Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Nicias
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Nicias
(legendary, died 413 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
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
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