for the employment,
and his wariness with the bravery of Alcibiades, and the easy temper
of Lamachus, all compounded together, promised such security, that
he did but confirm the resolution. Demostratus, who, of the popular
leaders, was the one who chiefly pressed the Athenians to the
expedition, stood up and said he would stop the mouth of Nicias from
urging any more excuses, and moved that the generals should have
absolute power, both at home and abroad, to order and to act as they
thought best; and this vote the people passed.
  The priests, however, are said to have very earnestly opposed the
enterprise. But Alcibiades had his diviners of another sort, who
from some old prophecies announced that "there shall be great fame
of the Athenians in Sicily," and messengers came back to him from
Jupiter Ammon with oracles importing that "the Athenians shall take
all the Syracusans." Those, meanwhile, who knew anything that boded
ill, concealed it lest they might seem to fore-speak ill-luck. For
even prodigies that were obvious and plain would not deter them; not
the defacing of the Hermae, all maimed in one night except one, called
the Hermes of Andocides, erected by the tribe of Aegeus, placed
directly before the house then occupied by Andocides; or what was
perpetrated on the altar of the twelve gods, upon which a certain
man leaped suddenly up, and then turning round mutilated himself
with a stone. Likewise at Delphi there stood a golden image of
Minerva, set on a palm-tree of brass, erected by the city of Athens
from the spoils they won from the Medes; this was pecked at several
days together by crows flying upon it, who also plucked off and
knocked down the fruit, made of gold, upon the palm-tree. But the
Athenians said these were all but inventions of the Delphians,
corrupted by the men of Syracuse. A certain oracle bade them bring
from Clazomenae the priestess of Minerva there; they sent for the
woman and found her named Hesychia, Quietness, this being, it would
seem, what the divine powers advised the city at this time, to be
quiet. Whether, therefore, the astrologer Meton feared these presages,
or that from human reason he doubted its success (for he was appointed
to a command in it), feigning himself mad, he set his house on fire.
Others say he did not counterfeit madness, but set his house on fire
in the night, and the next morning came before the assembly in great
distress, and besought the people, in consideration of the sad
disaster, to release his son from the service, who was about to go
captain of a galley for Sicily. The genius, also, of the philosopher
Socrates, on this occasion, too, gave him intimation by the usual
tokens, that the expedition would prove the ruin of the
commonwealth; this he imparted to his friends and familiars, and by
them it was mentioned to a number of people. Not a few were troubled
because the days on which the fleet set sail happened to be the time
when the women celebrated the death of Adonis; there being
everywhere then exposed to view images of dead men, carried about with
mourning and lamentation, and women beating their breasts. So that
such as laid any stress on these matters were extremely troubled,
and feared lest that all this warlike preparation, so splendid and
so glorious, should suddenly, in a little time, be blasted in its very
prime of magnificence, and come to nothing.
  Nicias, in opposing the voting of this expedition, and neither being
puffed up with hopes, nor transported with the honour of his high
command so as to modify his judgment, showed himself a man of virtue
and constancy. But when his endeavours could not diverge the people
from the war, nor get leave for himself to be discharged of the
command, but the people, as it were, violently him took up and carried
him, and against his will put him in the office of general, this was
no longer now a time for his excessive caution and his delays, nor was
it for him, like a child, to look back from the ship, often
repeating and reconsidering over and over again how that his advice
had not been over-ruled by fair arguments, thus blunting the courage
of his fellow-commanders and spoiling the season of action. Whereas,
he ought speedily to have closed with the enemy and brought the matter
to an issue, and put fortune immediately to the test in battle. But,
on the contrary, when Lamachus counselled to sail directly to
Syracuse, and fight the enemy under their city walls, and Alcibiades
advised to secure the friendship of the other towns, and then to march
against them, Nicias dissented from them both, and insisted that
they should cruise quietly around the island and display their
armament, and having landed a small supply of men for the Egesteans,
return to Athens, weakening at once the resolution and casting down
the spirits of the men. And while, a little while after, the Athenians
called home Alcibiades in order to his trial, he being, though
joined nominally with another in commission, in effect the only
general, made now no end of loitering, of cruising, and considering,
till their hopes were grown stale, and all the disorder and
consternation which the first approach and view of their forces had
cast amongst the enemy was worn off and had left them.
  Whilst yet Alcibiades was with the fleet, they went before
Syracuse with a squadron of sixty galleys, fifty of them lying in
array without the harbour, while the other ten rowed in to
reconnoitre, and by a herald called upon the citizens of Leontini to
return to their own country. These scouts took a galley of the
enemy's, in which they found certain tablets, on which was set down
a list of all the Syracusans, according to their tribes. These were
wont to be laid up at a distance from the city, in the temple of
Jupiter Olympius, but were now brought forth for examination to
furnish a muster-roll of young men for the war. These being so taken
by the Athenians, and carried to the officers, and the multitude of
names appearing, the diviners thought it unpropitious, and were in
apprehension lest this should be the only destined fulfillment of
the prophecy, that "the Athenians shall take all the Syracusans." Yet,
indeed, this was said to be accomplished by the Athenians at another
time, when Callippus the Athenian, having slain Dion, became master of
Syracuse, But when Alcibiades shortly after sailed away from Sicily,
the command fell wholly to Nicias. Lamachus was, indeed, a brave and
honest man, and ready to fight fearlessly with his own hand in battle,
but so poor and ill-off that, whenever he was appointed general, he
used always, in accounting for his outlay of public money, to bring
some little reckoning or other of money for his very clothes and
shoes. On the contrary, Nicias, as on other accounts, so, also,
because of his wealth and station, was very much thought of. The story
is told that once upon a time the commission of generals being in
consultation together in their public office, he bade Sophocles the
poet give his opinion first, as the senior of the board. "I,"
replied Sophocles, "am the older, but you are the senior." And so now,
also, Lamachus, who better understood military affairs, being quite
his subordinate, he himself, evermore delaying and avoiding risk,
and faintly employing his forces, first by his sailing about Sicily at
the greatest distance aloof from the enemy, gave them confidence, then
by afterwards attacking Hybla, a petty fortress, and drawing off
before he could take it, make himself utterly despised. At the last he
retreated to Catana without having achieved anything, save that he
demolished Hyccara, an humble town of the barbarians, out of which,
the story goes, that Lais the courtesan, yet a mere girl, was sold
amongst the other prisoners, and carried thence away to Peloponnesus.
  But when the summer was spent, after reports began to reach him that
the Syracusans were grown so confident that they would come first to
attack him, and troopers skirmishing to the very camp twitted his
soldiers, asking whether they came to settle with the Catanians, or to
put the Leontines in possession of their city, at last, with much ado,
Nicias resolved to sail against Syracuse. And wishing to form his camp
safely and without molestation, he procured a man to carry from Catana
intelligence to the Syracusans that they might seize the camp of the
Athenians unprotected, and all their arms, if on such a day they
should march with all their forces to Catana; and that, the
Athenians living mostly in the town, the friends of the Syracusans had
concerted, as soon as they should perceive them coming, to possess
themselves of one of the gates, and to fire the arsenal; that many now
were in the conspiracy and awaited their arrival. This was the
ablest thing Nicias did in the whole of his conduct of the expedition.
For having drawn out all the strength of the enemy, and made the
city destitute of men, he set out from Catana, entered the harbour,
and chose a fit place for his camp, where the enemy could least
incommode him with the means in which they were superior to him, while
with the means in which he was superior to them he might expect to
carry on the war without impediment.
  When the Syracusans returned from Catana, and stood in battle
array before the city gates, he rapidly led up the Athenians and
fell on them and defeated them, but did not kill many, their horse
hindering the pursuit. And his cutting and breaking down the bridges
that lay over the river gave Hermocrates, when cheering up the
Syracusans, occasion to say that Nicias was ridiculous, whose great
aim seemed to be to avoid fighting, as if fighting were not the
thing he came for. However, he put the Syracusans into a very great
alarm and consternation, so that instead of fifteen generals then in
service, they chose three others, to whom the people engaged by oath
to allow absolute authority.
  There stood near them the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which the
Athenians (there being in it many consecrated things of gold and
silver) were eager to take, but were purposely withheld from it by
Nicias, who let the opportunity slip, and allowed a garrison of the
Syracusans to enter it, judging that if the soldiers should make booty
of that wealth it would be no advantage to the public, and he should
bear the guilt of the impiety. Not improving in the least this
success, which was everywhere famous, after a few days' stay, away
he goes to Naxos, and there winters, spending largely for the
maintenance of so great an army, and not doing anything except some
matters of little consequence with some native Sicilians that revolted
to him. Insomuch that the Syracusans took heart again, made excursions
to Catana, wasted the country, and fired the camp of the Athenians.
For which everybody blamed Nicias, who, with his long reflection,
his deliberateness, and his caution, had let slip the time for action.
None ever found fault with the man when once at work, for in the brunt
he showed vigour and activity enough, but was slow and wanted
assurance to engage.
  When, therefore, he brought again the army to Syracuse, such was his
conduct, and with such celerity, and at the same time security, he
came upon them, that nobody knew of his approach, when already he, had
come to shore with his galleys at Thapsus, and had landed his men; and
before any could help it, he had surprised Epipolae, had defeated
the body of picked men that came to its succour, took three hundred
prisoners, and routed the cavalry of the enemy, which had been thought
invincible. But what chiefly astonished the Syracusans, and seemed
incredible to the Greeks, was in so short a space of time the
walling about of Syracuse, a town not less than Athens, and far more
difficult, by the unevenness of the ground, and the nearness of the
sea and the marshes adjacent, to have such a wall drawn in a circle
round it; yet this, all within a very little, finished by a man that
had not even his health for such weighty cares, but lay ill of the
stone, which may justly bear the blame for what was left undone. I
admire the industry of the general, and the bravery of the soldiers
for what they succeeded in. Euripides, after their ruin and
disaster, writing their funeral elegy, said that-

         "Eight victories over Syracuse they gained,
          While equal yet to both the gods remained."

And in truth one shall not find eight, but many more victories, won by
these men against the Syracusans, till the gods, in real truth, or
fortune intervened to check the Athenians in this advance to the
height of power and greatness.
  Nicias, therefore, doing violence to his body, was present in most
actions. But once, when his disease was the sharpest upon him, he
lay in the camp with some few servants to attend him. And Lamachus
having the command fought the Syracusans, who were bringing a
cross-wall from the city along to that of the Athenians, to hinder
them from carrying it round; and in the victory, the Athenians
hurrying in some disorder to the pursuit, Lamachus getting separated
from his men, had to resist the Syracusan horse that came upon him.
Before the rest advanced Callicrates, a man of good courage and
skill in war. Lamachus, upon a challenge, engaged with him in single
combat, and receiving the first wound, returned it so home to
Callicrates, that they both fell and died together. The Syracusans
took away his body and arms, and at full speed advanced to the wall of
the Athenians, where Nicias lay without any troops to oppose to
them, yet roused by this necessity, and seeing the danger, he bade
those about him go and set on fire all the wood and materials that lay
provided before the wall for the engines, and the engines
themselves; this put a stop to the Syracusans, saved Nicias, saved the
walls and all the money of the Athenians. For when the Syracusans
saw such a fire blazing up between them and the wall, they retired.
  Nicias now remained sole general, and with great prospects; for
cities began to come over to alliance with him, and ships laden with
corn from every coast came to the camp, every one favouring when
matters went well. And some proposals from among the Syracusans
despairing to defend the city, about a capitulation, were already
conveyed to him. And in fact Gylippus, who was on his way with a
squadron to their aid from Lacedaemon, hearing on his voyage of the
wall surrounding them, and of their distress, only continued his
enterprise thenceforth, that, giving Sicily up for lost, he might,
if even that should be possible, secure the Italians their cities. For
a strong report was everywhere spread about that the Athenians carried
all before them, and had a general alike for conduct and for fortune
invincible.
  And Nicias himself, too, now against his nature grown bold in his
present strength and success, especially from the intelligence he
received underhand of the Syracusans, believing they would almost
immediately surrender the town upon terms, paid no manner of regard to
Gylippus coming to their assistance, nor kept any watch of his
approach, so that, neglected altogether and despised, Gylippus went in
a long-boat ashore without the knowledge of Nicias, and, having landed
in the remotest parts from Syracuse, mustered up a considerable force,
the Syracusans not so much as knowing of his arrival nor expecting
him; so that an assembly was summoned to consider the terms to be
arranged with Nicias, and some were actually on the way, thinking it
essential to have all despatched before the town should be quite
walled round, for now there remained very little to be done, and the
materials for the building lay all ready along the line.
  In this very nick of time and danger arrived Gongylus in one
galley from Corinth, and every one, as may be imagined, flocking about
him, he told them that Gylippus would be with them speedily, and
that other ships were coming to relieve them. And, ere yet they
could perfectly believe Gongylus, an express was brought from
Gylippus, to bid them go forth to meet him. So now taking good
heart, they armed themselves; and Gylippus at once led on his men from
their march in battle array against the Athenians, as Nicias also
embattled these. And Gylippus, piling his arms in view of the
Athenians, sent a herald to tell them he would give them leave to
depart from Sicily without molestation. To this Nicias would not
vouchsafe any answer, but some of his soldiers laughing, asked if with
the sight of one coarse coat and Laconian staff the Syracusan
prospects had become so brilliant that they could despise the
Athenians, who had released to the Lacedaemonians three hundred,
whom they held in chains, bigger men than Gylippus, and longer-haired?
Timaeus, also, writes that even the Syracusans made no account of
Gylippus, at the first sight mocking at his staff and long hair, as
afterwards they found reason to blame his covetousness and meanness.
The same author, however, adds that on Gylippus's first appearance, as
it might have been at the sight of an owl abroad in the air, there was
a general flocking together of men to serve in the war. And this is
the truer saying of the two; for in the staff and the cloak they saw
the badge and authority of Sparta, and crowded to him accordingly. And
not only Thucydides affirms that the whole thing was done by him
alone, but so, also, does Philistus, who was a Syracusan and an actual
witness of what happened.
  However, the Athenians had the better in the first encounter, and
slew some few of the Syracusans, and amongst them Gongylus of Corinth.
But on the next day Gylippus, showed what it is to be a man of
experience; for with the same arms, the same horses, and on the same
spot of ground, only employing them otherwise, he overcame the
Athenians; and they fleeing to their camp, he set the Syracusans to
work, and with the stone and materials that had been brought
together for finishing the wall of the Athenians, he built a
cross-wall to intercept theirs and break it off, so that even if
they were successful in the field, they would not be able to do
anything. And after this the Syracusans taking courage manned their
galleys, and with their horse and followers ranging about took a
good many prisoners; and Gylippus going himself to the cities,
called upon them to join with him, and was listened to and supported
vigorously by them. So that Nicias fell back again to his old views,
and, seeing the face of affairs change, desponded, and wrote to
Athens, bidding them either send another army, or recall this out of
Sicily, and that he might, in any case, he wholly relieved of the
command, because of his disease.
  Before this the Athenians had been intending to send another army to
Sicily, but envy of Nicias's early achievements and high fortune had
occasioned, up to this time, many delays; but now they were all
eager to send off succours. Eurymedon went before, in midwinter,
with money, and to announce that Euthydemus and Menander were chosen
out of those that served there under Nicias to be joint commanders
with him. Demosthenes was to go after in the spring with a great
armament. In the meantime Nicias was briskly attacked, both by sea and
land; in the beginning he had the disadvantage on the water, but in
the end repulsed and sunk many galleys of the enemy. But by land he
could not provide succour in time, so Gylippus surprised and
captured Plemmyrium, in which the stores for the navy, and a great sum
of money being there kept, all fell into his hands, and many were
slain, and many taken prisoners. And what was of greatest
importance, he now cut off Nicias's supplies, which had been safely
and readily conveyed to him under Plemmyrium, while the Athenians
still held it, but now that they were beaten out, he could only
procure them with great difficulty, and with opposition from the
enemy, who lay in wait with their ships under that fort. Moreover,
it seemed manifest to the Syracusans that their navy had not been
beaten by strength, but by their disorder in the pursuit. Now,
therefore, all hands went to work to prepare for a new attempt that
should succeed better than the former. Nicias had no wish for a
sea-fight, but said it was mere folly for them, when Demosthenes was
coming in all haste with so great a fleet and fresh forces to their
succour, to engage the enemy with a less number of ships and ill
provided. But, on the other hand, Menander and Euthydemus, who were
just commencing their new command, prompted by a feeling of rivalry
and emulation of both the generals, were eager to gain some great
success before Demosthenes came, and to prove themselves superior to
Nicias. They urged the honour of the city, which, said they, would
be blemished and utterly lost if they should decline a challenge
from the Syracusans. Thus they forced Nicias to a sea-fight; and by
the stratagem of Ariston, the Corinthian pilot (his trick, described
by Thucydides, about the men's dinners), they were worsted, and lost
many of their men, causing the greatest dejection to Nicias, who had
suffered so much from having the sole command, and now again
miscarried through his colleagues.
  But now by this time Demosthenes with his splendid fleet came in
sight outside the harbour, a terror to the enemy. He brought along, in
seventy-three galleys, five thousand men-at-arms; of darters, archers,
and slingers, not less than three thousand with the glittering of
their armour, the flags waving from the galleys, the multitude of
coxswains and flute-players giving time to the rowers, setting off the
whole with all possible warlike pomp and ostentation to dismay the
enemy. Now one may believe the Syracusans were again in extreme alarm,
seeing no end or prospect of release before them, toiling, as it
seemed, in vain, and perishing to no purpose. Nicias, however, was not
long overjoyed with the reinforcement; for the first time he conferred
with Demosthenes, who advised forthwith to attack the Syracusans,
and to put all to the speediest hazard, to win Syracuse, or else
return home, afraid, and wondering at his promptness and audacity,
he besought him to do nothing rashly and, desperately, since delay
would be the ruin of the enemy, whose money would not hold out, nor
their confederates be long kept together; that when once they came
to be pinched with want, they would presently come again to him for
terms, as formerly. For, indeed, many in Syracuse held secret
correspondence with him, and urged him to stay, declaring that even
now the people were quite worn out with the war and weary of Gylippus.
And if their necessities should the least sharpen upon them they would
give up all.
  Nicias glancing darkly at these matters, and unwilling to speak
out plainly, made his colleagues imagine that it was cowardice which
made him talk in this manner. And saying that this was the old story
over again, the well-known procrastinations and delays and refinements
with which at first he let slip the opportunity in not immediately
falling on the enemy, but suffering the armament to become a thing
of yesterday, that nobody was alarmed with, they took the side of
Demosthenes, and with ado forced Nicias to comply. And so Demosthenes,
taking the land-forces, by night made an assault upon Epipolae; part
of the enemy he slew ere they took the alarm, the rest defending
themselves he put to flight. Nor was he content with this victory
there, but pushed on further, till he met the Boeotians. For these
were the first that made head against the Athenians, and charged
them with a shout, spear against spear, and killed many on the
place. And now at once there ensued a panic and confusion throughout
the whole army; the victorious portion got infected with the fears
of the flying part, and those who were still disembarking and coming
forward falling foul of the retreaters, came into conflict with
their own party, taking the fugitives for pursuers, and treating their
friends as if they were the enemy.
  Thus huddled together in disorder, distracted with fear and
uncertainties, and unable to be sure of seeing anything, the night not
being absolutely dark, nor yielding any steady light, the moon then
towards setting, shadowed with the many weapons and bodies that
moved to and fro, and glimmering so as not to show an object plain,
but to make friends through fear suspected for foes, the Athenians
fell into utter perplexity and desperation. For, moreover, they had
the moon at their backs, and consequently their own shadows fell
upon them, and both hid the number and the glittering of their arms;
while the reflection of the moon from the shields of the enemy made
them show more numerous and better appointed than, indeed, they
were. At last, being pressed on every side, when once they had given
way, they took to rout, and in their flight were destroyed, some by
the enemy, some by the hand of their friends, and some tumbling down
the rocks, while those that were dispersed and straggled about were
picked off in the morning by the horsemen and put to the sword. The
slain were two thousand; and of the rest few came off safe with
their arms.
  Upon this disaster, which to him was not wholly an unexpected one,
Nicias accused the rashness of Demosthenes; but he, making his excuses
for the past, now advised to be gone in all haste, for neither were
other forces to come, nor could the enemy be beaten with the
present. And, indeed, even supposing they were yet too hard for the
enemy in any case, they ought to remove and quit a situation which
they understood to be always accounted a sickly one, and dangerous for
an army, and was more particularly unwholesome now, as they could
see themselves, because of the time of year. It was the beginning of
autumn, and many now lay sick, and all were out of heart.
  It grieved Nicias to hear of flight and departing home, not that
he did not fear the Syracusans, but he was worse afraid of the
Athenians, their impeachments and sentences; he professed that he
apprehended no further harm there, or if it must be, he would rather
die by the hand of an enemy than by his fellow-citizens. He was not of
the opinion which Leo of Byzantium declared to his fellow-citizens: "I
had rather," said he, "perish by you, than with you." As to the matter
of place and quarter whither to remove their camp, that, he said,
might be debated at leisure. And Demosthenes, his former counsel
having succeeded so ill, ceased to press him further; others thought
Nicias had reasons for expectation, and relied on some assurance
from people within the city, and that this made him so strongly oppose
their retreat, so they acquiesced. But fresh forces now coming to
the Syracusans and the sickness growing worse in his camp, he, also,
now approved of their retreat, and commanded the soldiers to make
ready to go aboard.
  And when all were in readiness, and none of the enemy had observed
them, not expecting such a thing, the moon was eclipsed in the
night, to the great fright of Nicias and others, who, for want of
experience, or out of superstition, felt alarm at such appearances.
That the sun might be darkened about the close of the month, this even
ordinary people now understood pretty well to be the effect of the
moon; but the moon itself to be darkened, how that could come about,
and how, on the sudden, a broad full moon should lose her light, and
show such various colours, was not easy to be comprehended; they
concluded it to be ominous, and a divine intimation of some heavy
calamities. For he who the first, and the most plainly of any, and
with the greatest assurance committed to writing how the moon is
enlightened and overshadowed, was Anaxagoras; and he was as yet but
recent, nor was his argument much known, but was rather kept secret,
passing only amongst a few, under some kind of caution and confidence.
People would not then tolerate natural philosophers, and theorists, as
they then called them, about things above; as lessening the divine
power, by explaining away its agency into the operation of
irrational causes and senseless forces acting by necessity, without
anything of Providence or a free agent. Hence it was that Protagoras
was banished, and Anaxagoras cast in prison, so that Pericles had much
difficulty to procure his liberty; and Socrates, though he had no
concern whatever with this sort of learning, yet was put to death
for philosophy. It was only afterwards that the reputation of Plato,
shining forth by his life, and because he subjected natural
necessity to divine and more excellent principles, took away the
obloquy and scandal that had attached to such contemplations, and
obtained these studies currency among all people. So his friend
Dion, when the moon, at the time he was to embark from Zacynthus to go
against Dionysius, was eclipsed, was not in the least disturbed, but
went on, and arriving at Syracuse, expelled the tyrant. But it so fell
out with Nicias, that he had not at this time a skilful diviner with
him; his former habitual adviser who used to moderate much of his
superstition, Stilbides, had died a little before. For, in fact,
this prodigy, as Philochorus observes, was not unlucky for men wishing
to fly, but on the contrary very favourable; for things done in fear
require to be hidden, and the light is their foe. Nor was it usual
to observe signs in the sun or moon more than three days, as
Autoclides states in his Commentaries. But Nicias persuaded them to
wait another full course of the moon, as if he had not seen it clear
again as soon as ever it had passed the region of shadow where the
light was obstructed by the earth.
  In a manner abandoning all other cares, he betook himself wholly
to his sacrifices, till the enemy came upon them with their
infantry, besieging the forts and camp, and placing their ships in a
circle about the harbour. Nor did the men in the galleys only, but the
little boys everywhere got into the fishing-boats and rowed up and
challenged the Athenians, and insulted over them. Amongst these a
youth of noble parentage, Heraclides by name, having ventured out
beyond the rest, an Athenian ship pursued and well-nigh took him.
His uncle Pollichus, in fear for him, put out with ten galleys which
he commanded, and the rest, to relieve Pollichus, in like manner
drew forth; the result of it being a very sharp engagement, in which
the Syracusans had the victory, and slew Eurymedon, with many
others. After this the Athenian soldiers had no patience to stay
longer, but raised an outcry against their officers, requiring them to
depart by land; for the Syracusans, upon their victory, immediately
shut and blocked up the entrance of the harbour; but Nicias would
not consent to this, as it was a shameful thing to leave behind so
many ships of burden, and galleys little less than two hundred.
Putting, therefore, on board the best of the foot, and the most
serviceable darters, they filled one hundred and ten galleys; the rest
wanted oars. The remainder of his army Nicias posted along by the
seaside, abandoning the great camp and the fortifications adjoining
the temple of Hercules; so the Syracusans, not having for a long
time performed their usual sacrifice to Hercules, went up now, both
priests and captains, to sacrifice.
  And their galleys being manned, the diviners predicted from their
sacrifices victory and glory to the Syracusans, provided they would
not be the aggressors, but fight upon the defensive; for so Hercules
overcame all, by only defending himself when set upon. In this
confidence they set out; and this proved the hottest and fiercest of
all their sea-fights, raising no less concern and passion in the
beholders than in the actors; as they could oversee the whole action
with all the various and unexpected turns of fortune which, in a short
space, occurred in it; the Athenians suffering no less from their
own preparations, than from the enemy; for they fought against light
and nimble ships, that could attack from any quarter, with theirs
laden and heavy. And they were thrown at with stones that fly
indifferently any way, for which they could only return darts and
arrows, the direct aim of which the motion of the water disturbed,
preventing their coming true, point foremost to their mark. This the
Syracusans had learned from Ariston the Corinthian pilot, who,
fighting stoutly, fell himself in this very engagement, when the
victory had already declared for the Syracusans.
  The Athenians, their loss and slaughter being very great, their
flight by sea cut off, their safety by land so difficult, did not
attempt to hinder the enemy towing away their ships, under their eyes,
nor demanded their dead, as, indeed, their want of burial seemed a
less calamity than the leaving behind the sick and wounded which
they now had before them. Yet more miserable still than those did they
reckon themselves, who were to work on yet, through more such
sufferings, after all to reach the same end.
  They prepared to dislodge that night. And Gylippus and his friends
seeing the Syracusans engaged in their sacrifices and at their cups,
for their victories, and it being also a holiday, did not expect
either by persuasion or by force to rouse them up and carry them
against the Athenians as they decamped. But Hermocrates, of his own
head, put a trick upon Nicias, and sent some of his companions to him,
who pretended they came from those that were wont to hold secret
intelligence with him, and advised him not to stir that night, the
Syracusans having laid ambushes and beset the ways. Nicias, caught
with this stratagem, remained, to encounter presently in reality
what he had feared when there was no occasion. For they, the next
morning, marching before, seized the defiles, fortified the passes
where the rivers were fordable, cut down the bridges, and ordered
their horsemen to range the plains and ground that lay open, so as
to leave no part of the country where the Athenians could move without
fighting. They stayed both that day and another night, and then went
along as if they were leaving their own, not an enemy's country,
lamenting and bewailing for want of necessaries, and for their parting
from friends and companions that were not able to help themselves;
and, nevertheless, judging the present evils lighter than those they
expected to come. But among the many miserable spectacles that
appeared up and down in the camp, the saddest sight of all was
Nicias himself, labouring under his malady, and unworthily reduced
to the scantiest supply of all the accommodations necessary for
human wants, of which he in his condition required more than ordinary,
because of his sickness, yet bearing up under all this illness, and
doing and undergoing more than many in perfect health. And it was
plainly evident that all this toil was not for himself, or from any
regard to his own life, but that purely for the sake of those under
his command he would not abandon hope. And, indeed, the rest were
given over to weeping and lamentation through fear or sorrow, but
he, whenever he yielded to anything of the kind, did so, it was
evident, from reflection upon the shame and dishonour of the
enterprise, contrasted with the greatness and glory of the success
he had anticipated, and not only the sight of his person, but, also,
the recollection of the arguments and the dissuasions he used to
prevent this expedition enhanced their sense of the undeservedness
of his sufferings, nor had they any heart to put their trust in the
gods, considering that a man so religious, who had performed to the
divine powers so many and so great acts of devotion, should have no
more favourable treatment than the wickedest and meanest of the army.
  Nicias, however, endeavoured all the while by his voice, his
countenance, and his carriage, to show himself undefeated by these
misfortunes. And all along the way shot at, and receiving wounds eight
days continually from the enemy, he yet preserved the forces with
him in a body entire, till that Demosthenes was taken prisoner with
the party that he led, whilst they fought and made a resistance, and
so got behind and were surrounded near the country house of Polyzelus.
Demosthenes thereupon drew his sword, and wounded but did not kill
himself, the enemy speedily running in and seizing upon him. So soon
as the Syracusans had gone and informed Nicias of this, and he had
sent some horsemen, and by them knew the certainty of the defeat of
that division, he then vouchsafed to sue to Gylippus for a truce for
the Athenians to depart out of Sicily, leaving hostages for payment of
money that the Syracusans had expended in the war.
  But now they would not hear of these proposals, but threatening
and reviling them, angrily and insultingly continued to ply their
missiles at them, now destitute of every necessary. Yet Nicias still
made good his retreat all that night, and the next day, through all
their darts, made his way to the river Asinarus. There, however, the
enemy encountering them, drove some into the stream, while others,
ready to die for thirst, plunged in headlong, while they drank at
the same time, and were cut down by their enemies. And here was the
cruellest and the most immoderate slaughter. Till at last Nicias
falling down to Gylippus, "Let pity, O Gylippus," said he, "move you
in your victory; not for me, who was destined, it seems, to bring
the glory I once had to this end but for the other Athenians; as you
well know that the chances of war are common to all, and the Athenians
used them moderately and mildly towards you in their prosperity."
  At these words, and at the sight of Nicias, Gylippus was somewhat
troubled, for he was sensible that the Lacedaemonians had received
good offices from Nicias in the late treaty, and he thought it would
be a great and glorious thing for him to carry off the chief
commanders of the Athenians alive. He therefore raised Nicias with
respect, and bade him be of good cheer, and commanded his men to spare
the lives of the rest. But the word of command being communicated
slowly, the slain were a far greater number than the prisoners.
Many, however, were privately conveyed away by particular soldiers.
Those taken openly were hurried together in a mass; their arms and
spoils hung up on the finest and largest trees along the river. The
conquerors, with garlands on their heads, with their own horses
splendidly adorned, and cropping short the manes and tails of those of
their enemies, entered the city, having, in the most signal conflict
ever waged by Greeks against Greeks, and with the greatest strength
and the utmost effort of valour and manhood won a most entire victory.
  And a general assembly of the people of Syracuse and their
confederates sitting, Eurycles, the popular leader, moved, first, that
the day on which they took Nicias should from thenceforward be kept
holiday by sacrificing and forbearing all manner of work, and from the
river he called the Asinarian Feast. This was the twenty-sixth day
of the month Carneus, the Athenian Metagitnion. And that the
servants of the Athenians with the other confederates be sold for
slaves, and they themselves and the Sicilian auxiliaries be kept and
employed in the quarries, except the generals, who should be put to
death. The Syracusans favoured the proposals, and when Hermocrates
said, that to use well a victory was better than to gain a victory, he
was met with great clamour and outcry. When Gylippus, also, demanded
the Athenian generals to be delivered to him, that he might carry them
to the Lacedaemonians, the Syracusans, now insolent with their
good-fortune, gave him ill words. Indeed, before this, even in the
war, they had been impatient at his rough behaviour and
Lacedaemonian haughtiness, and had, as Timaeus tells us, discovered
sordidness and avarice in his character, vices which may have
descended to him from his father Cleandrides, who was convicted of
bribery and banished. And the very man himself, of the one thousand
talents which Lysander sent to Sparta, embezzled thirty, and hid
them under the tiles of his house, and was detected and shamefully
fled his country. But this is related more at large in the life of
Lysander. Timaeus says that Demosthenes and Nicias did not die, as
Thucydides and Philistus have written, by the order of the Syracusans,
but that upon a message sent them from Hermocrates, whilst yet the
assembly were sitting, by the connivance of some of their guards, they
were enabled to put an end to themselves. Their bodies, however,
were thrown out before the gates and offered for a public spectacle.
And I have heard that to this day in a temple at Syracuse is shown a
shield, said to have been Nicias's, curiously wrought and
embroidered with gold and purple intermixed. Most of the Athenians
perished in the quarries by diseases and ill diet, being allowed
only one pint of barley every day, and one half pint of water. Many of
them, however, were carried off by stealth, or, from the first, were
supposed to be servants, and were sold as slaves. These latter were
branded on their foreheads with the figure of a horse. There were,
however, Athenians who, in addition to slavery, had to endure even
this. But their discreet and orderly conduct was an advantage to them;
they were either soon set free, or won the respect of their masters
with whom they continued to live. Several were saved for the sake of
Euripides, whose poetry, it appears, was in request among the
Sicilians more than among any of the settlers out of Greece. And
when any travellers arrived that could tell them some passage, or give
them any specimen of his verses, they were delighted to be able to
communicate them to one another. Many of the captives who got safe
back to Athens are said, after they reached home, to have gone and
made their acknowledgments to Euripides, relating how that some of
them had been released from their slavery by teaching what they
could remember of his poems, and others, when straggling after the
fight, been relieved with meat and drink for repeating some of his
lyrics. Nor need this be any wonder, for it is told that a ship of
Caunus fleeing into one of their harbours for protection, pursued by
pirates, was not received, but forced back, till one asked if they
knew any of Euripides's verses, and on their saying they did, they
were admitted, and their ship brought into harbour.
  It is said that the Athenians would not believe their loss, in a
great degree because of the person who first brought them news of
it. For a certain stranger, it seems, coming to Piraeus, and there
sitting in a barber's shop, began to talk of what had happened, as
if the Athenians already knew all that had passed; which the barber
hearing, before he acquainted anybody else, ran as fast as he could up
into the city, addressed himself to the Archons, and presently
spread it about in the public Place. On which, there being everywhere,
as may be imagined, terror and consternation, the Archons summoned a
general assembly, and there brought in the man and questioned him
how he came to know. And he, giving no satisfactory account, was taken
for a spreader of false intelligence and a disturber of the city,
and was, therefore, fastened to the wheel and racked a long time, till
other messengers arrived that related the whole disaster particularly.
So hardly was Nicias believed to have suffered the calamity which he
had often predicted.


                            THE END
