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The History of the Peloponnesian War
Book 6 - Chapter XVIII
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Seventeenth Year of the War - The Sicilian Campaign -
Affair of the Hermae - Departure of the Expedition
The same winter the Athenians resolved to sail again to Sicily, with
a greater armament than that under Laches and Eurymedon, and, if
possible, to conquer the island; most of them being ignorant of its
size and of the number of its inhabitants, Hellenic and barbarian, and
of the fact that they were undertaking a war not much inferior to that
against the Peloponnesians. For the voyage round Sicily in a
merchantman is not far short of eight days; and yet, large as the
island is, there are only two miles of sea to prevent its being
mainland.
It was settled originally as follows, and the peoples that
occupied it are these. The earliest inhabitants spoken of in any
part of the country are the Cyclopes and Laestrygones; but I cannot
tell of what race they were, or whence they came or whither they went,
and must leave my readers to what the poets have said of them and to
what may be generally known concerning them. The Sicanians appear to
have been the next settlers, although they pretend to have been the
first of all and aborigines; but the facts show that they were
Iberians, driven by the Ligurians from the river Sicanus in Iberia. It
was from them that the island, before called Trinacria, took its
name of Sicania, and to the present day they inhabit the west of
Sicily. On the fall of Ilium, some of the Trojans escaped from the
Achaeans, came in ships to Sicily, and settled next to the Sicanians
under the general name of Elymi; their towns being called Eryx and
Egesta. With them settled some of the Phocians carried on their way
from Troy by a storm, first to Libya, and afterwards from thence to
Sicily. The Sicels crossed over to Sicily from their first home Italy,
flying from the Opicans, as tradition says and as seems not unlikely, upon
rafts, having watched till the wind set down the strait to effect
the passage; although perhaps they may have sailed over in some
other way.
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Even at the present day there are still Sicels in
Italy; and the country got its name of Italy from Italus, a king of
the Sicels, so called. These went with a great host to Sicily,
defeated the Sicanians in battle and forced them to remove to the
south and west of the island, which thus came to be called Sicily
instead of Sicania, and after they crossed over continued to enjoy the
richest parts of the country for near three hundred years before any
Hellenes came to Sicily; indeed they still hold the centre and north
of the island. There were also Phoenicians living all round Sicily,
who had occupied promontories upon the sea coasts and the islets
adjacent for the purpose of trading with the Sicels. But when the
Hellenes began to arrive in considerable numbers by sea, the
Phoenicians abandoned most of their stations, and drawing together
took up their abode in Motye, Soloeis, and Panormus, near the Elymi,
partly because they confided in their alliance, and also because these
are the nearest points for the voyage between Carthage and Sicily.
These were the barbarians in Sicily, settled as I have said. Of
the Hellenes, the first to arrive were Chalcidians from Euboea with
Thucles, their founder. They founded Naxos and built the altar to
Apollo Archegetes, which now stands outside the town, and upon which
the deputies for the games sacrifice before sailing from Sicily.
Syracuse was founded the year afterwards by Archias, one of the
Heraclids from Corinth, who began by driving out the Sicels from the
island upon which the inner city now stands, though it is no longer
surrounded by water: in process of time the outer town also was
taken within the walls and became populous. Meanwhile Thucles and
the Chalcidians set out from Naxos in the fifth year after the
foundation of Syracuse, and drove out the Sicels by arms and founded
Leontini and afterwards Catana; the Catanians themselves choosing
Evarchus as their founder.
About the same time Lamis arrived in Sicily with a colony from
Megara, and after founding a place called Trotilus beyond the river
Pantacyas, and afterwards leaving it and for a short while joining the
Chalcidians at Leontini, was driven out by them and founded Thapsus.
After his death his companions were driven out of Thapsus, and founded
a place called the Hyblaean Megara; Hyblon, a Sicel king, having given
up the place and inviting them thither. Here they lived two hundred
and forty-five years; after which they were expelled from the city and
the country by the Syracusan tyrant Gelo. Before their expulsion,
however, a hundred years after they had settled there, they sent out
Pamillus and founded Selinus; he having come from their mother country
Megara to join them in its foundation. Gela was founded by
Antiphemus from Rhodes and Entimus from Crete, who joined in leading a
colony thither, in the forty-fifth year after the foundation of
Syracuse. The town took its name from the river Gelas, the place where
the citadel now stands, and which was first fortified, being called
Lindii. The institutions which they adopted were Dorian. Near one
hundred and eight years after the foundation of Gela, the Geloans
founded Acragas (Agrigentum), so called from the river of that name,
and made Aristonous and Pystilus their founders; giving their own
institutions to the colony. Zancle was originally founded by pirates
from Cuma, the Chalcidian town in the country of the Opicans:
afterwards, however, large numbers came from Chalcis and the rest of
Euboea, and helped to people the place; the founders being Perieres
and Crataemenes from Cuma and Chalcis respectively. It first had the
name of Zancle given it by the Sicels, because the place is shaped
like a sickle, which the Sicels call zanclon; but upon the original
settlers being afterwards expelled by some Samians and other Ionians
who landed in Sicily flying from the Medes, and the Samians in their
turn not long afterwards by Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, the town
was by him colonized with a mixed population, and its name changed
to Messina, after his old country.
Himera was founded from Zancle by Euclides, Simus, and Sacon, most
of those who went to the colony being Chalcidians; though they were
joined by some exiles from Syracuse, defeated in a civil war, called
the Myletidae. The language was a mixture of Chalcidian and Doric, but
the institutions which prevailed were the Chalcidian. Acrae and
Casmenae were founded by the Syracusans; Acrae seventy years after
Syracuse, Casmenae nearly twenty after Acrae. Camarina was first
founded by the Syracusans, close upon a hundred and thirty-five
years after the building of Syracuse; its founders being Daxon and
Menecolus. But the Camarinaeans being expelled by arms by the
Syracusans for having revolted, Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, some time
later receiving their land in ransom for some Syracusan prisoners,
resettled Camarina, himself acting as its founder. Lastly, it was
again depopulated by Gelo, and settled once more for the third time by
the Geloans.
Such is the list of the peoples, Hellenic and barbarian,
inhabiting Sicily, and such the magnitude of the island which the
Athenians were now bent upon invading; being ambitious in real truth
of conquering the whole, although they had also the specious design of
succouring their kindred and other allies in the island. But they were
especially incited by envoys from Egesta, who had come to Athens and
invoked their aid more urgently than ever. The Egestaeans had gone
to war with their neighbours the Selinuntines upon questions of
marriage and disputed territory, and the Selinuntines had procured the
alliance of the Syracusans, and pressed Egesta hard by land and sea.
The Egestaeans now reminded the Athenians of the alliance made in
the time of Laches, during the former Leontine war, and begged them to
send a fleet to their aid, and among a number of other
considerations urged as a capital argument that if the Syracusans were
allowed to go unpunished for their depopulation of Leontini, to ruin
the allies still left to Athens in Sicily, and to get the whole
power of the island into their hands, there would be a danger of their
one day coming with a large force, as Dorians, to the aid of their
Dorian brethren, and as colonists, to the aid of the Peloponnesians
who had sent them out, and joining these in pulling down the
Athenian empire. The Athenians would, therefore, do well to unite with
the allies still left to them, and to make a stand against the
Syracusans; especially as they, the Egestaeans, were prepared to
furnish money sufficient for the war. The Athenians, hearing these
arguments constantly repeated in their assemblies by the Egestaeans
and their supporters, voted first to send envoys to Egesta, to see
if there was really the money that they talked of in the treasury
and temples, and at the same time to ascertain in what posture was the
war with the Selinuntines.
The envoys of the Athenians were accordingly dispatched to Sicily.
The same winter the Lacedaemonians and their allies, the Corinthians
excepted, marched into the Argive territory, and ravaged a small
part of the land, and took some yokes of oxen and carried off some
corn. They also settled the Argive exiles at Orneae, and left them a
few soldiers taken from the rest of the army; and after making a truce
for a certain while, according to which neither Orneatae nor Argives
were to injure each other's territory, returned home with the army.
Not long afterwards the Athenians came with thirty ships and six
hundred heavy infantry, and the Argives joining them with all their
forces, marched out and besieged the men in Orneae for one day; but
the garrison escaped by night, the besiegers having bivouacked some
way off. The next day the Argives, discovering it, razed Orneae to the
ground, and went back again; after which the Athenians went home in
their ships. Meanwhile the Athenians took by sea to Methone on the
Macedonian border some cavalry of their own and the Macedonian
exiles that were at Athens, and plundered the country of Perdiccas.
Upon this the Lacedaemonians sent to the Thracian Chalcidians, who had
a truce with Athens from one ten days to another, urging them to
join Perdiccas in the war, which they refused to do. And the winter
ended, and with it ended the sixteenth year of this war of which
Thucydides is the historian.
Early in the spring of the following summer the Athenian envoys
arrived from Sicily, and the Egestaeans with them, bringing sixty
talents of uncoined silver, as a month's pay for sixty ships, which
they were to ask to have sent them. The Athenians held an assembly
and, after hearing from the Egestaeans and their own envoys a
report, as attractive as it was untrue, upon the state of affairs
generally, and in particular as to the money, of which, it was said,
there was abundance in the temples and the treasury, voted to send
sixty ships to Sicily, under the command of Alcibiades, son of
Clinias, Nicias, son of Niceratus, and Lamachus, son of Xenophanes,
who were appointed with full powers; they were to help the
Egestaeans against the Selinuntines, to restore Leontini upon
gaining any advantage in the war, and to order all other matters in
Sicily as they should deem best for the interests of Athens. Five days
after this a second assembly was held, to consider the speediest means
of equipping the ships, and to vote whatever else might be required by
the generals for the expedition; and Nicias, who had been chosen to
the command against his will, and who thought that the state was not
well advised, but upon a slight aid specious pretext was aspiring to
the conquest of the whole of Sicily, a great matter to achieve, came
forward in the hope of diverting the Athenians from the enterprise,
and gave them the following counsel:
"Although this assembly was convened to consider the preparations to
be made for sailing to Sicily, I think, notwithstanding, that we
have still this question to examine, whether it be better to send out
the ships at all, and that we ought not to give so little consideration
to a matter of such moment, or let ourselves be persuaded by
foreigners into undertaking a war with which we have nothing to do.
And yet, individually, I gain in honour by such a course, and fear as
little as other men for my person--not that I think a man need be
any the worse citizen for taking some thought for his person and
estate; on the contrary, such a man would for his own sake desire
the prosperity of his country more than others--nevertheless,
as I have never spoken against my convictions to gain honour, I
shall not begin to do so now, but shall say what I think best.
Against your character any words of mine would be weak enough, if
I were to advise your keeping what you have got and not risking
what is actually yours for advantages which are dubious in themselves,
and which you may or may not attain. I will, therefore, content
myself with showing that your ardour is out of season, and your
ambition not easy of accomplishment.
"I affirm, then, that you leave many enemies behind you here to go
yonder and bring more back with you. You imagine, perhaps, that the
treaty which you have made can be trusted; a treaty that will continue
to exist nominally, as long as you keep quiet--for nominal it has
become, owing to the practices of certain men here and at Sparta--but
which in the event of a serious reverse in any quarter would not delay
our enemies a moment in attacking us; first, because the convention
was forced upon them by disaster and was less honourable to them
than to us; and secondly, because in this very convention there are
many points that are still disputed. Again, some of the most
powerful states have never yet accepted the arrangement at all. Some
of these are at open war with us; others (as the Lacedaemonians do not
yet move) are restrained by truces renewed every ten days, and it is
only too probable that if they found our power divided, as we are
hurrying to divide it, they would attack us vigorously with the
Siceliots, whose alliance they would have in the past valued as they
would that of few others. A man ought, therefore, to consider these
points, and not to think of running risks with a country placed so
critically, or of grasping at another empire before we have secured
the one we have already; for in fact the Thracian Chalcidians have
been all these years in revolt from us without being yet subdued,
and others on the continents yield us but a doubtful obedience.
Meanwhile the Egestaeans, our allies, have been wronged, and we run to
help them, while the rebels who have so long wronged us still wait for
punishment.
"And yet the latter, if brought under, might be kept under; while
the Sicilians, even if conquered, are too far off and too numerous
to be ruled without difficulty. Now it is folly to go against men
who could not be kept under even if conquered, while failure would
leave us in a very different position from that which we occupied
before the enterprise. The Siceliots, again, to take them as they
are at present, in the event of a Syracusan conquest (the favourite
bugbear of the Egestaeans), would to my thinking be even less
dangerous to us than before. At present they might possibly come
here as separate states for love of Lacedaemon; in the other case
one empire would scarcely attack another; for after joining the
Peloponnesians to overthrow ours, they could only expect to see the
same hands overthrow their own in the same way. The Hellenes in Sicily
would fear us most if we never went there at all, and next to this, if
after displaying our power we went away again as soon as possible.
We all know that that which is farthest off, and the reputation of
which can least be tested, is the object of admiration; at the least
reverse they would at once begin to look down upon us, and would
join our enemies here against us. You have yourselves experienced this
with regard to the Lacedaemonians and their allies, whom your
unexpected success, as compared with what you feared at first, has
made you suddenly despise, tempting you further to aspire to the
conquest of Sicily. Instead, however, of being puffed up by the
misfortunes of your adversaries, you ought to think of breaking
their spirit before giving yourselves up to confidence, and to
understand that the one thought awakened in the Lacedaemonians by
their disgrace is how they may even now, if possible, overthrow us and
repair their dishonour; inasmuch as military reputation is their
oldest and chiefest study. Our struggle, therefore, if we are wise,
will not be for the barbarian Egestaeans in Sicily, but how to
defend ourselves most effectually against the oligarchical
machinations of Lacedaemon.
"We should also remember that we are but now enjoying some respite
from a great pestilence and from war, to the no small benefit of our
estates and persons, and that it is right to employ these at home on
our own behalf, instead of using them on behalf of these exiles
whose interest it is to lie as fairly as they can, who do nothing
but talk themselves and leave the danger to others, and who if they
succeed will show no proper gratitude, and if they fail will drag down
their friends with them. And if there be any man here, overjoyed at
being chosen to command, who urges you to make the expedition,
merely for ends of his own--specially if he be still too young to
command--who seeks to be admired for his stud of horses, but on
account of its heavy expenses hopes for some profit from his
appointment, do not allow such a one to maintain his private splendour
at his country's risk, but remember that such persons injure the
public fortune while they squander their own, and that this is a
matter of importance, and not for a young man to decide or hastily to
take in hand.
"When I see such persons now sitting here at the side of that same
individual and summoned by him, alarm seizes me; and I, in my turn,
summon any of the older men that may have such a person sitting next
him not to let himself be shamed down, for fear of being thought a
coward if he do not vote for war, but, remembering how rarely
success is got by wishing and how often by forecast, to leave to
them the mad dream of conquest, and as a true lover of his country,
now threatened by the greatest danger in its history, to hold up his
hand on the other side; to vote that the Siceliots be left in the
limits now existing between us, limits of which no one can complain
(the Ionian sea for the coasting voyage, and the Sicilian across the
open main), to enjoy their own possessions and to settle their own
quarrels; that the Egestaeans, for their part, be told to end by
themselves with the Selinuntines the war which they began without
consulting the Athenians; and that for the future we do not enter into
alliance, as we have been used to do, with people whom we must help in
their need, and who can never help us in ours.
"And you, Prytanis, if you think it your duty to care for the
commonwealth, and if you wish to show yourself a good citizen, put the
question to the vote, and take a second time the opinions of the
Athenians. If you are afraid to move the question again, consider that
a violation of the law cannot carry any prejudice with so many
abettors, that you will be the physician of your misguided city, and
that the virtue of men in office is briefly this, to do their
country as much good as they can, or in any case no harm that they can
avoid."
Such were the words of Nicias. Most of the Athenians that came
forward spoke in favour of the expedition, and of not annulling what
had been voted, although some spoke on the other side. By far the
warmest advocate of the expedition was, however, Alcibiades, son of
Clinias, who wished to thwart Nicias both as his political opponent
and also because of the attack he had made upon him in his speech, and
who was, besides, exceedingly ambitious of a command by which he hoped
to reduce Sicily and Carthage, and personally to gain in wealth and
reputation by means of his successes. For the position he held among
the citizens led him to indulge his tastes beyond what his real
means would bear, both in keeping horses and in the rest of his
expenditure; and this later on had not a little to do with the ruin of
the Athenian state. Alarmed at the greatness of his licence in his own
life and habits, and of the ambition which he showed in all things
soever that he undertook, the mass of the people set him down as a
pretender to the tyranny, and became his enemies; and although
publicly his conduct of the war was as good as could be desired,
individually, his habits gave offence to every one, and caused them to
commit affairs to other hands, and thus before long to ruin the
city. Meanwhile he now came forward and gave the following advice to
the Athenians:
"Athenians, I have a better right to command than others--I must
begin with this as Nicias has attacked me--and at the same time I
believe myself to be worthy of it. The things for which I am abused,
bring fame to my ancestors and to myself, and to the country profit
besides. The Hellenes, after expecting to see our city ruined by the
war, concluded it to be even greater than it really is, by reason of
the magnificence with which I represented it at the Olympic games,
when I sent into the lists seven chariots, a number never before
entered by any private person, and won the first prize, and was second
and fourth, and took care to have everything else in a style worthy of
my victory. Custom regards such displays as honourable, and they
cannot be made without leaving behind them an impression of power.
Again, any splendour that I may have exhibited at home in providing
choruses or otherwise, is naturally envied by my fellow citizens,
but in the eyes of foreigners has an air of strength as in the other
instance. And this is no useless folly, when a man at his own
private cost benefits not himself only, but his city: nor is it unfair
that he who prides himself on his position should refuse to be upon an
equality with the rest. He who is badly off has his misfortunes all to
himself, and as we do not see men courted in adversity, on the like
principle a man ought to accept the insolence of prosperity; or
else, let him first mete out equal measure to all, and then demand
to have it meted out to him. What I know is that persons of this
kind and all others that have attained to any distinction, although
they may be unpopular in their lifetime in their relations with
their fellow-men and especially with their equals, leave to
posterity the desire of claiming connection with them even without any
ground, and are vaunted by the country to which they belonged, not
as strangers or ill-doers, but as fellow-countrymen and heroes. Such
are my aspirations, and however I am abused for them in private, the
question is whether any one manages public affairs better than I do.
Having united the most powerful states of Peloponnese, without great
danger or expense to you, I compelled the Lacedaemonians to stake
their all upon the issue of a single day at Mantinea; and although
victorious in the battle, they have never since fully recovered
confidence.
"Thus did my youth and so-called monstrous folly find fitting
arguments to deal with the power of the Peloponnesians, and by its
ardour win their confidence and prevail. And do not be afraid of my
youth now, but while I am still in its flower, and Nicias appears
fortunate, avail yourselves to the utmost of the services of us
both. Neither rescind your resolution to sail to Sicily, on the ground
that you would be going to attack a great power. The cities in
Sicily are peopled by motley rabbles, and easily change their
institutions and adopt new ones in their stead; and consequently the
inhabitants, being without any feeling of patriotism, are not provided
with arms for their persons, and have not regularly established
themselves on the land; every man thinks that either by fair words
or by party strife he can obtain something at the public expense,
and then in the event of a catastrophe settle in some other country,
and makes his preparations accordingly. From a mob like this you
need not look for either unanimity in counsel or concert in action;
but they will probably one by one come in as they get a fair offer,
especially if they are torn by civil strife as we are told.
Moreover, the Siceliots have not so many heavy infantry as they boast;
just as the Hellenes generally did not prove so numerous as each state
reckoned itself, but Hellas greatly over-estimated their numbers,
and has hardly had an adequate force of heavy infantry throughout this
war. The states in Sicily, therefore, from all that I can hear, will
be found as I say, and I have not pointed out all our advantages,
for we shall have the help of many barbarians, who from their hatred
of the Syracusans will join us in attacking them; nor will the
powers at home prove any hindrance, if you judge rightly. Our
fathers with these very adversaries, which it is said we shall now
leave behind us when we sail, and the Mede as their enemy as well,
were able to win the empire, depending solely on their superiority
at sea. The Peloponnesians had never so little hope against us as at
present; and let them be ever so sanguine, although strong enough to
invade our country even if we stay at home, they can never hurt us
with their navy, as we leave one of our own behind us that is a
match for them.
"In this state of things what reason can we give to ourselves for
holding back, or what excuse can we offer to our allies in Sicily
for not helping them? They are our confederates, and we are bound to
assist them, without objecting that they have not assisted us. We
did not take them into alliance to have them to help us in Hellas, but
that they might so annoy our enemies in Sicily as to prevent them from
coming over here and attacking us. It is thus that empire has been
won, both by us and by all others that have held it, by a constant
readiness to support all, whether barbarians or Hellenes, that
invite assistance; since if all were to keep quiet or to pick and
choose whom they ought to assist, we should make but few new
conquests, and should imperil those we have already won. Men do not
rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike
the first blow to prevent the attack being made. And we cannot fix the
exact point at which our empire shall stop; we have reached a position
in which we must not be content with retaining but must scheme to
extend it, for, if we cease to rule others, we are in danger of
being ruled ourselves. Nor can you look at inaction from the same
point of view as others, unless you are prepared to change your habits
and make them like theirs.
"Be convinced, then, that we shall augment our power at home by this
adventure abroad, and let us make the expedition, and so humble the
pride of the Peloponnesians by sailing off to Sicily, and letting them
see how little we care for the peace that we are now enjoying; and
at the same time we shall either become masters, as we very easily
may, of the whole of Hellas through the accession of the Sicilian
Hellenes, or in any case ruin the Syracusans, to the no small
advantage of ourselves and our allies. The faculty of staying if
successful, or of returning, will be secured to us by our navy, as
we shall be superior at sea to all the Siceliots put together. And
do not let the do-nothing policy which Nicias advocates, or his
setting of the young against the old, turn you from your purpose,
but in the good old fashion by which our fathers, old and young
together, by their united counsels brought our affairs to their
present height, do you endeavour still to advance them;
understanding that neither youth nor old age can do anything the one
without the other, but that levity, sobriety, and deliberate
judgment are strongest when united, and that, by sinking into
inaction, the city, like everything else, will wear itself out, and
its skill in everything decay; while each fresh struggle will give
it fresh experience, and make it more used to defend itself not in
word but in deed. In short, my conviction is that a city not
inactive by nature could not choose a quicker way to ruin itself
than by suddenly adopting such a policy, and that the safest rule of
life is to take one's character and institutions for better and for
worse, and to live up to them as closely as one can."
Such were the words of Alcibiades. After hearing him and the
Egestaeans and some Leontine exiles, who came forward reminding them
of their oaths and imploring their assistance, the Athenians became
more eager for the expedition than before. Nicias, perceiving that
it would be now useless to try to deter them by the old line of
argument, but thinking that he might perhaps alter their resolution by
the extravagance of his estimates, came forward a second time and
spoke as follows:
"I see, Athenians, that you are thoroughly bent upon the expedition,
and therefore hope that all will turn out as we wish, and proceed to
give you my opinion at the present juncture. From all that I hear we
are going against cities that are great and not subject to one
another, or in need of change, so as to be glad to pass from
enforced servitude to an easier condition, or in the least likely to
accept our rule in exchange for freedom; and, to take only the
Hellenic towns, they are very numerous for one island. Besides Naxos
and Catana, which I expect to join us from their connection with
Leontini, there are seven others armed at all points just like our own
power, particularly Selinus and Syracuse, the chief objects of our
expedition. These are full of heavy infantry, archers, and darters,
have galleys in abundance and crowds to man them; they have also
money, partly in the hands of private persons, partly in the temples
at Selinus, and at Syracuse first-fruits from some of the barbarians
as well. But their chief advantage over us lies in the number of their
horses, and in the fact that they grow their corn at home instead of
importing it.
"Against a power of this kind it will not do to have merely a weak
naval armament, but we shall want also a large land army to sail
with us, if we are to do anything worthy of our ambition, and are
not to be shut out from the country by a numerous cavalry;
especially if the cities should take alarm and combine, and we
should be left without friends (except the Egestaeans) to furnish us
with horse to defend ourselves with. It would be disgraceful to have
to retire under compulsion, or to send back for reinforcements,
owing to want of reflection at first: we must therefore start from
home with a competent force, seeing that we are going to sail far from
our country, and upon an expedition not like any which you may
undertaken undertaken the quality of allies, among your subject states
here in Hellas, where any additional supplies needed were easily drawn
from the friendly territory; but we are cutting ourselves off, and
going to a land entirely strange, from which during four months in
winter it is not even easy for a messenger get to Athens.
"I think, therefore, that we ought to take great numbers of heavy
infantry, both from Athens and from our allies, and not merely from
our subjects, but also any we may be able to get for love or for money
in Peloponnese, and great numbers also of archers and slingers, to
make head against the Sicilian horse. Meanwhile we must have an
overwhelming superiority at sea, to enable us the more easily to carry
in what we want; and we must take our own corn in merchant vessels,
that is to say, wheat and parched barley, and bakers from the mills
compelled to serve for pay in the proper proportion; in order that
in case of our being weather-bound the armament may not want
provisions, as it is not every city that will be able to entertain
numbers like ours. We must also provide ourselves with everything else
as far as we can, so as not to be dependent upon others; and above all
we must take with us from home as much money as possible, as the
sums talked of as ready at Egesta are readier, you may be sure, in
talk than in any other way.
"Indeed, even if we leave Athens with a force not only equal to that
of the enemy except in the number of heavy infantry in the field,
but even at all points superior to him, we shall still find it
difficult to conquer Sicily or save ourselves. We must not disguise
from ourselves that we go to found a city among strangers and enemies,
and that he who undertakes such an enterprise should be prepared to
become master of the country the first day he lands, or failing in
this to find everything hostile to him. Fearing this, and knowing that
we shall have need of much good counsel and more good fortune--a hard
matter for mortal man to aspire to--I wish as far as may be to make
myself independent of fortune before sailing, and when I do sail, to
be as safe as a strong force can make me. This I believe to be
surest for the country at large, and safest for us who are to go on
the expedition. If any one thinks differently I resign to him my
command."
With this Nicias concluded, thinking that he should either disgust
the Athenians by the magnitude of the undertaking, or, if obliged to
sail on the expedition, would thus do so in the safest way possible.
The Athenians, however, far from having their taste for the voyage
taken away by the burdensomeness of the preparations, became more
eager for it than ever; and just the contrary took place of what
Nicias had thought, as it was held that he had given good advice,
and that the expedition would be the safest in the world. All alike
fell in love with the enterprise. The older men thought that they
would either subdue the places against which they were to sail, or
at all events, with so large a force, meet with no disaster; those
in the prime of life felt a longing for foreign sights and spectacles,
and had no doubt that they should come safe home again; while the idea
of the common people and the soldiery was to earn wages at the moment,
and make conquests that would supply a never-ending fund of pay for
the future. With this enthusiasm of the majority, the few that liked
it not, feared to appear unpatriotic by holding up their hands against
it, and so kept quiet.
At last one of the Athenians came forward and called upon Nicias and
told him that he ought not to make excuses or put them off, but say at
once before them all what forces the Athenians should vote him. Upon
this he said, not without reluctance, that he would advise upon that
matter more at leisure with his colleagues; as far however as he could
see at present, they must sail with at least one hundred galleys--the
Athenians providing as many transports as they might determine, and
sending for others from the allies--not less than five thousand heavy
infantry in all, Athenian and allied, and if possible more; and the
rest of the armament in proportion; archers from home and from
Crete, and slingers, and whatever else might seem desirable, being got
ready by the generals and taken with them.
Upon hearing this the Athenians at once voted that the generals
should have full powers in the matter of the numbers of the army and
of the expedition generally, to do as they judged best for the
interests of Athens. After this the preparations began; messages being
sent to the allies and the rolls drawn up at home. And as the city had
just recovered from the plague and the long war, and a number of young
men had grown up and capital had accumulated by reason of the truce,
everything was the more easily provided.
In the midst of these preparations all the stone Hermae in the
city of Athens, that is to say the customary square figures, so common
in the doorways of private houses and temples, had in one night most
of them their fares mutilated. No one knew who had done it, but
large public rewards were offered to find the authors; and it was
further voted that any one who knew of any other act of impiety having
been committed should come and give information without fear of
consequences, whether he were citizen, alien, or slave. The matter was
taken up the more seriously, as it was thought to be ominous for the
expedition, and part of a conspiracy to bring about a revolution and
to upset the democracy.
Information was given accordingly by some resident aliens and body
servants, not about the Hermae but about some previous mutilations
of other images perpetrated by young men in a drunken frolic, and of
mock celebrations of the mysteries, averred to take place in private
houses. Alcibiades being implicated in this charge, it was taken
hold of by those who could least endure him, because he stood in the
way of their obtaining the undisturbed direction of the people, and
who thought that if he were once removed the first place would be
theirs. These accordingly magnified the matter and loudly proclaimed
that the affair of the mysteries and the mutilation of the Hermae were
part and parcel of a scheme to overthrow the democracy, and that
nothing of all this had been done without Alcibiades; the proofs
alleged being the general and undemocratic licence of his life and
habits.
Alcibiades repelled on the spot the charges in question, and also
before going on the expedition, the preparations for which were now
complete, offered to stand his trial, that it might be seen whether he
was guilty of the acts imputed to him; desiring to be punished if
found guilty, but, if acquitted, to take the command. Meanwhile he
protested against their receiving slanders against him in his absence,
and begged them rather to put him to death at once if he were
guilty, and pointed out the imprudence of sending him out at the
head of so large an army, with so serious a charge still undecided.
But his enemies feared that he would have the army for him if he
were tried immediately, and that the people might relent in favour
of the man whom they already caressed as the cause of the Argives
and some of the Mantineans joining in the expedition, and did their
utmost to get this proposition rejected, putting forward other orators
who said that he ought at present to sail and not delay the
departure of the army, and be tried on his return within a fixed
number of days; their plan being to have him sent for and brought home
for trial upon some graver charge, which they would the more easily
get up in his absence. Accordingly it was decreed that he should sail.
After this the departure for Sicily took place, it being now about
midsummer. Most of the allies, with the corn transports and the
smaller craft and the rest of the expedition, had already received
orders to muster at Corcyra, to cross the Ionian Sea from thence in
a body to the Iapygian promontory. But the Athenians themselves, and
such of their allies as happened to be with them, went down to Piraeus
upon a day appointed at daybreak, and began to man the ships for
putting out to sea. With them also went down the whole population, one
may say, of the city, both citizens and foreigners; the inhabitants of
the country each escorting those that belonged to them, their friends,
their relatives, or their sons, with hope and lamentation upon their
way, as they thought of the conquests which they hoped to make, or
of the friends whom they might never see again, considering the long
voyage which they were going to make from their country. Indeed, at
this moment, when they were now upon the point of parting from one
another, the danger came more home to them than when they voted for
the expedition; although the strength of the armament, and the profuse
provision which they remarked in every department, was a sight that
could not but comfort them. As for the foreigners and the rest of
the crowd, they simply went to see a sight worth looking at and
passing all belief.
Indeed this armament that first sailed out was by far the most
costly and splendid Hellenic force that had ever been sent out by a
single city up to that time. In mere number of ships and heavy
infantry that against Epidaurus under Pericles, and the same when
going against Potidaea under Hagnon, was not inferior; containing as
it did four thousand Athenian heavy infantry, three hundred horse, and
one hundred galleys accompanied by fifty Lesbian and Chian vessels and
many allies besides. But these were sent upon a short voyage and
with a scanty equipment. The present expedition was formed in
contemplation of a long term of service by land and sea alike, and was
furnished with ships and troops so as to be ready for either as
required. The fleet had been elaborately equipped at great cost to the
captains and the state; the treasury giving a drachma a day to each
seaman, and providing empty ships, sixty men-of-war and forty
transports, and manning these with the best crews obtainable; while
the captains gave a bounty in addition to the pay from the treasury to
the thranitae and crews generally, besides spending lavishly upon
figure-heads and equipments, and one and all making the utmost
exertions to enable their own ships to excel in beauty and fast
sailing. Meanwhile the land forces had been picked from the best
muster-rolls, and vied with each other in paying great attention to
their arms and personal accoutrements. From this resulted not only a
rivalry among themselves in their different departments, but an idea
among the rest of the Hellenes that it was more a display of power and
resources than an armament against an enemy. For if any one had
counted up the public expenditure of the state, and the private outlay
of individuals--that is to say, the sums which the state had already
spent upon the expedition and was sending out in the hands of the
generals, and those which individuals had expended upon their personal
outfit, or as captains of galleys had laid out and were still to lay
out upon their vessels; and if he had added to this the journey
money which each was likely to have provided himself with,
independently of the pay from the treasury, for a voyage of such
length, and what the soldiers or traders took with them for the
purpose of exchange--it would have been found that many talents in
all were being taken out of the city. Indeed the expedition became not
less famous for its wonderful boldness and for the splendour of its
appearance, than for its overwhelming strength as compared with the
peoples against whom it was directed, and for the fact that this was
the longest passage from home hitherto attempted, and the most
ambitious in its objects considering the resources of those who
undertook it.
The ships being now manned, and everything put on board with which
they meant to sail, the trumpet commanded silence, and the prayers
customary before putting out to sea were offered, not in each ship
by itself, but by all together to the voice of a herald; and bowls
of wine were mixed through all the armament, and libations made by the
soldiers and their officers in gold and silver goblets. In their
prayers joined also the crowds on shore, the citizens and all others
that wished them well. The hymn sung and the libations finished,
they put out to sea, and first out in column then raced each other
as far as Aegina, and so hastened to reach Corcyra, where the rest
of the allied forces were also assembling.
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