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AUTHOR: 
 
 PLUTARCHUS 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 PLUTARCH'S NICIAS AND 
 ALCIBIADES... 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
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 EDWARD DELAY AN PERRY 
 
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 9iX6^ovoo; ^v 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
SIX 
 
 OF 
 
 PLUTARCH'S GREEK LIVES 
 
 Vol. III. 
 
 NICIAS AND ALCIBIADES 
 
SIX OF PLUTARCH'S GREEK LIVES 
 
 HKWLT TRAHSLATBD WITH ntTRODUCTIOH AUD 
 
 HOTBS BT 
 
 BERNADOTTE PERRIH 
 
 Lampson Professor (Emeritus) of Greek Litersture 
 •nd History, Tale Unirertitj 
 
 L THEMISTOCLES AlfD ARISTIDES 
 n. OMON AND PERICLES 
 m, NICIAS AMD ALCIBLiDES 
 
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 1 
 
 I 
 
 •••;■•■.< 
 

 PLUTARCH'S 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 AND 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 JVEPVLy TRANSLATED, WITH 
 INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 BY 
 
 BERNADOTTE PERRIN 
 
 Lampscn Prcfesscr {Emeritus) of Greek Literature and History 
 
 Yale University 
 
 tn 
 
 Scmotique prius tarda neccssitas 
 Lcti corripuit gradum. 
 
 Horace, Carm. i. 3, 32 £. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1912 
 
g8Vl\ 
 
 i 
 
 Copyright^ igi2 
 By Charles Scsibne&'s Sons 
 
 Published October, 19x9 
 
 TO 
 
 THE MEMORIES 
 OF MY FRIENDS 
 
 THOMAS DAY SEYMOUR 
 
 AND 
 
 JOHN HENRY WRIGHT 
 
 • « 
 
 • • • 
 
 • • « • • 
 •• • • » » 
 
 * • ■ * 
 
 
 
 *• • •• 
 
 
 • • 
 
 t • • • % • 
 *• "• » . • » • • 
 
 • • • • « 
 
 * 
 
 • « 
 
 
 
 » * 
 
Plutarch occupies a unique place in literature as an 
 
 encyclopaedia of Greek and Roman antiquity. Whatever 
 
 is eminent in fact or in fiction, in opinion, in character, in 
 
 institutions, in science — natural, moral, or metaphysical, 
 
 drew his attention and came to his pen with more or 
 
 less fulness of record. He is, among prose-writers, what 
 
 Chaucer is among English poets, a repertory for those who 
 
 want the story without searching for it at first hand, — 
 
 a compend of all accepted traditions. ... It is for his 
 
 pleasure that he recites all that is best in his reading : 
 
 he prattles history. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 ^»H- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 Preface ix 
 
 Introduction : 
 
 I. Primary Sources for Greek History during the 
 
 Peloponnesian War • • . • • 1 
 
 n. Chronological Table of Events in the Lives 
 
 OF NiCIAS AND AlCIBIADES 12 
 
 III. The Sources of Plutarch in his NiciASy with 
 
 AN Analysis of this Life ^ . . . . 29 
 
 IV. The Sources of Plutarch in his Alcibiades, 
 
 with an Analysis of this Life 39 
 
 The NICIAS 55 
 
 The ALCIBIADES Ill 
 
 Notes on the Nicias , 171 
 
 Notes on the Alcibiades < 257 
 
 Index « 331 
 
 V 'I 
 
 3 
 
PREFACE 
 
 n 
 
 This volume is independent of the two volumes which have 
 preceded it, the *' Themistocles and Aristides" (1901) and the 
 '*Cimon and Pericles'* (1910), except that I have allowed my- 
 self in it an occasional reference to its predecessors. I could 
 not well repeat, however, the essays on "Plutarch the Biogra- 
 pher", and " Biography before Plutarch ", from the first volume. 
 I should be glad, of course, to have my readers know these 
 essays, but such knowledge is not essential to the profitable 
 use of this third and final volume of the series. To set forth 
 my aims in writing it, I may be allowed to quote from the 
 Preface to the first volume : *' I have had in mind as possible 
 friends to be won by it, first, all lovers of Plutarch, whose 
 name, it is to be hoped, is still legion. Knowing how im- 
 possible it is to reproduce in English the illusive qualities 
 which distinguish one Greek style from another, they will 
 commend my work of translation if it brings out clearly the 
 spirit of Plutarch as a writer of Lives : the easy and com- 
 fortable movements of his thought ; his attitude toward men 
 who are struggling with great problems of life and destiny; 
 his amiable weaknesses as a judge of historical evidence ; his 
 relish for the personal anecdote and the mot ; his disregard 
 of the logic and chronology of events ; his naive appropriation 
 of the literary product of others; his consummate art in 
 making deeds and words, whether authentic or not, portray 
 a preconceived character, — a more or less idealized character. 
 They will welcome my introductions and explanatory notes 
 also, in so far as these enable the English reader to reproduce, 
 even though faintly, the atmosphere of boimtiful literary 
 tradition which Plutarch amply breathed before and as he 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 wrote. It should be possible, in some degree, at least, for 
 the student of these notes and introductions to penetrate, as 
 it were, into the very studio of the greatest of ethical portrait- 
 painters, and watch him mix his colors and apply them to 
 the canvas." 
 
 I have had in mind also all students and lovers of Greek 
 history. For the lives of Nicias and Alcibiades, it is true, 
 Plutarch does them less important service than for those of 
 Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, or Pericles, inasmuch as for 
 the life of Nicias and most of that of Alcibiades, Thucydides 
 son of Olorus is a full-flowing and incomparable source, and 
 Plutarch had no advantage over us in the control of this 
 source. But even here the biographer supplements the his- 
 torian in a most welcome manner. He had access to many 
 other testimonies contemporary, or as good as contemporary, 
 with those of Thucydides, testimonies which often take us 
 back among the conflicting currents of opinion which, with 
 ever increasing frequency, swept over the excitable democracy 
 of imperial Athens. He cites comic poets, tragedians, orators, 
 Platonic and Socratic dialogues, and above all, for the Sicilian 
 expedition, Philistus of Syracuse, an eyewitness of many of 
 the events of the great siege. Then there is a wealth of 
 secondary testimony, like that of the later rhetorical his- 
 torians, and masses of anecdotes and apothegms which had 
 gathered in luxuriant growth round such names as those 
 of Themistocles, Pericles, and Alcibiades, to all of which 
 Plutarch is heir by legacy of long literary tradition. No 
 analysis of his brilliant literary mosaics which the conscien- 
 tious historian may feel called upon to make in a search for 
 residual truth, can destroy their charm as idealized ethical 
 portraits. There is no reason why one should not enjoy this 
 charm while realizing the truth which it overlies. 
 
 I have, of course, used all the standard histories of Greece 
 in the preparation of my notes and introductions, but feel 
 a special indebtedness to Busolt's Oriechisehe Geschichte, 
 VoL III., and to Freeman's History of Sicily. Ivo Bruns* 
 Literarisches Portraet der Griechen has again, as in the first 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 XI 
 
 two volumes of the series, been of constant service ; and I 
 ought not to leave unmentioned Bury's Ancient Greek His- 
 torians, Cornford's Hiucydides Mythistoricus, Holden's edition 
 of the Nicias in the Pitt Press Series (Cambridge, 1887), and 
 Baehr's edition of the Alcibiades (Leipsic, 1822). Much 
 comment 'takes the form of citations from Thucydides, 
 Xenophon, and Pausanias. These I have made in the standard 
 translations of Jowett, Dakyns, and Frazer, with the kind 
 permission of the Oxford University Press, and of the 
 Messrs. Macmillan & Co. 
 
 As regards the criticism of the Greek text, I have, as in 
 the two preceding volumes of the series, merely noted any 
 essential variation between the Sintenis and Bekker texts 
 where one is preferred over the other, as well as any departure 
 from both. The excellent Codex Seitenstettensis furnishes 
 no readings of importance for the Nicias, and none at all 
 for the Alcibiades. 
 
 As I send this volume to the press, I find that my thoughts 
 are more than usually inclined to dwell on the aid and com- 
 fort which my work long drew from intimate companionship 
 with the two friends to whose memories I am permitted 
 to dedicate it 
 
 B. P. 
 
 New Ha yen, April, 1912. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 L PRIMARY SOURCES FOR GREEK HISTORY 
 DURING THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 For the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian war, 
 431-404 B. c, we have richer and more trustworthy sources 
 than for any other period of Greek history, and within these 
 years fell the active careers both of Nicias and Alcibiades. 
 For these years important inscriptions, more or less fragmen- 
 tary, are preserved, containing popular decrees, state treaties, 
 official budgets and inventories, not to speak of purely dedi- 
 catory or memorial inscriptions. These reenforce, amplify, 
 and sometimes correct our literary sources for the period. 
 And our literary soiu-ces are abundant, varied, and, from the 
 fact of their being largely contemporary, in the highest 
 degree valuable. 
 
 Four of the seven extant tragedies of Sophocles, and eleven 
 of the fifteen of Euripides, were either written or performed 
 during the years of the Peloponnesian war, and often, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, they reflect or even voice the 
 political and spiritual agitations of their day. But what 
 tragedy could do only indirectly and suggestively, Athenian 
 comedy of this time did with powerful directness and plain- 
 ness. The comic poets ** delighted in finding matter for ridi- 
 cule in all that was most admired, whether in public morals, 
 poUtics, or art and letters. Exaggeration, gross exaggeration, 
 was the basis of their success, but beneath their exaggeration 
 there had to be a real foundation of truth to make their ex- 
 aggeration successful And when it is remembered that 
 comedy arose in connection with a rural religious festival, 
 and like tragedy was part of the worship of Dionysus the 
 Lord of Life, the Lord of Death, and the Great Inspirer, it is 
 
s 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 not impossible to think of the Attic drama, with its two 
 vehicles of tragedy and comedy, as in great measure answer- 
 ing in power, as an organ of public opinion, to the modern 
 pulpit and press. When, however, Attic tragedy or comedy 
 is brought into evidence as historical documents, these docu- 
 ments must be carefully studied in the light of their origin 
 and purpose. To have been unsparingly and continuously 
 attacked and ridiculed by the comic poets, * of whom to be 
 dispraised were no small praise,' does not make Pericles less 
 of a statesman or Euripides less of a poet. It points rather 
 to their real greatness in new and fruitful lines of endeavor ** 
 (Introduction to the Cimon and Pericles, pp. 54 f.). And 
 this must be borne in mind when we form our estimates of 
 such butts of Old Comedy as Cleon and Hyperbolus, the dem- 
 agogues, as well as in the cases of Pericles and Nicias. 
 No less than nine of the eleven extant comedies of Aristoph- 
 anes, the king of Old Comedy, were brought out between the 
 years 425 and 405, and eight of them, aside from all their 
 literary and artistic values, have the force and worth of viva- 
 cious political pamphlets. But Aristophanes was only one 
 of many, and every year's Dionysiac festivals brought out 
 half a dozen prize comedies, many of which were awarded a 
 higher place than those of Aristophanes, although none of 
 them have come down to us. So virulent did the attacks of 
 comedy become that the efficiency of men in public office was 
 seriously impaired by them, and more than once the ** freedom 
 of the press " had to be curtailed by popular decrees. 
 
 From three of the elder orators, Antiphon, Andocides, and 
 Lysias, we have speeches, or fragments of speeches, composed 
 and delivered during, or shortly after this period. The first 
 was an uncompromising oligarch ; the second a renegade oli- 
 garch and truckling democrat ; the third an uncompromising 
 democrat. All shades of political opinion are therefore repre- 
 sented in their speeches, and in setting values on their his- 
 torical testimonies, their characters and personal experiences 
 must be duly weighed, as well as the bias of the special 
 pleader or the retained advocate. 
 
 PRIMARY SOURCES 
 
 From Isocrates also, who was bom a few years before the 
 Peloponnesian war, and felt, as a young man, the influence of 
 Socrates and the Sophists, we have part of an oration (xvL, 
 De bigis) written for the younger Alcibiades, which is devoted 
 to a general and warm defence of the career of the elder Al- 
 cibiades, who had been attacked and slandered in the speech 
 of the plaintiff prosecuting his son. The oration was prob- 
 ably written in 397-396 B.C., although the period which 
 Isocrates most represents is that of 380-338, and since its 
 author elsewhere expressed his admiration for the genius of 
 Alcibiades, the praise here bestowed upon him cannot be as- 
 cribed merely to the zeal of an advocate at law. It was about 
 two years later that Lysias wrote a speech (xiv.) for a plain- 
 tiff prosecuting the younger Alcibiades on a charge of military 
 desertion. " Both bear striking witness to the hatred felt for 
 the memory of the elder Alkibiades in the early years of the 
 restored democracy. Here, denunciations of the father fill 
 about one-half of the speech against the son ; there, the son 
 devotes more than three-fourths of his address to a defence 
 of his father. The speech Against Alkibiades ascribed to 
 Andokides, but probably the work of a late sophist, indirectly 
 illustrates the same feeling ; being, in fact, an epitome of the 
 scandalous stories about Alkibiades current at the same pe- 
 riod" (Jebb, Attic Orators, L p. 250). 
 
 The speech of Andocides " On the Mysteries ", and the 
 spurious oration "Against Alcibiades" attributed to him, 
 will be more fully discussed in the current notes. 
 
 The political writings, in prose and verse, of Critias, the 
 leading spirit among the " Thirty Tyrants " (404-403), were 
 of pronounced oligarchical and Laconian tendencies, and ridi- 
 culed the democracy of Athens and its leaders. But the frag- 
 ments which have come down to us are few, and it is doubtful 
 whether the works had any prevailing influence on historical 
 tradition. Much more important is the oligarchical pamphlet 
 which Aristotle used so generously in his Constitution of 
 Athens, and by using sanctioned. Whoever the writer was, 
 he was clearly in sympathy with the moderate wing of the 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 oligarchical party as represented by Theramenes, and traced a 
 history of the growth of democracy at Athens in a severely 
 hostile vein. It was an able, but specious plea for a lim- 
 ited and circumscribed democracy. Theopompus also, as 
 well as Aristotle, made use of it in the tenth book of his HeU 
 lenica (see p. 33). Another nameless oligarch, somewhat 
 earlier in the last quarter of the fifth century b. c, pictures 
 the democracy of Athens after the death of Pericles, in the 
 treatise on the Constitution of Athens which has been pre- 
 served for us among the writings of Xenophon. All the ex- 
 cesses and follies of that democracy are treated with relentless 
 severity. But it is democracy itself, and not those who made 
 it what it was, which this oligarch despises. " Given that a 
 democratic form of government has been agreed upon, they 
 do seem to me to go the right way to preserve the democracy 
 by the adoption of the particular type which I have set forth " 
 (iii. 1, Dakyns* translation). 
 
 Much of this material — inscriptions, tragedies, comedies, 
 orations, and political pamphlets — must have been accessible 
 and known to the great historian of the Peloponnesian war, 
 Thucydides, and his work, so far as he lived to complete it, 
 has come down to us entire. " The Peloponnesian war ", says 
 Professor Bury {Hist, of Oreece, ed. in one vol., pp. 397 ff.), 
 " has had an advantage which has been granted to no other 
 episode in the history of the world. It has been recorded by 
 the first and greatest of all critical historians. To read the 
 book which Thucydides, the son of Olorus, has bequeathed to 
 posterity is in itself a liberal education ; a lesson in politics 
 and history which is, as he aimed to make it, * a possession 
 for ever.* .... It must be granted that the incidents of the war 
 would lose something of their interest, that the whole episode 
 would be shorn of much of its dignity and eminence, if Thu- 
 cydides had not deigned to be its historian. But it was not 
 a slight or xmworthy theme. For it is the story of the decline 
 and fall of the Athenian empire, and at this period Athens 
 is the centre of ecumenical history. The importance of the 
 war is not impaired by the smallness of the states which were 
 
 
 PRIMARY SOURCES / fi 
 
 involved in it. For in these smaU states lived those poUtical 
 ideas and institutions which concerned the future develop- 
 ment of mankind far more than any movements in barbarous 
 kingdoms, however great their territory." 
 
 It was the spectacular attempt of the Oriental Persian em- 
 pire to conquer the Aegean basin which engaged the Homeric 
 genms of Herodotus ; Thucydides depicts the struggle of 
 Athens to maintain her empire of the Aegean basin, and he 
 does It as a contemporary and participant An imperial 
 democracy was a new thing in the world's experience, as 
 was the historical treatment of contemporary events. Current 
 events had been chronicled in time relations merely by Hel- 
 lanicus, but Thucydides was the first to apply to them the 
 laws of cause and effect, and, whatever his exceUencies or 
 defects, he was the founder of historical science as we now 
 understand it, the creator of historical criticism, the discoverer 
 of Its laws, and the first teacher of the art of writing history. 
 The foremost modem historian of antiquity caUs him the 
 mcomparable and unequaled teacher of this art; ; but there 
 are strong voices of dissent to such high praise. Those who 
 dissent from such praise often faU to consider sufficiently 
 the exceedingly narrow limits which Thucydides imposed upon 
 himseU ; and those who agree with and echo it are often 
 blind to the inadequacies of Thucydides even within his 
 self-imposed limits. 
 
 "Thucydides, an Athenian," — so begins his great work 
 « wrote the history of the war in which the Peloponnesians 
 and the Athenians fou^t against one another. He began 
 to write when they first took up arms, believing that it would 
 be great and memorable above any previous war. For he 
 aigued that both states were then at the full height of their 
 military power, and he saw the rest of the HeUenes either 
 Biding or intending to side with one or the other of them. 
 No movement ever stirred Hellas more deeply than this • it 
 was shared by many of the Barbarians, and might be ^d 
 even to affect the world at large" (Jowett's translation). 
 He began to write, that is, when it broke out, the history of 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 a great war, not a history of Athens or of the Peloponnesian 
 states ; not a history of Hellenic culture or of Athenian 
 democracy ; not a description of unknown countries, except 
 as absolutely necessary, or of unknown peoples and customs ; 
 not personal descriptions or anecdotes of private life, — Ion 
 of Chios and Stesimbrotus of Thasos could do that, — but a 
 war history. And even in writing a war history his aim 
 would not be to please and entertain, as Herodotus did, but 
 to instruct " If he who desires to have before his eyes a 
 true picture of the events which have happened, and of the 
 like events which may be expected to happen hereafter in 
 the order of human things, shaU pronounce what I have 
 written to be useful, then I shall be satisfied. My history 
 is an everlasting possession, not a prize composition which is 
 
 heard and forgotten." 
 
 The man who spoke with this new note of self-repression 
 and scientific purpose, was, at the time, about thirty-five 
 years old, belonging by descent to a princely family of 
 Thrace, as Cimon had, and possessed of rich estates in that 
 country. He was highly educated after the manner of the 
 best Sophists, and doubtless found Anaxagoras an intellect- 
 ual father, as Pericles did. He was emancipated from the 
 undue authority of tradition and custom, and given to logical 
 analysis and criticism. His intellectual processes, that is, 
 were distmctly modern. That he took active part in public 
 affairs before the year 424, may be safely inferred from the 
 fact that in that year he was made one of the ten Strategi, 
 or generals, — the highest office under the Empire. Assigned 
 to command on the coast of Thrace, he failed to prevent 
 Brasidas from capturing Amphipolis, the northern jewel of 
 the Empire, and was in consequence banished on pain of 
 death. His purpose to write a history of the war, however, 
 was not thwarted by this misfortune. Indeed, it may rather 
 be inferred that he now had the leisure, as he had long had 
 the means and the disposition to continue the history which 
 he had begun at the outbreak of the war in 431. ** The same 
 Thucydides of Athens ", he writes (v. 26), " continued the 
 
 !| 
 
 ( -1 
 
 PRIMARY SOURCES 7 
 
 history up to the destruction of the Athenian empire. For 
 twenty years I was banished from my coimtry after I held 
 the command at Amphipolis, and associating with both sides, 
 with the Peloponnesians quite as much as with the Athen- 
 ians, because of my exile, I was thus enabled to watch quietly 
 the course of events, and I took great pains to make out the 
 exact truth." 
 
 It is safe inference that this banished Athenian spent 
 much of his time on his estates in Thrace, and that he 
 travelled much, where it was allowed him to travel, in the 
 prosecution of his enquiries. He returned to Athens in 404, 
 after the war was over, and began to put his material into 
 final form. Eight years, perhaps, were employed in this task, 
 when death overtook him before its completion. His work, 
 therefore, unlike that of Herodotus, is a torso. Seven of the 
 twenty-seven years during which Athens was fighting to 
 maintain her empire, find no record in what has come down 
 to us from Thucydides, and the last of the eight books into 
 which the extant material has been judiciously divided by 
 ancient critics, plainly lacks the author's final revision. But 
 three distinct manners are clearly to be distinguished in 
 what we have of the work, — a philosophic manner, as in 
 the first book ; an annalistic manner, as in the greater part 
 of the second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth books ; and an 
 episodic manner, as in the story of the campaign at Pylos 
 and Sphacteria, or of the siege of Plataea, or the major 
 story of the Sicilian expedition. All these three manners 
 are characterized by a dramatic method which projects events 
 and persons as it were upon a stage, and leaves the fall of 
 the Athenian empire to be acted out there. Apparently, but 
 only in appearance, the author pronounces few judgments 
 on men and events, leaving them for the judgment of his 
 readers. His detachment, in all three manners, has certainly 
 never been surpassed. An oligarch by political conviction, 
 to whom an extreme democracy was ** manifest folly ", he yet 
 gives us a sympathetic and spirited picture of the Athenian 
 democracy under Pericles, in which inherent weaknesses are 
 
 4 
 
 •Hi 
 
 i 
 
8 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 not suffered to obscure pure and lofty ideals. An Athenian 
 to the core, he never belittles Spartan nobility and greatness, 
 but gives us in his portrait of Brasidas a character hardly 
 second to that of Pericles. An admirer of the Athenian 
 empire, a participant in its honors, and stimulated to literary 
 activity by its splendor, as Herodotus had been by that of 
 the Persian empire, he uncovers with relentless hand the 
 greed and cruelty which marked its growth, culmination, 
 and decline. In historical philosophy the best modem 
 historians may well surpass him, especially as the apprecia- 
 tion of economic laws is a modem acquisition^ But in 
 candor, fidelity, analytic and episodic power, and above all 
 in personal detachment from persons and events, it is no 
 exaggeration to say that he remains unsurpassed. 
 
 The intermpted task of Thucydides was completed, actually 
 if not formally, by Xenophon, who tried to follow his methods 
 and continue his spirit, but succeeded with only a faint 
 success. The words of Grote are familiar: "It is at this 
 point that we have to part company with the historian 
 Thucydides. . . . The full extent of this irreparable loss 
 can hardly be conceived. ... To pass from Thucydides to 
 the Hellenica of Xenophon, is a descent truly moumful; 
 and yet, when we look at Grecian history as a whole, we 
 have great reason to rejoice that even so inferior a work as 
 the latter has reached us." We have, indeed, great reason 
 to rejoice. Xenophon was bom with the Peloponnesian 
 war ; was a boy when the " Clouds " of Aristophanes was 
 produced ; a youth when the news of the Sicilian disaster 
 came ; a young man, and a disciple of Socrates when Athens 
 felL His life and his works show, as Croiset says, what the 
 Socratic education could produce in a nature which was 
 healthy, moral, active, reasonable, somewhat ordinary, and 
 rather happily balanced than really superior. His father 
 was a rich landed proprietor, and a knight. The son was 
 therefore naturally of aristocratic or oligarchical sympathies, 
 like Thucydides. Unlike Thucydides, he was also partial to 
 Spartan institutions. 
 
 PEIMARY SOURCES 
 
 9 
 
 Under the triumphant democracy which followed the 
 short power of the " Thirty Tyrants ", Xenophon was ill at 
 ease, and welcomed the invitation of his guest-friend, Prox- 
 enus the Boeotian, to attach himself to the expedition which 
 Cyrus the Younger was preparing. Socrates warned him 
 that in doing so he was likely to incur the enmity of his 
 fellow citizens, since Cyrus had persistently aided Sparta to 
 her triumph over Athens. But Xenophon cunningly sur- 
 mounted the objections of the Master, and set out for Sardis. 
 He accompanied Cyrus " neither as a general, nor as an offi- 
 cer, nor yet as a private soldier, but simply on the invitation 
 of an old friend**, — a sort of literary attachS, Fifteen 
 months of the most romantic adventure followed, during 
 which Xenophon, according to his own fascinating story 
 in the Anabasis, became the leading spirit among the Ten 
 Thousand mercenary Greeks of Cynls, and conducted them 
 from the heart of Asia out to the Euxine sea, then to Thrace, 
 and from there into Asia Minor, where they were merged in 
 the forces of the Spartan general Thimbron, at war with 
 Tissaphemes and Phamabazus the Persian Satraps. When 
 the Spartan king Agesilaus came out to conduct the war, 
 Xenophon attached himself to him, and became his intimate 
 companion. When Agesilaus was recalled to Greece by a 
 threatening coalition against Sparta, Xenophon accompanied 
 him, and in the battle of Coroneia fought with the Spartans 
 against Thebans and Athenians. Banishment from Athens 
 probably followed, if it had not already preceded this devotion 
 to his country's enemy, but in 392, two years after Coroneia, 
 the devotion was richly rewarded. Scillus, a town of Elis 
 long desolate, was seized and colonized by Sparta, and here 
 in a rich, well watered and well wooded valley, the Lacon- 
 izing Athenian was recompensed for the loss of his estates 
 in Attica. Here, hard by the road leading from Sparta to 
 Olympia, where Spartan friends would readily find him, 
 Xenophon lived for twenty years an ideal coimtry gentle- 
 man's life, combining the practices of religion, the cultivation 
 of the soil, a delightful family and home experience, excel- 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 lent sport, and extensive authorship in a rare blend. And 
 here, in all probability, the first two books of his ffeMenica, 
 which contain (L l-ii 2) the story of the seven concluding 
 years of the Peloponnesian war left untouched by Thucydides, 
 were written. No other account of these years by a contem- 
 porary, as Xenophon was, has come down to us ; and later 
 writers, like Ephonis and Theopompus, who make Xenophon's 
 work the basis of their own, add very little to it that has 
 intrinsic value. His Hellenica was his only strictly his- 
 torical work, and the first two books, much superior to the 
 rest, although they lack the vigor and precision of Thucyd- 
 ides, the richness and depth of his political philosophy, 
 have more elegance, ease, and graceful vivacity than his 
 work can show, and constitute, as we may grant with Croiset, 
 ** une belle oeuvre d'histoire ". 
 
 Like Xenophon, Philistus, the historian of Sicily, was bom 
 with the Peloponnesian war, but at Syracuse. As Xenophon's 
 youth and young manhood coincided with the events which, 
 as an exile from his country in later years, he described in 
 the first two books of his ffellenica, so Philistus witnessed as 
 youth and young man the events of the Athenian siege of 
 Syracuse, and described them thirty years later during his 
 exile in Magna Graecia, in his Stcelica. Nothing but insig- 
 nificant fragments of his works have come down to us, and we 
 are forced to form our estimate of him from the judgments 
 of antiquity. These unite in denying him the highest rank 
 as a historian, although Plutarch ranges him along side of 
 Thucydides. He imitated Thucydides in method and style, 
 but though he surpassed his model somewhat in clarity, was 
 far beneath him in vigor and power (imitator Thucydidis et 
 ut multo infirmior ita aliquatenus lucidior, Quintilian, x. 1, 
 74). Cicero called him a ** miniature Thucydides " (paene 
 pusillus Thucydides). He was far from imitating the calm 
 impartiality of Thucydides, being a lover and flatterer of 
 tyrants and tyranny. In his description of the siege of 
 Syracuse, he undoubtedly used the story of Thucydides, 
 but he was able to add minor items of interest and value 
 
 PRIMARY SOURCES 
 
 11 
 
 
 from the Syracusan standpoint. Many of these appear in 
 the Nieias of Plutarch, and give it a unique valua 
 
 Plato, like Xenophon and Philistus, was bom with the 
 Peloponnesian war. He must therefore, as boy, youth, and 
 young man, have had personal recollections of the events 
 and men of the later periods of the war. But Plato was 
 essentially a poet and dramatist, using the prose of dialogue 
 as his means of expression for an idealistic philosophy, and 
 even in his earlier dialogues he takes great liberties with his 
 historical settings and details. Still, he evidently aimed at a 
 certain degree of dramatic verisimilitude, so much at least as 
 was needful for the best artistic effects. We may therefore 
 use with due caution the historical material indirectly fur- 
 nished by such dialogues as the Laches, the Protagoras, and 
 the Symposium, in which Nieias and Alcibiades appear as par- 
 ticipants. There was a well established tradition in Socratic 
 circles that Socrates had distinguished himself as a soldier, 
 and won a prize for bravery, which he preferred to have be- 
 stowed upon Alcibiades. Of so much we may be reasonably 
 certain. But in what battle the prize was won, and imder ex- 
 actly what circumstances, we may not feel so sure. In these 
 matters Plato probably allowed his fancy to disport itself 
 more or less. In such a dialogue as the First Alcibiades, 
 the authorship of which is uncertain, and in the dialogues of 
 the later Socratics, there is clearly even less attempt at his- 
 torical accuracy. As in the allusions of Old Comedy, so in 
 the historical materials of the Platonic and Socratic dia- 
 logues, we must seek for the historical residuum, and not be 
 disappointed if it is indefinite and meager. 
 
 Pasiphon of Eretria, in the first half of the third century 
 B. c, seems to have busied himself with the composition of 
 Socratic dialogues, which he attributed to immediate dis- 
 ciples of Socrates like Aeschines and Phaedo. Such a dia- 
 logue was the Nieias, from which Plutarch, or his immediate 
 source, draws much material concerning the daily life and 
 conversation of Nieias (chape, iv. and v.). In this dialogue, 
 the artistic verisimilitude so much desired in biographical 
 
 -'"♦•t*?- 
 
;^2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 details must have been secured by reference to good contem- 
 porary or historical sources for the private Ufe of Nicias, 
 such as the comic poets, and, possibly, Theopompus, who un- 
 doubtedly drew from the comic poets himself. In this way 
 so late a document as the Nicias of Pasiphon, like Ans- 
 totle's Constitution of Athens, came to have something of the 
 value of a primary and contemporary source. See the Trans- 
 actions of the American FhUological Association, xxxul, 
 
 pp. 139-149. . ^ . A 
 
 « We know, too, that Alcibiades was a favonte thesis, and 
 that at least five or six dialogues bearing that name passed 
 current in antiquity, and are attributed to contemporanes of 
 Socrates and Plato" (Jowett, Plato, ii. p. 417). 
 
 Such are our primary sources for the history of the Pelo- 
 ponnesian war, and, incidentally, for the Uves of Nicias and 
 Alcibiades. They are not only primary, but m the mam 
 contemporary sources, and constitute a historical apparatus 
 of unequaled dignity, value, power, and charm. 
 
 n. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS IN THE 
 LIVES OF NICIAS AND ALCIBIADES 
 
 It is impossible to date precisely the birth of either Nicias 
 or Alcibiades, but when Pericles died, in 429 b. c, Nicias 
 was already a man of poUtical influence, and had served as 
 general (Nicias, ii. 2). He must therefore have been at least 
 thirty-five years old. Alcibiades, the cousin and ward of 
 Pericles, could not have been far from twenty. It will an- 
 swer aU practical purposes, then, if this table mclude the 
 principal events of Athenian history between the years 461 
 and 404 In the former year, Pericles became the leadmg 
 man at Athens ; in the latter, Alcibiades was put out of the 
 way by the emissaries of Phamabazus. From 461 down to 
 the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war in 431, only the more 
 salient events will be noted, and in larger outlme ; from 431 
 onward, through the active careers of Nicias and Alcibiades, 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 13 
 
 the table will be full enough to render unnecessary any fur- 
 ther sketch of the history of the Peloponnesian war. Owing 
 to the great work of Thucydides and the continuation of that 
 incomplete work by Xenophon, the period of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war is the best known and most familiar one in 
 Greek history. 
 
 461-450 B. c. Athens at war with Peloponnesian states and 
 Persia. Pericles is the leading man at Athens. 
 In 456, Athens is at the acme of her power. In 
 454, the great Athenian armament in Egypt is 
 destroyed, and the treasury of the Delian League 
 is removed from Delos to Athens. In 450, a 
 five years* truce is made between Athens and 
 Sparta. 
 450-446. Nominal peace between Athens and Sparta. The 
 war with Persia continues imtil Cimon's death in 
 449 and the so-called ** Peace of Callias '' in 448. 
 Thucydides son of Melesias succeeds Cimon as 
 leader of the conservative and aristocratic party 
 in opposition to Pericles (Nicias, ii. 2). In 447, 
 Boeotia revolts from Athens, and the Athenians 
 are defeated in the battle of Coroneia (Ale, L 1). 
 About this time, Damon (Damonides), the friend 
 and teacher of Pericles, is ostracised (Nicias, vi. 
 1). In 446, Euboea and Megara revolt from 
 Athens, and a Peloponnesian army invades At- 
 tica, led by Pleistoanax, the youthful king of 
 Sparta. 
 445-431. In 445, Athens renounces supremacy on land to 
 Sparta in a thirty years' peace. In 444-443, the 
 pan-Hellenic colony of Thurii in Italy is founded 
 (Nicias, v. 2). In 442, Thucydides son of Mel- 
 esias is ostracised, and Pericles becomes supreme 
 in power. In 440-439, Samos revolts from 
 Athens, and is subdued (Nicias a general with 
 Pericles and Sophocles ? Nicias, xv. 2). In 436, 
 a colony is successfully founded at Amphipolis, 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 on the river Strymon, in Thrace. In 435, hostil- 
 ities begin between Corinth and Corcyra. In 433, 
 Athens forms a defensive alliance with Corcyra, 
 and Athenian ships take part in a battle between 
 Corinthians and Corcyraeans. In 432, Potidaea, 
 on the Chalcidic peninsula, revolts from Athens, 
 is aided by Corinth, and besieged by the Athe- 
 nians (^/c, vii. 3). A congress of Peloponnesian 
 allies at Sparta votes for war with Athens. 
 
 431-421, Peloponnesian War, First Period 
 431-430, First Year (spring, summer, autumn, and winter, 
 April to April). 
 Plataea, an allied city of Athens, is surprised and 
 taken in a night attack by Thebans, at the begin- 
 ning of spring; a Peloponnesian army invades 
 and devastates Attica, retiring in midsummer; 
 while this army is still in Attica, an Athenian 
 fleet makes a predatory voyage around the coasts 
 of Peloponnesus ; after the departure of the Pel- 
 oponnesian army, the Athenians expel the Aegi- 
 netans and take possession of their island; in 
 the autumn, the Athenian fleet returns and co- 
 operates with the army in an invasion and devas- 
 tation of Megara ; in the early winter, Pericles is 
 appointed to deliver the funeral oration over the 
 citizens who had fallen during this year. 
 
 430-429, Second Year. 
 
 In the spring, Pericles is reelected general for the 
 twelfth consecutive time since the ostracism of 
 Thucydides; early in the summer, a Pelopon- 
 nesian army invades and devastates Attica for the 
 second time; the great plague breaks out and 
 rages in Athens (Nicias, vi 3); an Athenian 
 fleet for the second time makes a predatory voy- 
 age along the coasts of Peloponnesus; in mid- 
 summer, the Peloponnesian army withdraws, and 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 15 
 
 the Athenian fleet returns ; public opinion turns 
 against Pericles, and an embassy to Sparta sues 
 in vain for peace ; in the autumn, Pericles is de- 
 posed from his command, tried for malversation 
 in ofi&ce, and fined (Nicias, vi 1); during the 
 winter, Potidaea, which had been under siege by 
 the Athenians for more than two years, sur- 
 renders. 
 429-428, Third Year. 
 
 In the spring, Pericles is reinstated in his office of 
 general; in the summer, a Peloponnesian army 
 begins the siege of Plataea; an expedition of 
 Athenian hoplites under Xenophon and two other 
 generals against the rebellious Chalcidians is 
 nearly annihilated (Nicias, vi 3); during the 
 summer and autiunn, Phormio wins two brilliant 
 naval victories over the Peloponnesians in the 
 Corinthian gulf; in the autumn, Pericles dies 
 after a long illness. 
 428-427, Fourth Year. 
 
 In the early summer, a Peloponnesian army in- 
 vades and ravages Attica for the third time ; an 
 Athenian fleet, originally intended for the usual 
 voyage along the coasts of Peloponnesus, is sent 
 instead, as soon as the Peloponnesians withdraw 
 from Attica, against the Lesbians, who threaten 
 revolt, and Mitylene is blockaded ; another fleet 
 is sent round Peloponnesus, in the hope of de- 
 terring the Peloponnesians from attacking Athens 
 by land and sea while she is occupied with the 
 revolt in Lesbos, and accomplishes its object ; in 
 the autumn, Paches is sent with reenforcements 
 to Lesbos, and by the beginning of winter, Mity- 
 lene is completely enclosed. 
 427-426, Fifth Year. 
 
 In the spring, a Peloponnesian fleet is sent to the 
 aid of Mitylene ; in the early summer, a Pelo- 
 
16 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 17 
 
 ponnesian army invades and ravages Attica for 
 the fourth time ; after its withdrawal, and while 
 the Peloponnesian fleet is no further on its way 
 than Delos, Mitylene capitulates, and the Pelo- 
 ponnesian fleet returns home; Lesbos is com- 
 pletely subdued by Athens, and the principal 
 rebels among the Mitylenaeans are put to death ; 
 Nicias conducts a successful expedition against 
 the isiland of Minoa, over against Megara (Nicias, 
 vL 4) ; Plataea surrenders to the Peloponnesians 
 and is handed over to the tender mercy of Thebes ; 
 Corcyra is convulsed by bloody political feuds 
 which result in the triumph of the democracy 
 under Athenian support; in the autumn, the 
 Athenians send a fleet under Laches and Char- 
 oeades to Sicily, ostensibly to aid the Leontines 
 in their struggle with Syracuse ; during the win- 
 ter, Paches, the conqueror of Lesbos, takes his 
 own life while rendering the customary account 
 of his campaign (Nicias, vL 2). 
 
 426-425, Sixth Year. 
 
 In the early summer, a Peloponnesian army assem- 
 bles for the invasion of Attica, but is disbanded 
 in consequence of earthquakes ; Nicias conducts 
 a fleet on an expedition to Melos, Thera, and the 
 shore regions of Boeotia and Locris, devastating 
 the enemy's territories ; Demosthenes conducts a 
 fleet on the usual predatory expedition round 
 Peloponnesus, and is drawn into a disastrous 
 invasion of Aetolia (Nicias, vi 3) ; in the au- 
 tumn, Demosthenes partially redeems his failure 
 by saving Naupactus and Acamania to Athens ; 
 during the winter, on fresh appeals from Sicilians 
 for aid against Syracuse, the Athenians deter- 
 mine to send in the following spring a larger 
 fleet under Eurymedon, Pythodorus, and Sopho- 
 cles, and Pythodorus goes on in advance with a 
 
 few ships to replace Laches in command, who 
 has not been aggressive enough. 
 
 425-424, Seventh Year. 
 
 In the early spring, Nicias conducts an architheoria 
 to Delos with great magnificence (Nicias, iii); 
 in the late spring, a Peloponnesian army invades 
 Attica for the fifth time ; the fleet under Eury- 
 medon and Sophocles sets out for Sicily, carry- 
 ing Demosthenes on a special errand and with 
 special powers ; in consequence of the occupation 
 and fortification of Pylos by the Athenians un- 
 der Demosthenes, the Peloponnesian army re- 
 tires from Attica, and the Lacedaemonians lay 
 siege to Demosthenes; during the summer, a 
 Lacedaemonian garrison on the island of Sphac- 
 teria is cut ofif and besieged, in consequence of 
 which a truce is made, and Sparta sues for 
 peace ; the suit is rejected, and in the early au- 
 tumn, Cleon and Demosthenes force the Lace- 
 daemonians on Sphacteria to surrender (Nicias^ 
 vii. and viiL 1) ; the Athenian fleet proceeds to 
 Sicily ; Nicias leads a predatory expedition into 
 Corinthian territory (Nicias, vi 4 fif.). 
 
 424-423, Eighth Year. 
 
 In the early summer, Nicias leads an expedition 
 against Cy thera (Nicias, vi 4), occupies the 
 island, and then ravages the adjacent Laconian 
 coasts, and slays or captures the Aeginetan ref- 
 ugees in Thyrea (Nicias, vi 6); the Sicilian 
 cities make peace with one another, and the 
 Athenian fleet imder Pythodorus, Eurymedon, 
 and Sophocles, returns home, to the bitter dis- 
 appointment of the party of war and conquest ; 
 in the late summer, Demosthenes and Hypoc- 
 rates make an attempt to capture Megara, which 
 is foiled by Brasidas, although Nisaea and the 
 long walls are taken (Nicias, vi 4) ; Brasidas 
 
 1!^ 
 
 ^¥ 
 
18 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 proceeds to Thrace in order to strip Athens of 
 her choice dependencies there; in the autumn, 
 the Athenian offensive against Boeotia results in 
 a disastrous defeat at Delium (Nicias, vi 3 ; Ale, 
 viL 4) ; in the early winter, Amphipolis surren- 
 ders to Brasidas, and Thucydides son of Olorus, 
 the Athenian general deputed to operate against 
 Brasidas, is in consequence accused of treason 
 and banished. 
 423-422, Ninth Year. 
 
 The defeat of the Athenians at Delium and their 
 loss of AmphipoUs weighing about evenly in the 
 balance with the Spartan reverses in the war, in 
 the early spring, a truce for one year is made be- 
 tween Athens and Sparta, during which negoti- 
 ations for a definite peace are to be carried on 
 {Nicias, ix. 5) ; before news of the truce can 
 reach Thrace, Scione, on the Chalcidic peninsula, 
 goes over to Brasidas, and even after news of the 
 truce comes, Mende does likewise, and Brasidas 
 will surrender neither town, so that hostilities 
 continue in Thrace, though in Thrace only ; dur- 
 ing the summer, an expedition under Nicias re- 
 covers Mende and completely invests Scione 
 (Nicias, vi. 4). 
 
 422-421, Tenth Year. 
 
 In the early sprmg, the truce expires, but there are 
 no further hostilities on either side except in 
 Thrace ; early in the autumn, an expedition under 
 Cleon is sent by the Athenians to Thrace, 
 and before Amphipolis his army is disastrously 
 defeated by Brasidas, but Brasidas and Cleon 
 both lose their lives ; the two men most eager 
 for the continuance of the war being thus re- 
 moved (Nicias, ix.), negotiations for a definite 
 peace are renewed, continued through the win- 
 ter, and concluded at the beginning of spring. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 19 
 
 for fifty years. The principal conditions are that 
 Sparta is to surrender to Athens Amphipolis, in 
 Thrace, and Panactum, on the Boeotian frontier 
 (Nicias, x. 3; Ale, xiv. 4); the Athenians to 
 Sparta Pylos, Cythera, and the captives from 
 Sphacteria. In ten years of war, that is, the em- 
 pire of Athens has been maintained, and the 
 prestige of Sparta and her confederacy lowered. 
 But neither the Corinthians, Boeotians, Megari- 
 ans, nor Eleans will join Sparta and her other 
 allies in making the peace. 
 
 421-412, Pkloponnesian War, Second Period 
 
 421-420, Eleventh Year (see Thucydides, v. 26). 
 
 Even before the summer, dissatisfactions arise on 
 both sides because conditions on which peace 
 was made in the spring are not fulfilled ; alarmed 
 at the attitude of her recalcitrant allies, Sparta 
 makes a special defensive alliance with Athens 
 for herself alone (Nicias, x. 2), and thereby secures 
 the release of the captives of Sphacteria (Nicias, 
 X. 7 ; Ale, xiv. 5), although on her part she cannot 
 surrender Amphipolis (Nicias, x. 3); a threat- 
 ened coalition of Mantinea, Elis, Argos, and Cor- 
 inth against Sparta drives her to seek the favor 
 and help of Argos at the risk of offending and 
 losing Athens; to get possession of Panactum, 
 which she must surrender to Athens, Sparta 
 makes overtures to Boeotia, which demands a 
 special defensive alliance like that between Ath- 
 ens and Sparta ; early in the spring (March), the 
 special defensive alliance between Sparta and 
 Boeotia is made, and the Boeotians demolish the 
 waUs of Panactum before handing the place over 
 to Sparta. 
 
20 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 420-419, Twelfth Year. 
 
 When knowledge of the alliance between Sparta 
 and Boeotia, and of the demoUtion of the walls 
 of Panactum, reach Athens, the strength of the 
 war party there is increased (Nicias, x. 3), and it 
 is seen that the war party at Sparta is in the as- 
 cendant ; Corinth now threatens to abandon the 
 anti-Spartan league and go over to Sparta, leav- 
 ing the three democratic states of Argos, Man- 
 tinea, and Elis in the lurch, unless they can secure 
 an aUiance with Athens ; to the securing of such 
 an alliance Alcibiades, who is now the most in- 
 fluential opponent of the conservative Nicias, di- 
 rects his political talents ; while the Athenians 
 are enraged at Sparta's continued failure to com- 
 ply with the conditions of the treaty, and whUe 
 one embassy from Argos is at Sparta negotiating 
 for a treaty of aUiance, Alcibiades gets another 
 embassy sent to Athens from Argos with pro- 
 posals for alliance with Athens {Nicias, x. 4; 
 Ale., xiv. 3); the counter-embassy from Sparta, 
 acting with Nicias and the peace party, is dis- 
 credited by a clever political trick (Nictas, x. 
 4 ff. ; AK xiv. 6 ff.), a^^ ^ midsummer, Athens 
 joins'the anti-Spartan Peloponnesian league, thus 
 uniting the industrial and commercial democ- 
 racy of Athens with the agricultural democracy 
 of northern Peloponnesus; Corinth now sides 
 definitely with Sparta. 
 
 419-418, Thirteenth Year. , . , . j 
 
 In the spring (March-April), Alcibiades is elected 
 one of the generals (NiciaSy x. 8 ; Ale, xv. 1), 
 and during the summer traverses northern Pel- 
 oponnesus with a small army, working zealously 
 in the interests of the new alliance (at Patrae, 
 Ale XV. 3), whUe Argos invades and devastates 
 the 'territory of Epidaurus, an aUy of Sparta; 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 21 
 
 Sparta twice starts to render aid to the Epidauri- 
 ans, but twice retires, knowing that Athens is 
 now pledged to assist Argos ; during the winter, 
 however, Sparta sends troops by sea to Epidaurus, 
 and in retaliation Alcibiades prevails upon the 
 Athenians to reestablish Helots and Messenians 
 in Pylos for the devastation of Laconian terri- 
 tory (Nicias, X. 8). 
 
 418-417, Fourteenth Year. 
 
 In the spring, the peace party regains ascendancy, 
 and Nicias is elected general, with others like 
 minded, instead of Alcibiades ; in the early sum- 
 mer, the Lacedaemonians and their allies open 
 operations against Argos, but, fearful of drawing 
 Athens into war in support of her ally, the 
 Spartan king withdraws his forces under a truce 
 of four months with Argos ; in half-hearted sup- 
 port of her ally, Athens sends a small force to 
 Argos under Laches, accompanied by Alcibiades 
 as special ambassador ; the forces of the four 
 anti-Spartan allies take the field, and are deci- 
 sively defeated by the Lacedaemonians in the 
 battle of Mantinea, towards the end of summer 
 (Ak., XV. 1) ; the victory restores the prestige of 
 Sparta, and initiates a reaction against democracy 
 and in favor of oligarchy in Peloponnesus and 
 all Hellas ; during the autumn and winter, Argos 
 and Mantinea are forced back into alliance with 
 Sparta, and the promising Peloponnesian policy 
 of Alcibiades is wrecked. 
 
 417-416, Fifteenth Year. 
 
 In the spring, both Alcibiades and Nicias are 
 elected generals; threatened with ostracism in 
 his conflict with Nicias, Alcibiades secures the 
 ostracism of Hyperbolus (Nicias, xi. ; Ale., xiii) ; 
 during the summer, Nicias conducts a fruitless 
 expedition to Thrace (Thuc, v. 83; Busolt, 
 
22 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Griech, Gesch., iil p. 1262); the oligarchical 
 party in Argos is overthrown, and Sparta 
 threatens the victorious democracy in the city 
 with war, whereupon Athens and Argos, renew- 
 ing the shattered policy of Alcibiades, make 
 another defensive alliance, and the Aigives begin 
 the building of long walls to the sea (Ale, xv. 2) ; 
 these are destroyed by the Lacedaemonians dur- 
 ing the winter, but the city is not taken. 
 
 416-415, Sixteenth Year. 
 
 In the spring, Nicias and Alcibiades are both 
 reelected generals, the former intent on preserv- 
 ing peace, the latter on renewing war with Sparta ; 
 whQe Alcibiades is busy in Argos, the Athenians 
 send an expedition against Melos, an island colon- 
 ized from Laconia ; the city of Melos is enclosed 
 with a wall and closely besieged ; at the Olympic 
 games, in the summer, Alcibiades astonishes the 
 Hellenic world with his victories and lavish ex- 
 penditures (Ale, XL, xii.); during the winter, 
 Melos capitulates, and the Athenians kill the 
 male adults, and sell the women and children 
 into slavery (Ale, xvi. 5); an embassy from 
 Egesta, in Sicily, seeks aid from Athens against 
 the Selinuntians (Nicias, xii 1), and an Athenian 
 embassy is sent to investigate the situation. 
 
 415-414, Seventeenth Year. 
 
 In the spring, Nicias and Alcibiades are both re- 
 elected generals, and the parties of peace and 
 war maintain their almost even balance; the 
 Athenian embassy returns from Egesta with 
 glowing reports, accompanied by fresh envoys 
 from Egesta with alluring promises ; a large ex- 
 pedition to Sicily is voted, with Nicias, Alcibiades, 
 and Lamachus as commanders ; Nicias makes a 
 vain attempt to dissuade the Athenians from the 
 expedition (Nicias, xii.; Ale, xviiL 2); during 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 28 
 
 the preparations for the expedition, the Hermae 
 throughout the city are defaced by unknown 
 vandals (Nicias, L 3 ; xiiL 2 ; Ale, xviiL 3) ; in 
 midsummer, the expedition sets out, and at length 
 establishes its base of operations at Catana ; early 
 in the autumn, Alcibiades is recalled for trial on 
 the charge of religious desecration (Nidas, xiv. 
 4; Ale, xx. 2 ; xxL 5) ; in the late autumn, the 
 Athenians land near Syracuse and defeat the 
 Syracusans in battle, but withdraw to Naxos for 
 winter quarters (Nicias, xvi) ; during the winter, 
 on the advice of Alcibiades at Sparta, the 
 Spartans turn their thoughts towards the inva- 
 sion of Attica, and decide to send Gylippus to 
 take command of the Syracusans (Ale, Yyiii 2) 
 414-413, Eighteenth Year. 
 
 Early in the spring (April), the Athenians make 
 a successful landing north of Syracuse, and 
 occupy the plateau of Epipolae, where they for- 
 tify themselves and proceed to enclose the city 
 with a wall from sea to sea (Nicias, xviL); 
 Lamachus falls in an hour of victory, leaving 
 Nicias in sole command {Nicias, xviiL 1-3); by 
 midsummer, the greater part of the enclosing 
 wall is completed, and the prospects of the be- 
 siegers are bright (Nicias, xviiL 4 f.) ; towards 
 the end of the summer, Gylippus enters Syracuse 
 with reenforcements, and the Syracusans take 
 the offensive (Nicias, xviiL 6-xix.) ; at about the 
 same time, an expedition from Athens ravages 
 the coast of Laconia and thereby definitely 
 breaks the peace with Sparta (Thuc., vL 105) ; 
 during the autumn, the Syracusans succeed in 
 completing a cross waU which makes the en- 
 closure of their city by the Athenian wall 
 impossible (Ni4:ias, xix. 6) ; the offensive power 
 of the Athenians declines, and Nicias sends a 
 
24 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 despondeat letter to the home goverament {Nicias, 
 xix. 7) ; another armament under Demosthenes 
 and Eurymedon is voted for the coming spring 
 {NidaSy XX. 1). 
 413-412, Nineteenth Year. 
 
 Early in the spring, the relief expedition under 
 Demosthenes sets out ; at about the same time, 
 the Peloponnesians invade Attica, and fortify 
 Deceleia; late in the spring, the Syracusans 
 capture Plemmyrium, the naval base of Nicias, 
 but the Athenians are victorious in the first great 
 naval battle in the harbor {Nicias, xx. 2 f.) ; 
 about midsummer, the Athenians are defeated in 
 a second naval battle {Nicias, xx. 4 f.) ; shortly 
 afterwards, Demosthenes arrives with the relief 
 expedition {Nicias, xxL 1); late in the summer, 
 the Athenians suffer disastrous defeat in a night 
 attack on Epipolae, and gradually come to favor 
 an abandonment of their positions {Nicias, xxi., 
 xxiL); on August 27th, an eclipse of the moon 
 delays their departure {Nicias, xxiii.) ; early in 
 the autimm, the Athenians are defeated in a third, 
 and again, soon after, in a fourth and decisive 
 naval battle {Nicias, xxiv., xxv.) ; two days after 
 this, they set out on their retreat to Catana by 
 land {Nicias, xxvL) ; within nine days, and about 
 the middle of the autumn, the entire army of the 
 Athenians is either killed, scattered in flight, or 
 taken prisoners, and Nicias and Demosthenes 
 are put to death {Nicias, xxviL, xxviiL) ; tidings 
 of the catastrophe make their way to Athens 
 some time before the beginning of winter {Nicias, 
 XXX.); in spite of their fear and "unutterable 
 consternation ", the Athenians determine under 
 no circumstances to give way, and vote to build 
 a new navy, and to make sure of their allies 
 (Thuc, viii 1). 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 25 
 
 412-404, Pkloponnesian War, Third Period 
 
 412-411, Twentieth Year. 
 
 In the spring, the greater allies of Athens plan 
 revolt, with encouragement from Sparta, and the 
 Chians obtain promise of assistance first {Ale, 
 xxiv. 1) ; in the summer, encouraged by the pres- 
 ence in Ionian waters of a Lacedaemonian fleet 
 with Alcibiades and a Spartan admiral, Chios 
 and other allied cities revolt {Ale., xxiv. 1) ; the 
 Peloponnesians enter into alliance with Tissa- 
 phemes the Persian Satrap; in the autumn, a 
 large Athenian expedition sails into Ionian 
 waters, punishes and besets the Chians, and de- 
 feats the Peloponnesians and rebels near Miletus, 
 but on the approach of another hostile fleet of 
 Lacedaemonian and Sicilian ships, retires to 
 Samos ; Alcibiades, on learning that orders have 
 been sent from Sparta to kill him, betakes him- 
 self to Tissaphernes at Miletus {Ale, xxiv. 2 f.) ; 
 during the winter, scheming to be recalled from 
 exile, Alcibiades puts himself into communica- 
 tion with the oligarchs in the Athenian army at 
 Samos, who plan a revolution at Athens, in order 
 to get an alliance with Tissaphernes through the 
 influence of Alcibiades {Ale, xxv., xxvL 1) ; the 
 Athenian people commissions an embassy under 
 Peisander to confer with Tissaphernes and Alci- 
 biades, but the conference shows the promises 
 and pretensions of the latter to be vain (Thuc, 
 viiL 54, 56) ; the oligarchs in the army at Samos 
 now renounce all connection with Alcibiades, 
 and send Peisander and others to Athens with 
 orders to effect a revolution there and through- 
 out the empire (Thuc, viiL 63, 64). 
 
26 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 411-410, Twenty.first Year. 
 
 In midsummer, the revolution of the Four Hundred 
 at Athens is effected, and the democracy over- 
 thrown (Ale, xxvi 2); the army at Samos, 
 however, crushes the oligarchs there, threatens 
 the revolutionary government at home, and, 
 believing as the oligarchs had in the influence of 
 Alcibiades with Tissaphemes, recalls the exile 
 and makes him their commemder-in-chief {Ale, 
 xxvL 3) ; in the early autumn, the Spartan fleet 
 proceeds to the Hellespont, where Byzantium 
 and other Athenian allies have revolted, and is 
 followed closely by the Athenian fleet (Ale, 
 xxvii. 2); the Four Hundred are deposed at 
 Athens (Ale, xxviL 1) ; the Athenian fleet under 
 Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus defeats the Pelopon- 
 nesian fleet off the promontory of Cynossema in 
 the Hellespont (Thuc, viii. 104-106); in the 
 late autumn, a fierce naval battle off Abydos is 
 decided in favor of the Athenians by the timely 
 arrival of Alcibiades (Ale, xxvii 2'-4) ; not long 
 after, Alcibiades pays a visit to Tissaphemes, 
 who has come up to the Hellespont, is seized 
 and imprisoned in Sardis by the Satrap, but 
 makes his escape, late in the winter, and rejoins 
 the Athenian fleet at Cardia (Ale, zxvii. 5; 
 xxviiL 1) ; early in the spring (March), the 
 Athenian fleet under Alcibiades utterly destroys 
 the Peloponnesian fleet off Cyzicus in the Pro- 
 pontis (Ale, xxviiL). 
 
 410-409, Twenty-second Year. 
 
 In the spring (April), Alcibiades operates from the 
 Hellespont against Perinthus, Selymbria, and 
 Byzantium, in order to obtain control of the 
 Bosporus passage (Xen., HelL i 1, 21 f.) ; an 
 expedition is sent under Thrasyllus to Ionia, 
 which meets with defeat in the summer (Xen., 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 27 
 
 Bell. i. 2, 1-10); in the autumn, Thrasyllus, 
 with his defeated troops, joins Alcibiades at 
 Sestos (Ale, xxix. 1 f.); during the winter, the 
 Athenians fortify Lampsacus, ravage the territo- 
 ries of Pharnabazus, and lay si^e to Abydos 
 (Ale, xxix. 3). 
 409-408, Twenty-third Year. 
 
 In the spring, Alcibiades lays siege to Chalcedon, 
 and defeats Pharnabazus in his attempt to relieve 
 the city (Ale, xxx. 1) ; Alcibiades goes back to 
 the Hellespont to raise troops for the siege of 
 Byzantium, and captures Selymbria (Ale, xxx. 2 
 ff.) ; the Athenians make a treaty with Pharnab- 
 azus (Ale, xxxi. 1 f.) ; during the winter, By- 
 zantium is besieged and captured by the Athenians 
 under Alcibiades (Ale, xxxi 2 ff.). 
 408-407, Twenty-fourth Year. 
 
 In the spring, now that the Hellespontine region is 
 restored to Athens, the Athenians prepare for a 
 renewal of their struggle to regain Ionia, and 
 Alcibiades sails to Samos (Xen., ffell. i. 4, 8) ; 
 chosen general at Athens with Thrasybulus and 
 Conon, Alcibiades returns to his native city, about 
 midsummer (Ale, xxxii.); during his four 
 months' delay at Athens, preparing for the Ionian 
 campaign, Alcibiades conducts the Eleusinian 
 mysteries in their due order (Ale, xxxiv.) ; late 
 in the autumn, Alcibiades proceeds with his fleet 
 to Samos (Ale, xxxv. 1-3) ; during the winter, 
 Lysander, the new Spartan admiral, supported 
 by Cyrus, the new Persian Satrap, prepares his 
 fleet for effective service, and Alcibiades vainly 
 tries to draw him out of the harbor of Ephesus. 
 407-406, Twenty-fifth Year. 
 
 In the spring, the fleet of Alcibiades, during his 
 absence, is defeated by that of Lysander (Ale, 
 XXXV. 4-6); Alcibiades is deposed from office 
 
28 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S NICIA8 
 
 29 
 
 and new generals are appointed, ten in number 
 {Alc,^ xxxvL 1-3) ; during the ensuing summer 
 and winter, the operations on both sides are 
 desultory. 
 406^05, Twenty-sixth Year. 
 
 In the spring, Callicratidas, the admiral appointed 
 from Sparta in place of Lysander, takes command 
 of the Peloponnesian fleet at Ephesus (Xen., Hell, 
 L 6, 1 fif.); early in the summer, Callicratidas 
 operates against Lesbos, defeats Conon, the Ath- 
 enian commander, and shuts him up in the har- 
 bor of Mitylene ; with all the energies of despair 
 the Athenians fit out a fleet for the relief of Conon, 
 which sets out about midsummer (Ibid., L 6, 16 
 -25) ; off the islands called Aiginusae, in the late 
 summer, the Athenians win a decisive victory 
 over Callicratidas, who loses his life in the battle 
 (Ibid., L 6, 26-33) ; during the autumn, the Ath- 
 enian generals, who had not cared sufficiently for 
 their dead and wounded in the battle, are tried 
 and executed (Ibid., L 6, 34 — 7, 35) ; Cyrus and 
 the Ionian cities favoring Sparta demand the re- 
 turn of Lysander as Spartan admiral (Ibid,, il 
 
 1, 6). 
 405-404, Twenty-seventh Year. 
 
 In the spring, Lysander is sent out by the Spartan 
 authorities in virtual, though not technical com- 
 mand of the Peloponnesian fleet (Xen., ffell, il 
 1,7); both sides spend the summer in preparations 
 for a decisive battle ; Lysander suddenly proceeds 
 to the Hellespont, where he takes Lampsacus 
 (Xen., ffell. ii. 1, 17-19); the Athenians follow 
 him and take position at Aegospotami, over against 
 Lampsacus (Ale, xxxvi 4-5) ; early in the au- 
 tumn, Lysander destroys the Athenian fleet, and 
 then, during the winter, blockades the Piraeus 
 (Ale,, xxxviL 1-3). 
 
 404-403, Twenty-eighth Year. 
 
 In the early spring (April), Athens capitulates 
 (Ale., xxxviL 3) ; the thirty oligarchs appointed 
 by the Assembly, under the influence and fear of 
 Lysander, to draft a new constitution, usurp and 
 hold power at Athens from the summer of 404 
 to the spring of 403, when they are defeated and 
 deposed by the exiles under Thrasybulus (Xen., 
 ffell. ii. 3, 1—4, 23); they are tools of Lysander, 
 and cooperate with him in securing the death of 
 Alcibiades, whose continued influence would be 
 fatal to their plans (Ale, xxxviiL). 
 
 IIL THE SOURCES OF PLUTARCH IN HIS NICIAS, 
 WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THIS LIFE 
 
 Of the twenty-two pairs, or " books ", of Plutarch's Parallel 
 Lives which have come down to us, the first twelve, with 
 then* approximate order of composition, can be determined 
 with tolerable certainty. Among these, the Themistocles- 
 Camillus pair occupied the second place, the Aristides-Cato 
 Major pair the eleventh place, the Cimon-Lucullus pair the 
 third place, and the Pericles- Fabius Maximus pair the tenth 
 place. The seventh place was given to the Lysander-Sulla 
 pair, a fact of interest in the study of the Alcibiades, which 
 has considerable material common also to the Lysander, Of 
 the Niciasr-Crassus and the Alcibiades-Coriolanus pairs, it is 
 expedient to say only that they were composed after the 
 first twelve pairs, and in the relative order of their mention. 
 They represent, therefore, the great biographer's maturest 
 work. See the Introduction to the Themistocles and Aris- 
 tides, p. 9. 
 
 Plutarch's Introduction to the Nicias (chap, i) has no 
 such grace and charm as that to the Cimon, or even that to 
 the Pericles, but it throws a clear, and a very unusual light 
 on the question of the sources used in the composition of 
 
 1 
 
80 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S NICIAS 
 
 31 
 
 the Life^ and the maimer of their use. Thucydides and 
 Philistus, the historian of the Peloponnesian war and the 
 historian of Sicily, are to be used as the principal and most 
 authoritative sources, without, however, needlessly repeating 
 their matchless and familiar stories. To the material sup- 
 plied by these writers as a basis for the LifCy Plutarch prom- 
 ises to add details which he has collected from writers making 
 casual references to facts in the career of Nicias, or from an- 
 tiquarian treatises giving inscriptions on votive offerings or 
 in public decrees. Thucydides and Philistus were not biog- 
 raphers of Nicias, but historians, for whom the Sicilian ex- 
 pedition was a major episode. Their stories Plutarch will 
 condense and combine, with the special aim of illustrating 
 the " nature and disposition " of Nicias, and to such conden- 
 sation and combination he will add sundry details which he 
 has collected from other sources, again exercising his discre- 
 tion in using only such as will illustrate the character of 
 
 his hero. 
 
 It has been clearly shown by Busolt (Hutarchs Nihim und 
 PhUistos, Hermes, xxxiv. (1899), pp. 280 ff.) that the precise 
 program here laid down by Plutarch is not mere literary 
 mannerism, cloaking the use of a biography of Nicias al- 
 ready made to hand, wherein condensation and combination 
 of Thucydides and Philistus, as well as the collection of sun- 
 dry additional details, have already been done for Plutarch, 
 only to be adopted and adapted by him for his purposes ; 
 but that the biographer has done exactly what and as he 
 promised to do. 
 
 «« The tale of the struggle between Athens and Syracuse ,•• 
 says Freeman, ** has been more nobly told, not only than any 
 other piece of Sicilian history, but than any other piece of 
 the history of mankind." And since the career of Nicias is 
 so largely identified with the Sicilian expedition, it might 
 seem, at first blush, a needless and even a presumptuous task 
 on the part of Plutarch to follow in the steps of Thucydides, 
 wherein any follower must be painfully conscious of the in- 
 terval at which he follows. But Plutarch was well aware of 
 
 his peril, and saved himself by an admirable restriction, for 
 independent development and improvement, to scenes and 
 episodes only which illustrate the character and disposition 
 of Nicias. The main story of the expedition he assumed to 
 be more or less familiar to his readers. Even had he done no 
 more than condense the story of Thucydides, we could still 
 be thankful to him for his effort But he has done far more. 
 He has enriched that story with many dramatic incidents of 
 undoubted authenticity, and supplemented it with corrobo- 
 rative details of high antiquarian value. For Thucydides, 
 though a contemporary, was not an eyewitness of the events 
 of the Sicilian expedition either at Athens or Syracuse, and 
 in spite of his magnificent detachment, his story shows an 
 Athenian standpoint. Philistus, on the other hand, was an 
 eyewitness of the events of the siege of Syracuse, and was 
 on the Syracusan side. His story, had it come down to us, 
 even though it did base itself on the earlier story of Thucyd- 
 ides, would have been a most welcome testimony ex alterd 
 parte. " It is hard to follow the story with the hopes and 
 fears of a Syracusan. Yet this is what the historian of 
 Sicily must do. With his Thucydides ever in his hand, he 
 must strive to be his own Philistos. He must teach his heart 
 to dwell in the besieged city and not in the besieging camp. 
 . . . And surely, be it on Senlac or on Epipolai, it is a higher 
 and more ennobling feeling when we fight in spirit, whether 
 in defeat or in victory, with the men who are fighting for 
 their own soil against unprovoked invasion " (Freeman, Hist 
 of Sicily, iiL p. 3). To a large extent we are enabled to do 
 this through the manifold details which Plutarch gives us 
 from Philistus, whose work, but for fragments thus preserved 
 by Plutarch and others, has perished. And this fact renders 
 the Nicias, as a historical document, over and above its lit- 
 erary charm, of priceless value, just as the Cimon and the 
 P^rides are enhanced in historical value by the authentic 
 material in them which supplements Thucydides. Plutarch 
 mentions by name in his Nicias some nineteen authors. In 
 some thirteen cases also, a vague phrase of reference like 
 
 y 
 
 \\ 
 
 > 
 
 1 i 
 
82 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S NICIAS 
 
 33 
 
 « it is said ", or « most writers ", hides from us the particular 
 source, or marks matter taken at second hand. 
 
 Of Thucydides and Philistus, enough has already been 
 written in the chapter on primary sources (pp. 4-10). A brief 
 characterization will now be given of the other principal 
 sources for the material of the Nicias, whether named by 
 Plutarch or not, arranged as nearly as possible in chronologi- 
 cal order. Pindar need not be included, who is cited in 
 i. 2 for mere literary embellishment ; nor Euripides, who is 
 cited for the same purpose in v. 4 and ix. 5, and for the 
 higher purpose of historical corroboration in xviL 4. After 
 what has been said of Old Athenian Comedy as a primary 
 source (pp. 1 f .), the detailed information needed concern- 
 ing the contemporary rivals of Aristophanes, such as Eupolis, 
 Phrynichus, Plato, and Telecleides, will best find a place in 
 the current notes, as well as that concerning other authors al- 
 luded to or cited for literary rather than historical purposes. 
 Of Aristotle's Constitution of Athens also, which is a primary 
 source in so far as it incorporates oligarchical opinions prev- 
 alent during the closing years of the Peloponnesian war, 
 enough has been said already (pp. 3 f.). By adopting such 
 opinions, Aristotle, of course, gave them the weight of his 
 own name and authority. 
 
 Plutarch does not mention Theopompus in the Nicias, but 
 it is possible, and even probable that he uses him, directly or 
 indirectly, for some of the material found in chapters ii.-v., 
 and occasionally elsewhere. The Alcibiades of Nepos is con- 
 fessedly (xL 1) based largely on the tradition of Theopompus. 
 Theopompus of Chios, like his fellow student Ephorus of 
 Cym^, was a pupil of the orator Isocrates, and applied to the 
 narration of historical events the principles of formal rhet- 
 oric. With the rise of the Macedonian power to political 
 supremacy in Greece, and with the remarkable domination of 
 intellectual Greece by the orator Isocrates, a new political 
 idea, and a new literary form became current, and forced into 
 new lines the art of writing history. The new political idea 
 was the unity of the Greeks against Persia, and the new lit- 
 
 erary form was rhetorical prose. Historical writing became 
 national instead of sectional, and rhetorical devices minis- 
 tered to the pleasure of hearers and readers as once epic 
 poetry or epic prose narrative had done. One is tempted to 
 call Ephorus the Herodotus of this period, and Theopompus 
 its Thucydides. But in Ephorus particularly, and in Theo- 
 pompus also, in spite of his erudition and industrious quest 
 of the truth, the rhetorical element triumphs over the didac- 
 tic. The form was of more importance than the substance> 
 and freely shaped the substance to its needs. And besides, 
 in Theopompus, a certain bigotry and bitterness of partisan- 
 ship, together with a pessimistic scepticism and an imdis- 
 criminating censoriousness, combine to make him rather a 
 soured and crabbed Herodotus, if that is conceivable, than a 
 later Thucydides. A stem aristocrat, he devoted, like Thu- 
 cydides, years of exile and great wealth to securing the most 
 accurate knowledge possible of the periods which he chroni- 
 cled, namely, the years 411 to 394 B.C. in his Jlellenica, a 
 continuation of the work of Thucydides ; and the career of 
 Philip of Macedon in his PhUippica, which normally covered 
 the period 360-336 b. c. Both works, particularly the lat- 
 ter with its fifty-eight books, were storehouses of erudition, 
 and their loss is one of the severest that Greek literature has 
 sustained. The tenth book of the PhUippica was devoted, 
 by way of learned excursus, to the statesmen, or demagogues 
 of Athens. Here Plutarch evidently f oimd, directly or indi- 
 rectly, much biographical material for his Themistoclesy Cimon, 
 Pericles, Nicias, and AlciMades, Theopompus had no sym- 
 pathy with or proper appreciation of the Athenian democ- 
 racy, and his judgments of its popular leaders were harsh and 
 bitter. He was essentially pedantic, without that keen in- 
 sight into affairs and the motives of men of affairs which 
 characterizes such historians as Thucydides, Xenophon, and 
 Polybius, who were themselves men of affairs. 
 
 Of Timaeus, Plutarch makes extensive use in the Nicias, 
 though seldom with gratitude, and often with severe disap- 
 proval The life of Timaeus fell between the years 350 and 
 
 \' 
 
 * 1 
 
 ''■1 
 
84 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S NICIA8 
 
 35 
 
 250 B. c. A native of Tauromenium, in Sicily, and the son 
 of the tyrant of that city, he was banished from SicUy by 
 the tyrant Agathocles, of Syracuse, and spent a long exile at 
 Athens, where he had been educated, and where he wrote a 
 voluminous history of his native island from earliest times 
 down to the year 264 b. c. Polybius, who made extended 
 use of this work, accused its author of almost every fault that 
 a bad historian can possess, and probably with some justice, 
 although Cicero praises the learning and even the style of 
 Timaeus. He was a bookish recluse, a learned, patient, and 
 careful collector of the most heterogeneous historical mate- 
 rial, and a harsh censor of the work of others. We know 
 that he paid great attention to chronology, and introduced 
 the practice of recording events by Olympiads. His work, 
 like that of Theopompus, is known to us only in fragments. 
 It seems to have been a great storehouse of learned research, 
 but full of the gross perversions of ambitious rhetoric. 
 
 There was a long line of antiquarian writers who composed 
 Atthides, or chronological histories of the customs, institu- 
 tions, and monuments of Athens and Attica. The oldest of 
 these, if Hellanicus be not included in the group, whose 
 Atthis was of a more general character (see p. 42), was 
 Cleidemus, or Cleitodemus (Themistocles,x, 4; Aristidea^^ix. 
 3). Phanodemus, from whom Plutarch cites in the Cimon 
 (xiL 5 ; xix. 1), and Androtion, from whom Aristotle drew 
 some of the material for the Constitution of Athens, and 
 whom Plutarch cites in his Solon (xv.), were others. But 
 the most important writer of this class was Philochorus, 
 who summed up and perfected the work of his predecessors. 
 He was a professional seer, and an official interpreter of 
 oracles and portents at Athens in 306. He was slam at 
 Athens by Antigonus Gonatas in 261. His chief work, an 
 Atthis, carried the chronicles of Athens down to the year of 
 his death, and the fragments of it which have reached us 
 testify to the great learning and wisdom of its author, 
 Plutarch cites him frequently in the Theseus, once in the 
 Nicias (xxiii. 5), and probably uses him freely at other times, 
 
 directly or indirectly, without mentioning his name, as in 
 the Themistocles (x. 3) and the I^icias (ii 1), where he 
 takes Aristotle's Constitution of Athens as he found it 
 cited in Philochorus. It is possible that the antiquarian 
 material of Nicias iii comes from Philochorus. His enor- 
 mous literary activity belongs to the generation following 
 Aristotle, whom he cites freely, as well as previous Atthides. 
 It may well be, therefore, that Plutarch names the earlier 
 -4 ^^Am- writers mainly as he finds them cited by Philochorus, 
 or as he finds Philochorus cited in his biographical soiurce. 
 
 Theophrastus, of Eresos in Lesbos, the most famous pupil 
 and the successor of Aristotle; is cited twice in the Nicias 
 (x. 1 ; XL 7), and once in the AlciUades (x. 3), where Plu- 
 tarch calls him " the most versatile and learned of all the 
 philosophers". The Peripatetic school of philosophers, in 
 the historical and biographical work which they incidentally 
 cultivated, seem to have culled from all sorts of sources 
 striking anecdotes of historical personages, without showing 
 much critical acumen, and rather for purposes of ethical and 
 philosophical illustration. Their main work lay in other 
 fields. A work of Theophrastus " On Lives " was a mine of 
 citation for Plutarch in his Aristides, Pericles, Nicias, Aid- 
 hiades and other Lives, In this work, like Theopompus and 
 Aristotle, Theophrastus betrays the bias of the oligarchical 
 partisan. His main endeavor, however, was to supplement 
 and complete the work of Aristotle in the field of natural 
 history. Besides two great works on botany, we possess 
 only his Characters, if that be an independent work, and not 
 a collection of extracts from ethical writings. This contains 
 thirty sketches of types of Athenian character in the age of 
 Alexander. The life of Theophrastus fell between the 
 years 373-284 b. c. 
 
 Craterus the Macedonian, a son of Alexander's famous gen- 
 eral of that name, and half-brother of King Antigonus Oona- 
 tas, flourished in the early part of the third century b. c, and 
 distinguished himself as a careful compiler of original his- 
 torical documents bearing on the history of Athens. He 
 
 
35 INTRODUCTION 
 
 apparently wrote a poHtical history of Athens based on these 
 Wuable documents. He is much quoted by schohasts and 
 late lexicographers, and known to us principidly in this way. 
 Plutarch speaks of his collections, to which he ^ay have 
 had access, in his Aristi<ks (xxvi. 2) and Cimon (xul 6), and 
 doubtless often uses material furnished by him without men- 
 tioning his name, as in the Nicias (xiL 4). Some spurious 
 documents may have crept into the coUections of Craterus, 
 but in general hLs work must have been of the highest value, 
 and it I always cited with respect, often in the same class 
 with the Atthis-vnit^TS. 
 
 After his Introduction (chap, i), in which he excoriates 
 Timaeus and lays down his own contrasting program of 
 procedure, Plutarch describes at once, in chapters ii.-v., the 
 •^Character" of Nicias, with illustrations taken from the 
 daily walk and conversation of the man, and from his use of 
 the great wealth at his disposal The two <iivi«ions of a 
 Zt/. usually devoted to "Birth and Family", and "Educa- 
 tion and Training ", are omitted, doubtless for lack of material, 
 since very little was known, even in antiquity, on those 
 topics. The material of the three chapters devoted to 
 Character is gathered from a variety of sources, -anti- 
 quarian writers like Philochorus, the book o Theo^mpus 
 devoted to the Athenian demagogues, the dialogue of Pasi- 
 phon entitled Nudas. and the comic poets, and is most skii- 
 iuUy blended into a literary whole. How far this resultant 
 whole is due to Plutarch himself, and how far to Theoi^m- 
 pus, or to learned comment on Theopompus and Pasiphon 
 LnLot be known with any certainty. But Plutarch would 
 clearly amend the verdict of Theopompus to the effect that 
 Nicias made lavish use of his great wealth only to secure 
 the favor of the people, by attributing such use rather to his 
 reverent piety (iv. 1). These chapters give us an adm^^le 
 picture of a timorous man of mediocrity forced, m the dearth 
 of strong conservative leaders, to occupy a pinnacle of popu- 
 lar influence from which he looked down dizzily. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE NICIAS 
 
 87 
 
 In chapters vL-xxvii, Plutarch rehearses the " Deeds " of 
 Nicias, usually the fourth division of a biography. 
 
 Chapters vi-viil cover the earlier part of the public activi- 
 ties of Nicias, from 433, or thereabout, down to 424 and the 
 triumph of his political adversary, Cleon, at Sphacteria. 
 Chapter vL, which enumerates his unbroken successes as a 
 general and contrasts them with the reverses and calamities 
 of others, reads like the independent work of Plutarch com- 
 piling widely and rather carelessly from Thucydides. Chap- 
 ter vii. condenses most effectively a considerable part of the 
 circumstantial accoimt which Thucydides gives (iv. 2-28) of 
 the affair of Pylos, and illustrates the crazy vanity of Cleon 
 by an anecdote which probably comes from Theopompus, 
 who lurks behind a vague "It is said". Chapter viii con- 
 cludes the effective condensation of Thucydides* story of 
 Pylos (iv. 29-41), and adds, in all probability from Theo- 
 pompus, Aristophanic skits reflecting popular opinion con- 
 cerning Nicias* renunciation of office in favor of Cleon, and a 
 vigorous sketeh of Cleon in action. 
 
 Chapters ix.-xiL cover the political activities of Nicias 
 from 424 down to 415 and the triumph of his adversary, 
 Alcibiades, in the final decision of the Athenian people to 
 send an armament of conquest to Sicily. Chapter ix. de- 
 scribes the triumph of Nicias as a peacemaker after Cleon 
 has been exterminated, in language based upon or suggested 
 by Thucydides (see the current notes), and enriched by lit- 
 erary citations. Chapter x. describes the parliamentary 
 trick by means of which Alcibiades circumvents the slow 
 Nicias and practically renews the war. It is based entirely 
 upon Thucydides (see the current notes), but inserts a char- 
 acteristic item from Theophrastus. Chapter xi., on the other 
 hand, with its detailed account of the ostracism of Hyper- 
 bolus, contains material which is nowhere to be found in 
 Thucydides, and which probably comes from the book on 
 Athenian demagogues by Theopompus, to whom Plutarch 
 alludes, in a fashion characteristic of ancient literary prac- 
 tice, by the indefinite ** most writers ** of § 7. The same 
 
 !| 
 
3g INTRODUCTION 
 
 story is told in a different manner, when Plutarch is more 
 imder the influence of Theophrastus, in Alcibiades, xiii. 
 Chapter xii., again, describing the steps by which the 
 Athenian people came to vote the Sicilian expedition, is 
 almost wholly Thucydidean (see the current notes), with 
 genial « improvement" at the hands of Plutarch, and a nota- 
 ble item from the collections of Craterus. 
 
 Chapter xiii, forming a sort of transition to the story of 
 the SicUian expedition, is wholly taken up with oracles and 
 omens unfavorable to the expedition. It forms no part of 
 the narrative, and might be cut out without disturbing it It 
 is in all probability a compilation from Timaeus, who reveled 
 in such material, as is clear from Plutarch's first chapter. 
 Aside from the three items in xv. 4, xix. 4, and xxvm. 4, 
 which are due to Timaeus, the material taken from him by 
 Plutarch in this Life is all akin to that of this thirteenth 
 
 chapter. 
 
 In chapters xiv.-xxviiL, Plutarch describes the part taken 
 by Nicias in the iU-starred Sicilian expedition, from the time 
 when he was " gazing back homewards from his ship like a 
 child ", to the time when his poor body was « cast out at the 
 prison door" in Syracuse, **and lay there in plain sight of 
 aU who craved the spectacle". In all these chapters, Thu- 
 cydides is the constant and main source, blended often and 
 most acceptably with Philistus, and supplemented, sometimes 
 acceptably, sometimes controversiaUy, but always interest- 
 ingly, by Timaeus. The details of Plutarch's indebtedness to 
 each 'of these three authors are fully given in the current 
 notes, and need not be repeated here. It is seldom that Plu- 
 tarch's sources can be determined so satisfactorUy as in this 
 
 group of chapters. 
 
 Chapters xxix. and XXX. form the sad epilogue to tYnaLi/e, 
 describing the fate of the imprisoned Athenians at Syracuse, 
 and the receipt of the news of disaster at Athens. The first is a 
 compound of Thucydides and Philistus, and the second is made 
 up of anecdote taken from some collection at Plutarch's com- 
 mand, as is seen from his use of the same material elsewhere 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S ALCIBIADES 89 
 
 On the whole, then, if we have not Plutarch at his best 
 in the Nicias, we certainly have him at a very high level of 
 excellence. He has followed in the footsteps of Thucydides 
 admiringly and safely, and has added to the Thucydidean 
 basis material, otherwise lost to us, which is generally authen- 
 tic, often valuable even if not authentic, and always interest- 
 ing. He has unrolled before us, with dramatic effects, the 
 tragedy of a man of pious mediocrity who is intrusted with 
 a great empire's fate. 
 
 Alphabetical list of Authors cited by Plutarch in his 
 
 Nicias. 
 
 Anazagoras .... XXIII. 2 
 Aristophanes . . IV. 6 ; VIII. 2 
 
 Aristotle II. 1 
 
 Autocleides .... XXIII. 6 
 
 Diphilos I. 2 
 
 Eupolis IV. 6 
 
 Enripides . XVII. 4 ; V. 4 ; IX. 6 
 
 Pasiphon IV. 2 
 
 Philistiu . • I. 2 and 5; XIX. 5; 
 
 XXVIII. 4 
 Philochorus • . . , XXIII. 5 
 Phxynichns IV. 6 
 
 Pindar I. 2 
 
 Plato Com. XI. 6 
 
 Plato Phil. XXIII. 4 
 
 Telecleides IV. 4 
 
 Theophrastus 
 Thucydides . 
 
 Timaeus 
 
 Xenaichns (?) • 
 
 . . X. 1 ; XI. 7 
 I. land 5; IV. 1; 
 
 XIX. 6; XX. 6; 
 
 XXVIII. 4 
 
 . 1.2-4; XIX. 4; 
 
 XXVIII. 3 and 4 
 • • • • • X. 3 
 
 IV. THE SOUKCES OF PLUTARCH IN HIS AZCI-^ 
 BIADES, WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THIS ZIFJS 
 
 The Alcihiades lacks the Introduction and the preliminary 
 comparison with the Roman selected as a parallel, which we 
 find in the Cimon, Pericles, and, less fully developed, in the 
 Nicias. As we find them also in nine other Greek Lives, fol- 
 lowed by the full and formal "Comparison" at the dose of the 
 Roman Life, this may be called the normal method of Plu- 
 tarch. But since the principle of paralleling a Greek with a 
 Roman is acknowledged to be the least successful of Plutarch's 
 contributions to biography, no apology is needed for compar- 
 
 i%M 
 
 .<» ""^^^ 
 
40 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ing and contrasting in each of the volumes of this series two 
 Greeks who were intimately associated with each other and 
 strong rivals of one another in a crucial period of their coun- 
 try's history. Themistocles and Aristides were the two op- 
 posing spirits in the incipient democracy of the period of the 
 Persian invasions; Cimon and Pericles in the culminating 
 democracy of the period of the Pentecontaetia ; and Nicias 
 and Alcibiades in the decadent democracy of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war. It is much more instructive, historically at 
 least, to contrast such powerful political rivals as Themis- 
 tocles and Aristides, or Cimon and Pericles, than to force 
 comparisons between Themistocles and Camillus, Aristides 
 and Marcus Cato, Cimon and Lucullus, or Pericles and Fa- 
 bins Maximus; to contrast Nicias and Alcibiades, than to 
 compare Nicias with Crassus, or Alcibiades with Coriolanus. 
 The formal " Comparison " of Alcibiades and Coriolanus, like 
 so many of the others, results in a series of contrasts. They 
 were alike in one thing only : " so long as they remained 
 and held command in their respective countries, they emi- 
 nently sustained, and when they were driven into exile, yet 
 more eminently damaged the fortunes of those countries" 
 (chap. i.). In all other respects they were most unlike. 
 Alcibiades, « in spite of the harm he occAsioned, could not 
 make himself hated;" and Coriolanus, ''with all the admi- 
 ration he attracted, could not succeed in being beloved by 
 his countrymen" (chap. iii). Coriolanus was simple and 
 straightforward; Alcibiades unscrupulous and false. Alci- 
 biades relented when he found the feelings of his country- 
 men to be changed towards him, and " did the very thing 
 that Aristides is so commended for doing to Themistocles ; 
 he came to the generals who were his enemies, and pointed 
 out to them what they ought to do." Coriolanus, on the 
 other hand, by his obduracy, " showed that it had been to 
 destroy and overthrow, not to recover and regain his country, 
 that he had excited bitter and implacable hostilities against 
 it" (chap. u.). And yet, ''for his temperance, continence, 
 and probity, he claims to be compared with the best and 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S ALCIBIADES 41 
 
 purest of the Greeks ; not in any sort or kind with Alcibi- 
 ades, the least scrupulous and most entirely careless of 
 human beings in all these points " (chap. v.). 
 
 In his Alcibiades y as in his Pericles ^ Plutarch doubtless 
 based his work upon a standard biography, or upon standard 
 biographical material accessible to him in the works of the 
 great schools of biography, philosophical and philological, 
 which had flourished before him (see the chapter on Biogra- 
 phy "before Plutarch^ in the Introduction to the Themistocles 
 1 aiid Aristides). But this material is successfully fused with 
 contributions of his own, so that it is often difficult to trace 
 the dividing line between the work of the author and that of 
 his " traditional biography ". Hence the large margin of un- 
 certainty which often encompasses the study of Plutarch's 
 sources, from which it follows that no two critics will agree 
 closely upon the extent of the " traditional biography " serv- 
 ing in any given case as the basis of Plutarch's work, nor 
 upon the degree in which the genial writer adds to this from 
 his known stores of learning. He cites by name in the Aid- 
 Hades some twenty-three authors. Many, perhaps most of 
 these he finds already cited in his main source, the " tradi- 
 tional biography ". But whether he names his source or not, 
 and whether he draws from that source directly or indirectly, 
 are matters which concern only the manner of Plutarch's 
 procedure. The historical worth of the material which he 
 gives us depends upon the worth of the ultimate sources for 
 that material. In some sixteen cases an indefinite phrase of 
 reference like " it is said ", or " others say ", hides from us the 
 particular source, or marks material taken at second hand. 
 
 Of Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plato the philosopher, 
 enough has been written in the chapter on primary sources 
 (pp. 4-11), as well as of Aristophanes and Old Athenian 
 Comedy in general (pp. 1 f .) ; on the various rivals of Aris- 
 tophanes, the needful comment will be given in the current 
 notes. For Theopompus, and Theophrastus, who are among 
 the secondary sources for the Nicias also, see pp. 32 f., 35. 
 It will scarcely be necessary to say anything of Demosthenes, 
 
 • 4^ t.! «' ^ *4 ' 
 
 .♦.»,•♦.*.•.% " y» "" 
 
 • •ir.i^.v' ■.'!..•,.«, 
 
 ;<« ^ #> ^ . - I . W. -* 
 
 A -^ 
 
 ••^."v ■-, »v. 1. I * V "•""••*•*•««>• 
 
42 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 whose estimate of Alcibiades* eloquence is cited in x. 2, nor 
 of Euripides, whom Plutarch here as always readily cites for 
 purposes of literary embellishment, and occasionally, as in 
 the Nidas xvii 4 and the Alcibiades xL 2, for the sake of 
 historical corroboration. A brief characterization will now 
 be given of the other principal sources for the material of 
 the Alcibiades, arranged as neariy as possible in chronological 
 order. On authors of minor importance, the needful com- 
 ment will be given in the current notes. 
 
 Hellanicus, of Mitylene in Lesbos, lived during the greater 
 part of the fifth century b. c, and was a voluminous writer 
 of genealogical and chronological works. An "Attic His- 
 tory " of his, referred to by Thucydides (I 97, 2), and used 
 by that historian for the period of the Pentecontaetia (see 
 the Introduction to the Cimon and Pericles, p. 2), was an 
 Atthis, or chronicle of events in Greek history by years of 
 Athenian archonships. It was the only strictly historical 
 work dealing with the events of this period composed by 
 one who was contemporary with the events. Plutarch cites 
 this writer in the Alcibiades (or finds him cited in his 
 source) only for the genealogical item of xxL !• 
 
 A most important, because primary and contemporary 
 source for events which profoimdly affected the career of 
 Alcibiades, namely, the mutilation of the Hermae and the 
 profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, is found in two 
 speeches of Andocides, "On his Return", and "On the 
 Mysteries ". A spurious oration " Against Alcibiades '*, which 
 has also come down to us among the speeches of Andocides, 
 has some worth as a secondary source, as will be shown suf- 
 ficiently in the current notes. 
 
 By birth and natural inclination, Andocides was an oli- 
 garch, but in consequence of his treacherous betrayal of 
 friends in this party, he incurred its hatred, and sought, 
 though vainly, to ingratiate himself with the democracy. 
 He was bom probably about 440 b. c, but we know noth- 
 ing of his life imtil 415, when the mutilation of the Hermae 
 and rumors of travesties in private houses of the ceremonies 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S ALCIBIADES 43 
 
 of the Eleusinian Mysteries filled Athens with horror and 
 fear. His name, like that of Alcibiades, was associated by 
 his enemies with both sacrileges, but there is no good evi- 
 dence that he was concerned with the latter, as there is none 
 that Alcibiades was connected with the former. Imprisoned 
 on the denunciations of the informers Teucrus and Diocleides, 
 together with his father, his brother-in-law, and other rela- 
 tives, Andocides turned state's evidence under promise of 
 personal indemnity guaranteed by a public decree {Aid- 
 biades, xxL). But this decree was afterwards cancelled, and 
 a new decree passed providing that those who had committed 
 impiety and confessed it should be excluded from market 
 place and temples, a punishment virtually equivalent to 
 banishment. Andocides accordingly left Athens, and spent 
 most of the years 415-402 in exile, with Cyprus as his 
 headquarters, and merchandise in lumber as his occupa- 
 tion. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish 
 himself in Athens during the government of the Four 
 Himdred (411), and again in 410, just after the victory of 
 the Athenians at Cyzicus. On this latter occasion he was 
 allowed to plead his case before the Assembly, which he did 
 in the speech " On his Return ". After deprecating the malice 
 and stupidity of his enemies, the oligarchs, in rejecting the 
 good offices which he is anxious to render his native city, 
 he speaks (§§ 5-9) of his former transgressions as misfor- 
 tunes, due to youth, folly, and madness, and deserving of 
 pity rather than of hatred. He had been brought by evil 
 advisers into such a pass that he was compelled to denounce 
 his associates in crime, or else sufifer death himself and bring 
 his innocent father to death. And the denunciations which 
 he had made five years before had brought immediate and 
 great relief to the city, though pain of long exile upon him- 
 self, who was deserving of gratitude instead of hatred. This 
 is the important part of the speech for our present purposes. 
 In what follows, he pleads that his services to the state dur- 
 ing his exile ought to effect " the observance of the promise 
 of immunity under which he originally laid his information. 
 
 
44 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 but which was afterwards withdrawn under the influence of 
 
 his enemies ". 
 
 His plea was rejected, and he returned to his career in 
 exile. In 402, however, under the general amnesty passed 
 the year before, he returned to Athens, and resumed the 
 duties and privileges of active citizenship. But the hatred 
 of his enemies only slumbered, and in 399 he was brought 
 to trial on a charge of impiety, because he had attended the 
 services of the Eleusinian Mysteries, contrary to the decree 
 of 415, which expressly excluded him from temples. His 
 speech " On the Mysteries " is his defence before the appro- 
 priate law-court, and the first part of it (§§ 11-69) is taken 
 up with reviews of the facts in the two cases wherein he had 
 been accused of impiety in 415, namely, the mutilation of 
 the Hermae and the profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries. 
 He proves conclusively (§§ 11-33) that he took no part in 
 the latter, but in regard to the former he gives a version 
 much at variance with what he said on the subject in 410, 
 in the speech « On his Eeturn ". Eleven years had elapsed 
 since that speech was made, and the memories of his hearers 
 had been dimmed, " not by lapse of time only, but by that 
 great wave of trouble which swept over Athens in 405, and 
 which left all older memories faint in comparison with the 
 memory of the Thirty Tyrants " (Jebb). In the speech of 
 410, Andocides pleaded guilty to certain transgressions due 
 to youth, folly, madness, and evil advisers ; in the speech of 
 399 he flatly and defiantly denies that he was in any way 
 guilty, and gives what purports to be the substance of his 
 deposition to the authorities in 415. He represents himself 
 as having deposed that the mutilation of the Hermae was 
 the work of the members of a club to which he belonged, 
 and that the work had been done, against his protest, while 
 he lay sick at home, at the instigation of a certain Euphile- 
 tus. This Euphiletus had assured his club-mates that An- 
 docides had been won over to the scheme, and would take 
 care of the mutilation of the Hermes in front of his house, 
 which accounted for that particular figure's escape from out- 
 
 SOURCES OF PLUTARCH'S ALCIBIADES 45 
 
 rage. Now we have not only Andocides' own admission of 
 guilt in his speech of 410, but also the charge of one of his 
 opponents at the trial of 399 ([Lysias] " Against Andocides ", 
 §§ 35 f., cf. Jebb, Attic Orators, I. p. 281), the words of Thu- 
 cydides (vL 60, 4), and of Plutarch {Ale, xxi. 4), to the effect 
 that his deposition calumniated himself as well as others. In 
 any case, then, the version of the affair given in the speech 
 " On the Mysteries " is untrue as a representation of what he 
 deposed in 415. The deposition itself may or may not have 
 been true. 
 
 Andocides was acquitted at his trial in 399, but we hear 
 nothing further about him untU the winter of 391-390, when 
 he was a member of an embassy sent to Sparta to treat for 
 peace. On the return of the embassy, his speech " On the 
 Peace with Lacedaemon " urged an acceptance of the terms 
 proposed by the Spartans, with sound and statesmanlike 
 arguments, which were not, however, effectual with the 
 people. This is his last appearance in history. He seems 
 never to have lost the hatred of the oligarchs whom he 
 betrayed, nor to have gained the confidence of the democrats 
 on whom he fawned. And yet he showed large talent in 
 business, and no mean ability as an orator. 
 
 Ephorus, a native of the Aeolian city of Cym5, wrote a 
 universal history of Greeks and Barbarians from the Return 
 of the Heracleidae, or the "Dorian Invasion", down to the 
 year 340 b. c. The work belonged distinctly to the time of 
 Alexander the Great. Like Theopompus, Ephorus was a 
 pupil of the orator Isocrates, and applied to the narration 
 of historical events the principles of formal rhetoric (see 
 p. 32). For the periods of the Persian and Peloponnesian 
 wars, he used principally the material already furnished by 
 Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, but worked it over 
 into a form which appealed to the rhetorical tastes of the 
 fourth century. His work enjoyed an immense popularity, 
 and became the standard history of the world down to its 
 terminal date. It has reached us only in excerpts and frag- 
 ments, and is principally known through the generous use 
 
 ««iM!mr" 
 
46 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 made of it by the compiler Diodorus Siculus, who prepared 
 a compend of universal history down to the time of Caesar's 
 Gallic wars, writing under Augustus. In the twelfth and 
 thirteenth books of this compend of Diodorus (xii. SO-xiiL 
 107) the period of the Peloponnesian war is treated, in the 
 main after Ephorus, and therefore, ultimately, after Thucyd- 
 ides and Xenophon, though not without many and impor- 
 tant variations on the part both of Ephorus and Diodorus. 
 It is cleai*, for instance, that Ephorus added material from 
 Philistus to what Thucydides gave him on the Sicilian expe- 
 dition, and also that Diodorus, in excerpting Ephorus, added 
 still further material from Timaeus. For the years of the 
 war following the Sicilian expedition, Diodorus seems to 
 have contented himself with excerpting Ephorus, who, for 
 his part, had used Thucydides and Xenophon after his pecu- 
 liar manner, making only slight additions of any historical 
 value. 
 
 Diodorus excerpts Ephorus in large sections. But it is also 
 probable that he condenses at times, and certain that he 
 often adds some matter of his own composition, especially 
 for purposes of juncture. In general, however, we may 
 be reasonably confident that he reproduces Ephorus. Now 
 Ephorus, though a diligent student and collector of new ma- 
 terial, is a far less trustworthy guide than Thucydides, or 
 even Xenophon, since he yields so much to the temptations 
 of his rhetoric. His style is artificial in the extreme, diffuse 
 and weak, and yet to his style he clearly sacrifices fidelity to 
 facts and leading authorities. He invents outright where 
 graphic details are wanting, and has stock descriptions of 
 battles and sieges and storms which he carries over from 
 century to century. Occasionally, however, he supplies us 
 with authentic supplementary detail, which may come from 
 Hellanicus, or some other reputable Atthis-writeT. He was 
 an extravagant admirer and partisan of Athens, going as far 
 beyond the truth in praise or condonation of her as her ene- 
 mies, like Theopompus, went in detraction. He did violence 
 to chronology by arranging events in groups according to 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 47 
 
 their inner relationship, — a decided advance upon the pure 
 annalistic method, wherein Thucydides had improved upon 
 Hellanicus. But Diodorus, in excerpting him, proceeds as 
 though each of these groups of events coidd be assigned to a 
 single year in his own rigid annalistic system. The result 
 is chronological confusion. 
 
 Athens was by no means alone in developing the class 
 of antiquarian literature known as Atthides (see p. 34). 
 Almost every Greek community of any importance had such 
 treatises devoted to it, and we may assume that they were all 
 utilized in the great collection of Constitutions of Greek states 
 by Aristotle, of which the Constitution of Samos was one, 
 and the Constitution of Athens the only one that has come 
 down to us. Duris, a pupil of Theophrastus, historian and 
 for a time tyrant of Samos, lived from about 350 to about 
 280 B. c, and besides a History of Greece from 370 to 281, 
 wrote also an Annals of Samos, which is frequently referred 
 to, and contained many incidents of the Peloponnesian war. 
 His writings displayed the most elaborate rhetoric, and were 
 full of sensational and manifestly imhistorical material 
 Plutarch disparages his style and doubts his veracity, but 
 nevertheless finds some welcome material in his works. He 
 cites him in the AlciUades (chap, xxxii.) for material which 
 he scorns as history but adopts for its color. 
 
 Without introduction of any kind, Plutarch treats in 
 chapter L of the birth and personal appearance of Alcibiades. 
 The material is drawn, ultimately at least, from Herodotus, 
 Plato, Antisthenes, and the comic poets, with a purely orna- 
 mental citation from Euripides. How far the blending of 
 this material is due to Plutarch, and how far to his biograph- 
 ical source, cannot be determined. 
 
 Chapters ii-ix. treat, without careful separation of the 
 different topics, of the education and character of Alcibiades, 
 and reveal the wealth of anecdotical material which had come 
 to be associated with this darling of fortune. 
 
 Chapter ii is an enlargement upon suggestions found in 
 
48 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 49 
 
 Plato, with illustrative anecdotes from some current collection. 
 Extensive collections of anecdotes and " memorable sayings " 
 must have formed part of the literary apparatus of Plutarch. 
 Chapter iii. gives us a pair of anecdotes drawn from an oration 
 falsely attributed to Antiphon. Chapter iv., again, is based 
 upon material found in dialogues of Plato, and enriched with 
 anecdotes of source unknown. Chapter v. consists wholly of 
 one such anecdota Chapter vi., again, is based upon Platonic 
 material, and is embellished with literary citations from 
 Cleanthes and Thucydides. Chapter vii also contains anec- 
 dotes of imknown source, and items furnished by Platonic 
 dialogues. Chapter viiL furnishes another anecdote of un- 
 known source, and material to be found also in the spurious 
 oration ''Against Alcibiades" attributed to Andocides. 
 Chapter iz. consists of another stock anecdote. 
 
 Chapters x.-xxiL deal with that portion of the public 
 career of Alcibiades which precedes his banishment for sacri- 
 l^ous impiety, — the years 424(?)-415. 
 
 Chapter x. consists of a fatherless anecdote, and authentic 
 testimony to the eloquence of Alcibiades drawn from the 
 comic poets, Demosthenes, and Theophrastus. Chapter xL 
 descants upon the magnificence of his stables, with corrobora- 
 tive citations from Thucydides and Euripides. Chapter xiL 
 blends material illustrating his unheard of splendor at the 
 Olympic games which is foimd in Isocrates, [Pseudo-]Andoc- 
 ides, and Ephorus. Chapter xiii tells anew, and in a manner 
 at interesting variance with Nicias, xi., the story of the os- 
 tracism of Hyperbolus. As in the Nicias, the story is based 
 substantially upon Theopompus, but has a stronger infusion 
 of Theophrastus, though practically the same literary embel- 
 lishments. Chapters xiv. and xv., describing the parliament- 
 ary triumph over Nicias by Alcibiades, and his activity in 
 forming a North-Peloponnesian alliance against Sparta, corre- 
 spond closely to chapter x. of the Nicias^ and are evidently 
 based upon Thucydides, with an occasional use of Ephorus, 
 and some additional embellishment of a rhetorical nature. 
 Chapter xvi., composed chiefly of anecdotes and items 
 
 found in [Pseudo-] Andocides, illustrates the wantonness and 
 luxury in which Alcibiades allowed himself, and forms a 
 suggestive transition to the story of the Sicilian expedition, 
 like chap. xiiL of the Nicias, Chapters xviL and xviii, de- 
 scribing the preparations for the Sicilian expedition down to 
 the time of the mutilation of the Hermae, correspond closely 
 with chapters xii and xiii of the Nicias, which were based 
 mainly upon Thucydides and Timaeus. In retelling the story, 
 Plutarch omits some features of his narrative in the Nicias, 
 but adds also some noticeable material, taken probably from 
 his biographical source for the Alcibiades, For chapters xix.- 
 xxiL, concerning the delay in the prosecution of Alcibiades 
 for impiety, the departure of the fleet, the investigation of the 
 ZTermae-outrage, the confession of Andocides, the condemna- 
 tion and recall of Alcibiades, Thucydides is the main source, 
 supplemented by Andocides (" On the Mysteries "), by mate- 
 rial from Cratenis, and by ornamental literary citations. 
 Again it is clearly impossible to decide how much of the re- 
 sultant blend is due to Plutarch, and how much to his bio- 
 graphical source. 
 
 Chapters xxiiL-xxxiii are devoted to the career of Alci- 
 biades after his banishment, and until his return to Athens 
 in 408. 
 
 Chapter xxiiL, describing his life and doings at Sparta, his 
 fatally good advice for the prosecution of the war against his 
 native city, his marvellous power of adaptation to changing 
 surroundings, his intrigue with Queen Timaea, is a compound 
 of Thucydides, Theopompus, and Duris of Samos, with literary 
 embellishment Chapters xxiv.-xxvL, dealing with his ac- 
 tivities in Asia Minor down to his recall by the Athenian 
 army at Samos, show a free and admirable combination of 
 material found in Thucydides, Theopompus, and Ephorus, but 
 chiefly in Thucydides. Chapters xxvii-xxxiii, devoted to 
 his victorious career in the Hellespont and Propontis, in con- 
 sequence of which the naval prestige of Athens was restored 
 and her food supplies from the Euxine renewed, are mainly 
 based upon Xenophon, with here and there an additional item 
 
 II '■ I III Mr gMii ^tm^iuA 
 
50 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 or alterations due to Ephoms and Theopompns. Duris the 
 Samian is cited for highly colored details connected with the 
 return of Alcibiades to Athens (xxxiL 3), which Plutarch re- 
 jects because " neither Theopompus nor Ephorus nor Xen- 
 ophon mention these things **. 
 
 Chapters xxxiv.-mvii 2, occupied with the doings of 
 Alcibiades from his return to Athens down to the disastrous 
 defeat of the Athenian fleet, no longer under his command, at 
 Aegospotami,. have the same character, so far as their basis 
 and development are concerned, as chapters xxviL-xxxiu., 
 t. e. they give us Xenophon blended with Ephorus and Theo- 
 pompus. Nothmg in Plutarch which contradicts Xenophon, 
 or which merely decks out the simple narrative of Xenophon 
 with rhetorical detail, has any independent historical value. 
 Occasionally, however, Theopompus or Ephorus furnishes him 
 with supplementary items from sources other than Xenophon. 
 These, and these alone, are worthy of serious consideration. 
 
 Chapters xxxviL 3-xxxix., dealing with the last days and 
 the end of Alcibiades, subjects about which Xenophon is si- 
 lent, are based mainly upon Theopompus, and contain much 
 romantic invention. 
 
 It is, then, a brilliant mosaic which Plutarch has given us 
 in his Alcibiades, a Life which must rank with such master- 
 pieces as the Themistocles or the Pericles. And Plutarch 
 evidently feels the spell which the fascinating villain cast 
 upon all who came in contact with him. He condemns hiin 
 * with reluctance and parts from him with sorrow. For Alci- 
 biades, as Adolf Holm has said, was the concentrated embodi- 
 ment of aU the brilliant powers and all the brilliant failings 
 of the Athenians in the second half of the fifth century. « In 
 hoc, quid natura efficere possit, videtur experta. Constat 
 enim inter omnes, qui de eo memoriae prodiderunt, nihil illo 
 fuisse excellentius vel in vitiis vel in virtutibus " (Nepos, Ale. 
 il). 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 51 
 
 Alphabetical List of Authors cited by Plutarch in his 
 Alcibiades. 
 
 
 Andocides XXL 1-4 
 
 Antiphon ....... HI. 
 
 Antisthenes I, 2 
 
 Archestratus XVL 5 
 
 Archippus i^ 4 
 
 Aristophanes , . . I. 4 ; XVL 2 
 
 Cleanthes VI. 1 
 
 Critias XXXIILl 
 
 Demosthenes x. 2 
 
 Duris of Samos .... XXXIL 2 
 
 Epliorus XXXIL 3 
 
 Eupolis XIIL 2 
 
 Euripides. , . L 8 ; XI. 1 and 2 ; 
 
 XXIIL8 
 
 Hellanicns XXI. 1 
 
 Isocrates XII. 3 
 
 Phaeax XIII. 2 
 
 Phrynichna XX. 4 
 
 Plato Com XIIL 5 
 
 Plato PhU L2; IV. 4 
 
 Theophrastus X. 3 
 
 Theopompus XXXIL 8 
 
 Thucydides . . , VI. 2 ; XL 1 ; 
 
 XIIL 3 ; XX. 4 
 Xenophon XXIUL 8 
 
NICIAS 
 
 I. I THINK that Nicias is a suitable parallel to 
 Crassus, and the Sicilian to the Parthian disaster. I 
 must therefore at once, and in all modesty, entreat 
 my readers not to imagine for an instant that, in 
 my narration of what Thucydides has inimitably set 
 forth, surpassing even himself in pathos, vividness, 
 and variety, I am so disposed as was Timaeus. He, 2 
 confidently hoping to excel Thucydides m skill, and 
 to make Philistus seem altogether tedious and clumsy, 
 pushes his history along through the conflicts and 
 sea-fights and harangues which those writers had 
 already handled with the greatest success, showing 
 himself, m rivalry with them, not even so much as 
 " by Lydian car a footman slowly plodding ", to use 
 Pindar's comparison, nay rather a perfect example of 
 senile learning and youthful conceit, and, in the 
 words of Diphilus, " obese, stuffed to the full with 
 Sicilian grease ". Indeed, he often lapses unawares 
 into the manner of Xenarchus, as, for instance, when 3 
 he says he thinks it was a bad omen for the Athe- 
 nians that Nicias, whose name was derived from vic- 
 tory, declined at first to head their expedition ; also 
 that by the mutilation of the Herrnm, Heaven indi- 
 cated to them in advance that by the hands of Her- 
 mocrates the son of Hermon they were to suffer most 
 of their reverses during the war ; and, further, that 
 
56 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 it was fitting that Heracles should aid the Syracus- 
 ans, for the sake of their patron goddess Cora, who 
 delivered Cerberus into his hands, but should be 
 angry with the Athenians, because they were trying 
 to succor the Egestaeans, although they were descend- 
 ants of the Trojans, whose city he had once destroyed 
 because of the wrong done him by Laomedon their 
 king. 
 
 * As for Timaeus, he may possibly have been moved 
 to write thus in the exercise of the same delicate 
 taste which led him to correct the language of Philis- 
 tus and abuse Plato and Aristotle ; but as for me, I 
 feel that jealous rivalry with other writers in matters 
 of diction is altogether undignified and pedantic, and 
 if it be practiced toward what is beyond all imitation, 
 
 5 utterly silly. At all events, those deeds which Thu- 
 cydidesand Philistus have set forth, — since I cannot 
 entirely pass them by, indicating as they do the na- 
 ture of my hero and the disposition which lay hidden 
 beneath his many great sufferings, — I have run over 
 briefly, and as I felt compelled to do in order to es- 
 cape the reputation of utter carelessness and sloth; 
 but those details which have escaped most writers, 
 and which others have mentioned casually, or which 
 are found on ancient votive offerings or in public de- 
 crees, these I have tried to collect, not massing to- 
 gether useless material of research, but handing on 
 such as furthers the appreciation of character and 
 temperament. 
 
 II. Accordingly, I may say of Nicias, in the first 
 place, what Aristotle wrote, namely, that the three 
 
 SUPPORTED BY TWO PARTIES 
 
 57 
 
 best citizens of Athens, — men of a fatherly good 
 will and friendship for the people, were Nicias the 
 son of Niceratus, Thucydides the son of Melesias, and 
 Theramenes the son of Hagnon. However, this was 
 true of the last in lesser degree than of the other two, 
 because, as an alien from Ceos, he was flouted for his 
 inferior parentage ; and on account of his not being 
 steadfast, but ever trying to court both sides in his 
 political program, was nicknamed '' Cothurnus ". Of 
 the other two, Thucydides was the older man, and as 2 
 head of the aristocratic party, — the party of the 
 " Good and True ", often antagonized Pericles in his 
 efforts to win the favor of the people. Nicias was a 
 younger man. He was held in some repute even 
 while Pericles was still living, so that he was not 
 only associated with him as general, but frequently 
 had independent command himself; after Pericles 
 was dead, Nicias was at once put forward into the 
 position of leader, especially by the party of the rich 
 and notable. These made him their political buffer 
 against the disgusting boldness of Cleon. 
 
 And yet, for that matter, the common people also 3 
 held him in favor and aided his ambitions. For al- 
 though Cleon had great influence with them, "by 
 coddling them, and giving frequent jobs for pay ", yet 
 the very men whose favor he thus sought to gain 
 were aware of his rapacity and fierce effrontery, and 
 for the most part preferred Nicias as their champion. 
 The dignity of Nicias was not of the harsh, offensive 
 sort, but was blended with much circumspection, and 
 won control of the people from the very fact that he 
 
68 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 4 was thought to be afraid of them. Timid as he was 
 by nature, and distrustful of success, in war he man- 
 aged to succeed in hiding his cowardice under a cloak 
 of good fortune, for he was imif ormly successful as a 
 general; while in political life his nervousness, and 
 the ease with which he could be put to confusion by 
 accusers, actually tended to make him popular, and 
 gave him in high degree that power which comes 
 from the favor of the people, because they fear men 
 who scorn them, but exalt men who fear them. The 
 multitude can have no greater honor shown them 
 by their superiors than not to be despised. 
 
 III. Now Pericles led the city by virtue of his na- 
 tive excellence and powerful eloquence, and had no 
 need to assume any persuasive mannerisms with the 
 multitude ; but Nicias, since he lacked such powers, 
 but had excessive wealth, sought by means of this to 
 
 »win the leadership of the peopla And since he de- 
 spaired of his ability to vie successfully with the 
 versatile buffoonery by which Cleon catered to the 
 pleasure of the Athenians, he tried to captivate the 
 people by choral and gymnastic exhibitions, and other 
 like prodigalities, outdoing in the costliness and 
 elegance of these all his predecessors and contem- 
 
 sporaries. Of his dedicatory offerings there remain 
 standing in my day not only the Palladium on the 
 Acropolis, — the one which has lost its gilding, but 
 also the temple surmounted by choregic tripods, in 
 the precinct of Dionysus. For he was often victorious 
 with choruses, and was never defeated. A story is 
 told how, in one of his choral exhibitions, a house 
 
 LAVISH OUTLAYS AT DELOS 59 
 
 servant of his appeared in the costume of Dionysus, 
 very fair to see, and very tall, the down of youth still 
 upon his face. The Athenians were delighted at the 
 sight, and applauded for a long time. At last Nicias 
 rose and said he deemed it an unholy thing that one 
 who had been acclaimed as a god should be a slave, 
 and gave the youth his freedom. 
 
 It is matter of record also how splendid and wor-4 
 thy of the god his lavish outlays at Delos were. The 
 choirs which cities used to send thither to sing the 
 praises of the god were wont to put in at the island m 
 haphazard fashion. The throng of worshippers would 
 meet them at the ship and bid them sing, not with the 
 decorum due, but as they were hastily and tumultu- 
 ously disembarking, and while they were actually 
 donning their chaplets and vestments. But when 6 
 Nicias conducted the festal embassy, he landed first 
 on the neighboring island of Rheneia, with his choir, 
 sacrificial victims, and other equipment. Then, with 
 the bridge of boats which he had brought along with 
 him from Athens, where it had been made to measure 
 and signally adorned with gildings and dyed stuffs and 
 garlands and tapestries, he spanned during the night 
 the strait between Rheneia and Delos, which is not 
 wide. At break of day he led his festal procession in 
 honor of the god, and his choir arrayed in lavish 
 splendor and singing as it marched, across the bridge 
 to land. After the sacrifices and the choral contests e 
 and the banquets were over, he erected the famous 
 bronze palm-tree as a thank offering to the god, and 
 consecrated to his service a tract of land which he 
 
60 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 bought at the price of ten thousand drachmas, the 
 revenues from which the Delians were to expend in 
 sacrificial banquets, at which many blessings should 
 be invoked upon Nicias from the gods. This stipula- 
 tion he actually had graven on the stone which he 
 left in Delos to be as it were the sentry over his ben- 
 efaction. The palm-tree, however, was torn away by 
 the wind and fell against the colossal statue of the 
 god which the Naxians erected, and overturned it. 
 
 IV. In this course it is clear that there was much 
 ostentatious publicity, looking towards increase of 
 reputation and gratification of ambition ; and yet, to 
 judge from the rest of the man's bent and character, 
 one might feel sure that such favor and control of 
 the people as he thus secured were rather a corollary 
 to his reverent piety. For he was one of those who are 
 excessively terrified at heavenly portents, and was 
 
 «" addicted to divination", as Thucydides says. And 
 in one of the dialogues of Pasiphon it is recorded that 
 he sacrificed every day to the gods, and that he kept 
 a diviner at his house, ostensibly for the constant en- 
 quiries which he made about public affairs, whereas 
 most of his enquiries were really made about his own 
 private matters, and especially about his silver mines; 
 for he had large interests in the mining district of 
 Laurium, and they were exceedingly profitable, al- 
 though worked at great risks. He maintained a 
 multitude of slaves in these mines, and the most of 
 
 3 his substance was in silver. For this reason he had a 
 large retinue of people who wanted his money, and 
 who got it too ; for he gave to those who could work 
 
 TESTIMONIES OF THE COMIC POETS 61 
 
 him harm no less than to those who deserved his 
 favors, and in general his cowardice was a source of 
 revenue to the base as his liberality was to the good. 
 
 Witness to this can be had from the comic poets. 4 
 Telecleides composed the following verses on a cer- 
 tain public informer : — 
 
 ** So then Charicles gave a mina that he might not tell of him 
 How he was his mother's first-born, - and her purse-born child at that. 
 Minas four he got from Nicias, son of rich Niceratus ; 
 But the reason why he gave them, though I know it very well, 
 I ni not teU ; the man 's my friend, and I think him wise and true." 
 
 And the personage who is held up to ridicule by 5 
 Eupolis, in his Maricas, fetches in a sort of lazy 
 pauper, and says : — 
 
 (Maricas) 
 
 (Pauper) 
 
 (Maricas) 
 
 (Chorus J) 
 
 (Pauper) 
 
 " How long a time now since you were with Nicias ? 
 I have not seen him. —saving just now on the Square, 
 The man admits he actually did see Nicias ! 
 Yet what possessed him thus to see him ? * On the make ' t 
 O hear ye, hear, my comrades, O ! 
 Our Nicias was taken in the very act ! 
 What I you ? O crazy-witted folk ! 
 You catch a man so good in sin of any sort ? " 
 
 And the Cleon of Aristophanes blusteringly says : — e 
 
 " 1 11 laryngize the orators, and Nicias 1 11 rattle." 
 
 And Phrynichus gently hints at his lack of courage 
 and his panic-stricken air in these verses : 
 
 " He was a right good citizen, and I know it well ; 
 He would n*t cringe and creep as Nicias always does." 
 
 V. Since he was disposed to be thus cautious of 
 public informers, he would neither dine with a fellow 
 citizen, nor indulge in general interchange of views or 
 
62 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 HIS CAUTION AND GOOD FORTUNE 
 
 63 
 
 famiKar social intercourse ; indeed, he had no leisure 
 for such pastimes, but when he was general, he re- 
 mained at the War Department till night, and when 
 he was councillor, he was first to reach and last to 
 leave the Council. And even if he had no public 
 business to transact, he was inaccessible and hard to 
 come at, keeping close at home with his doors bolted. 
 
 a His friends used to accost those who were in waiting 
 at his door and beg them to be indulgent with Nicias, 
 for he was even then engaged upon sundry urgent 
 matters of public business. 
 
 The man who most aided him in playing this role, 
 and helped him to assume his costume of pompous 
 dignity, was Hiero. He had been reared in the 
 household of Nicias, and thoroughly instructed by 
 him in letters and literature. He pretended to be 
 the son of Dionysius, sumamed Chalcus, whose poems 
 are indeed extant, and who, as leader of the coloniz- 
 
 3 ing expedition to Italy, founded Thurii. This Hiero 
 it was who managed for Nicias his secret dealings 
 with the seers, and who was forever putting forth 
 among the people moving tales about the life of 
 severe hardships which his patron led for the sake 
 of the city. " Why ! " said he, " even when he takes 
 his bath and when he eats his dinner, some public 
 business or other is sure to confront him ; he neglects 
 his private interests in his anxiety for the common 
 good, and scarcely gets to sleep till others wake, 
 
 4 That's the reason why he is physically all run down, 
 and is not affable or pleasant to his friends, nay, he 
 has actually lost these too in addition to his sub- 
 
 stance, and all in the service of the city. Other 
 public men not only win friends but enrich them- 
 selves through their influence as public speakers, and 
 then fare sumptuously, and make a plaything of the 
 service of the city." In point of fact, such was the 
 life of Nicias that he could say of himself what 
 Agamemnon did : — 
 
 ** Sooth, as master of my life 
 My pomp I have, and to the populace I *m a slave. 
 
 f* 
 
 VI. He saw that the people, upon occasion, served 
 their own turn with experienced men of eloquence or 
 surpassing ability, but ever looked with suspicious 
 and cautious eyes upon such powers, and tried to 
 abate the pride and reputation to which they gave 
 rise. This was manifest in their fining Pericles, and 
 ostracising Damon, and discrediting, as most of them 
 did, Antiphon the Rhamnusian, and finally, above all, 
 in the fate of Paches the captor of Lesbos, who, while a 
 he was giving the official account of his generalship, 
 drew his sword in the very court-room and slew him- 
 self. Nicias therefore tried to evade commands which 
 were likely to be laborious and long, and whenever he 
 did serve as general made safety his chief aim, and so 
 was successful for the most part, as was natural. 
 He did not, however, ascribe his achievements to any 
 wisdom or ability or valor of his own, but rather 
 credited them to fortune, and took modest refuge in 
 the divine ordering of events, relinquishing thereby 
 part of his reputation because of the envy which 
 would otherwise be awakened. 
 
64 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 • Events bore witness to his wisdom, for in the many 
 great reverses which the city suffered at that period 
 he had absolutely no share. It was under the lead- 
 ership of Calliades and Xenophon that his country- 
 men met defeat at the hands of the Chalcidians in 
 Thrace ; the Aetolian disaster occurred when Demos- 
 thenes was in command; Hippocrates was general 
 when a thousand citizens were sacrificed at Delium ; 
 and for the plague Pericles incurred the most blame, 
 because he shut up the throng from the country in 
 the city on account of the war, and the plague was 
 the result of their change of abode and their un- 
 
 4 wonted manner of living. For all these things Nicias 
 was free from blame, while as general he captured 
 Cythera, an island favorably situated for the com- 
 mand of Laconia and inhabited by Lacedaemonians ; 
 he captured also many places in Thrace which had 
 revolted, and brought them back to their allegiance ; 
 having shut up the Megarians in their city he 
 straightway seized the island of Minoa, and shortly 
 after, from this base of operations, got possession of 
 Nisaea ; he also made a descent upon the territory of 
 Corinth, defeated the Corinthians in battle and slew 
 many of them, including Lycophron their general. 
 
 5 Here it befell him, when his dead were taken up 
 for burial, that two of his men were left unnoticed 
 on the field. As soon as he was made aware of this, 
 he halted his armament and sent a herald back to the 
 enemy asking leave to take up his dead. And yet by 
 usage and unwritten law the side which secured the 
 right to take up its dead by a truce, was thought to 
 
 PYLOS AND SPHACTERIA 65 
 
 renounce all claims to victory, and for those who so 
 obtained this right, the erection of a trophy of victory 
 was unlawful, since they are victors who possess the 
 field ; but petitioners do not possess the field, since 
 they cannot take what they want. Notwithstanding e 
 this, Nicias endured rather to abandon the honor 
 and reputation of his victory than to leave unburied 
 two of his fellow citizens. 
 
 He also ravaged the coasts of Laconia, routed the 
 Lacedaemonians who opposed him, captured Thyrea, 
 which the Aeginetans held, and took his prisoners off 
 alive to Athens. 
 
 VII. After Demosthenes had fortified Pylos, the 
 Peloponnesians came up against it by land and sea, a 
 battle was fought, and about four hundred Spartans 
 were shut off on the island of Sphacteria. Then the 
 Athenians considered that their capture would be a 
 great achievement, as was true. But the siege was 
 diflBcult and toilsome, since the region afforded no 
 fresh water. Even in summer the shipping of the 
 necessary supplies round Peloponnesus was a long and 
 expensive process, while in winter it was sure to be 
 perilous if not altogether impossible. The Athenians 
 were therefore m bad humor, and repented them of 
 having repulsed an embassy of the Lacedaemonians 
 which had come to treat with them for a truce and 
 peace. They had repulsed it because Cleon, chiefly 2 
 on account of Nicias, was opposed to it. He hated 
 Nicias, and when he saw him zealously cooperating 
 with the Lacedaemonians, persuaded the people to 
 vote down the truce. So when the siege grew longer 
 
6Q 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 and longer, and they learned that their forces were 
 in terrible straits, they were angry with Cleon. 
 
 » He, however, laid all the blame on Nicias, and de- 
 nounced him, saying that it was through cowardice 
 and weakness that he was letting the men on the 
 island slip through his hands, whereas, had he him- 
 self been general instead of Nicias, they would not 
 have held out so long. Thereupon it occurred to the 
 Athenians to say : " It 's not too late ! Why don't 
 you sail yourself and fetch the men?" Nicias too 
 rose in the Assembly and resigned his command of 
 the expedition to Pylos in favor of Cleon, bidding him 
 take as large a force as he wished, and not to vent 
 his boldness in mere words which brought no peril 
 with them, but to perform some deed for the city 
 
 * which should be worth its notice. At first Cleon 
 tried to draw back, confused by the unexpectedness 
 of this offer; but the Athenians kept up the same 
 cries of encouragement, and Nicias kept taunting him 
 until, his ambition incited and on fire, he undertook 
 the command, and, besides, declared in so many 
 words that within twenty days after sailing he would 
 either slay the men on the island or bring them alive 
 to Athens. The Athenians were moved to hearty 
 laughter at this rather than to belief in it, for they 
 were already in the way of treating his mad vanity 
 as a joke, and a pleasant one too. 
 
 5 It is said, for instance, that once when the As- 
 sembly was in session, the people sat out on the hill a 
 long while waiting for him to address them, and that 
 late in the day he came in all garlanded for dinner 
 
 DISCREDITED BY CLEON'S SUCCESS 67 
 
 and asked them to adjourn the Assembly to the mor- 
 row. " I 'm busy to-day," he said, " I 'm going to 
 entertain some guests, and have already sacrificed to 
 the gods." The Athenians burst out laughmg, then 
 rose up and dissolved the Assembly. 
 
 VIII. However, this tune he had good fortune, 
 served as general most successfully along with De- 
 mosthenes, and within the time which he had speci- 
 fied brought home as prisoners of war, their arms 
 surrendered, all the Spartans on Sphacteria who had 
 not faUen in battle. This success of Cleon's brought 
 great discredit on Nicias. He was thought not merely 
 to have cast away his shield, but to have done some- 
 thing far more disgraceful and base m voluntarily 
 throwing up his command out of cowardice, and m 
 abandoning to his enemy the opportunity for such a 
 great success, — actually voting himself out of office. 
 For this, Aristophanes again scoffs at him in his a 
 Birds, in words like these: 
 
 "And lo ! by Zeus! we can no longer doze about, 
 — We have no time, —nor shiUy-shaUy-niciasize;'* 
 
 and in his Farmers, where he writes : 
 
 ** I want to go a-fianning.'* 
 
 " Pray who hinders you ? " 
 " You people do. Come ! Let me give a thousand drachms 
 If you *11 release me from my offices." 
 
 " 'Tis done I 
 Yours make two thousand, with the ones that Nicias gave," 
 
 And besides, he wrought no little harm to the city 3 
 in allowing Cleon to have such an access of reputa- 
 tion and influence that he launched out into offensive 
 
68 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 THE PEACEMAKER 
 
 pride and ungovernable boldness and inflicted many 
 mischiefs on the city, the bitter fruits of which he 
 himself was by no means last to reap. Worst of all, 
 Cleon stripped the bema of its decorum, setting the 
 fashion of yelling when he harangued the people, of 
 girding up his robe, slapping his thigh, and running 
 about while speaking. He thus imbued the man- 
 agers of the city's policies with that levity and con- 
 tempt for propriety which soon after confounded the 
 whole state. 
 
 IX. Just about that time Alcibiades was beginning 
 to be a power at Athens. For a popular leader he 
 was not such an unmixed evil as Cleon. The soil of 
 Egypt, it is said, by reason of its very excellence, pro- 
 duces alike 
 
 " Drugs of which many are good, intennixed, but many are deadly **. 
 
 In like manner the nature of Alcibiades, setting as it 
 did with full and strong currents towards both good 
 and evil, furnished cause and beginning for serious 
 2 innovations. And so it came to pass that even after 
 Nicias was rid of Cleon, he did not get opportunity to 
 lull the city into perfect rest and calm, but, when he 
 had actually set the state fairly in the path of safety, 
 was hurled from it by an impetuous onset of Alci- 
 biades' ambition, and plunged again into war. 
 
 This was the way it came about. The men most 
 hostile to the peace of Hellas were Cleon and Brasi- 
 das. Of these, war covered up the baseness of the 
 one and adorned the excellence of the other ; that is 
 to say, it gave the one opportunities for great iniqui- 
 
 69 
 
 ties, the other for great achievements. After theses 
 men had both fallen in one and the same battle before 
 Amphipolis, Nicias found at once that the Spartans 
 had long been eager for peace, and that the Athenians 
 were no longer in good heart for the war; that 
 both were, so to speak, unstrung, and glad to let their 
 arms drop to their sides. He therefore strove to unite 
 the two cities in friendship, and to free the rest of the 
 Hellenes from ills, as well as to give hunself a season 
 of rest, and so to make secure for all coming time the 
 name which he had for success. The men who were* 
 weU-to-do, and the elderly men, and most of the 
 farmers, he found inclined to peace from the start ; 
 and after he had talked privately with many of the 
 rest, taught them his views, and blunted the edge of 
 their desire for war, then he at once held out hopes 
 to the Spartans, and urgently invited them to seek 
 for peace. They had confidence in him, not only be- 
 cause of his usual fairness towards them, but especi- 
 ally because he had shown kind attentions to those 
 of their men who had been captured at Pylos and 
 kept in prison at Athens, had treated them humanely, 
 and so eased their misfortune. The two parties had 5 
 before this made a sort of stay of mutual hostil- 
 ities for a year, and during this time they had held 
 conferences with one another, and tasted again the 
 sweets of security and leisure and intercourse with 
 friends and kindred, so that they yearned for that 
 old life which was undefiled by war, and listened 
 gladly when choirs sang such strains as 
 
 •* Let my spear lie unused for the spider to cover with webs," 
 
 ' y.siTu^i 
 
 ^JJJBlj 
 
70 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 and gladly called to mind the saying, *' In peace the 
 speaker is waked not by the trumpet, but by the 
 
 6 cock." Accordingly, they heaped abuse on those 
 who said that the war was fated to last thrice nine 
 years, and then, in this spirit, debated the whole 
 issue, and made peace. Most men held it to be a 
 manifest release from ills, and Nicias was in every 
 mouth. They said he was a man beloved of God, and 
 that Heaven had bestowed on him, for his reverent 
 piety, the privilege of giving his name to the greatest 
 
 7 and fairest of blessings. They really thought that 
 the peace was the work of Nicias, as the war had 
 been that of Pericles. The one, on slight occasion, 
 was thought to have plunged the Hellenes into great 
 calamities; the other had persuaded them to forget 
 the greatest injuries and become friends. There- 
 fore, to this day, men call that peace "The Peace 
 of Nicias". 
 
 X. The articles of peace required that the strong- 
 holds and cities and prisoners of war which each 
 party had taken from the other should be restored, 
 and since that party was to make restoration first on 
 whom the lot fell, the lot was secretly bought up by 
 Nicias, so that the Lacedaemonians were the first to 
 make restoration. This is the testimony of Theo- 
 2 phrastus. But when the Corinthians and Boeotians, 
 who were vexed at the course things were taking, 
 seemed likely, by their accusations and complaints, 
 to revive the war, Nicias persuaded the Athenians 
 and Lacedaemonians to make the general peace se- 
 cure by the mighty bond of a mutual alliance, 
 
 TRICKED BY ALCIBIADES 71 
 
 whereby they should become more formidable to all 
 seceders and better assured of each other. 
 
 Such being the course of events, Alcibiades, whos 
 was naturally indisposed to be quiet, and who was 
 incensed at the Lacedaemonians because they scorn- 
 fully ignored him in their fond atta<jhment to 
 Nicias, promptly opposed and obstructed the general 
 peace. At the outset he made no headway ; but a 
 little while after, seeing that the Athenians were not 
 so weU pleased as before with the Lacedaemonians, 
 but thought they had wronged them in makmg a 
 separate aUiance with the Boeotians, and in not re- 
 storing Panactum with its walls intact, nor Amphi- 
 polis at all, he laid great stress on these grounds of 
 complaint, and tried to incense the people over each 
 one of them. Finally he managed to have an em- 4 
 bassy sent from Argos to Athens, and tried to effect 
 a separate alUance between these two cities. Am- 
 bassadors came at once from Sparta with full powers 
 to treat all issues, and at their preliminary audience 
 with the Council were thought by that body to come 
 with nothing but just proposals. But Alcibiades was 
 afraid they would bring the Assembly over to their 
 views with the same arguments which had won the 
 Coimcil. He therefore circumvented them by deceits 
 fully swearing that he would cooperate with them 
 fully in the Assembly if they would only not claim 
 nor even admit that they had come with full powers 
 to treat all issues ; for thus, he declared, they would 
 most surely attain their desires. After they were 5 
 persuaded by him, and had put themselves out of the 
 
 .1 
 
72 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 FEUD WITH ALCIBIADES 
 
 78 
 
 I' I 
 
 guiding hands of Nicias and into his, he introduced 
 them to the Assembly, and asked them first whether 
 they had come with full powers to treat all issues. 
 On their saying " No " to this, he surprised them by 
 changing front and calling on the members of the 
 Council who were present to bear witness to what 
 they had said before that body. He then urged the 
 people not to follow, much less trust, men who were 
 such manifest liars, and who said now " Yes " and 
 
 enow " No " to the same question. The ambassadors 
 were overwhelmed with confusion, naturally, and 
 Nicias was unable to say a word, — struck dumb 
 with amazement and anguish. Therefore the people 
 were at once eager to call in the Argive embassy and 
 make the alliance it desired, but there came a slight 
 earthquake shock just then, luckily for Nicias, and the 
 Assembly was dissolved. On the following day, when 
 the people had assembled again, by dint of great ef- 
 fort and much talking Nicias succeeded, with diffi- 
 culty, in persuading them to refrain from the action 
 desired with Argos, and to send him on an embassy to 
 the Lacedaemonians, assuring them that everything 
 would thus turn out well. 
 
 7 But when he came to Sparta, though in other 
 ways he was honored by them as a true man and one 
 who had been zealous in their behalf, still, he ac- 
 complished nothing that he purposed, but was beaten 
 by the party there which had Boeotian sympathies, 
 and so came back home, not merely with loss of rep- 
 utation and under harsh abuse, but actually in bodily 
 fear of the Athenians. They were vexed and indig- 
 
 nant because they had been persuaded by him to re- 
 store so many eminent prisoners of war ; for the men 
 who had been brought to the city from Pylos be- 
 longed to the leading families of Sparta, and the most 
 influential men there were their friends and kinsmen. 
 However, the Athenians took no very harsh measures 8 
 in their anger against Nicias, but elected Alcibiades 
 general, made an alliance with the Mantineans and 
 Eleans, who had seceded from the Lacedaemonians, 
 as well as with the Argives, sent freebooters to Pylos 
 to ravage Laconia, and thus plunged again into war. 
 XL At last the feud between Nicias and Alcibi- 
 ades became so intense that recourse was had to the 
 process of ostracism. This the people used to insti- 
 tute from time to time when they wished to remove 
 for ten years, by the ostrakon-ballot, any one man 
 who was an object of suspicion generally because of 
 his great reputation, or of jealousy because of his 
 great wealth. Both the rivals were thus involved in 
 great confusion and peril, since one or the other must 
 in any event succumb to the ostracism. In the case a 
 of Alcibiades, men loathed his manner of life and 
 dreaded his boldness, as will be shown more at length 
 in his biography; and in the case of Nicias, his 
 wealth made him an object of jealousy. Above all 
 else, his way of life, which was not genial nor pop- 
 ular but unsocial and aristocratic, seemed alien and 
 foreign ; and since he often opposed the people's de- 
 sires and tried to force them against their wishes 
 into the way of their advantage, he was burdensome 
 to them. To tell the simple truth, it was a struggle * 
 
 'iS;sasi^^^.S3t 
 
 ' • . V 'k* v; #.•#« ^4 .. 4 d^-^^j »>*i.^V ^^V'**'^.-* 
 
 'V« <C«' •« '■'• 
 
 « /«'. t/fyti. 
 
74 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 between the young men who wanted war and the 
 elderly men who wanted peace ; one party proposed 
 to ostracise Nicias, the other Alcibiades. 
 
 ** But in a time of sedition, the base man too is in honor," 
 
 and so in this case also the people divided into two fac 
 tions^ and thereby made room for the most aggressive 
 and mischievous men. Among these was Hyper- 
 bolus of the deme Perithoedae, a man whose boldness 
 was not due to any influence that he possessed, but 
 who came to influence by virtue of his boldness, and 
 became, by reason of the very credit which he had in 
 
 4 the city, a discredit to the city. This fellow at that 
 time thought himself beyond the reach of ostracism, 
 since, forsooth, he was a likelier candidate for the 
 stocks; but he expected that when one of the ri- 
 vals had been banished he might himself become 
 the antagonist of the one who was left, and so it 
 was plain that he was pleased at their feud, and 
 that he was inciting the people against both of 
 them. Accordingly, when Nicias and Alcibiades be- 
 came aware of his baseness, they took secret counsel 
 with one another, united and harmonized their fac- 
 tions, and carried the day, so that neither of them 
 was ostracised, but Hyperbolus instead. 
 
 5 For the time being this delighted and amused the 
 people, but afterwards they were vexed to think that 
 the ordinance of ostracism had been degraded by its 
 application to so unworthy a man. They thought 
 there was a certain dignity in chastisement, or rather, 
 they regarded the ostracism as a chastisement in the 
 
 OSTRACISM OF HYPERBOLUS 
 
 75 
 
 cases of Thucydides and Aristides and such men, but 
 in the case of Hyperbolus as an honor, and as good 
 ground for boasting on his part, since for his base- 
 ness he had met with the same fate as the best men. 
 And so Plato the comic poet somewhere said ofe 
 him: — 
 
 ** Indeed he suffered worthy fete for men of old ; 
 A fate unworthy though of him and of his brands. 
 For such as him the ostrakon was ne'er devised." 
 
 And in the end no one was ever ostracised after Hy- 
 perbolus, but he was the last, as Hipparchus of Cho- 
 largus, a kinsman of the famous tyrant Peisistratus, 
 was the first to be so banished. 
 
 Verily fortune is an uncertain thing, and incalcu- 7 
 lable. Had Nicias run the risk with Alcibiades of 
 being ostracised, he had either carried the day, ex- 
 pelled his rival, and then dwelt safely in the city ; or, 
 defeated, he had himself gone forth from the city be- 
 fore his last misfortunes, and had preserved the rep- 
 utation of being a most excellent general. 
 
 I am well aware that Theophrastus says that Hy- 
 perbolus was ostracised when Phaeax, and not Nicias, 
 was striving against Alcibiades, but most writers 
 state the case as I have done. 
 
 XII. It was Nicias, at any rate, who, when an 
 embassy came from Egesta and Leontini seeking to 
 persuade the Athenians to undertake an expedition 
 against Sicily, opposed the measure, only to be de- 
 feated by the ambitious purposes of Alcibiades. Be- 
 fore the Assembly had met at all, Alcibiades had 
 already corrupted the multitude and got them into 
 
 U V •">^ '« rf> '• t^ 
 
 ■»«.•*>> 
 
 >:■-.%■ ^^4. . 
 
 . f^/^t <*rJ**»^-.v 
 
76 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 SIGNS AND PORTENTS 
 
 77 
 
 his power by means of his sanguine promises, so that 
 the youth in their training-schools and the old men 
 in their work-shops and lounging-places would sit 
 in clusters drawing maps of Sicily, charts of the sea 
 about it, and plans of the harbors and districts of the 
 
 2 island which look towards Libya. For they did not 
 regard Sicily itself as the prize of the war, but rather 
 as a mere base of operations, purposing therefrom to 
 wage a contest with the Carthaginians and get posses- 
 sion both of Libya and of all the sea this side the 
 Pillars of Heracles. 
 
 Since, therefore, their hearts were fixed on this, Ni- 
 cias, in his opposition to them, had few men of influence 
 to contend on his side. The well-to-do citizens feared 
 accusations of trying to escape contributions for the 
 support of the navy, and so, despite their better judg- 
 
 3 ment, held their peace. But Nicias did not faint nor 
 grow weary. Even after the Athenians had actually 
 voted for the war and elected him general first, and 
 after him Alcibiades and Lamachus, in a second ses- 
 sion of the Assembly he rose and tried to divert them 
 from their purpose by the most solemn adjurations, 
 and at last accused Alcibiades of satisfying his own 
 private greed and ambition in thus forcing the city 
 
 4 into grievous perils beyond the seas. Still, he made 
 no headway, nay, he was held all the more essential 
 to the enterprise because of the experience from 
 which he spoke. There would be great security, his 
 hearers thought, against the daring of Alcibiades and 
 the roughness of Lamachus, if his well known cau- 
 tion were blended with their qualities. And so he 
 
 succeeded only in confirming the previous vote. For 
 Demostratus, the popular leader who was most active 
 in spurring the Athenians on to the war, rose and de- 
 clared that he would stop the mouth of Nicias from 
 uttering vain protests ; so he introduced a decree to 
 the effect that the generals have full and independ- 
 ent powers in counsel and in action, both at home 
 and at the seat of war, and persuaded the people to 
 vote it. 
 
 XIII. And yet the priesthood also is said to have 
 offered much opposition to the expedition. But Alci- 
 biades had other diviners in his private service, and 
 from sundry oracles reputed ancient he cited one say- 
 ing that great fame would be won by the Athenians 
 in Sicily. To his delight also certain envoys who 
 had been sent to the shrine of Ammon came back 
 with an oracle declaring that the Athenians would 
 capture all the Syracusans ; but utterances of opposite 
 import the envoys concealed, for fear of using words of 
 ill omen. For no signs could deter the people from the 2 
 expedition, were they ever so obvious and clear, such 
 as, for instance, the mutilation of the Eermae. These 
 statues were all disfigured in a single night, except 
 one, called the Hermes of Andocides, a dedication of 
 the Aegeid tribe, standing in front of what was at 
 that time the house of Andocides. Then there was 
 the affair of the altar of the Twelve Grods. An un- 
 known man leaped upon it all of a sudden, bestrode 
 it, and then mutilated himself with a stone. 
 
 At Delphi, moreover, there stood a Palladium, 3 
 made of gold and set upon a bronze palm-tree, a ded- 
 
 I 
 
78 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 ication of the city of Athens from the spofls of her 
 valor in the Persian wars. Ravens alighted on this 
 image and pecked it for many days together; they 
 also bit off the fruit of the palm-tree, which was of 
 
 4 gold, and cast it down to the ground. The Atheni- 
 ans, it is true, said that this whole story was an in- 
 vention of the Delphians, at the mstigation of the 
 Syracusans; but at any rate when a certain oracle 
 bade them seek the priestess of Athena at Clazomenae, 
 they sent and fetched the woman, and lo ! her name 
 was Peace. And this, as it seemed, was the advice 
 which the divinity would give the city at that time, 
 namely, to seek peace. 
 
 5 It was either because he feared such signs as these, 
 or because, from mere human calculation, he was 
 alarmed about the expedition, that the astrologer 
 Meton, who had been given a certain station of com- 
 mand, pretended to be mad and set his house on fire. 
 Some, however, tell the story in this way: Meton 
 made no pretence of madness, but burned his house 
 down in the night, and then came forward publicly 
 in great dejection and begged his fellow citizens, m 
 view of the great calamity which had befallen him, 
 to release from the expedition his son, who was 
 
 6 about to sail for Sicily in command of a trireme. To 
 Socrates the wise man also, his divine guide, making 
 use of the customary tokens for his enlightenment, 
 indicated plainly that the expedition would make for 
 the ruin of the city. Socrates let this be known to his 
 Ultimate friends, and the story had a wide circulation. 
 
 7 Not a few also were somewhat disconcerted by the 
 
 CAUTION AND HESITATION 
 
 79 
 
 character of the days in the midst of which they dis- 
 patched their armament. The women were celebrat- 
 ing at that time the festival of Adonis, and in many 
 places throughout the city little images of the god 
 were laid out for burial, and funeral rites were held 
 about them, with wailing cries of women, so that 
 those who cared anything for such matters were dis- 
 tressed, and feared lest that powerful armament, with 
 all the splendor and vigor which were so mani- 
 fest in it, should speedily wither away like funeral 
 herbs. 
 
 XIV. Now that Nicias should oppose the voting 
 of the expedition, and should not be so buoyed up by 
 vain hopes nor so crazed by the magnitude of his 
 command as to change his real opinion, — this 
 marked him as a man of honesty and discretion. But 
 when he availed naught either in his efforts to divert 
 the people from the war or in his desire to be relieved 
 of his command, — the people as it were picking him 
 up bodily and setting him over their forces as gen- 
 eral, — then it was no longer a time for the exceeding 2 
 caution and hesitation which he displayed, gazing 
 back homewards from his ship like a child, and 
 many times resuming and dwelling on the thought 
 that the people had not yielded to his reasonings, till 
 he took the edge from the zeal of his colleagues in 
 command and lost the fittest time for action. He 
 ought rather at once to have engaged the enemy at 
 close quarters and put fortune to the test in struggles 
 for the mastery. In stead of this, while Lamachus 
 urged that they sail direct to Syracuse and give battle 
 
 ;i 
 
80 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 close to the city, and Alcibiades that they rob the Syra- 
 cusans of their allied cities first and then proceed 
 against them, Nicias proposed and urged in opposition 
 that they make their way quietly by sea along the 
 coasts of Sicily, circumnavigate the island, make a 
 display of their troops and triremes, and then sail 
 back to Athens, after having first culled out a small 
 part of their force to give the Egestaeans a taste of 
 succor. In this way he soon relaxed the resolution 
 and depressed the spirits of his men. 
 
 4 After a little while the Athenians summoned Alci- 
 biades home to stand his trial, and then Nicias, who 
 nominally had still a colleague in the command, but 
 really wielded sole power, made no end of sitting 
 idle, or cruising aimlessly about, or taking deliberate 
 counsel, until the vigorous hopes of his men grew old 
 and feeble, and the consternation and fear with which 
 the first sight of his forces had filled his enemies 
 slowly subsided. 
 
 5 While Alcibiades was yet with the fleet, sixty ships 
 sailed for Syracuse, of which fifty lay out in the 
 oflSng, drawn up so as to command the harbor, while 
 ten rowed in to reconnoiter. These made formal 
 proclamation by voice of herald that the people of 
 Leontini should return to their homes. They also 
 captured a ship of the enemy with tablets on board 
 in which the Syracusans had recorded lists of their 
 citizens by tribes. These lists had been deposited 
 at some distance from the city, in the sanctuary of 
 Olympian Zeus, but had been sent for at that time 
 with a view to determining and enrolling those who 
 
 NICIAS AND LAMACHUS 81 
 
 had come to military age. Now when these hade 
 been captured by the Athenians and brought to 
 their generals, and the number of names was seen, 
 the soothsayers were in distress lest in this circum- 
 stance lie the fulfillment of what was predicted by 
 the oracle which said: "The Athenians shall take 
 all the Syracusans." However, they say that it was 
 in another circumstance altogether that this proph- 
 ecy was fulfilled for the Athenians, namely, at the 
 time when Callippus the Athenian slew Dion and 
 got possession of Syracuse. 
 
 XV. A little while after this Alcibiades sailed 
 away from Sicily, and then Nicias took the entire 
 command. Lamachus was, it is true, a sturdy and 
 honorable man, one who put forth his might without 
 stint m battle, but so poor and petty that in every 
 campaign where he served as general he would 
 charge up to the Athenian people certain trifling 
 moneys for his own clothes and boots. Nicias, on 2 
 the contrary, was a man of great dignity and im- 
 portance, especially because of his wealth and repu- 
 tation. It is said that once at the War Department, 
 when his fellow commanders were deliberating on 
 some matter of general moment, he bade Sophocles 
 the poet state his opinion first, as being the senior 
 general on the Board. Thereupon Sophocles said: 
 " I am the oldest man, it is true, but you are the 
 senior general." 
 
 So also in the present case he brought Lamachus 3 
 under his orders, although more of a general than 
 himself, and, always using his forces in a cautious 
 
82 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 and hesitating manner, he first gave the enemy 
 courage by cruising around Sicily as far as possible 
 from them, and then, by attacking the diminutive 
 little city of Hybla, and going off without taking 
 
 4 it, he won their supreme contempt. Finally, he 
 went back to Catana without effecting anything at 
 all except the overthrow of Hyccara, a barbarian 
 fastness. From this place it is said that Lais the 
 courtesan was sold as a prisoner of war, being still 
 a girl, and brought into Peloponnesus. 
 
 XVI. The summer was now spent when Nicias 
 learned that the Syracusans had plucked up courage 
 and were going to take the initiative and come out 
 against him. Their horsemen already had the in- 
 science to ride up to the Athenian camp and ask 
 its occupants whether they had come to share the 
 homes of the Catanians or to restore the Leontines 
 to their old homes. At last, therefore, and re- 
 luctantly, Nicias set out to sail against Syracuse. 
 
 a Wishing to establish his forces there deliberately and 
 without fear of interruption from the enemy, he se- 
 cretly sent on a man of Catana with a message for 
 the Syracusans. If they wished to find the camp 
 and equipment of the Athenians abandoned of de- 
 fenders, they must come in full force to Catana on 
 a given day, for that the friends of the Syracusans 
 in the city, where the Athenians spent most of their 
 time, had determined, on perceiving their approach, 
 to seize the gate and set fire to the Athenian fleet ; 
 the conspirators were already many and awaited 
 their coming. 
 
 FIRST ATTACK ON SYRACUSE 83 
 
 This was the best generalship that Nicias displayed s 
 in Sicily. He brought his enemy out of their city 
 m full force, thereby almost emptying it of defend- 
 ers, while he himself put out to sea from Catana, 
 got control of the enemy's harbors, and seized a spot 
 for his camp where he was confident that he would 
 suffer least injury from that arm of the service in 
 which he was inferior, the cavalry, and meet no 
 hindrance in fighting with that arm whereon he most 
 reUed. When the Syracusans hurried back from 4 
 Catana and drew up in order of battle before their 
 own city, Nicias led his Athenians swiftly against 
 them and carried the day. He did not slay many of 
 the enemy, it is true, for their horsemen prevented 
 his pursuit ; he had to content himself with cutting 
 to pieces and destroymg the bridges over the river, 
 and thus gave Hermocrates occasion to say, as he 
 sought to encourage the Syracusans, that Nicias was 
 ridiculous in maneuvering so as not to give battle, 
 as though it was not for battle that he had crossed 
 the seas. However, he did infuse fear and mighty s 
 consternation into the Syracusans, so that in place 
 of their fifteen generals then in office they elected 
 three others, to whom the people pledged them- 
 selves under oath that they would suffer them to 
 command with full and independent powers. 
 
 The Olympieum was hard by, and the Athenians e 
 set out to seize it, inasmuch as it contained many 
 offerings of gold and silver. But Nicias purposely 
 delayed operations until it was too late, and aUowed 
 a garrison from Syracuse to enter in, because he 
 
84 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 thought that if his soldiers plundered the temple's 
 treasures the commonwealth would get no advantage 
 from it^ and he himself would incur the blame for 
 
 7 the sacrilege. Of his victory, which was so noised 
 about, he made no use whatever, but after a few 
 days had elapsed withdrew again to Naxos, and there 
 spent the winter, making large outlays on his vast 
 armament, but effecting little in his negotiations 
 with the few Sicels who thought of coming over 
 to his side. The Syracusans therefore plucked up 
 courage again, marched out to Catana, ravaged the 
 fields, and burnt what had been the Athenian camp. 
 
 • These things all men laid to the charge of Nicias, 
 since, as they said, by his excessive calculation and 
 hesitation and caution he let the proper time for 
 action go by for ever. When he was once in action 
 no one could find fault with the man, for after he 
 had set out to do a thing he was vigorous and 
 effective; but in venturing out to do it he was 
 hesitating and timid. 
 
 XVII. At any rate, when he moved his arma- 
 ment back to Syracuse, he showed such generalship, 
 and made his approach with such speed and secur- 
 ity, that he put in at Thapsus with his fleet and 
 landed his men unobserved, seized Epipolae before 
 the enemy could prevent, defeated the picked com- 
 panies which came to its rescue with a loss of three 
 hundred men, and even routed the cavalry of the 
 enemy, which was thought to be invincible. 
 
 a But what most of all filled the Sicilians with 
 terror and the Hellenes with incredulity was the 
 
 INVESTMENT OF SYRACUSE 85 
 
 fa<;t that in a short time he carried a wall around 
 Syracuse, a city fully as large as Athens, although 
 the unevenness of the territory about it, its prox- 
 imity to the sea, and its adjacent marshes, made the 
 task of surrounding it with such a wall very diffi- 
 cult. But he came within an ace of bringing this 3 
 great task to completion, — a man who did not even 
 have sound health for such great concerns, but was 
 sick of a disease in the kidneys. To this it is only 
 fair to ascribe the unfinished part of the work. I 
 can but admire the watchful care of the general 
 and the noble valor of his soldiers in what they did 
 accomplish. Euripides, after their defeat and de-* 
 struction, composed an epitaph for them, in which 
 he said: — 
 
 " These men at Syracuge eight times were triumphant as victors • 
 Heroes they were whUe the gods favored both causes alike.''' 
 
 And not eight times only, nay, more than that you 6 
 will find that the Syracusans were beaten by them, 
 until the gods, as the poet says, or fortune, became 
 hostile to the Athenians at the very pinnacle of their 
 power. 
 
 XVIII. Now in most actions Nicias took part, 
 despite his bodily infirmity. But once, when his 
 weakness was extreme, he was lying in bed within 
 the walls, attended by a few servants, while Lama- 
 chus with the soldiery was fighting the Syracusans. 
 These were trying to run a wall from their city out 
 to that which the Athenians were building, to inter- 
 sect it and prevent its completion. The Athenians 2 
 prevailed, and hurried off in pursuit with more or 
 
86 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 less disorder, so that Lamachus was isolated, and 
 then had to face some Syracusan horsemen who made 
 an onset upon him. Foremost of these was Calli- 
 crates, a man skilled in war and of a high courage. 
 Lamachus accepted his challenge to single combat, 
 fought him, got a mortal blow from him, but gave 
 him back the like, and fell and died along with him. 
 
 3 The Syracusans got possession of the body of Lam- 
 achus, with its armor, and carried it off. Then they 
 made a dash upon the Athenian walls where Nicias 
 was, with none to succor him. He nevertheless, 
 necessity compelling him, rose from his bed, saw 
 his peril, and ordered his attendants to bring fire 
 and set it to all the timbers that lay scattered in 
 front of the walls for the construction of siege- 
 engines, and to the engines themselves. This brought 
 the Syracusans to a halt, and saved Nicias as well 
 as the walls and stores of the Athenians. For when 
 the Syracusans saw a great flame rising between 
 them and the walls, they withdrew. 
 
 ♦ Thus it came to pass that Nicias was left sole gen- 
 eral ; but he was in great hopes. Cities were inclin- 
 ing to take his side, and ships full of grain came to 
 his camp from every quarter. Everybody hastens to 
 join a successful cause. Besides, sundry proposals were 
 already coming to him from those Syracusans who 
 
 6 despaired of their city. At this time, too, Gylippus, 
 who was sailing from Sparta to their aid, when he 
 heard on his voyage how they were walled up and in 
 sore distress, held on his way, it is true, but with the 
 belief that Sicily was as good as taken, and that he 
 
 HIS OVERCONFIDENCE 87 
 
 could only save the cities of the Italian Greeks, if 
 haply even that. For the opinion gamed ground and 
 strength that the Athenians were all powerful, and 
 had a general who was invmcible by reason of his 
 judgment and good fortune. 
 
 And Nicias himself, contrary to his nature, wase 
 straightway so emboldened by the prevalent momen- 
 tum of his good fortune, and, most of all, by the secret 
 messengers sent to him from the Syracusans so 
 fixed in his belief that the city was just on the point 
 of surrendering conditionaUy, that he made no sort of 
 account of Gylippus at his approach. He did not 
 even set an adequate watch against him. Where- 
 fore, finding himself completely overlooked and de- 
 spised, the man sailed stealthily through the straits, 
 made a landing at the farthest remove from Syracuse 
 and collected a large force, the Syracusans being not 
 so much as aware of his presence, nor even expect- 
 ing him. On the contrary, they had actually caUedy 
 an assembly to discuss the agreements to be made 
 with Nicias, and some were already on their way to 
 it, thinking that the terms of peace should be made 
 before their city was completely walled up. For that 
 part of the work which remained to be done was 
 quite small, and all the material required for it lay 
 strewn along the line. 
 
 XIX. But in this nick of time and crisis of their 
 peril Gongylus came to them from Corinth with a 
 single trireme. All flocking to meet him, a^ was 
 natural, he told them that Gylippus would come 
 speedily, and that other shins of war w^rp «o;i;^^ 
 
88 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 a to their aid. Ere yet they could put implicit faith 
 in what Gongylus told them, there came a messen- 
 ger from Gylippus bidding them come out to meet 
 him. Then they plucked up heart and donned their 
 arms. No sooner had Gylippus come up than he led 
 his men in battle array against the Athenians. But 
 when Nicias arrayed his men too over against him, 
 Gylippus halted under arms, and sent a herald with 
 the message that he offered the Athenians safe con- 
 duct if they would depart from Sicily. 
 
 3 Nicias deigned no answer to this ; but some of his 
 soldiers mocked, and asked the herald if the pres- 
 ence of a single Spartan cloak and staff had made 
 the prospects of the Syracusans on a sudden so secure 
 that they could afford to deride the Athenians, who 
 had restored to the Lacedaemonians, out of prison 
 and fetters, three hundred men far sturdier than 
 
 4 Gylippus, and longer haired. Timaeus says that 
 the Sicilians also made no account of Gylippus, 
 later on, indeed, because they learned to know his 
 base greed and penuriousness ; but as soon as they 
 set eyes upon him they jeered at his cloak and his 
 long hair. Then, however, Timaeus himself says 
 that as soon as Gylippus showed himself, for all 
 the world like an owl among birds, many flocked 
 to him, with ready offers of military service. This 
 latter statement has more truth in it than his first, 
 for in the staff and cloak of Gylippus men beheld the 
 symbols of the majesty of Sparta, and rallied round 
 
 5 them. Moreover, that the whole achievement of de- 
 liverance was his, is the testimony not only of Thucyd- 
 
 FIRST SUCCESSES OF GYLIPPUS 89 
 
 ides, but also of Philistus, who was a Syracusan, and 
 an eyewitness of the events thereof. 
 
 Well then, in the first battle the Athenians were 
 victors and slew some few of the Syracusans, and 
 also Gongylus the Corinthian ; but on the day fol- 
 lowmg Gylippus showed what a great thing experi- 
 ence is. Although he had the same infantry and the 
 same cavalry and the same localities to deal with, he 
 did not do it in the same way as before, but changed 
 his tactics, and thereby conquered the Athenians. 
 And as they fled to their camp, he halted his Syra-e 
 cusans in their pursuit, and with the very stones and 
 timbers which his enemies had brought up for their 
 own use, he carried on the cross wall until it inter- 
 sected the besiegers' wall of enclosure, so that their 
 superior strength in the field really availed them 
 naught. 
 
 After this the Syracusans plucked up heart and 
 went to manning their ships, while their own horse- 
 men and those of their allies would ride about and 
 cut off many of their besiegers. Gylippus also went 7 
 out in person to the cities of Sicily and roused up and 
 united them all into vigorous and obedient concert 
 with him. Nicias therefore fell back again upon 
 those views of the undertaking which he had held 
 at the outset, and, fully aware of the reversal which 
 it had suffered, became dejected, and wrote a dis- 
 patch to the Athenians urging them to send out an-r 
 other armament, or else to recall the one already in 
 Sicily, begging them also in any case to relieve him 
 of his command because of his disease. 
 
90 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 XX. Even before this the Athenians had started 
 to send another force to Sicily, but the leading men 
 among them felt some jealousy of the extraordinary 
 good fortune of Nicias, and so had induced many de- 
 lays. Now, however, they were all eagerness to send 
 aid. It was therefore determined that Demosthenes 
 should sail with a large armament in the spring, and 
 while it was yet winter Eurymedon preceded him 
 with a smaller fleet, bringing money, and announcing 
 the selection of colleagues for Nicias from among the 
 members of the expedition there, — to wit, Euthy- 
 demus and Menander. 
 1 But in the mean time Nicias was suddenly attacked 
 by land and sea. With his fleet, though vanquished 
 at first, he yet succeeded in repulsing the enemy, and 
 sank many of their ships; but he was not prompt 
 enough in sending aid to his garrison at Plemmyrium, 
 and so Gylippus, who had fallen upon it suddenly, cap- 
 tured it. Large naval stores and moneys were in 
 deposit there, all of which Gylippus secured, besides 
 3 killing many men and taking many prisoners. What 
 was most important of all, he robbed Nicias of his 
 easy importation of supplies. These had been safely 
 and speedily brought in past Plemmyrium as long 
 as the Athenians held that post ; but now that they 
 had been driven from it, the process was a difficult 
 one, and involved fighting with the enemy who lay 
 at anchor there. And besides all this, the Syracusans 
 felt that their fleet had been defeated, not through 
 any superior strength in their enemy, but by reason 
 of their own disorderly pursuit of that enemy. Ao- 
 
 FIRST NAVAL VICTORY OF THE SYRACUSANS 91 
 
 cordingly, they were making still more vigorous prep- 
 arations to try the issue again. 
 
 But Nicias did not wish a sea fight. He said it 4 
 would be great folly, when such a large armament wa^ 
 saiUng to their aid and hurrymg up fresh troops under 
 Demosthenes, to fight the issue out with inferior forces, 
 and those wretchedly supplied. Menander and Euthy' 
 demus, however, who had just been appointed to their 
 offices, were moved by an ambitious rivalry with both 
 the other generals : they longed to anticipate Demos- 
 thenes in some brilliant exploit, and to eclipse Nicias. 
 They therefore made much of their city's reputation. 6 
 This, they declared again and again, would be alto- 
 gether ruined and dissipated if they should show fear 
 when the Syra<5usans sailed out to attack them ; and 
 so they forced a decision to give battle by sea. But 
 they were simply out-maneuvered by Ariston, the 
 Corinthian captain, in the matter of the noon-day 
 meal, as Thucydides relates, and then worsted in 
 a^jtion, with the loss of many men. And so a great 
 despair encompassed Nicias; he had met with dis- 
 aster while in sole command, and was now again 
 brought to grief by his colleagues. 
 ^ XXI. But at this juncture Demosthenes hove in 
 sight off the harbors, most resplendent in his array, 
 and most terrifying to the enemy. He brought five 
 thousand hopUtes on seventy-three ships of war, be- 
 sides darters and archers and slingers to no less a num- 
 ber than three thousand. What with the gleam of his 
 arms and the insignia of his triremes and the multitude 
 of his coxswains and pipers, he made a spectacular dis- 
 
92 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 play and one which smote the enemy with dismay. 
 
 2 Again, then, as was natural, fear reigned among the 
 Syracusans. They saw before them no final release 
 from their perils, but only useless toils and vain self- 
 destruction. 
 
 But the joy of Nicias at the presence of this fresh 
 force was not long lived. Nay, at the very first 
 council of war, when Demosthenes urged an immedi- 
 ate attack upon the enemy, a settlement of the whole 
 struggle by the speediest hazard, and either the cap- 
 ture of Syracuse or else a return home, he was in 
 fearful amaze at such aggressive daring, and begged 
 
 5 that nothing be done rashly or foolishly. Delay, he 
 said, was sure to work against the enemy ; they no 
 longer had money to spend, and their allies would 
 not longer stand by them ; let them only be really 
 distressed by the straits they were in, and they would 
 soon come to him again for terms, as they had done 
 before. For not a few of the men of Syracuse were 
 in secret communication with Nicias. They urged 
 him to bide his time, on the ground that even now 
 they were worn out by the war and weary of Gylip- 
 pus, and that if their necessities should but increase 
 
 4 a little, they would give over altogether. At some of 
 these matters Nicias could only hint darkly, of others 
 he was unwilling to speak in public, and so he made 
 the generals think him cowardly. It was the same 
 old story over again with him, they would say, — 
 delays, postponements, and hairsplitting distinc- 
 tions; he had already forfeited the golden moment 
 by not attacking the enemy at once, but rather going 
 
 NIGHT ATTACK UPON EPIPOLAE 93 
 
 stale and winning their contempt. So they sided 
 with Demosthenes, and Nicias, with great reluctance, 
 was forced to yield. 
 
 Therefore Demosthenes, with the infantry, made as 
 night attack upon Epipolae. He took some of the 
 enemy by surprise, and slew them ; others, who tried 
 to make a stand, he routed. Victorious, he did not 
 halt, but pressed on farther, until he fell in with 
 the Boeotians. These were the first of the enemy to 
 form in battle array, and dashing upon the Athenians 
 with spears at rest and with loud shouts, they re- 
 pulsed them and slew many of them there. Through e 
 the whole army of attack there was at once panic 
 and confusion. The part that was still pressing on 
 victoriously was presently choked up with the part 
 that fled, and the part that was yet coming up to the 
 attack was beaten back by the panic-stricken and fell 
 foul of itself, supposmg that the fugitives were pur- 
 suers, and treating friends as foes. Their huddling 7 
 together in fear and ignorance, and the deceitfulness 
 of their vision, plunged the Athenians into terrible 
 perplexities and disasters. For the night was one 
 which afforded neither absolute darkness nor a steady 
 light. The moon was low on the horizon, and was 
 partially obscured by the numerous armed figures 
 movmg to and fro in her light, and so she naturally 
 made even friends suspicious through fear of foes by 
 not distinguishing their forms clearly. Besides, its 
 somehow happened that the Athenians had the moon 
 at their backs, so that they cast their shadows on 
 their own men in front of them, and thus obscured 
 
94 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 their number and the brilliancy of their weapons ; 
 while in the case of the enemy, the reflection of the 
 moon upon their shields made them seem far more 
 numerous than they really were, and more resplend- 
 ent to the eye. 
 
 • Finally, when the Athenians gave ground, the 
 enemy attacked them on all sides and put them to 
 flight. Some of them died at the hands of their pur- 
 suers, others by one another's hands, and others still 
 by plunging down the cliffs. The scattered and 
 wandering fugitives, when day came, were overtaken 
 and cut to pieces by the enemy's horsemen. The 
 dead amounted in all to two thousand ; and of the 
 survivors, few saved their armor with their lives, 
 
 XXII. Nicias was of course overwhelmed by this 
 disaster, though it did not take him wholly by sur- 
 prise, and he accused Demosthenes of rashness. That 
 general defended himself on this score, and then 
 urged that they sail away as soon as they could. No 
 other force would come to their aid, he declared, and 
 with the one they had they could not finally master 
 the enemy, since, even if they were victorious in bat- 
 atle, they would be forced to change their base and 
 abandon their present position ; this was always, as 
 they heard, a grievous and unwholesome spot for en- 
 campment, and now particularly, aa they saw, it was 
 actually deadly on account of the season of the year. 
 For it was the beginning of autumn ; many were sick 
 already, and all were in low spirits. 
 
 But Nicias could not bear to hear of sailing off in 
 flight, not because he had no fear of the Syracusans, 
 
 FATAL DELAYS 95 
 
 but because he was more afraid of the Athenians 
 with their prosecutions and denunciations. Nothings 
 dreadful, he would say, was to be expected where 
 they were, and even if the worst should come, he 
 chose rather to die at the hands of his enemies than 
 at the hands of his fellow citizens. In this he was 
 not like mmded with Leon of Byzantium, who, at a 
 later time, said to his fellow citizens : « I would 
 rather be put to death by you than with you." How- 
 ever, regarding the exact spot to which they should 
 remove their camp, Nicias said they would deliberate 
 at their leisure. When he took this stand. Demos-* 
 thenes, who had not been successful in his previous 
 plan, ceased trying to carry his point, and so led the 
 rest of the generals to believe that Nicias must have 
 confident expectations from his correspondents in the 
 city in making such a sturdy fight against the pro- 
 posed retreat ; they therefore sided with him. How- 
 ever, a fresh army came to the aid of the Syracusans, 
 and sickness kept spreading among the Athenians, so' 
 that at last Nicias also decided in favor of a change 
 of base, and ordered the soldiers to hold themselves 
 in readiness to sail away, 
 
 XXIII. But just as everything was prepared for 
 this and none of the enemy were on the watch, since 
 they did not expect it at all, there came an eclipse of 
 the moon by night. This was a great terror to 
 Nicias and all those who were ignorant or supersti- 
 tious enough to quake at such a sight. The obscu- 
 ration of the sun towards the end of the month was 
 already understood, even by the common folk, as 
 
96 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 2 caused somehow or other by the moon ; but what it 
 was that the moon encountered, and how, being at 
 the full, she should on a sudden lose her light and 
 emit aU sorts of colors, this was no easy thing to com- 
 prehend. Men thought it uncanny, — a sign sent 
 from God in advance of divers great calamities. 
 
 The first man to put in writing the clearest and 
 boldest of all doctrines about the changing phases of 
 the moon was Anaxagoras. But he was no ancient 
 authority, nor was his doctrine in high repute. It 
 was still under seal of secrecy, and made its way 
 slowly among a few only, who received it with a cer- 
 tain caution rather than with implicit confidence. 
 
 3 Men could not abide the natural philosophers and 
 « visionaries ", as they were then called, for that 
 they reduced the divine agency down to irrational 
 causes, blind forces, and necessary incidents. Even 
 Protagoras had to go into exUe, Anaxagoras was with 
 difficulty rescued from imprisonment by Pericles, and 
 Socrates, though he had nothing whatever to do with 
 such matters, nevertheless lost his life because of his 
 
 4 philosophy. It was not until later times that the ra- 
 diant repute of Plato, because of the life the man 
 led, and because he subjected the compulsions of the 
 physical world to divine and more sovereign princi- 
 ples, took away the obloquy of such doctrines as these, 
 and gave their science free course among all men. 
 At any rate, his friend Dion, although the moon suf- 
 fered an eclipse at the time when he was about to set 
 out from Zacynthus on his voyage against Dionysius, 
 was in no wise disturbed, but put to sea, landed at 
 Syracuse, and drove out the tyrant. 
 
 FATAL DELAYS 
 
 97 
 
 However, it waa the lot of Nicias at this time to bes 
 without even a soothsayer who was expert. The one 
 who had been his associate, and who used to set him 
 free from most of his superstition, Stilbides, had died 
 a short time before. For indeed the sign from Heaven, 
 as Philochorus observed, was not an obnoxious one to 
 fugitives, but rather very propitious ; concealment is 
 just what deeds of fear need, whereas light is an 
 enemy to them. And besides, men were wont to be one 
 their guard against portents of sun and moon for three 
 days only, as Autocleides has remarked in his Ezeget- 
 ics ; but Nicias persuaded the Athenians to wait for 
 another full period of the moon, as if, forsooth, he did 
 not see that the planet was restored to purity and 
 splendor just as soon as she had passed beyond the 
 region which was darkened and obscured by the 
 earth. 
 
 XXIV. Abandoning almost every thing else, Nicias 
 lay there sacrificing and divining untU the enemy 
 came up against him. With their land forces they 
 laid siege to his walls and camp, and with their fleet 
 they took possession of the harbor round about. 
 Not only the men of Syracuse in their triremes, but 
 even the striplings, on board of fishing smacks and 
 skifEs, saUed up from every side with challenges and 
 insults for the Athenians. To one of these, a boy of 2 
 noble parentage, Heracleides by name, who had driven 
 his boat well on before the rest, an Attic ship gave 
 chase, and was like to capture him. But the boy's 
 uncle, Pollichus, concerned for his safety, rowed out 
 to his defense with the ten triremes which were under 
 
98 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 his orders, and then the other commanders, fearing in 
 turn for the safety of Pollichus, likewise put out for 
 the scene of action. A fierce sea fight was thus 
 brought on, in which the Syracusans were victorious, 
 and slew Eurymedon along with many others. 
 
 a Accordingly the Athenians could no longer endure 
 to remain there, but cried out loudly upon their 
 generals and bade them withdraw by land; for the 
 Syracusans, immediately after their victory, had 
 blocked up and shut o£E the mouth of the harbor. 
 But Nicias could not consent to this. He said it 
 would be a terrible thing to abandon so many trans- 
 ports, and triremes almost two hundred in number. 
 
 4 So he embarked the best of his infantry and the most 
 efficient of his darters to man a hundred and ten 
 triremes; the rest lacked oars. Then he stationed 
 the remainder of his army along the shore of the 
 harbor, abandoning his main camp and the walls 
 which connected it with the Heracleum. And so it 
 was that the Syracusans, who had so long been un- 
 able to offer their customary sacrifice to Heracles, 
 offered it then, priests and generals going up to the 
 temple for this purpose while their triremes were 
 a-manning. 
 
 XXV. Presently their diviners announced to the 
 Syracusans that the sacrifices indicated a splendid 
 victory for them if only they did not begin the fight- 
 ing, but acted on the defensive. Heracles also, they 
 said, always won the day because he acted on the 
 defensive and suffered himself to be attacked first. 
 Thus encouraged, they put out from shore. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE ATHENIAN FLEET 99 
 
 This proved the greatest and hottest sea fight they 
 had yet made, and roused as many tumultuous 
 emotions in those who were mere spectators as in 
 those who did the fighting, because the entire action 
 was in plain sight, and took on shifts and turns which 
 were varied, unexpected, and sudden. Their own 
 equipment wrought the Athenians no less harm than 
 it did their enemy ; for they fought against light and 
 nimble ships, which bore down upon them from dif- 
 ferent directions at once, while their own were heavy 
 and clumsy and crowded together at that. Besides, 
 they were bombarded with stones, whose blow is just 
 as effective however they Ught ; whereas they could 
 only reply with javelins and arrows, whose proper cast 
 was disturbed by the tossing water, so that they did not 
 all fly head on to their mark. This method of fighting 
 was taught the Syracusans by Ariston the Corinthian 
 captain, who fought zealously while the battle lasted, 
 only to fall just as the Syracusans were victorious. 
 
 The Athenians suffered such great rout and losss 
 that they were cut off from flight by sea. Even by 
 land they saw that their salvation was a difficult 
 matter, so that they neither tried to hinder the enemy 
 from towing away their ships under their very eyes, 
 nor did they ask the privilege of taking up their dead. 
 These, forsooth, could go unburied; the survivors 
 were confronted with a more pitiful sight in the 
 abandonment of their sick and wounded, and thought 
 themselves more wretched still than their dead, since 
 they were sure to come with more sorrows than they 
 to the same end after all. 
 
 2 
 
 
100 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 XXVI. They purposed to set out during the night, 
 and Gylippus, who saw that the Syracusans were 
 given over to sacrificial revels because of their victory 
 and their festival of Heracles, despaired of persuading 
 or compelling them to rise up from their pleasures at 
 once and attack their enemy as he departed. But 
 Hermocrates, all on his own account, concocted a 
 trick to put upon Nicias, and sent certain companions 
 to him with assurances that they were come from 
 those men who before this had often held secret con- 
 ferences with him. They advised Nicias not to set 
 out during the night, inasmuch as the Syracusans had 
 laid snares for him and preoccupied the ways of 
 
 2 escape. Nicias was completely out-generaled by this 
 trick, and so ended by suffering in very truth at the 
 hands of his enemies what their lies had made him 
 fear. For the Syracusans set forth at break of day, 
 occupied the diflScult points in the roads, fortified the 
 river fords, cut away the bridges, and posted their 
 cavalry in the smooth open spaces, so that no spot 
 was left where the Athenians could go forward with- 
 out fighting. 
 
 3 They waited therefore all that day and the follow- 
 ing night, and then set out, for all the world as 
 though they were quitting their native city and not 
 an enemy's country, with wailings and lamentations 
 at their lack of the necessaries of life and their en- 
 forced abandonment of helpless friends and comrades. 
 And yet they regarded these present sorrows as 
 lighter than those which they must expect to come. 
 
 4 Many were the fearful scenes in the camp, but the 
 
 STRUGGLES WITH DISEASE AND DISASTER 101 
 
 most pitiful sight of all was Nicias hunself, undone 
 by his sickness, and reduced, as he little deserved, to 
 a scanty diet, and to the smaUest supply of those 
 personal comforts whereof he stood so much in need 
 because of his disease. And yet, for all his weakness, 
 he persisted in doing what many of the strong could 
 barely endure, and aU saw plainly that it was not for 
 his own sake or for any mere love of life that he was 
 faithful to his tasks, but that for their sakes he would 
 not give up hope. The rest, for very fear and dis-« 
 tress, had recourse to lamentations and tears • but 
 whenever he was driven to this pass, it was plainly 
 because he wa^ contrasting the shameful dishonor to 
 which his expedition had now come with the great 
 and glorious successes which he had hoped to 
 achieve. 
 
 Besides, it was not merely the sight of him now a 
 but also the memory of the arguments and exhorta-' 
 tions with which he had once tried to prevent the sail- 
 ing of the expedition, that led men to think him aU 
 the more unworthy to suffer such hardships now ; and 
 they had no courage to hope for aid from the gods 
 when they reflected that a man so devout as he, and 
 one who had performed so many great and splendid 
 religious services, now met with no seemlier fortune 
 than the basest and most obscure man in his army. 
 
 XXVII. However, it waa this veiy Nicias who 
 tned, both by words and looks and kindly manner, to 
 show himself superior to his dreadful lot. And during 
 all the march which he conducted for eight successive 
 days, though sorely harassed by the enemy, he yet 
 
 !•' 
 
102 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 SURRENDER 
 
 succeeded in keeping his own forces from defeat, until 
 Demosthenes and his detachment of the army were 
 captured. These fell behind as they fought their way 
 along, and were surrounded on the estate of Polyzelus. 
 
 2 Demosthenes himself drew his sword and gave himself 
 a thrust ; he did not, however, succeed in killing him- 
 self, since the enemy quickly closed in upon him and 
 seized him. 
 
 When the Syracusans rode up and told Nicias of 
 this disaster, he first sent horsemen to make certain 
 that the force of Demosthenes was really taken, and 
 then proposed to Gylippus a truce permitting the 
 Athenians to depart from Sicily after giving hostages 
 to the Syracusans for all the moneys which they had 
 
 3 expended on the war. But they would not entertain 
 the proposal. Nay, with insolent rage they reviled 
 and insulted him, and kept pelting him with missiles, 
 destitute as he was of all the necessaries of life. How- 
 ever, through that night and the following day he 
 managed to hold out, and finally came, under constant 
 fire, to the river Asinarus. 
 
 There some of his men were crowded along by the 
 enemy and hurled into the stream, while others, in 
 advance of pursuit, were impelled by their thirst to 
 
 4 cast themselves in, and an exceeding great and savage 
 carnage raged in the river itself, men being butchered 
 as they drank. At last Nicias fell down at the feet of 
 Gylippus and cried : " Have pity, Gylippus, now that 
 you are victorious, not on me at all, who am notorious 
 for my great good fortune, but on the rest of these 
 Athenians. Remember that the fortunes of war are 
 
 103 
 
 common to all, and that the Athenians, when they 
 were in good fortune, used it with moderation and 
 gentleness toward you." 
 
 So spake Nicias, and Gylippus felt some compunc-s 
 tion, both at the sight of him, and at what he said. 
 For he knew that the Lacedaemonians had been well 
 treated by him when the peace was made, and, besides, 
 he thought it would increase his own fame if he should 
 bring home alive the generals who had opposed him. 
 Therefore he raised Nicias up, gave him words of 
 cheer, and issued command to take the rest of his men 
 alive. But the command made its way slowly along, 
 80 that the spared were far fewer than the slain. And 
 yet many were stolen and hidden away by the 
 soldiery. 
 
 The public prisoners were collected together, thee 
 fairest and tallest trees along the river bank were hung 
 with the captured suits of armor, and then the victors 
 crowned themselves with wreaths, adorned their own 
 horses splendidly while they sheared and cropped the 
 horses of their conquered foes, and so marched into 
 the city. They had brought to successful end a 
 struggle which was the most brilliant ever made by 
 Hellenes against Hellenes, and had won the com- 
 pletest of victories by the most overwhelming and 
 impetuous display of valor. 
 
 XXVIII. At a general assembly of the Syracusans 
 and their allies Eurycles, the popular leader, brought 
 in a written motion, first, that the day on which they 
 had taken Nicias be made a holy day, with sacrifices 
 and abstention from labor, and that the festival be 
 
104 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 called " Asinaria ", from the river Asinarus (the day 
 was the twenty-sixth of the month Cameius, which 
 the Athenians call Metageitnion) ; and second, that 
 the serving men of the Athenians and their inmiediate 
 allies be sold into slavery, while the freemen and the 
 Sicilian Hellenes who had joined them be cast into 
 the stone quarries for watch and ward, — all except 
 the generals, who should be put to death. 
 
 « These propositions were adopted by the S3n:'acusans. 
 When Hermocrates protested that there was something 
 better than victory, to wit, a noble use of victory, he 
 was met with a tumult of disapproval; and when 
 Grylippus demanded the Athenian generals as his prize, 
 that he might take them alive to the Lacedaemonians, 
 the Syracusans, now grown insolent with their good 
 
 • fortune, abused him roundly. They were the more 
 ready to do this because, all through the war, they 
 had found it hard to put up with his harshness and 
 the Laconian style with which he exercised his auth- 
 ority. Timaeus says, moreover, that they denounced 
 his exceeding penuriousness and avarice, — an ances- 
 tral infirmity, it would seem, since his father, Clean- 
 dridas, was convicted of taking bribes and had to flee 
 his country. And Gylippus himself, for abstracting 
 thirty talents from the thousand which Lysander had 
 sent to Sparta, and hiding them in the roof of his 
 house, — as an informer was prompt to show, — was 
 banished in the deepest disgrace. But this has been 
 told with more detail in my life of Lysander. 
 
 4 Timaeus denies that Demosthenes and Nicias were 
 put to death by the orders of the Syracusans, as Phi- 
 
 FATE OF THE ATHENIANS 
 
 105 
 
 listus and Thucydides state ; but rather, Hermocrates 
 sent word to them of the decision of the Assembly 
 while it was yet in session, and with the connivance 
 of one of their guards they took their own lives. Their 
 bodies, however, he says, were cast out at the prison 
 door, and lay there in plain sight of all who craved 
 the spectacle. And I learn that down to this days 
 there is shown among the treasures of a temple in 
 Syracuse a shield which is said to have been the shield 
 of Nicias. It is a welded mosaic of gold and purple 
 interwoven with rare skill. 
 
 XXIX. Most of the Athenians perished in the 
 stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily ra- 
 tions being a pint of barley meal and a half -pint of 
 water ; but not a few were stolen away and sold 
 into slavery, or succeeded in passing themselves 
 off for serving men. These, when they were 
 sold, were branded in the forehead with the mark 
 of a horse, — yes, there were some freemen who 
 actually suffered this indignity in addition to their 
 servitude. 
 
 But even these were helped by their restramed and a 
 decorous bearing ; some were speedily set free, and 
 some remained with their masters in positions of honor. 
 Some also were saved for the sake of Euripides. For 
 the Sicilians, it would seem, more than any other 
 Hellenes outside the home land, had a yearning fond- 
 ness for his poetry. They were forever learning by 
 heart the little specimens and morsels of it which vis- 
 itors brought them from time to time, and imparting 
 them to one another with fond delight. In the present s 
 
 •^V ■« «» '^.^ttt-itf.. .k«vLt *.'•«*«' I 
 
 ^ ill ■ * ■ a I ti .^ V 
 
 ;i». jl.-'. '\ C.-i' 
 
106 
 
 NICIAS 
 
 case, at any rate, they say that many Athenians who 
 reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affec- 
 tionate hearts, and recounted to him, some that they 
 had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what 
 they remembered of his works ; and some that when 
 they were roaming about after the final battle they 
 had received food and drink for singing some of his 
 choral hymns. Surely then one need not wonder at 
 the story that the Caunians, when a vessel of theirs 
 would have put in at the harbor of Syracuse to escape 
 pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept 
 outside, until, on being asked if they knew any songs 
 of Euripides, they declared that they did indeed, and 
 were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel 
 safely in. 
 
 XXX. The Athenians, they say, put no faith in 
 the first tidings of the calamity, most of all because 
 of the messenger who brought them. A certain 
 stranger, as it would seem, landed at the Piraeus, took 
 a seat in a barber's shop, and began to discourse of 
 what had happened as if the Athenians already knew 
 all about it. The barber, on hearing this, before 
 others learned of it, ran at the top of his speed to the 
 upper city, accosted the Archons, and spread the story 
 a right in the market place. Consternation and confu- 
 sion reigned, naturally, and the Archons convened an 
 assembly and brought the man before it. But, on be- 
 ing asked from whom he had learned the matter, he 
 was unable to give any clear answer, and so it was de- 
 cided that he was a story-maker, and was trying to 
 throw the city into an uproar. He was therefore 
 
 THE MESSENGERS OF CALAMITY 
 
 107 
 
 fastened to the wheel and racked a long time, until 
 messengers came with the actual facts of the whole 
 disaster. So hard was it for the Athenians to believe 
 that Nicias had suffered the fate which he had often 
 foretold to them. 
 
 ... /, «.,.. .^^ 
 
ALCIBIADES 
 
 
 ^v.:»-^.ntfV«ii^iM- 
 
V 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 L The family of Alcibiades, it is thought, may be 
 traced back to Eurysaces, the son of Aias, as its foun- 
 der; and on his mother's side he was an Alcmaeonid, 
 bemg the son of Deinomache, the daughter of Megacles. 
 His father, Cleinias, fitted out a trireme at his own 
 cost and fought it gloriously at Artemisium. He was 
 afterwards slain at Coroneia, fighting the Boeotians, 
 and Alcibiades was therefore reared as the ward of 
 Pericles and Ariphron, the sons of Xanthippus, his 
 near kinsmen. 
 
 It is said, and with good reason, that the favor and a 
 affection which Socrates showed him contributed not 
 a little to his reputation. Certam it is that Nicias, 
 Demosthenes, Lamachus, Phormio, Thrasybulus, and 
 Theramenes were prominent men, and his contempora- 
 ries, and yet we cannot so much as name the mother 
 of any one of them ; whereas, in the case of Alcibiades, 
 we even know that his nurse, who was a Spartan 
 woman, was called Amycla, and his tutor Zopyrus. 
 The one fact is mentioned by Antisthenes, the other 
 by Plato. 
 
 As regards the beauty of Alcibiades, it is perhaps 3 
 unnecessary to say aught, except that it flowered 
 out with each successive season of his bodily growth. 
 
112 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 and made him, alike in boyhood, youth, and man- 
 hood, lovely and pleasant. The saying of Euripi- 
 des, that " beauty's autumn, too, is beautiful ", is 
 not always true. But it was certainly the case with 
 Alcibiades, as with few besides, because of his excel- 
 4 lent natural parts. Even the lisp that he had became 
 his speech, they say, and made his talking persuasive 
 and full of charm. Aristophanes notices this lisp of his 
 in the verses wherein he ridicules Theorus : — 
 
 (Sosias) *' Then Alcibiades said to me with a lisp, said he, 
 
 * Cwemabk Theocwus ? What a cwaven's head he has I * " 
 (Xanthias) ** That lisp of Alcibiades hit the mark for once I ** 
 
 And Archippus, ridiculing the son of Alcibiades, says : 
 « He walks with utter wantonness, trailing his long 
 robe behind him, that he may be thought the very 
 picture of his father, yes, 
 
 *' He slants his neck awry, and overworks the lisp.** 
 
 n. His character, in later life, displayed many in- 
 consistencies and marked changes, as was natural in 
 view of his vast undertakings and varied fortunes. 
 He was naturally a man of many strong passions, the 
 strongest of which were the love of rivalry and the 
 love of preeminence. This is clear from the stories 
 recorded of his boyhood. 
 « He was once hard pressed in wrestling, and to save 
 himself from getting a fall, set his teeth in his oppo- 
 nent's arms, where they clutched him, and was like 
 to have bitten through them. His adversary, letting 
 go his hold, cried : ** You bite, Alcibiades, as women 
 do ! " " Not I," said Alcibiades, " but as Uons do." 
 
 r.i 
 
 STORIES OF mS BOYHOOD 
 
 113 
 
 While still a small boy, he was playing knuckle- 3 
 bones in the narrow street, and just as it was his turn 
 to throw, a heavy-laden waggon came along. In the 
 first place, he bade the driver halt, since his cast lay 
 right in the path of the waggon. The driver was a 
 boorish fellow, and paid no heed to him, but drove his 
 team along. Whereupon, while the other boys scat- 
 tered out of the way, Alcibiades threw himself flat 
 on his face in front of the team, stretched himself out 
 at full length, and bade the driver go on if he pleased. 
 The fellow pulled up his beasts sharply, in terror ; the 
 spectators, too, were affrighted, and ran with shouts 
 to help the boy. 
 
 At school, he usually paid due heed to his teachers, 4 
 but he refused to play the flute, holding it an ignoble 
 and illiberal thing. The use of the plectrum and the 
 lyre, he argued, wrought no havoc with the bearing 
 and appearance which were becoming to a gentleman ; 
 but let a man go to blowing on a flute, and even his 
 own kinsmen could scarcely recognize his features. 
 Moreover, the lyre blended its tones with the voice or 6 
 song of its master ; whereas the flute closed and barri- 
 caded the mouth, robbing its master both of song and 
 speech. "Flutes, then," said he, "for the sons of 
 Thebes; they know not how to converse. But we 
 Athenians, as our fathers say, have Athena for 
 foundress and Apollo for patron, one of whom cast 
 the flute away in disgust, and the other flayed the 
 presumptuous flute-player." Thus, half in jest ande 
 half in earnest, Alcibiades emancipated himself from 
 this discipline, and the rest of the boys as well. For 
 
 1I 
 
 
114 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 HIS LOVE OF SOCRATES 
 
 115 
 
 word soon made its way to them that Alcibiades loathed 
 the art of flute-playing and scoffed at its disciples, and 
 rightly, too. Wherefore the flute was dropped en- 
 tirely from the program of a liberal education, and 
 was altogether despised. 
 
 in. Among the calumnies which Antiphon heaps 
 upon him, it is recorded that, when he was a boy, he 
 ran away from home to Democrates, one of his lovers, 
 and that Ariphron was all for having him proclaimed 
 by town crier as a castaway. But Pericles would not 
 suffer it. '^ If he is dead," said he, " we shall know it 
 only a day the sooner for the public proclamation; 
 whereas, if he is alive, he will, in consequence of such 
 a proclamation, be as good as dead for the rest of his 
 life." Antiphon says also that with a blow of his 
 stick he slew one of his attendants in the palaestra of 
 Sibyrtius. But these things are perhaps unworthy of 
 belief, coming as they do from one who admits that he 
 hated Alcibiades, and abused him accordingly. 
 
 IV. It was not long before many men of high birth 
 clustered about him and paid him their attentions ; 
 they were plainly smitten with the brilliant youth, 
 and fondly courted him. But it was the love which 
 Socrates had for him that bore strong testimony to 
 the boy's native excellence and good parts. These 
 Socrates saw radiantly manifest in his outward person, 
 and, fearful of the influence upon him of wealth and 
 rank and the throng of citizens, foreigners, and allies 
 who sought to preempt his affections by flattery and 
 favor, he was fain to protect him, and not suffer such a 
 fair flowering plant to cast its native fruit to perdition. 
 
 There is no man whom Fortune so envelops and 2 
 compasses about with the so-called good things of life, 
 that he cannot be reached by the bold and caustic 
 reasonings of philosophy, and pierced to the heart. 
 And so it was that Alcibiades, although at the start 
 he put on airs, and was prevented by the companions 
 who sought only to please him from giving ear to 
 one who would instruct and train him, nevertheless, 
 through the goodness of his parts, at last saw all that 
 was in Socrates, and clave to him, putting away his 
 rich and famous lovers. And speedily, from having 3 
 such an associate, and giving ear to the words of a 
 lover who was in the chase for no immanly pleasures, 
 and begged no kisses and embraces, but sought to 
 expose the weakness of his soul and rebuke his vain 
 and foolish pride, 
 
 ** He crouched, though warrior bird, like slave, with drooping wings." 
 
 And he came to think that the work of Socrates 
 was really a kind provision of the gods for the care 
 and salvation of youth. Thus, from despising him- 4 
 self, admiring his friend, loving that friend's kindly 
 solicitude, and revering his excellence, he insensibly 
 acquired an "image of love", as Plato says, "to 
 match love," and all were amazed to see him eating, 
 exercising, and tenting with Socrates, while he was 
 harsh and stubborn with the rest of his lovers. 
 
 Some of these he actually treated with the greatest 
 insolence, as, for example, Anytus, the son of An- 
 themion. This man was a lover of his, who, enter-s 
 taining some friends, asked Alcibiades also to the 
 dinner. Alcibiades declined the invitation, but after 
 
 1} 
 
116 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 mS LOVE OF PLEASURE 
 
 117 
 
 having drunk deep at home with some friends^ went 
 in revel rout to the house of Anytus, took his stand 
 at the door of the men's chamber, and, observing the 
 tables full of gold and silver beakers, ordered his 
 slaves to take half of them and carry them home for 
 
 ehim. He did not deign to go in, but played this 
 prank and was off. The guests were naturally indig- 
 nant, and declared that Alcibiades had treated Anytus 
 with gross and overweening insolence. " Not so," said 
 Anytus, " but with seemly consideration ; he might 
 have taken all there were : he has left us half." 
 
 V. He treated the rest of his lovers also after this 
 fashion. There was one man, however, a resident 
 alien, as they say, and not possessed of much at that, 
 who sold all that he had, and brought the hundred 
 staters which he got for it to Alcibiades, begging him 
 to accept them. Alcibiades burst out laughing with 
 delight at this, and invited the man to dinner. After 
 feasting him and showing him every kindness, he 
 gave him back his gold, and charged him on the mor- 
 row to compete with the farmers of the public reve- 
 
 2 nues and outbid them all. The man protested, because 
 the purchase demanded a capital of many talents ; 
 but Alcibiades threatened to have him scourged if 
 he did not do it, because he cherished some private 
 grudge against the ordinary publicans. In the morn- 
 ing, accordingly, the alien went into the market 
 place and increased the usual bid for the public lands 
 by a talent. The publicans clustered angrily about 
 him and bade him name his surety, supposing that 
 he could find none. The man was confounded and 
 
 began to draw back, when Alcibiades, standing afar 
 off, cried to the magistrates, " Put my name down ; 
 he is a friend of mine ; I will be his surety." When 3 
 the publicans heard this, they were at their wit's end, 
 for they were in the habit of paying what they owed 
 on a first purchase with the profits of a second, and 
 saw no way out of their difficulty. Accordingly they 
 besought the man to withdraw his bid, and offered 
 him money so to do ; but Alcibiades would not suffer 
 him to take less than a talent. On their offering the 
 man the talent, he bade him take it and withdraw. 
 To this lover he was of service in this way. 
 
 VI. The love of Socrates, though it had many 
 powerful rivals, somehow mastered Alcibiades. He 
 was of good natural parts, and the words of his 
 teacher took hold of him and wrung his heart and 
 brought tears to his eyes. But sometimes he would 
 surrender himself to the flatterers who tempted him 
 with many pleasures, and slip away from Socrates, 
 and suffer himself to be actually hunted down by 
 him like a runaway slave. And yet he feared and 
 reverenced Socrates alone, and despised the rest of 
 his lovers. 
 
 It was Cleanthes who said that any one beloved of 2 
 him must be " downed ", as wrestlers say, by the ears 
 alone, though offering to rival lovers many other 
 " holds " which he himself would scorn to take, — 
 meaning the various lusts of the body. And Alcibi- 
 ades was certainly prone to be led away into pleasure. 
 That " lawless self-indulgence " of his, of which Thu- 
 cydides speaks, leads one to suspect this. However, 3 
 
 If, 
 
 !i^ 
 
118 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 it was rather his love of distinction and love of fame 
 to which his corrupters appealed, and they plunged 
 him all too soon into ways of presumptuous schem- 
 ing, persuading him that he had only to enter public 
 life, and he would straightway cast into total eclipse 
 the ordinary generals and public leaders, and not only 
 that, he would even surpass Pericles in power and 
 reputation among the Hellenes, 
 i Accordingly, just as iron, which has been softened 
 in the fire, is hardened again by cold water, and has 
 its particles compacted together, so Alcibiades, when- 
 ever Socrates found him filled with vanity and 
 wantonness, was reduced to shape by the Master's 
 discourse, and rendered humble and cautious. He 
 learned how great were his deficiencies and how in- 
 complete his excellence. 
 
 VII. Once, as he was getting on past boyhood, he 
 accosted a school-teacher, and asked him for a book of 
 Homer. The teacher replied that he had nothing of 
 Homer's, whereupon Alcibiades fetched him a blow 
 with his fist, and went his way. Another teacher 
 said he had a Homer which he had corrected himself. 
 ^< What ! " said Alcibiades, ** are you teaching boys to 
 read when you are competent to edit Homer ? You 
 should be training young men." 
 1 He once wished to see Pericles, and went to his 
 house. But he was told that Pericles could not see 
 him ; he was studying how to put in his accounts to 
 the Athenians. " Were it not better for him ", said 
 Alcibiades, as he went away, " to study how not to 
 put in his accounts to the Athenians ? " 
 
 AT POTIDAEA AND DELIUM 
 
 119 
 
 While still a stripling, he served as a soldier in the 3 
 campaign of Potidaea, and had Socrates for his tenir 
 mate and comrade in action. A fierce battle took 
 place, wherein both of them distinguished themselves; 
 but when Alcibiades fell wounded, it was Socrates 
 who stood over him and defended him, and with the 
 most conspicuous bravery saved him, armor and all. 
 The prize of valor fell to Socrates, of course, on the 
 justest calculation; but the generals, owing to the 
 high position of Alcibiades, were manifestly anxious 
 to give hhn the glory of it. Socrates, therefore, wish- 
 ing to increase his pupil's honorable ambitions, led 
 all the rest in bearing witness to his bravery, and in 
 begging that the crown and the suit of armor be 
 given to him. 
 
 On another occasion, in the rout of the Athenians 4 
 which followed the battle of Delium, Alcibiades, on 
 horseback, saw Socrates retreating on foot with a 
 small company, and would not pass him by, but rode 
 by his side and defended him, though the enemy were 
 pressing them hard and slaying many. This, how- 
 ever, was a later incident. 
 
 Vni. He once gave Hipponicus a blow with his 
 fist, — Hipponicus, the son of Callias, a man of great 
 reputation and influence owing to his wealth and f am- 
 ily, — not that he had any quarrel with him, or was 
 a prey to anger, but simply for the joke of the thing, 
 as he had agreed with some companions. The wanton 
 deed was soon noised about the city, and everybody 
 was indignant, as was natural. Early the next 
 morning Alcibiades went to the house of Hipponicus, 
 
120 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 knocked at his door, and on being shown into his 
 presence, laid off the cloak he wore and bade Hip- 
 
 2 ponicus scourge and chastise him as he would. But 
 Hipponicus put away wrath and forgave him, and 
 afterwards gave him his daughter Hipparete to wife. 
 Some say, however, that it was not Hipponicus, but 
 Callias, his son, who gave Hipparete to Alcibiades, 
 with a dowry of ten talents; and that afterwards, 
 when she became a mother, Alcibiades exacted other 
 ten talents besides, on the plea that this was the 
 agreement, should children be bom. And Callias was 
 so afraid of the scheming of Alcibiades to get his 
 wealth, that he made public proffer to the people of 
 his property and house in case it should befall him to 
 die without lineal heirs. 
 
 9 Hipparete was a decorous and affectionate wife, 
 but being distressed because her husband would con- 
 sort with courtezans, native and foreign, she left his 
 house and went to live with her brother. Alcibiades 
 did not mind this, but continued his wanton ways, 
 and so she had to put in her plea for divorce to the 
 magistrate, and that not by proxy, but in her own 
 
 4 person. On her appearing publicly to do this, as the 
 law required, Alcibiades came up and seized her 
 and carried her off home with him through the 
 market place, no man daring to oppose him or take 
 her from him. She lived with him, moreover, until 
 her death, and she died shortly after this, when 
 Alcibiades was on a voyage to Ephesus. 
 
 5 Such violence as this was not thought lawless or 
 cruel at all. Indeed, the law prescribes that the 
 
 FIRST PUBLIC ACT 
 
 121 
 
 wife who would separate from her husband shall go 
 to court in person, to this very end, it would seem, 
 that the husband may have a chance to meet and 
 gain possession of her. 
 
 IX. Possessing a dog of wonderful size and shape, 
 which had cost him seventy minas, he had its tail 
 cut off, and a beautiful tail it was, too. His com- 
 rades chided him for this, and declared that every- 
 body was furious about the dog, and abusive of its 
 owner. Alcibiades burst out laughing and said, 
 " That 's just what I want ; I want Athens to talk 
 about this, that it may say nothing worse about me." 
 
 X. His first entrance into public life, they say, 
 was connected with a contribution of money to the 
 state, and was not of design. He was passing by 
 when the Athenians were applauding in their Assem- 
 bly, and asked the reason for the applause. On 
 being told that a contribution of money to the state 
 was going on, he went forward to the bema and 
 made a contribution himself. The crowd clapped 
 their hands and shouted for joy, — so much so that 
 Alcibiades forgot all about the quail which he was 
 carrying in his cloak, and the bird flew away in 
 a fright. Thereupon the Athenians shouted all the 
 more, and many of them sprang to help him hunt 
 the bird. The one who caught it and gave it back 
 to him was Antiochus, the sea captain, who became 
 in consequence a great favorite with Alcibiades. 
 
 Though great doors to public service were opened to 2 
 him by his birth, his wealth, and his personal bravery 
 in battle ; and though he had many devoted friends, he 
 
122 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 AT OLYMPIA 
 
 123 
 
 thought that nothing should give him more influence 
 with the people than the charm of his discourse. 
 And that he was a powerful speaker, not only do 
 the comic poets testify, but also the most powerful 
 of orators himself, who says, in his speech " Against 
 Meidias ", that Alcibiades was a most able speaker in 
 
 8 addition to his other gifts. And if we are to trust 
 Theophrastus, the most versatile and learned of all 
 the philosophers, Alcibiades was of all men the most 
 capable of discovering and understanding what was 
 required in a given case. But since he strove to 
 find not only the proper thing to say, but also the 
 proper words and phrases in which to say it; and 
 since in this last regard he was not a man of large 
 resources, he would often stumble in the midst of his 
 speech, come to a stop, and pause a while, a particular 
 phrase eluding him. Then he would resume, and 
 proceed with all the caution in the world. 
 
 XI. His breeds of horses were famous the world 
 over, and so was the number of his racing-chariots. 
 No one else ever entered seven of these at the Olympic 
 games, — no commoner nor king, but he alone. And 
 his coming off first, second, and fourth victor (as 
 Thucydides says; third, according to Euripides), 
 transcends in the splendor of its renown all that am- 
 
 2 bition can aspire to in this field. The ode of Euripides 
 to which I refer runs thus : — 
 
 " Thee will I sing, child of Cleinias ; 
 A fair thing is victoiy, but fairest is what no other Hellene has achieved, 
 To Tun first, and second, and third in the contest of racing-chariots, 
 And to come off unwearied, and, wreathed with the olive of Zeus, 
 To furnish theme for herald*s proclamation. ** 
 
 Xn. Moreover, this splendor of his at Olympia 
 was made even more conspicuous by the emulous 
 rivaky of the cities of the empire in his behalf. 
 The Ephesians equipped him with a tent of magnifi- 
 cent adornment; -the Chians furnished him with 
 provender for his horses and with innumerable 
 animals for sacrifice; the Lesbians with wine and 
 other provisions for his unstinted entertainment of 
 the multitude. However, a grave calumny — unless 
 there was actual malpractice on his part in connec- 
 tion with this rivalry — was even more in the mouths 
 of men. 
 
 It is said, namely, that there was at Athens one 2 
 Diomedes, a reputable man, a friend of Alcibiades, 
 and eagerly desirous of winning a victory at Olympia 
 with his horses. He learned that there was a racing- 
 chariot at Argos which was the property of that city, 
 and knowing that Alcibiades had many friends and 
 was very influential there, got him to buy the chariot. 
 Alcibiades bought it for his friend, and then entered 3 
 it in the racing lists as his own, bidding Diomedes go 
 hang, who was full of indignation, and called on gods 
 and men to witness his wrongs. It appears also that 
 a law-suit arose over this matter, and a speech was 
 written by Isocrates for the son of Alcibiades " Con- 
 cerning the Team of Horses '\ In this speech, how- 
 ever, it is Tisias, not Diomedes, who is the plaintiff. 
 
 Xni. On entering public life, though still a mere 
 stripling, he immediately humbled all the other pop- 
 ular leaders except Phaeax, the son of Erasistratus, and 
 Nicias, the son of Niceratus. These men made him 
 
 
 « 
 
124 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 \t 
 
 fight hard for what he won. Nicias was already of 
 mature years, and had the reputation of being a most 
 excellent general; but Phaeax, like himself, was 
 just beginning his career, and, though of illustrious 
 parentage, was inferior to him in other ways, and par- 
 
 2 ticularly as a public speaker. He seemed afEable and 
 winning in private conversation rather than capable 
 of conducting public debates. In short, he was, as 
 Eupolis says, 
 
 *' A prince of talkers, bat in speaking most incapable.'* 
 
 There is extant a certain speech written by Phaeax 
 " Against Alcibiades ", wherein, among other things, 
 it is written that the city's mmierous ceremonial 
 utensils of gold and silver were all used by Alcibiades 
 at his regular table as though they were his own. 
 
 3 Now there was a certain Hyperbolus, of the deme 
 Perithoedae, whom Thucydides mentions as a base 
 fellow, and who afforded all the comic poets, without 
 any exception, constant material for jokes. But he 
 was unmoved by abuse, and insensible to it, owing to 
 his contempt for public opinion. This feeling some 
 may call courage and valor, but it is really mere 
 shamelessness and folly. No one liked him, but the 
 people often made use of him when they were eager 
 to besmirch and calumniate men of rank and station. 
 
 4 Accordingly, at the time of which I speak, persuaded 
 by this man, they were about to exercise the vote of 
 ostracism, by which they cripple and banish what- 
 ever man from time to time may have too much rep- 
 utation and influence in the city to please them, 
 assuaging thus their envy rather than their fear. 
 
 OSTRACISM OF HYPERBOLUS 
 
 125 
 
 When it was clear that the ostracism would fall on 
 one of three men, — Phaeax, Alcibiades, or Nicias, — 
 Alcibiades had a conference with Nicias, united 
 their two parties into one, and turned the vote of 
 ostracism upon Hyperbolus. 
 
 Some say, however, that it was not Nicias, but 
 Phaeax, with whom Alcibiades had the conference 
 which resulted in winning over that leader's party 
 and banishing Hyperbolus. The latter could not 
 have had so much as an inkling of his fate. For no 5 
 worthless or disreputable fellow had ever before fal- 
 len under this condemnation of ostracism. As Plato, 
 the comic poet, has somewhere said, in speaking of 
 Hyperbolus, 
 
 " And yet he suffered worthy fate for men of old ; 
 A fate unworthy though of him and of his brands. 
 For such as he the ostrakon was ne'er devised.'' 
 
 However, the facts which have been ascertained about 
 this case, have been stated more at length elsewhere. 
 
 XIV. Alcibiades was sore distressed to see Nicias 
 no less admired by his enemies than honored by his 
 fellow citizens. For although Alcibiades was Consul 
 Resident for the Lacedaemonians at Athens, and had 
 ministered to their men who had been taken prisoners 
 at Pylos, still, they felt that it was chiefly due to 2 
 Nicias that they had obtained peace and the final sur- 
 render of. those men, and so they lavished their regard 
 upon him. And Hellenes everywhere said that it 
 was Pericles who had plunged them into war, but 
 Nicias who had delivered them out of it, and most 
 men called the peace the " Peace of Nicias ". 
 
 Ml 
 
 I 
 
 ) i 
 
 ■ ii 
 
126 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 / 
 
 Alcibiades was therefore distressed beyond meas- 
 ure, and in his envy resolved upon a violation of the 
 
 3 solemn treaty. To begin with, he saw that the Ar- 
 gives hated and feared the Spartans, and sought to 
 be rid of them. So he secretly held out hopes to 
 them of an alliance with Athens, and encouraged 
 them, by conferences with the chief men of their pop- 
 ular party, not to fear nor yield to the Lacedaemo- 
 nians, but to look to Athens and await her action, 
 since she was now all but repentant, and desirous of 
 abandoning the peace which she had made with 
 Sparta. 
 
 4 And again, when the Lacedaemonians made a sep- 
 arate alliance with the Boeotians, and delivered Pan- 
 actum up to the Athenians not intact, as they were 
 bound to do by the treaty, but dismantled, he took 
 advantage of the Athenians' wrath at this to embitter 
 them yet more. He raised a tumult in the Assembly 
 against Nicias, and slandered him with accusations 
 
 5 all too plausible. Nicias himself, he said, in his ca- 
 pacity as general, had refused to capture the enemy's 
 men who were cut off on the island of Sphacteria, 
 and when others had captured them, he had released 
 and given them back to the Lacedaemonians, whose 
 favor he sought ; and then he did not persuade those 
 same Lacedaemonians, tried friend of theirs as he 
 was, not to make separate alliance with the Boeotians 
 or even the Corinthians, and yet whenever any Hel- 
 lenes wished to be friends and allies of Athens, he 
 prevented it, unless it were the good pleasure of the 
 Lacedaemonians. 
 
 TRICKS A SPARTAN EMBASSY 
 
 127 
 
 Nicias was reduced to great straits by all this, but e 
 just then, by rare good fortune as it were, an embassy 
 came from Sparta, with reasonable proposals to be- 
 gin on, and with assurances that they came with full 
 powers to adopt any additional terms that were con- 
 ciliatory and just. The Council received them favor- 
 ably, and the people were to hold an Assembly on the 
 following day for their reception. But Alcibiades 
 feared a peaceful outcome, and managed to secure a 
 private conference with the embassy. When they were 7 
 convened he said to them : " What is the matter with 
 you, men of Sparta ? Why are you blind to the fact that 
 the Council is always moderate and courteous towards 
 those who have dealings with it, while the people's 
 Assembly is haughty, and has great ambitions ? If 
 you should say to them that you were come with 
 unlimited powers, they would lay their commands 
 and compulsions upon you without any feeling. Come 
 now, put away such simplicity as this, and if you 
 wish to get moderate terms from the Athenians, and 
 to suffer no compulsion at their hands which you can- 
 not yourselves approve, then discuss with them what 
 would be a just settlement of your case, assuring 
 them that you have not full powers to act. I will 
 cooperate with you, out of my regard for the Lace- 
 daemonians." After this speech he gave them hiss 
 oath, and so seduced them wholly away from the in- 
 fluence of Nicias. They trusted him implicitly, ad- 
 mired his cleverness and sagacity, and thought him 
 an extraordinary man. 
 
 On the following day the people convened in As- 
 
 .11 
 
 II 
 
 fi 
 
 A 
 
128 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 ACTIVITIES IN PELOPONNESUS 
 
 129 
 
 semblj; and the emba438y was introduced to them. 
 On bemg asked by Alcibiades, in the most courteous 
 tone, with what powers they had come, they replied 
 that they were not come with full and independ- 
 
 9 ent powers. At once, then, Alcibiades assailed them 
 with angry shouts, as though he were the injured 
 party, not they, calling them faithless and fickle 
 men, who were come on no sound errand what- 
 ever. The Council was indignant, the Assembly was 
 enraged, and Nicias was filled with consternation 
 and shame at the men's change of front. He was 
 unaware of the deceitful trick which had been 
 played upon him. 
 
 XV. After this fiasco on the part of the Lace- 
 daemonians, Alcibiades was appointed general, and 
 straightway brought the Argives, Mantineans, and 
 Eleans into alliance with Athens. The manner of 
 this achievement of his no one approved, but the effect 
 of it was great. It divided and agitated almost all 
 Peloponnesus; it arrayed against the Lacedaemoni- 
 ans at Mantinea "so many warlike shields upon a 
 single day"; it set at farthest remove from Athens 
 the struggle, with all its risks, in which, when the 
 Lacedaemonians conquered, their victory brought 
 them no great advantage, whereas, had they been 
 defeated, the very existence of Sparta had been at 
 stake. 
 
 s After this battle of Mantinea, the oligarchs of 
 Argos, " The Thousand ", set out at once to depose 
 the popular party and make the city subject to 
 themselves. The Lacedaemonians also came and 
 
 took part in this deposition of the democracy. But 
 the populace took up arms again and got the upper 
 hand. Then Alcibiades came and made the people's 
 victory secure. He also persuaded them to run long 
 walls down to the sea, and so to attach their city 
 completely to the naval dominion of Athens. He 3 
 actually brought carpenters and masons from Athens, 
 and displayed all manner of zeal, thus winning favor 
 and power for himself no less than for his city. 
 
 In like manner he persuaded the people of Patrae 
 to attach their city to the sea by long walls. There- 
 upon some one said to the Patrensians, "Athena 
 will swallow you whole ! " " Perhaps so," said Al- 
 cibiades, "but you will go slowly, and feet first; 
 whereas Sparta will swallow you head first, and at 
 one gulp." 
 
 However, he counseled the Athenians to assert* 
 dominion on land also, and to maintain in very deed 
 the oath regularly propounded to their yoimg war- 
 riors in the sanctuary of Agraulus. They take oath 
 that they will regard wheat, barley, the vine, and 
 the olive as the natural boundaries of Attica, and 
 they are thus trained to consider as their own all 
 the habitable and fruitful earth. 
 
 XVI. But all this statecraft and eloquence and 
 lofty purpose and cleverness was interspersed with 
 great luxuriousness of life, with wanton drunken- 
 ness and lewdness, with effeminacy in dress, — he 
 would trail long purple robes through the market 
 place, — and with prodigal expenditures. He would 
 have the decks of his triremes cut away that he might 
 
 M 
 
130 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 sleep more softly, his bedding being slung on cords 
 rather than spread on the hard planks. He had a 
 golden shield made for himself, bearing no ancestral 
 device, but an Eros armed with a thunderbolt. 
 2 The reputable men of the city looked on all these 
 things with loathing and indignation, and feared his 
 contemptuous and lawless spirit. They thought such 
 conduct as his tyrant-like and monstrous. How the 
 common folk felt towards him has been well set forth 
 by Aristophanes in these words : — 
 
 " It yearns for him, and hates him too, but wants him back ; •* 
 
 and agam, veiling a yet greater severity in his 
 metaphor : — 
 
 " A lion is not to be reared within the state ; 
 But, once you Ve reared him up, consult his every mood." 
 
 s And indeed, his voluntary contributions of money, 
 the public exhibitions which he gave, his unsurpassed 
 munificence towards the city, the glory of his ances- 
 try, the power of his eloquence, the comeliness and 
 vigor of his person, together with his experience and 
 prowess in war, made the Athenians lenient and tol- 
 erant towards everything else. They were forever 
 giving the mildest of names to his failings, calling 
 them the product of youthful spirit and ambition. 
 
 4 He once imprisoned the painter Agatharchus in 
 his house until he had adorned it with paintings for 
 him, and then dismissed his captive with a handsome 
 present. Taureas, too, who was giving a rival exhi- 
 bition to the people, he gave a box on the ear, so 
 eager was he for the victory. And he picked out a 
 
 THE PROPHECY OF TIMON 
 
 181 
 
 woman from among the prisoners of Melos to be his 
 mistress, and reared a son she bore him. This mays 
 have been an instance of what they called his kind- 
 ness of heart, but the execution of all the grown men 
 of Melos was chiefly due to him, since he supported 
 the decree therefor. 
 
 Aristophon painted Nemea seated and holding Alci- 
 biades in her arms ; whereat the people were delighted, 
 and ran in crowds to see the picture. But the elders 
 were indignant at this too. They said it smacked of 
 tyranny and lawlessness. And it would seem that 
 Archestratus, in his verdict on the painting, did not 
 go wide of the mark. He said that Hellas could not 
 endure more than one Alcibiades. 
 
 Timon the misanthrope once saw Alcibiades, after a 6 
 successful day of it, being publicly escorted home from 
 the Assembly. He did not pass him by nor avoid 
 him, as his custom was with others, but met him and 
 greeted him, saying, " It's well you're growing so, my 
 child ; you'll grow big enough to ruin all this rabble." 
 At this, some laughed, and some railed, and some 
 gave much heed to the saying. So undecided was 
 public opinion about him, by reason of the unevenness 
 of his nature. 
 
 XVH. On Sicily the Athenians had cast longing 
 eyes even while Pericles was living; and after his 
 death they actually tried to lay hands upon it. The 
 lesser expeditions which they sent thither from time 
 to time, ostensibly for the aid and comfort of their 
 allies on the island who were being wronged by the 
 Syracusans, they regarded merely as stepping stones 
 
132 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 2 to the greater expedition of conquest. But the man 
 who finally fanned this desire of theirs into flame, and 
 persuaded them not to attempt the island any more in 
 part and little by little, but to sail thither with a 
 great armament and subdue it utterly, was Alcibiades. 
 He persuaded the people to have great hopes, and he 
 himself had greater aspirations still. Such were his 
 hopes that he regarded Sicily as a mere beginning, and 
 
 3 not, like the rest, as an end of the expedition. So 
 while Nicias was trying to divert the people from the 
 capture of Syracuse as an undertaking too difficult for 
 them, Alcibiades was dreaming of Carthage and Libya, 
 and, after winning these, of encompassing Italy and 
 Peloponnesus. He almost regarded SicOy as the ways 
 and means provided for his greater war. The young 
 men were at once carried away on the wings of these 
 hopes of his, and would listen eagerly as their elders 
 recounted to them the wonders of the projected ex- 
 pedition. Many were they who sat in the palaestras 
 and lounging-places mapping out in the sand the shape 
 of Sicily and the position of Libya and Carthage. 
 
 4 Socrates the philosopher, however, and Meton the 
 astrologer, are said to have had no hopes that any 
 good would come to the city from the expedition; 
 Socrates, as it is likely, because he got an inkling of 
 the future from the divine guide who was his familiar. 
 Meton — whether his fear of the future arose from mere 
 calculation or from his use of some sort of divination — 
 feigned madness, and seizing a blazing torch, was like 
 
 6 to have set fire to his house. Some say, however, 
 that Meton made no pretense of madness, but actually 
 
 THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION 133 
 
 did bum his house down in the night, and then, in the 
 morning, came before the people begging and praying 
 that, in view of his great calamity, his son might 
 be released from the expedition. He succeeded 
 in cheating his fellow citizens, and obtained his 
 desire. 
 
 X Vin. Nicias was elected general against his will, 
 and he was anxious to avoid the command most of 
 all because of his fellow commander. For it had 
 seemed to the Athenians that the war would go on 
 better if they did not send out Alcibiades unblended, 
 as it were, and sheer, but rather tempered his rash 
 daring with the prudent forethought of Nicias. As 
 for the third general, Lamachus, though advanced in 
 years, he was thought, age notwithstanding, to be no 
 less fiery than Alcibiades, and quite as fond of taking 
 risks in battle. Even during the deliberations of the 2 
 people on the extent and character of the armament, 
 Nicias again tried to oppose their wishes and put a 
 stop to the war. But Alcibiades answered all his ar- 
 guments and carried the day, and then Demostratus, 
 the orator, formally moved that the generals have full 
 and independent powers in the matter of the armament 
 and of the whole war. 
 
 After the people had adopted this motion and all 
 things were made ready for the departure of the fleet, 
 there were some unpropitious signs and portents, es- 
 pecially that of the festival, namely, the Adonia. 
 This fell at that time, and little images like dead folks 
 carried forth to burial were everywhere exposed to 
 view by the women, who mimicked burial rites, beat 
 
 1, 1 
 
 V-. 
 
134 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 ACCUSED OF IMPIETY 
 
 135 
 
 their breasts, and sang dirges. Moreover, the mutila- 
 tion of the Hermae^ most of which, in a single night, 
 had their faces and forms disfigured, confounded the 
 hearts of many, even among those who usually set 
 small store by such things. It was said, it is true, 
 that Corinthians had done the deed, Syracuse being a 
 colony of theirs, in the hope that such portents would 
 4 stay or stop the war. The multitude, however, were 
 not moved by this reasoning, nor by that of those who 
 thought the affair no terrible sign at all, but rather 
 one of the common results of winebibbing, when dis- 
 solute youth, in mere sport, are carried away into 
 wanton acts. They looked on the occurrence with 
 wrath and fear, thinking it the sign of a bold and dan- 
 gerous conspiracy. They therefore scrutinized nar- 
 rowly every suspicious circumstance, the Council and 
 the Assembly convening for this purpose many times 
 within a few days. 
 
 XIX. During this time Androcles, the popular 
 leader, produced sundry aliens and slaves who accused 
 Alcibiades and his friends of mutilating other sacred 
 images, and of making a parody of the mysteries of 
 Eleusis in a drunken revel. They said that one Theo- 
 dorus played the part of the Herald, Pulytion that of 
 the Torch-bearer, and Alcibiades that of the High 
 Priest, and that the rest of his companions were there 
 2 in the r61e of initiates, and were dubbed Mystae. Such 
 indeed was the purportof the impeachment whichThes- 
 salus, the son of Cimon, brought in to the Assembly, 
 impeaching Alcibiades of impiety towards the Eleu- 
 sinian goddesses. The people were exasperated, and 
 
 felt bitterly towards Alcibiades, and Androcles, who 
 was his mortal enemy, egged them on. 
 
 At first Alcibiades was confounded. But perceiv- 3 
 ing that all the seamen and soldiers who were going 
 to sail for Sicily were friendly to him, and hearing 
 that the Argive and Mantinean men-at-arms, a thou- 
 sand in number, declared that it was all because of 
 Alcibiades that they were making their long expedi- 
 tion across the seas, and that if any wrong should be 
 done him they would at once abandon it, he took cour- 
 age, and insisted on an immediate opportunity to de- 
 fend himself before the people. His enemies were 
 now in their turn dejected. They feared lest the 
 people be too lenient in their judgment of him because 
 they needed him so much. 
 
 Accordingly, they devised that certain orators who* 
 were not looked upon as enemies of Alcibiades, but 
 who really hated him no less than his avowed foes, 
 should rise in the Assembly and say that it was 
 absurd, when a general had been set, with full powers, 
 over such a vast force, and when his armament and 
 allies were all assembled, to destroy his beckoning 
 opportunity by recourse to any paltry jury service or 
 court-room procedure. " Nay," they said, " let him 
 sail now, and Heaven be with him ! But when the 
 war is over, then let him come and make his defense. 
 The laws will be the same then as now." Of course the 5 
 malice in this postponement did not escape Alcibiades. 
 He declared in the Assembly that it was a terrible 
 misfortune to be sent off at the head of such a vast 
 force with his case still in suspense, leaving behind 
 
 .^M#> ^< 
 
136 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 THE INFORMERS 
 
 137 
 
 him vague accusations and slanders ; he ought to be 
 put to death if he could not refute them ; but if he 
 could refute them and prove his innocence, he ought 
 to proceed against the enemy without any fear of 
 the public informers at home. 
 
 XX. He could not carry his point, however, but 
 was ordered to set sail. So he put to sea along 
 with his fellow generals, having not much less than 
 one hundred and forty triremes; fifty-one hundred 
 men-at-arms ; about thirteen hundred archers, sling- 
 ers, and light-armed folk ; and the rest of his equip- 
 ament to correspond. On reaching Italy and taking 
 Rhegium, he proposed a plan for the conduct of the 
 war. Nicias opposed it, but Lamachus approved it, 
 and so he sailed to Sicily. He secured the allegiance 
 of Catana, but accomplished nothing further, since he 
 was presently summoned home by the Athenians to 
 stand his trial. 
 
 At first, as I have said, sundry vague suspicions 
 and calumnies against Alcibiades were advanced by 
 
 3 aliens and slaves. Afterwards, during his absence, 
 his enemies went to work more confidently. They 
 brought the wanton treatment of the Hermae and of 
 the Eleusinian mysteries under one and the same 
 design ; both were fruits of a conspiracy to subvert 
 the government, and all who were accused of any 
 complicity whatsoever therein were cast into prison 
 without trial. The people were provoked with them- 
 selves for not bringing Alcibiades to trial and judg- 
 ment on such grave charges when they had the 
 
 4 chance, and any kinsman or friend or comrade of his 
 
 who fell ioul of their wrath against him, found them 
 exceedingly severe. 
 
 Thucydides omitted mention of the informers by 
 name, but others give their names as Diocleides and 
 Teucer. For instance, Phrynichus the comic poet 
 referred to them thus : — 
 
 ^ Look out, too, dearest Hermes, not to get a fall. 
 And mar your looks, and so equip with calumny 
 Another Diocleides bent on wreaking harm.** 
 
 And the Hermes replies : — 
 
 « I*m on the watch ; there's Teucer, too ; I would not give 
 A prize for lying to an alien of his ilk." 
 
 And yet there was nothing sure or steadfast in the 6 
 statements of the mformers. One of them, indeed, 
 was asked how he recognized the faces of the Hermae- 
 defacers, and replied, "By the light of the moon." 
 This vitiated his whole story, since there was no 
 moon at all when the deed was done. Sensible men 
 were troubled thereat, but even this did not soften 
 the people's attitude towards the slanderous stories. 
 As they had set out to do in the beginning, so they 
 continued, haling and casting into prison any one who 
 was denounced. 
 
 XXI. Among those thus held in bonds and impris- 
 onment for trial, was Andocides the orator, whom 
 Hellanicus the historian included among the descend- 
 ants of Odysseus. He was held to be a foe to 
 popular government, and an oligarch, but what most 
 made him suspected of the mutilation of the Hermae^ 
 was the tall Hermes which stood near his house, a 
 dedication of the Aegeid tribe. This was almost the a 
 
 . ^ •A<t.. 
 
 .' ».•..♦«. .«.j»*,. A.1*.-*;. ; 
 
 •■/ • « ,'^, . -' •• , »■»» -^»f; ♦« A ,(«-»» ,^ j» »\ »VW."-*>«v *.*rf »*<.-^ I* » J*.- '•■■ 
 
138 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 SUMMONED HOME FOR TRIAL 
 
 139 
 
 I 
 
 only one among the very few statues of like promi- 
 nence to remain unharmed. For this reason it is 
 called to this day the Hermes of Andocides. Every- 
 body gives it that name, in spite of the adverse tes- 
 timony of its inscription. 
 
 Now it happened that, of all those lying in prison 
 with him under the same charge, Andocides became 
 most intimate and friendly with a man named Tim- 
 aeus, of less repute than himself, it is true, but of 
 
 3 great sagacity and daring. This man persuaded 
 Andocides to turn state's evidence against himself 
 and a few others. If he confessed, — so the man 
 argued, — he would have immunity from punishment 
 by decree of the people ; whereas the result of the trial, 
 while uncertain in all cases, was most to be dreaded in 
 that of influential men like himself. It was better to 
 save his life by a false confession of crime, than to 
 die a shameful death under a false charge of that 
 crime. One who had an eye to the general welfare 
 of the community might well abandon to their 
 fate a few dubious characters, if he could thereby 
 save a multitude of good men from the wrath of the 
 people. 
 
 4 By such arguments of Timaeus, Andocides was at 
 last persuaded to bear witness against himself and 
 others. He himself received the immunity from 
 punishment which had been decreed ; but all those 
 whom he named, excepting such as took to flight, 
 were put to death, and Andocides added to their 
 number some of his own household servants, that he 
 might the better be believed. 
 
 Still, the people did not lay aside all their wrath at s 
 this point, but rather, now that they were done with 
 the -ETermo^-defacers, as if their passion had all the 
 more opportunity to vent itself, they dashed like a 
 torrent against Alcibiades, and finally dispatched the 
 Salaminian state-galley to fetch him home. They 
 shrewdly gave its officers explicit command not to 
 use violence, nor to seize his person, but with all 
 moderation of speech to bid him accompany them 
 home to stand his trial and satisfy the people. Fore 
 they were afraid that their army, in an enemy's land, 
 would be full of tumult and mutiny at the summons. 
 And Alcibiades might easily have effected this had he 
 wished. For the men were cast down at his depart- 
 ure, and expected that the war, under the conduct 
 of Nicias, would be drawn out to a great length by 
 delays and inactivity, now that the goad to action, so 
 to speak of Alcibiades, had been taken away. Lama- 
 chus, it is true, was a good soldier and a brave man ; 
 but he lacked authority and prestige because he was 
 so poor. 
 
 XXn. Alcibiades had no sooner sailed away than 
 he robbed the Athenians of Messene. There was a 
 party there who were on the point of surrendering 
 the city to the Athenians, but Alcibiades knew them, 
 and gave the clearest information of their design to 
 the friends of Syracuse in the city, and so brought 
 the thing to naught. Arrived at Thurii, he left his tri- 
 reme and hid himself so as to escape all quest. When 2 
 some one recognized him and asked, " Can you not 
 trust your country, Alcibiades ? " " In all else," he 
 
 I 
 
 :u 
 
 '••%•• ». ^|b^W>»«NI«« 
 
140 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 AT SPARTA 
 
 141 
 
 said, " but in the matter of my life I would n't trust 
 even my own mother not to mistake a black for a 
 white ballot when she cast her vote." And when 
 he afterwards heard that the city had condemned 
 him to death, " I '11 show them ", he said, " that I 'm 
 alive." 
 
 s His hnpeachment is on record, and runs as follows : 
 " Thessalus, son of Cimon, of the deme Laciadae, 
 impeaches Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, of the deme 
 Scambonidae, for wronging the goddesses of Eleusis, 
 Demeter and Cora, by mimicking the mysteries and 
 showing them forth to his companions in his own 
 house, wearing a robe such as the High Priest wears 
 when he shows forth the sacred secrets to the disci- 
 ples, and calling himself High Priest, Pulytion Torch- 
 bearer, and Theodorus, of the deme Phegaea, Herald, 
 and hailing the rest of his companions as Mystae and 
 EpoptaCj contrary to the laws and institutions of the 
 Eumolpidae, Heralds, and Priests of Eleusis." 
 
 4 His case went by default, his property was confis- 
 cated, and besides that, it was also decreed that his 
 name should be publicly cursed by all priests and 
 priestesses. Theano, the daughter of Menon, of the 
 deme Agraul^, they say, was the only one who re- 
 fused to obey this decree. She declared that she was 
 a praying, not a cursing priestess. 
 
 XXIII. When these great judgments and condem- 
 nations were passed upon Alcibiades, he was tarrying 
 in Argos, for as soon as he had made his escape from 
 Thurii, he passed over into Peloponnesus. But fear- 
 ing his foes there, and renouncing his country alto- 
 
 gether, he sent to the Spartans, demanding immunity 
 and confidence, and promising to render them aid and 
 service greater than all the harm he had previously 
 done them as an enemy. The Spartans granted his re- 2 
 quest, and received him among them. No sooner was 
 he come than he zealously brought one thing to pass : 
 they had been delaying and postponing assistance to 
 Syracuse ; he roused and incited them to send Gylip- 
 pus thither for a commander, and to crush the force 
 which Athens had there. A second thing he did was 
 to get them to stir up the war against Athens at 
 home ; and the third, and most important of all, to 
 induce them to fortify Deceleia. This more than 
 anything else wrought ruin and destruction to his 
 native city. 
 
 At Sparta, he was held in high repute publicly, 3 
 and privately was no less admired. The multitude 
 was completely under his influence, and was actually 
 bewitched by his assumption of the Spartan mode of 
 life. When they saw him with his hair untrimmed, 
 taking cold baths, and on terms of intimacy with 
 their coarse bread and black porridge, they could 
 scarcely trust their eyes, and doubted whether such a 
 man as he now was had ever had a cook in his own 
 house, had even so much as looked upon a perfumer, 
 or endured the touch of Milesian wool. He had, as 4 
 they say, one power which transcended all others, and 
 proved a veritable implement of his chase for men : 
 that of assimilating and adapting himself to the pur- 
 suits and lives of others, thereby assuming more vio- 
 lent changes than the chameleon. That animal, how- 
 
 I 
 
 y 
 
 
 if 
 
142 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 IN IONIA 
 
 143 
 
 \ 
 
 u 
 
 ever, as it is said, is utterly unable to assume one 
 color, namely white; but Alcibiades could associate 
 with good and bad alike, and found naught that he 
 
 6 could not imitate and practice. In Sparta, he was 
 all for bodily training, simplicity of life, and severity 
 of countenance ; in Ionia, for luxurious ease and 
 pleasure ; in Thrace, for drinking deep ; in Thessaly, 
 for riding hard ; and when he was thrown with Tis- 
 saphernes the Satrap, he outdid even Persian magnifi- 
 cence in his pomp and lavishness. It was not that 
 he could so easily pass entirely from one manner of 
 man to another, nor that he actually underwent in 
 every case a change in his real character ; but when 
 he saw that his natural manners were likely to be 
 annoying to his associates, he was quick to assume 
 any counterfeit exterior which might in each case 
 
 ebe suitable for them. At all events, in Sparta, so 
 far as the outside was concerned, it was possible to 
 say of him, " ' No child of Achilles he, but Achilles 
 himself ' ; such a man as Lycurgus might have 
 trained " ; but judging by what he actually felt and 
 did, one might have cried with the poet, " 'Tis the 
 selfsame woman still ! " 
 
 1 While Agis the king was away on his campaigns, 
 Alcibiades corrupted Timaea his wife so that she was 
 with child by him and made no denial of it. When 
 she had given birth to a male child, it was called 
 Leotychides, in public, but in private the name which 
 the boy's mother whispered to her friends and at- 
 tendants, was Alcibiades. Such was the passion that 
 possessed the woman. But he, in his mocking way, 
 
 said he had not done this thing for a wanton in- 
 sult, nor at the behest of mere pleasure, but in 
 order that descendants of his might be kings of the 
 Lacedaemonians. 
 
 Such being the state of things, there were many tos 
 tell the tale to Agis, and he believed it, more espe- 
 cially owing to the lapse of time. There had been an 
 earthquake, and he had run in terror out of his cham- 
 ber and the arms of his wife, and then for ten months 
 had had no further intercourse with her. And since 
 Leotychides had been born at the end of this period, 
 Agis declared that he was no child of his. For this 
 reason Leotychides was afterwards refused the royal 
 succession. 
 
 XXIV. After the Athenian disaster in Sicily, the 
 Chians, Lesbians, and Cyzicenes sent embassies at the 
 same time to Sparta, to discuss a revolt from Athens. 
 But though the Boeotians supported the appeal of 
 the Lesbians, and Pharnabazus that of the Cyzicenes, 
 the Spartans, under the persuasion of Alcibiades, 
 elected to help the Chians first of all. Alcibiades 
 actually set sail in person and brought almost all 
 Ionia to revolt, and, in constant association with the 
 Lacedaemonian generals, wrought injury to the 
 Athenians. 
 
 But Agis was hostile to him because of the wrong 2 
 he had suffered as a husband, and he was also vexed 
 at the repute in which Alcibiades stood. Most of the 
 successes won were due to him, as report had it. The 
 most influential and ambitious of the other Spartans 
 also were envious and tired of him, and soon grew 
 
 I 
 
 M 
 
144 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 strong enough to induce the magistrates at home to 
 send out orders to Ionia that he be put to death. 
 « His timely discovery of this put him on his guard, 
 and while in all their undertakings he took part with 
 the Lacedaemonians, he sedulously avoided coming 
 into their hands. Then resorting to Tissaphemes, the 
 King's Satrap, for safety, he was soon first and foremost 
 
 4 in that grandee's favor. His versatility and surpassing 
 cleverness was the admiration of the Barbarian, who 
 was no straightforward man himself, but malicious 
 and fond of evil company. And indeed no disposition 
 could resist and no nature escape Alcibiades, so full 
 of grace was his daily life and conversation. Even 
 those who feared and hated him felt the rare and 
 
 5 winning charm of his society and presence. And 
 thus it was that Tissaphemes, though otherwise the 
 most ardent of the Persians in his hatred of the Hel- 
 lenes, so completely surrendered to the flatteries of 
 Alcibiades as to outdo him in reciprocal flatteries. 
 The most beautiful park he had, both for its refresh- 
 ing waters and grateful lawns, with resorts and re- 
 treats decked out in regal and extravagant fashion, 
 he named ^^ Alcibiades " ; everyone always called it 
 by that name. 
 
 XXV. Alcibiades now abandoned the cause of the 
 Spartans, since he distrusted them and feared Agis, 
 and began to malign and slander them to Tissa- 
 phemes. He advised him not to aid them very 
 generously, and yet not to put down the Athenians 
 completely, but rather by niggardly assistance to the 
 one and lukewarm hostility to the other, to make both 
 
 WITH TISSAPHERNES 145 
 
 easy victims for the King when they had weakened 
 and exhausted each other. Tissaphemes was easily 2 
 persuaded, and all men saw that he loved and ad- 
 mired his new adviser, so that Alcibiades was looked 
 up to by the Hellenes on both sides, and the Athe- 
 nians repented themselves of the sentence they had 
 passed upon him, now that they were suffering for it. 
 Alcibiades himself also was presently burdened with 
 the fear that if his native city were altogether de- 
 stroyed, he might come into the power of the Lace- 
 daemonians, who hated him. 
 
 At this time almost all the forces of Athens were 3 
 at Samos. From this island as their naval base of 
 operations they were trying to win back some of their 
 Ionian allies who had revolted, and were watching 
 others who were disaffected. In some way or other 
 they still managed to cope with their enemies on the 
 sea, but they were afraid of Tissaphemes and of the 
 fleet of one hundred and fifty Phoenician triremes 
 which was said to be all but at hand ; if this once 
 came up, no hope was left for their city. 
 
 Alcibiades was aware of this, and sent secret mes-4 
 sages to the influential Athenians at Samos, in which 
 he held out the hope that he might bring Tissaphemes 
 over to be their friend. He did not seek, he said, 
 the favor of the multitude, nor tmst them, but rather 
 that of the aristocrats, in case they would venture to 
 show themselves men, put a stop to the wantonness 
 of the people, take the direction of affairs into their 
 own hands, and save their cause and city. 
 
 Now the rest of the aristocrats were much inclined 6 
 
 .M 
 
 il 
 
146 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 to Alcibiades. But one of the generals, Phrynichus, 
 of the deme Deirades, suspected (what was really the 
 case) that Alcibiades had no more use for an oligarchy 
 than for a democracy, but merely sought in one way or 
 another a recall from exile, and therefore inveighed 
 against the people merely to court betimes the favor of 
 the aristocrats, and ingratiate himself with them. He 
 therefore opposed him. When his opinion had been 
 overborne and he was now become an open enemy of 
 Alcibiades, he sent a secret message to Astyochus, the 
 enemy's naval commander, bidding him beware of Al- 
 cibiades and arrest him, for that he was playing a 
 e double game. Without his knowing it, he was a 
 traitor dealing with a traitor. For Astyochus was 
 much in awe of Tissaphernes, and seeing that Alci- 
 biades had great power with the Satrap, he disclosed 
 the message of Phrynichus to them both. Alcibiades 
 at once sent men to Samos to denounce Phrynichus. 
 All the Athenians there were incensed and banded 
 themselves together against Phrynichus, who, seeing no 
 other escape from his predicament, attempted to cure 
 
 7 one evil by another and a greater. He sent again to 
 Astyochus, chiding him indeed for his disclosure of 
 the former message, but announcing that he stood 
 ready to deliver into his hands the fleet and army of 
 the Athenians. 
 
 However, this treachery of Phrynichus did not 
 harm the Athenians at all, because of the fresh 
 treachery of Astyochus. This second message of 
 
 8 Phrynichus also he delivered to Alcibiades. But 
 Phrynichus knew all the while that he would do so, 
 
 h 
 
 PLOTS REVOLUTION 
 
 147 
 
 and expected a second denunciation from Alcibiades. 
 So he got the start of him by telling the Athenians 
 himself that the enemy were going to attack them, 
 and advising them to have their ships manned and 
 their camp fortified. The Athenians were busy doing o 
 this when again a letter came from Alcibiades bidding 
 them beware of Phrynichus, since he had offered to 
 betray their fleet to the enemy. This letter they 
 disbelieved at the time, supposing that Alcibiades, 
 who must know perfectly the equipment and purposes 
 of the enemy, had used his knowledge in order to 
 calumniate Phrynichus falsely. Afterwards, how-io 
 ever, when Hermon, one of the frontier guard, had 
 smitten Phrynichus with a dagger and slain him in 
 the open market place, the Athenians tried the case 
 of the dead man, found him guilty of treachery, and 
 awarded crowns to Hermon and his accomplices. 
 
 XXVI. But at Samos the friends of Alcibiades 
 soon got the upper hand, and sent Peisander to 
 Athens to change the form of government. He was 
 to encourage the upper class to overthrow the de- 
 mocracy and take control of affairs, with the plea 
 that on these terms alone would Alcibiades make 
 Tissaphernes their friend and ally. This was the 
 pretense and this the pretext of those who then es- 
 tablished the oligarchy at Athens. But as soon as a 
 the so-called Five Thousand (they were really only 
 four hundred) got the power and took control of 
 affairs, they at once neglected Alcibiades entirely, 
 and waged the war with less vigor, partly because they 
 distrusted the citizens, who still looked askance at 
 
148 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 RECALLED FROM EXILE 
 
 149 
 
 the new form of government, and partly because they 
 thought the Lacedaemonians, who always looked with 
 favor on an oligarchy, would be more lenient towards 
 
 8 them. The popular party in the city was constrained 
 by fear to keep quiet, because many of those who 
 openly opposed the Four Hundred had been slain. 
 But when the army in Samos learned what had been 
 done at home, they were enraged, and started to sail 
 forthwith to the Piraeus, and sending for Alcibiades, 
 they appointed him general, and bade him lead them 
 in putting down the tyrants. 
 
 4 An ordinary man, thus suddenly raised to great 
 power by the favor of the multitude, would have 
 been full of love for them, thinking that he must at 
 once gratify them in all things and oppose them in 
 nothing, since they had made him, instead of a wan- 
 dering exile, leader and general of such a fleet and of 
 so large an armed force. But Alcibiades, as became a 
 great leader, felt that he must oppose them in their 
 career of madness, and prevented them from making 
 such a fatal mistake. Therefore in this instance, at 
 
 6 least, he was the manifest salvation of the city. For 
 had they sailed off home, their enemies might at 
 once have occupied all Ionia, the Hellespont, and 
 the islands, without a battle, while Athenians were 
 fighting Athenians and making their own city the 
 seat of war. Such a war Alcibiades, more than any 
 other one man, prevented, not only persuading and 
 instructing the multitude together, but also, taking 
 them man by man, supplicating some and constrain- 
 
 e ing others. He had a helper, too, in Thrasybulus of 
 
 Steiris, who went along with him and did the shout- 
 ing, for he had, it is said, the biggest voice of all the 
 Athenians. 
 
 A second honorable proceeding of Alcibiades was 
 his promising to bring over to their side the Phoeni- 
 cian ships which the King had sent out and the 
 Lacedaemonians were expecting, — or at least to see 
 that those expectations were not realized, — and his 
 sailing off swiftly on this errand. The ships were? 
 actually seen off Aspendus, but Tissaphernes did not 
 bring them up, and thereby played the Lacedaemo- 
 nians false. Alcibiades was credited with this diver- 
 sion of the ships by both parties, and especially by 
 the Lacedaemonians. It was charged that he in- 
 structed the Barbarian to suffer the Hellenes to 
 destroy one another. For it was perfectly clear that 
 the side to which such a naval force attached itself 
 would rob the other altogether of the control of the 
 sea. 
 
 XXVn. After this the Four Hundred were over- 
 thrown, the friends of Alcibiades now zealously assist- 
 ing the party of the people. Then the city willingly 
 ordered Alcibiades to come back home. But he 
 thought he must not return with empty hands and 
 without achievement, through the pity and favor of 
 the multitude, but rather in a blaze of glory. So, to 
 begin with, he set sail with a small fleet from Samos 
 and cruised off Cnidus and Cos. There he heard 2 
 that Mindarus, the Spartan admiral, had sailed off to 
 the Hellespont with his entire fleet, followed by the 
 Athenians, and so he hastened to the assistance of 
 
 'H 
 
 J I 
 
 i? 
 
150 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 their generals. By chance he came up, with his 
 eighteen triremes, at just that critical point when 
 both parties, having joined battle with all their ships 
 off Abydos, and sharing almost equally in victory and 
 defeat, had kept up a desperate struggle till evening. 
 
 3 The appearance of Alcibiades inspired both sides 
 with a false opinion of his coming : the enemy were 
 emboldened and the Athenians were confounded. 
 But he quickly hoisted Athenian colors on his flag- 
 ship and darted straight upon the victorious and 
 pursuing Peloponnesians. Routing them, he drove 
 them to land, and following hard after them, rammed 
 and shattered their ships. Their crews swam ashore, 
 and here Pharnabazus came to their aid with his in- 
 fantry and fought along the beach in defense of their 
 
 4 ships. But finally the Athenians captured thirty of 
 them, rescued their own, and erected a trophy of 
 victory. 
 
 Taking advantage of a success so brilliant as this, 
 and ambitious to display himself at once before Tis- 
 saphemes, Alcibiades supplied himself with gifts of 
 hospitality and friendship and proceeded, at the head 
 6 of an imperial retinue, to visit the Satrap. His re- 
 ception, however, was not what he expected. Tissa- 
 phemes had for a long time been accused by the 
 Lacedaemonians to the King, and being in fear of the 
 King's condemnation, it seemed to him that Alcibi- 
 ades had come in the nick of time. So he arrested 
 him and shut him up in Sardis, hoping that such an 
 outrage upon him as this would dispel the calumnies 
 of the Spartans. 
 
 VICTORY OFF CYZICUS 
 
 151 
 
 XXVIIL After the lapse of thirty days Alcibiades 
 ran away from his guards, got a horse from some one 
 or other, and made his escape to Clazomenae. To 
 repay Tissaphemes, he alleged that he had escaped 
 with that Satrap's connivance, and so brought addi- 
 tional calumny upon him. He himself sailed to the 
 camp of the Athenians, where he learned that Min- 
 darus, along with Pharnabazus, was in Cyzicus. 
 Thereupon he roused the spirits of the soldiers, de- a 
 daring that they must now do sea-fighting and land- 
 fighting and even siege-fighting too against their 
 enemies, for poverty stared them in the face unless 
 they were victorious in every way. He then manned 
 his ships and made his way to Proconnesus, giving 
 orders at once to seize all small trading craft and keep 
 them under guard, that the enemy might get no 
 warning of his approach from any source so ever. 
 
 Now it chanced that copious rain fell all of a sud-s 
 den, and thunder-peals and darkness cooperated with 
 him in concealing his design. Not only did he elude 
 the enemy, but even the Athenians themselves had 
 given up all expectation of fighting, when he suddenly 
 ordered them aboard ship and put out to sea. After 
 a little the darkness cleared away, and the Pelopon- 
 nesian ships were seen hovering off the harbor of 
 Cyzicus. Fearing then lest they catch sight of the* 
 full extent of his array and take refuge ashore, he 
 ordered his fellow commanders to sail slowly and so 
 remain in the rear, while he himself, with only forty 
 ships, bore down and challenged the foe to battle. 
 The Peloponnesians were utterly deceived, and scorn- 
 
162 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 ing what they deemed the small numbers of their 
 enemy^ put out to meet them, and closed at once 
 with them in a grappling fight. Presently, while 
 the battle was raging, the Athenian reserves bore 
 down upon their foe, who were panic stricken and 
 took to flight. 
 
 5 Then Alcibiades with twenty of his best ships 
 broke through their line, put to shore, and disem- 
 barking his crews, attacked his enemy as they fled 
 from their ships, and slew many of them. Mindarus 
 and Phamabazus, who came to their aid, he over- 
 whelmed; Mindarus was slain fighting sturdily, biit 
 
 e Phamabazus made his escape. Many were the dead 
 bodies and the arms of which the Athenians became 
 masters, and they captured all their enemy's ships. 
 Then they also stormed Cyzicus, which Phamabazus 
 abandoned to its fate when he saw that the Pelopon- 
 nesians were annihilated. Thus the Athenians not 
 only had the Hellespont under their sure control, but 
 even ejected the Lacedaemonians from the rest of 
 the sea. A dispatch was captured announcing the 
 disaster to the Ephors in true Laconic style : " Our 
 ships are lost ; Mindarus is gone ; our men are starv- 
 ing; we know not what to do." 
 
 XXIX. But the soldiers of Alcibiades were now so 
 elated and filled with pride that they disdained longer 
 to mingle with the rest of the army, since it had often 
 been vanquished, while they were unconquered. For 
 not long before this, Thrasyllus had suffered a reverse 
 at Ephesus, and the Ephesians had erected their bronze 
 trophy of victory, to the everlasting disgrace of the 
 
 LAYS SIEGE TO CHALCEDON 
 
 153 
 
 Athenians. This was what the soldiers of Alcibiades 2 
 cast in the teeth of Thrasyllus' men, vaunting them- 
 selves and their general, and refusing to share either 
 training or quarters in camp with them. But when 
 Phamabazus with much cavalry and infantry attacked 
 the forces of Thrasyllus, who had made a raid into 
 the territory of Abydos, Alcibiades sallied out to their 
 aid, routed Phamabazus, and pursued him till night- 
 fall, along with Thrasyllus. Thus the two factions 
 were blended, and retumed to their camp with mutual 
 friendliness and delight. 
 
 On the following day Alcibiades set up a trophy of 3 
 victory, and plundered the territory of Phamabazus, 
 no one venturing to defend it. He even captured 
 some priests and priestesses, but let them go without 
 ransom. On setting out to attack Chalcedon, which 
 had revolted from Athens and received a Lacedae- 
 monian garrison and governor, he heard that its citi- 
 zens had collected all their goods and chattels out of 
 the country and committed them for safe keeping 
 to the Bithynians, who were their friends. So he 
 marched to the confines of Bithynia with his army, 
 and sent on a herald with accusations and demands. 
 The Bithynians, in terror, gave the booty up to him, 
 and made a treaty of friendship. 
 
 XXX. While Chalcedon was being walled in from 
 sea to sea, Phamabazus came to raise the siege, and 
 at the same time Hippocrates, the Spartan governor, 
 led his forces out of the city and attacked the Athe- 
 nians. But Alcibiades arrayed his army so as to face 
 both enemies at once, put Phamabazus to shameful 
 
154 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 flight, and slew Hippocrates together with many of 
 
 2 his vanquished men. Then he sailed in person into 
 the Hellespont and levied moneys there. 
 
 He also captured Selymbria, where he exposed him- 
 self beyond all bounds. There was a party in the 
 city which offered to surrender it to him, and they 
 had agreed with him upon the signal of a lighted 
 torch displayed at midnight. But they were forced 
 to give this signal before the appointed time, through 
 fear of one of the conspirators, who suddenly changed 
 his mind. So the torch was displayed before his army 
 was ready, but Alcibiades took about thirty men and 
 ran to the walls, bidding the rest of his force follow 
 
 8 with all speed. The gate was thrown open for him 
 and he rushed into the city, his thirty men-at-arms 
 reenforced by twenty targeteers, but he saw at once 
 that the Selymbrians were advancing in battle array 
 to attack him. In resistance he saw no safety, and 
 for flight, undefeated as he was in all his campaigns 
 down to that day, he had too much spirit. He there- 
 fore had the trumpet signal silence, and then ordered 
 formal proclamation to be made that Selymbria must 
 
 4 not bear arms against Athens. This proclamation 
 made some of the Selymbrians less eager for battle, 
 if, as they supposed, their enemies were all inside the 
 walls ; and others were mollified by hopes of a peace- 
 ful settlement. While they were thus parleying with 
 one another, up came the army of Alcibiades. Judg- 
 ing now, as was really the case, that the Selymbrians 
 were disposed for peace, he was afraid that his Thra- 
 
 5cian soldiers might plunder the city. There were 
 
 1 
 
 LAYS SIEGE TO BYZANTIUM 
 
 155 
 
 many of these, and they were zealous in their service, 
 through the favor and good will they bore Alcibiades. 
 Accordingly he sent them all out of the city, and then, 
 at the plea of the Selymbrians, did their city no injury 
 whatever, but merely took a sum of money from it, 
 set a garrison in it, and went his way. 
 
 XXXI. Meanwhile the Athenian generals who 
 were besieging Chalcedon made peace with Phamab- 
 azus on condition that they receive a sum of money, 
 that Chalcedon be subject again to Athens, that the 
 territories of Pharnabazus be not ravaged, and that 
 the said Pharnabazus furnish safe escort for an Athe- 
 nian embassy to the King. Accordingly, when 2 
 Alcibiades came back from Selymbria, Pharnabazus 
 demanded that he too take oath to the treaty ; but 
 Alcibiades refused to do so until Pharnabazus had 
 taken his oath to it. 
 
 After the oaths had been taken, he went up against 
 Byzantium, which was in revolt against Athens, and 
 compassed the city with a wall. But after Anaxilaus, 
 Lycurgus, and certain men besides had agreed to sur- 
 render the city to him on condition that it be not 
 plundered, he spread abroad the story that threaten- 
 ing complications in Ionia called him away. Then he 3 
 sailed off in broad daylight with all his ships ; but in 
 the night time stealthily returned. He disembarked 
 with the men-at-arms under his own command, and 
 quietly stationed himself within reach of the city's 
 walls. His fleet, meanwhile, sailed to the harbor, 
 and forcing its way in with much shouting and tu- 
 mult and din, terrified the Byzantians by the unex- 
 
 \\ 
 
 1 ! 
 
 i 
 
 ■ I 
 
 u 
 
 r 
 
156 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 pectedness of its attack, while it gave the party of 
 Athens in the city a chance to admit Alcibiades in 
 all security, since everybody else had hurried ofE to 
 
 4 the harbor and the fleet. However, the day was not 
 won without a battle. The Peloponnesians, Boeo- 
 tians, and Megarians who were in garrison at Byzan- 
 tium, routed the ships' crews and drove them back 
 on board again. Then, perceiving that the Athenians 
 were inside the city, they formed in battle array and 
 advanced to attack them. A desperate battle fol- 
 lowed, but Alcibiades was victorious with the right 
 wing, as well as Theramenes with the left, and they 
 took prisoners no less than three hundred of the 
 enemy who survived. 
 
 5 Not a man of the Byzantians was put to death or 
 sent into exile after the battle, for it was on these 
 conditions that the men who surrendered the city had 
 acted, and this was the agreement with them. They 
 exacted no special grace for themselves. Therefore 
 it was that when Anaxilaus was prosecuted at Sparta 
 for treachery, his words showed clearly that his deeds 
 had not been disgraceful. He said that he was not a 
 Lacedaemonian, but a Byzantian, and it was not 
 
 e Sparta that was in peril. Considering therefore the 
 case of Byzantium, he saw that the city was walled 
 up, that no help could make its way in, and that the 
 provisions already in the city were being consumed 
 by Peloponnesians and Boeotians, while the Byzan- 
 tians were starving, together with their wives and 
 children. He had, therefore, not betrayed the city to 
 its enemies, but set it free from war and its horrors, 
 
 HIS EETURN TO ATHENS 
 
 157 
 
 therein imitating the noblest Lacedaemonians, in 
 whose eyes the one supremely honorable and right- 
 eous thing is their country's good. The Lacedae- 
 monians, on hearing this, were moved with sincere 
 respect, and acquitted the men. 
 
 XXXII. But Alcibiades, yearning at last to see 
 his home, and still more desirous of being seen by 
 his fellow citizens, now that he had conquered their 
 enemies so many times, set sail. His Attic triremes 
 were adorned all round with many shields and spoils 
 of war ; many that he had captured in battle were 
 towed along in his wake ; and still more numerous 
 were the figure-heads he carried of triremes which 
 had been overwhelmed and destroyed by him. There 
 were not less than two hundred of these all together. 
 
 Duris the Samian, who insists that he was a descend- 2 
 ant of Alcibiades, gives some additional details. He 
 says that the oarsmen of Alcibiades rowed to the music 
 of a flute blown by Chrysogonus the Pjrthian victor ; 
 that they kept time to a rhythmic call from the lips 
 of Callipides the tragic actor ; that both these artists 
 were arrayed in the long tunics, flowing robes, and 
 other adornment of their profession; and that the 
 commander's ship put into harbors with a sail of pur- 
 ple hue, as though, after a drinking bout, he were off 
 on a revel. But neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, 3 
 nor Xenophon mentions these things, nor is it likely 
 that Alcibiades put on such airs for the Athenians, to 
 whom he was returning after he had suffered exile, 
 and they many great calamities. Nay, he was in 
 actual fear as he put into the harbor, and once in, he 
 
 t 
 
 ^ 
 
 sv 
 
 ]> till 
 
 
 ■>li 
 
158 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 did not leave his trireme until, a49 he stood on deck, 
 he caught sight of his cousin Euryptolemus on shore, 
 with many other friends and kinsmen, and heard 
 their cries of welcome. 
 4 When he landed, however, people did not deign so 
 much as to look at the other generals whom they 
 met, but ran in throngs to Alcibiades with shouts of 
 welcome, escorting him on his way, and putting 
 wreaths on his head as they could get to him, while 
 those who could not come to him for the throng, 
 gazed at him from afar, the elderly men pointing him 
 out to the young. 
 
 Much sorrow, too, was mingled with the city's joy, 
 as men called to mind their former misfortunes and 
 compared them with their present good fortune, 
 counting it certain that they had neither lost Sicily, 
 nor had any other great expectation of theirs miscar- 
 ried if they had only left Alcibiades at the head of 
 that enterprise and the armament therefor. For now 
 he had taken the city when she was almost banished 
 from the sea, when on land she was hardly mistress 
 of her own suburbs, and when factions raged within 
 her walls, and had raised her up from this wretched 
 and lowly plight, not only restoring her dominion 
 over the sea, but actually rendering her victorious 
 over her enemies everywhere on land. 
 
 XXXIII. The decree for his recall had been passed 
 before this, on motion of Critias, the son of Callaes- 
 chrus, as Critias himself has written in his elegies, 
 where he reminds Alcibiades of the favor in these 
 words : — 
 
 ADDRESSES THE ATHENIANS 
 
 159 
 
 " Mine was the motion that brought thee back ; I made it in public ; 
 Words and writing were mine ; task like this I performed ; 
 Signet and seal of words that were mine give warrant as follows.** 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 At this time, therefore, the people had only to meet 2 
 in assembly, and Alcibiades addressed them. He la- 
 mented and bewailed his own lot, but had only little 
 and moderate blame to lay upon the people. The 
 entire mischief he ascribed to a certain evil fortune and 
 baleful genius of his own. Then he descanted at great 
 length upon the vain hopes which their enemies were 
 cherishing, and wrought them up to courage. At last 
 they crowned him with crowns of gold, and elected 
 him general with sole powers by land and sea. They 3 
 voted also that his property be restored to him, and 
 that the Eumolpidae and Heralds revoke the curses 
 wherewith they had cursed him at the command of 
 the people. The others revoked their curses, but The- 
 odorus the High Priest said: "Nay, I invoked no 
 evil upon him if he does no wrong to the city." 
 
 XXXIV. But while Alcibiades was thus prosper- 
 ing brilliantly, some were nevertheless disturbed at 
 the particular season of his return. He had put into 
 harbor on the very day when the Plynteria of the 
 goddess Athena were being celebrated. The Praxier- 
 gidae celebrate these rites on the twenty-fifth day of 
 Thargelion, in strict secrecy, removing the robes of 
 the goddess and covering up her image. Wherefore 
 the Athenians regard this day as the unluckiest of 
 all days for business of any sort. The goddess, 2 
 therefore, did not appear to welcome Alcibiades with 
 kindly favor and good will, but rather to veil herself 
 
 i( 
 
 M 
 
 ! 
 
 \ i 
 
160 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 from him and repel him. However, all things fell 
 out as he wished, and one hundred triremes were 
 manned for service, with which he was minded to sail 
 off again. But a great and laudable ambition took 
 possession of him and detained him there imtil the 
 Eleusinian mysteries. 
 
 3 Ever since Deceleia had been fortified, and the 
 enemy, by their presence there, commanded the ap- 
 proaches to Eleusis, the festal rite had been cele- 
 brated with no splendor at all, being conducted by 
 sea. Sacrifices, choral dances, and many of the sa- 
 cred ceremonies usually held on the road, when lac- 
 chus is conducted forth from Athens to Eleusis, had 
 
 4 of necessity been omitted. Accordingly, it seemed 
 to Alcibiades that it would be a fine thing, enhancing 
 his holiness in the eyes of the gods and his good re- 
 pute in the minds of men, to restore its ancestral 
 fashion to the sacred festival by escorting the rite 
 with his infantry along past the enemy by land. He 
 would thus either thwart and humble Agis, if the 
 King kept entirely quiet, or would fight a fight that 
 was sacred and approved by the gods, in behalf of the 
 greatest and holiest interests, in full sight of his native 
 city, and with all his fellow citizens eye-witnesses of 
 his valor. 
 
 • When he had determined upon this course and 
 made known his design to the Eumolpidae and Her- 
 alds, he stationed sentries on the heights, sent out an 
 advance-guard at break of day, and then took the 
 priests, my^tae^ and mystagogues, encompassed them 
 with his men-at-arms, and led them over the road to 
 
 CONDUCTS THE MYSTERIES 
 
 161 
 
 Eleusis in decorous and silent array. So august and 
 devout was the spectacle which, as general, he thus 
 displayed, that he was hailed by those who were not 
 unfriendly to him as High Priest, rather, and Mysta- 
 gogue. No enemy dared to attack him, and he con- 
 ducted the procession safely back to the city. 
 
 At this he was exalted in spirit himself, and ex- e 
 alted his army with the feeling that it was irresistible 
 and invincible under his command. People of the 
 humbler and poorer sort he so captivated by his 
 leadership that they were filled with an amazing pas- 
 sion to have him for their tjn^ant, and some proposed 
 it, and actually came to him in solicitation of it. He 
 was to rise superior to envy, abolish decrees and laws, 
 and stop the mouths of the babblers who were so 
 fatal to the life of the city, that he might bear an 
 absolute sway and act without fear of the public 
 informer. 
 
 XXXV. What thoughts he himself had about a 
 tyranny, is uncertain. But the most influential citi- 
 zens were afraid of it, and therefore anxious to have 
 him sail away as soon as he could. They even voted 
 him, besides everything else, the colleagues of his 
 own choosing. Setting sail, therefore, with his one 
 hundred ships, and assaulting Andros, he conquered 
 the islanders in battle, as well as the Lacedaemonians 
 who were there, but he did not capture the city. 
 This was the first of the fresh charges brought 
 against him by his enemies. 
 
 And it would seem that if ever a man was mined 2 
 by his own exalted reputation, that man was Alcibi- 
 
 i^ 
 
162 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 ades. His continuous successes gave him such repute 
 for unbounded daring and sagacity, that when he 
 failed in anything, men suspected his inclination; 
 they would not believe in his inability. Were he 
 only inclined to do a thing, they thought, naught 
 could escape him. So they expected the Chians also 
 to be taken and reduced to obedience, along with the 
 
 3 rest of Ionia. They were therefore incensed to hear 
 that he had not accomplished every thing at once and 
 speedily, to meet their wishes. They did not stop to 
 consider his lack of money. This compelled him, 
 since he was fighting men who had an almoner of 
 bounty in the Great King, to leave his camp fre- 
 quently and sail off in quest of money for rations and 
 wages. The final and prevailing charge against him 
 was due to this necessity. 
 
 4 Lysander, who had been sent out as admiral by the 
 Lacedaemonians, paid his sailors four obols a day 
 instead of three, out of the moneys he received from 
 Cyrus; while Alcibiades, already hard put to it to 
 pay even his three obols, was forced to sail for Caria 
 to levy money. The man whom he left in charge of 
 his fleet, Antiochus, was a brave captain, but other- 
 
 5 wise a foolish and low-lived fellow. Although he had 
 received explicit commands from Alcibiades not to 
 hazard a general engagement even though the enemy 
 sailed out to meet him, he fell so wantonly contemp- 
 tuous of them as to man his own trireme and one 
 other and stand for Ephesus, indulging in many 
 shamelessly insulting gestures and cries as he cruised 
 
 6 past the prows of the enemy's ships. At first Ly- 
 
 DEFEATED BY LYSANDEE 
 
 168 
 
 \^ 
 
 Sander put out with a few ships only, and gave him 
 chase. Then, when the Athenians came to the aid 
 of Antiochus, Lysander put out with his whole fleet, 
 won the day, slew Antiochus himself, captured many 
 ships and men, and set up a trophy of victory. As 
 soon as Alcibiades heard of this, he came back to 
 Samos, put out to sea with his whole armament, and 
 challenged Lysander to battle. But Lysander was 
 satisfied with his victory, and would not put out to 
 meet him. 
 
 XXXVI. There were those who hated Alcibiades in 
 the camp, and of these Thrasybulus, the son of Thraso, 
 his particular enemy, set sail for Athens to denounce 
 him. He stirred up the city against him by declaring 
 to the people that it was Alcibiades who had ruined 
 their cause and lost their ships by his wanton con- 
 duct in office. He had handed over — so Thrasyb- 
 ulus said — the duties of commander to men who 
 had won his confidence merely by drinking deep and 
 reeling off sailors' yams, in order that he himself a 
 might be free to cruise about collecting moneys and 
 committing excesses of drunkenness and revelry with 
 courtezans of Abydos and Ionia, and this while the 
 enemy's fleet lay close to him. His enemies also 
 found ground for accusation against him in the for- 
 tress which he had constructed in Thrace, near 
 Bisanthe. It was to serve, they said, as a refuge for 
 him in case he either could not or would not live at 
 home. 
 
 The Athenians were persuaded, and chose others 
 generals in his place, thus displaying their passionate 
 
164 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 ill wUl towards him. On learning this, Alcibiades 
 was afraid, and departed the camp altogether, and 
 assembling mercenary troops made war on his own 
 account against the Thracians who acknowledge no 
 king. He got together much money from his cap- 
 tives, and at the same time afforded security from 
 barbarian inroads to the Hellenes on the neighboring 
 
 frontier. 
 
 « Tydeus, Menander, and Adeimantus, the generals, 
 who had all the ships which the Athenians could 
 finally muster in station at Aegospotami, were wont 
 to sail out every morning against Lysander, who lay 
 with his fleet at Lampsacus, and challenge him to 
 battle. Then they would sail back again, to spend 
 the rest of the day in disorder and unconcern, since, 
 
 6 forsooth, they despised their enemy. Alcibiades, who 
 was near at hand, could not see such conduct with 
 calmness or indifference, but rode up on horseback 
 and read the generals a lesson. He said their an- 
 chorage was a bad one ; the place had no harbor and 
 no city, but they had to get their supplies from 
 Sestos, a long way off; and they permitted their 
 crews, whenever they were on land, to wander and 
 scatter about at their own sweet wills, while there lay 
 at anchor over against them an armament which was 
 trained to do everything silently at a word of absolute 
 command. 
 
 XXXVn. In spite of what Alcibiades said, and in 
 spite of his advice to change their station to Sestos, 
 the generals paid no heed. Tydeus actually insulted 
 him by bidding him begone : he was not general 
 
 WARNS THE ATHENIAN GENERALS 165 
 
 now, but others. So Alcibiades departed, suspecting 
 that some treachery was on foot among them. He 
 told his acquaintances who were escorting him out of 
 the camp that, had he not been so grievously insulted 
 by the generals, within a few days he would have 
 forced the Lacedaemonians to engage them whether 
 they wished to do so or not, or else lose their ships. 
 Some thought that what he said was arrant boasting ; 2 
 but others that it was likely. He had merely to 
 bring up his troops of mounted Thracian archers to 
 assault by land and confound the enemy's camp. 
 
 However, that he saw only too well the errors of 
 the Athenians, the event soon testified. Lysander 
 suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon them, and only 
 eight of their triremes escaped with Conon ; the rest, 
 something less than two hundred, were captured and 
 taken away. Three thousand of their crews were 3 
 taken alive, and executed by Lysander. In a short 
 time he also captured Athens, burned her ships, and 
 tore down her long walls. 
 
 Alcibiades now feared the Lacedaemonians, who 
 were supreme on land and sea, and betook himself into 
 Bithynia, carrying much treasure with him, and secur- 
 ing much as he went, but leaving even more behind 
 him in the fortress where he had been living. In* 
 Bithynia he lost much of his substance, being plun- 
 dered by the Thracians there, and so he determined 
 to go up to the court of Artaxerxes. He thought to 
 show himself not inferior to Themistocles if the 
 King made trial of his services, and superior in his 
 pretext for offering them. For it was not to be 
 
 
166 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 against his fellow countrymen, as in the case of that 
 great man, but in behalf of his country that he 
 would assist the King and beg him to furnish forces 
 against a common enemy. Thinking that Pharnab- 
 azus could best give him facilities for making this 
 journey up to the King, he went to him in Phrygia, 
 and continued there with him, paying him court and 
 receiving marks of honor from him. 
 
 XXXVIII. The Athenians were greatly depressed 
 at the loss of their supremacy. But when Lysander 
 robbed them of their freedom too, and handed the 
 city over to thirty men of his own mind, then, 
 their cause being lost, their eyes were opened to the 
 course they should have taken when salvation was 
 yet in their power. They sorrowfully rehearsed all 
 their mistakes and follies, the greatest of which they 
 considered to be their second outburst of wrath 
 2 against Alcibiades. He had been cast aside for no 
 fault of his own ; but they got angry because a sub- 
 ordinate of his lost a few ships disgracefully, and 
 then they themselves, more disgracefully still, robbed 
 the city of its ablest and most experienced general. 
 
 And yet, in spite of their present plight, a vague 
 hope still prevailed that the cause of Athens was not 
 lost so long as Alcibiades was alive. He had not, in 
 times past, been satisfied to live his exile's life in 
 idleness and quiet ; nor now, if his means allowed, 
 would he tolerate the insolence of the Lacedaemo- 
 nians and the madness of the Thirty. 
 3 It was not strange that the multitude indulged in 
 such dreams, when even the Thirty were moved to 
 
 THE HOPE OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 167 
 
 anxious thought and inquiry, and made the greatest 
 account of what Alcibiades was planning and doing. 
 Finally, Critias tried to make it clear to Lysander 
 that as long as Athens was a democracy the Lace- 
 daemonians could not have safe rule over Hellas ; and * 
 that Athens, even though she were very peacefully and 
 well disposed towards oligarchy, would not be suf- 
 fered, while Alcibiades was alive, to remain undis- 
 turbed in her present condition. However, Lysander 
 was not persuaded by these arguments until an oflGi- 
 cial message came from the authorities at home 
 bidding him put Alcibiades out of the way ; either 
 because they too were alarmed at the vigor and enter- 
 prise of the man, or because they were trying to 
 gratify Agis. 
 
 XXXIX. Accordingly, Lysander sent to Phamab- 
 azus and bade him do this thing, and Phamabazus 
 commissioned Magaeus, his brother, and Sousamithras, 
 his uncle, to perform the deed. At that time Alci- 
 biades was living in a certain village of Phrygia, 
 where he had Timandra the courtezan with him, and 
 in his sleep he had the following vision. He thought 2 
 he had the courtezan's garments upon him, and that 
 she was holding his head in her arms while she 
 adorned his face like a woman's with paints and pig- 
 ments. Others say that in his sleep he saw Magaeus 
 cutting off his head and burning his body. All agree 
 in saying that he had the vision not long before his 
 death. 
 
 The party sent to kill him did not dare enter his 
 house, but surrounded it and set it on fire. When 3 
 
168 
 
 ALCIBIADES 
 
 Alcibiades was aware of this, he gathered together 
 most of the garments and bedding in the house and 
 cast them on the fire. Then, wrapping his cloak 
 about his left arm, and drawing his sword with his 
 right, he dashed out, unscathed by the fire, before the 
 garments were in flames, and scattered the Barba- 
 rians, who ran at the mere sight of him. Not a man 
 stood ground against him, or came to close quarters 
 with him, but all held aloof and shot him with jav- 
 4 elins and arrows. Thus he fell, and when the Bar- 
 barians were gone, Timandra took up his dead body, 
 covered and wrapped it in her own undergarments, 
 and gave it such brilliant and honorable burial as she 
 could provide. 
 
 This Timandra, they say, was the mother of that 
 Lais who was called the Corinthian, although she 
 was a prisoner of war from Hyccara, a small city of 
 6 Sicily. And some, while agreeing in all other details 
 of the death of Alcibiades with what I have written, 
 say that it was not Phamabazus who was the cause 
 of it, nor Lysander, nor the Lacedaemonians, but 
 Alcibiades himself. He had corrupted a gbl belong- 
 ing to a certain well known family, and had her with 
 him ; and it was the brothers of this girl who, taking 
 his wanton insolence much to heart, set fire by night 
 to the house where he was living, and shot him down, 
 as has been described, when he dashed out through 
 the fire. 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
I 
 
 II 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 L 1. Nioias a parallel to Crassus: as in the Cimon- 
 LucuUus pair, it is probable that Plutarch selected his Eoman 
 first, and then his Greek to match. When Plutarch resided in 
 Kome, during the reign of Domitian (81-96 a. d.), he found 
 men's minds still occupied with the careers of the protago- 
 nists in the drama of the revolution which had ushered in the 
 empire of the world. No less than thirteen of his great Ro- 
 mans were "party chiefs in the constitutional struggles 
 which ended on the fields of Pharsalia and Philippi " (George 
 Wyndham, Introduction to North's Plutarch, ** Tudor** 
 Translations, L pp. x. f.). In the Nicias and Crassus, as in 
 many other of his Parallel Lives, Plutarch's object is to re- 
 mind the too complacent Romans that, though the world 
 was now in their strong hands, subject Greece could show on 
 her roll of honor men with whom the greatest Romans 
 might be proud to be compared. 
 
 In his Cimon (chap, iii.), as in his Ferides (chap, ii 4), 
 Plutarch makes brief preliminary comparisons of Cimon with 
 LucuUus, and of Pericles with Fabius Maximus, thereby 
 forestalling to some extent the more elaborate and formal 
 ** Comparison " at the close of each of those pairs. This 
 preliminary comparison is wanting in the Nicias, In the 
 formal " Comparison " of Nicias with Crassus which closes 
 this pair of Lives, as in those of Cimon with Lucullus and 
 of Pericles with Fabius, contrasts rather than similarities 
 between Greek and Roman are the rule. Nicias and Crassus 
 were alike only in the magnitude of their wealth and of 
 the catastrophic disasters in which their lives went out. 
 And even in wealth and disaster they were different. Nicias 
 won his wealth more honorably and spent it with greater 
 public spirit ; but in disaster Crassus was the braver man. 
 In public life Nicias was honest, just, and considerate; 
 
172 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Crassus was fickle, mean, and wanton. In splendid courage 
 Crassus far outshone Nicias, who was timorous and cringing 
 in spirit, but still, " his desire of peace, and of finishing the 
 war, was a divine and truly Grecian ambition, nor in this 
 respect would Crassus deserve to be compared to him, though 
 he had enlarged the Eoman empire to the Caspian Sea or the 
 Indian Ocean " (Dryden-Clough translation). Nicias weakly 
 brought his rival, Cleon, into imdeserved power; Crassus 
 boldly vied with such men as Caesar and Pompey. Nicias 
 sought to avoid command and responsibility ; Crassus had a 
 passion for them. Athens sent out Nicias to his death 
 against his will; Crassus led out the Romans to theirs 
 against their wilL Still, " over caution better deserves for- 
 giveness than self-willed and lawless transgression." 
 
 The Parthian disaster : in the year 53 B. c, Crassus, as 
 proconsul of Syria, attempted to rival the conquests of 
 Lucullus, Pompey, and Caesar, in an invasion of Parthia. 
 He lost his own life, that of his son Publius, and more than 
 three fourths of an army of forty thousand Eoman legion- 
 aries, in a disaster which shook the foimdations of Eoman 
 power in the East. 
 
 I. 2. Thuoydides, Philistua, Timaeus: see the Introduc- 
 tion, pp. 4 fif. ; 10 ; 33 i 
 
 Conflicts, sea flghts, harangues : the set speech is here 
 included in the natural and necessary work of a historian. 
 Of course the speeches in Timaeus, since he wrote of events 
 that were a century old, can have had no authentic elements, 
 except so far as he used material furnished him by the con- 
 temporary witnesses, Thucydides and Philistus. But the 
 set speech as pure literary ornament, regardless of authentic 
 elements, had become fixed in the technique of the ancient 
 historian. 
 
 Pindar's comparison: Plutarch uses it also in his Qtuym. 
 aduL etc., 24 = Morals, p. 65 B : ** But the false, bastard, and 
 counterfeit friend cringes with fear before his betters, vying 
 with them not even so much as ' by Lydian car a footman 
 slowly plodding *, nay rather, as Simonides puts it, ' to com- 
 
 r^ 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 178 
 
 pare with refined gold having not even pure lead.* " It is 
 one of the Fragmenta Incerta of Pindar (Bergk, Foetae 
 Lyrid Graeci, L* p. 450). 
 
 Diphilus : a prominent poet of the New Comedy (336- 
 250 B. c), contemporary with Menander. Some of his plays, 
 like those of Menander, were adapted for the Eoman stage 
 by Plautus and Terence. Thus the Casina of Plautus was 
 an adaptation of the KkrjpovfjLevoi (Sortitores) of Diphilus* 
 As many as one hundred comedies are attributed to him, of 
 which only titles and fragments have come down to us 
 (Kock, Cam. Att. Frag., iL p. 576). 
 
 Obese: probably used of a parasite by Diphilus; as ap- 
 plied to Timaeus by Plutarch, it would mean " thick-witted". 
 
 Xenarchus: no historian of this name is known, and yet 
 the language implies a historian. Coraes suspects the text 
 
 I. 3. Name derived from victory : vCicn, victory ; ^iicla^;. 
 Victorious. 
 
 Declined to head their expedition : he was elected gen- 
 eral against his will, and tried to dissuade the Athenians 
 from the enterprise (chap. xiL 3 ; Alcibiades, xviiL 1). 
 
 Mutilation of the Hermae: see chap. ziiL 2 ; Alctbiades, 
 xviiL 3. 
 
 Hermooratee : the principal Syracusan commander (chap. 
 xvL 4 et passim), a Sicilian patriot whom Thucydides de- 
 lights to honor. 
 
 Delivered Cerberus into his hands : to fetch the dog 
 Cerberus from Hades was the twelfth and last labor imposed 
 upon Heracles by the tyrant Eurystheus. As the story is 
 told in ApoUodorus (ii 5, 12), Heracles asked Pluto for Cer- 
 berus, and was told that he could have him if he would 
 take him without using weapons. Heracles clasped the 
 three-headed monster in his arms, and took him to the 
 upper world, whence, after having shown him to Eurystheus, 
 he brought him back to Hades. Timaeus evidently had a 
 version of the story in which Cora, or Persephone, the 
 daughter of Demeter and wife of Pluto, assisted the hero in 
 securing the monster. 
 
174 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Succor the Egestaeans : Segesta, as its own inhabitants 
 called it, or Egesta, as the Greeks called it, was a little 
 fortress-city in the northwestern part of Sicily which had a 
 feud of long standing with Selinus in the south-western part. 
 The Selinuntians got aid from Syracuse, and in 416 B.C. 
 their united forces were pressing Egesta hard. An appeal 
 from Egesta to Athens for aid came when the passion of the 
 Athenians for the conquest of Sicily was rising, and fur- 
 nished a plausible pretext for the fatal expedition against 
 Syracuse (Thuc, vL chaps. 6 and 8). See the fuller note on 
 xii 1. 
 
 Descendants of the Trojans: " After the capture of Troy, 
 some Trojans who had escaped from the Achaeans came 
 in ships to Sicily ; they settled near the Sicanians, and both 
 took the name of Elymi The Elymi had two cities, Eryx 
 and Egesta " (Thuc, vi. 2, 3). 
 
 The wrong done him by Laomedon : the legend runs that 
 Heracles saved Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon, from a 
 sea-monster to which she had been devoted, and was then 
 cheated of his promised reward, namely, the immortal horses 
 which Zeus had given Tros as recompense for Oanymedes 
 (Apollodorus, ii 5, 9). Tlepolemus, a son of Heracles, thus 
 boasts to Sarpedon, Lycian son of Zeus (Iliad, v. 639-643, 
 Chapman's translation) : — 
 
 ** My father Hercules 
 Was Jove's true issue : he was bold ; his deeds did well express 
 They sprung out of a lion's heart. He whilom came to Troy, 
 (For horse that Jupiter gave Tros, for Ganymed, his boy) 
 With six ships only, and few men, and tore the city down, 
 Left all her broad ways desolate, and made the horse his own." 
 
 I. 4. Abuse Plato and Aristotle: the censoriousness of 
 Timaeus won him the surname of " Epitimaeus ", or " Fault- 
 finder ". See the Introduction, pp. 33 1 
 
 L 5. Most writers: i. e. historians, like Thucydides, Phi- 
 listus, and Timaeus. 
 
 Others .... oasually : not historians, writing of the Si- 
 cilian expedition, nor even biographers, but philosophers per- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 175 
 
 haps, writers of Socratic dialogues, who used historical 
 material merely as literary setting and embellishment So 
 Plato in his LcLches, and Pasiphon in his Nidas. See the 
 Introduction, pp. 11 f. 
 
 Found on ancient votive offerings : as, for instance, the 
 inscription at Delos, mentioned in iiL 6. 
 
 In public decrees : in xii. 4, Plutarch probably controlled 
 a copy of the decree mentioned, in the collection of Craterus. 
 See the Introduction, pp. 35 f. 
 
 II. 1. In the first place: as a rule, Plutarch begins by de- 
 scribing his hero's birth and training, and then passes to his 
 character and achievements. These topics determine the 
 usual foiu: divisions of a Life by Plutarch. But the Nicias 
 has only the last two divisions, — those treating of the char- 
 acter and achievements of the man. It has been inferred 
 from this that Plutarch found no special biography of Nicias 
 available for use. However fair such an inference may be, 
 it is certainly true that in his opening chapter, as we have 
 seen, Plutarch gives an unusually precise program of his pro- 
 cedure in the composition of this Life, in words which imply 
 independence. Whether Plutarch was independent or not, 
 it may safely be inferred that Nicias was not a man of noble, 
 or even of high birth, otherwise we should certainly have 
 been told of it. He was a contracting capitalist, like his 
 father, whose wealth he had inherited. He was probably 
 descended from some metic, or alien-resident of Athens, who 
 was admitted to the citizenship after, and in consequence of 
 the reforms of Cleisthenes (508-500 b. c). Socially, there- 
 fore, he was in the same class as Cleon and Hyperbolus, 
 whereas Pericles and Alcibiades belonged to the oldest and 
 most famous patrician family. See the note on ii 3. 
 
 What Aristotle wrote : " The best Athenian statesmen^ 
 after the ancients, would seem to have been Nicias, Thucyd- 
 ides, and Theramenes. As regards Nicias and Thucydides, 
 there is almost universal agreement that they were not only 
 good and true men, but also statesmen who served the en- 
 tire state with all the aifection of a father towards a child ; 
 
 
 mr- 
 
176 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 but as r^ards Theramenee, from the fact that political af- 
 fairs in his time were full of convulsion, there is debate 
 about the final estimate of him. To those, however, who 
 pronounce no cursory opinion, he appears not to have de- 
 stroyed all the forms of government under which he lived, 
 as is slanderously said of him, but rather to have furthered 
 them as long as they transgressed no law, with the feeling 
 that he could serve his country under all forms of govern- 
 ment, — which is the sign of a good citizen ; as soon as they 
 ran counter to the laws, he no longer gave them allegiance, 
 but incurred their hate" {Constitution of Athens, xxviiL 5). 
 
 It is clear that Plutarch reproduces very imperfectly the 
 testimony of Aristotle, — so imperfectly that his words can 
 hardly be called a " careless paraphrase ". In this, as in other 
 citations which he makes of the Constitution of Athene {e, g, 
 Themistocles, x. 3 ; Cimon, x. 2), Plutarch is using Aristotle 
 at second hand, as he finds him cited in some such author as 
 Philochorus (Introduction, pp. 34 f.). See J. H. Wright, 
 American Journal of Philology , xii pp. 313-317. 
 
 The three best citizens : Aristotle said they were thought 
 to be the three best statesmen after the ancients. 
 
 In lesser degree: this is not Aristotle's estimate of Thera- 
 menes, but that of his detractors. Philochorus, or the au- 
 thor in whom Plutarch finds the citation from Aristotle, 
 probably dissented from Aristotle's encomium on Theramenes, 
 and Plutarch reproduces the dissent in place of Aristotle's 
 justification of his encomium. 
 
 An alien from Ceos : Theramenes was a legitimate son of 
 Hagnon, and a rightful Athenian citizen, but a taimt of Eu- 
 polis (Kock, Com. Att. Frag,, L p. 322, Frag, 237) and a jest 
 of Aristophanes {Frogs, 970) led to a false assumption that 
 he was only an adoptive son of Hagnon, and a native of Ceos. 
 See Rogers* Note on the Frogs, 970. Ceos was one of the 
 twelve Cyclades islands, and lay about thirteen miles south- 
 east of the promontory of Sunium. Its capital city was the 
 birth-place of the lyric poets Simonides and Bacchylides, and 
 of Prodicus the sophist 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 177 
 
 Ck>thumus : a buskin, or high boot, worn by tragic actors. 
 Since it could be worn indi£ferently on either foot, its name 
 was used to designate a political turn-coat. 
 
 Theramenes was prominent as a naval commander (411- 
 408 B.C.) ; in the revolution of the Four Hundred (411) ; at 
 the battle of the Arginusae (406) ; and among the " Thirty 
 Tyrants " (404). From this office he was deposed by his col- 
 league, Critias, and outrageously put to death. His charac- 
 ter, as was natural in the case of one who sought to avoid 
 political extremes, has been much defamed. See American 
 Historical Review, ix. pp. 649-669. 
 
 IL 2. Thucydides: distinguished as the son of Melesias 
 from Thucydides the historian, who was the son of Olorus. 
 He succeeded Cimon as leader of the aristocratic party. His 
 powerful opposition to Pericles ceased with his ostracism in 
 442 B. c. See the Pericles, chaps, xi. and xiv. 
 
 Associated with ^itn as general : this is not unlikely, but 
 rests on the sole authority of Plutarch. Thucydides first 
 mentions him (iii. 51) as general commanding a successful 
 expedition to capture and fortify Minoa, an island lying be- 
 fore Megara. This was in the summer of 427. 
 
 The party of the rich and notable : Nicias was therefore 
 the political successor, not of Pericles, but of Thucydides son 
 of Melesias, as leader of the aristocratic or oligarchical party. 
 ** In looking to the conditions imder which this party con- 
 tinued to subsist," says Grote {Hist, of Greece, v. p. 199, ed. 
 in ten vols.), ** we shall see that during the interval between 
 Thucydides (son of Melesias) and Nikias, the democratical 
 forms had acquired such confirmed ascendancy, that it would 
 not have suited the purpose of any politician to betray evi- 
 dence of positive hostility to them, prior to the Sicilian ex- 
 pedition and the great embarrassment in the foreign relations 
 of Athens which arose out of that disaster. After that 
 change, the Athenian oligarchs became emboldened and ag- 
 gressive. . . . But Nikias represents the oligarchical party in 
 its previous state of quiescence and torpidity, accommodating 
 itself to a sovereign democracy, and existing in the form of 
 
 T*:; 
 
178 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 common sentiment rather than of common purposes. And it 
 is a remarkable illustration of the real temper of the Athe- 
 nian people, that a man of this character, known as an oligarch 
 but not feared as such, and doing his duty sincerely to the 
 democracy, should have remained until his death the most 
 esteemed and influential man in the city." 
 
 II. 3. Cleon: the successor of Pericles in the leadership of 
 the radical democracy. He is introduced to us by Thucydides 
 in connection with the case of the revolted and conquered 
 people of Mitylene. " In the former assembly, Cleon the son 
 of Cleaenetus had carried the decree condemning the Mitylen- 
 aeans to death. He was the most violent of the citizens, 
 and at that time exercised by far the greatest influence over 
 the people " (iii. 36). Of course he must have acquired this 
 influence gradually, and there is good evidence (Periclea, 
 xxxiii 6) that he was active during the last years of Pericles. 
 After the death of Pericles, in 429, Eucrates the " tow-dealer " 
 (Aristophanes, Knights^ 129) assumed for a brief space the 
 r6le of popular leader, and then Lysicles the " sheep-dealer" 
 (75., 132). The latter perished in Caria early in the winter 
 of 428, on an expedition to collect money from the allies 
 (Thuc, iil 19). Cleon also was a merchant, — a ** leather- 
 dealer" (Aristophanes, Knights, 136). "Under the great in- 
 crease of trade and population in Athens and Peiraeus during 
 the last forty years, a new class of politicians seems to have 
 grown up ; men engaged in various descriptions of trade and 
 manufactiu-e, who began to rival more or less in importance 
 the ancient families of Attic proprietors. This change was 
 substantially analogous to that which took place in the cities 
 of Mediaeval Europe, when the merchants and traders of the 
 various guilds gradually came to compete with, and ulti- 
 mately supplanted, the patrician families in whom the su- 
 premacy had formerly resided" (Grote, Hist of Greece, v. 
 pp. 160 f.). Cleon was so mercilessly caricatured by Aris- 
 tophanes, and so scornfully judged even by Thucydides, 
 that it is hard for us not to do him some injustice. 
 
 By coddling them, etc- : an iambic trimeter from an un- 
 
 "v rvf>M 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 179 
 
 k4 
 
 known comic poet (Kock, Com, Att. Frag., iii p. 400). It 
 is a parody of a verse from the Peleus of Sophocles (Nauck» 
 Tr<ig. Graec. Frag^, p. 239), " To nurse his age, and educate 
 him up again", which is more closely parodied in Aris- 
 tophanes, Knights, 1099, where Demus intrusts himself to 
 the victorious rival of Cleon ** to coddle me, and educate me 
 up again ". Plutarch uses this same anonymous verse in his 
 Praecepta ger, reip,, 13 = Morals, 807 A, where also he is 
 characterizing Cleon, who joined himself ** with the meanest 
 and most distempered of the people against the best ". 
 
 II. 4 Timid as he was by nature, eta : this excellent 
 characterization of Nicias accords with that of Thucydides, 
 who, in the case of Nicias, departs from his usual custom of 
 letting deeds portray character. '' Pleistoanax the son of 
 Pausanias, king of the Lacedaemonians, and Nicias the son 
 of Niceratus the Athenian, who had been the most fortunate 
 general of his day, became more eager than ever to make an 
 end of the war. Nicias desired, whilst he was still successful 
 and held in repute, to preserve his good fortune ; he would 
 have liked to rest from toil, and to give his people rest; 
 and he hoped to leave behind him to other ages the name of 
 a man who in all his life had never brought disaster on 
 the city. He thought that the way to gain his wish was to 
 trust as little as possible to fortune, and to keep out of 
 danger; and that danger would be best avoided by peace" 
 (v. 16, 1). 
 
 III. 1. Native exoeUenoe and powerful eloquence: Per- 
 icles, ''deriving authority from his capacity and acknowl- 
 edged worth, being also a man of transparent integrity, was 
 able to control the multitude in a free spirit ; he led them 
 rather than was led by them ; for, not seeking power by dis- 
 honest arts, he had no need to say pleasant things, but, on 
 the strength of his own high character, could venture to op- 
 pose and even to anger them. When he saw them unseason- 
 ably elated and arrogant, his words humbled and awed them ; 
 and, when they were depressed by groundless fears, he sought 
 to reanimate their confidence. Thus Athens, though still in 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
180 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 181 
 
 name a democracy, was in fact ruled by her greatest citizen " 
 (Thuc, ii 65, 8 f.). 
 
 III. 2. Choral and gymnastio exhibitions: the Athe- 
 nian state imposed certain public services, or " liturgies ", on 
 its wealthy citizens, at stated times and in regular rotation. 
 The principal ordinary, or regular liturgies were three in 
 number. The Choregia involved the equipment of a trained 
 chorus for competition at a public festival ; the Gymnasi- 
 archia, the maintenance and training of the competitors in a 
 public gymnastic contest, as well as the arrangement and 
 decoration of the place of contest; the ArchitJieoria, the 
 superintendence and conduct of a sacred embassy to one of 
 the national games, or to such holy places as Delos or 
 Delphi An extraordinary liturgy was the Trierarchia, or 
 fitting out of a trireme in time of war. Citizens ambitious 
 of securing popular favor were lavish in their expenditures 
 when regularly appointed to these services, and sometimes 
 volunteered for them. See the ThemistocleSy v. 4 and the 
 Aristides, L 2, with the notes. 
 
 IIL 3. The Palladium: a small figure of Pallas Athena 
 in armor, and of an archaic type, after the manner of repre- 
 sentations in the most ancient art of the sacred image taken 
 frOm Troy by Odysseus and Diomedes (Virgil, Aen. ii. 163 fif. ; 
 Pausanias, L 28, 9). A similar figure was dedicated at Del- 
 phi (chap. xiiL 3), possibly by Cimon. 
 
 Temple surmounted by tripods: each of the ten Attic 
 tribes was represented by a chorus in the dithyrambic contests 
 of the greater Dionysiac festival (held in the great theatre), 
 and the prize awarded by the state to the victorious choregus 
 was a bronze tripod, which he was permitted to dedicate in 
 some public place. A street leading from the Prytaneium 
 to the theatre of Dionysus, and skirting the eastern slope of 
 the Acropolis, was lined with such dedications, and called 
 the " Street of Tripods " (see Pausanias, i. 20, 1, and Frazer*s 
 notes). The usual support of the tripod in the dedications 
 of the fifth centiuy b. g. was a low-stepped base, and it is 
 probable that the row of choregic tripods dedicated in the 
 
 precinct of Dionysus by Nicias and his brothers (Plato, 
 Gorgias, 472 A) were mounted in this way. After the 
 completion of the stone theatre by Lyciu*gus (about 340 B. c), 
 there was a marked increase in the display of wealth by the 
 victorious choregi Small temples or shrines took the place 
 of more simple bases for the tripods, like, for instance, the 
 elegant " choree monument of Lysicrates ", still in situ. In 
 320-319 B. c, a Nicias, son of Nicodemus, of the deme Xypete 
 (as the dedicatory inscription on the front architrave of the 
 temple shows), built a small Doric temple in the precinct of 
 Dionysus to support his own choregic tripod, and also, as we 
 must infer from the explicit language of Plutarch, the tripods 
 of the elder Nicias. These were perhaps displaced by the 
 temple, which Plutarch carelessly attributes to the elder 
 Nicias, and given a new and better place upon it, along 
 with that of the younger Nicias. The tripods, like most 
 valuable bronze dedications, have disappeared. But the 
 temple of the younger Nicias was in later times taken 
 down and built into the so-called Beul^ Gate of the Acrop- 
 olis, which was imcovered in 1852. In 1885 Professor 
 Doerpfeld began the analysis of the remains of the temple, 
 and its theoretical restoration. The subject has been much 
 discussed (see Frazer's Pausanias, ii p. 250 ; Harrison and 
 Verrall, Mythology and Monuments of Athens, pp. 344-346 ; 
 D'Ooge, Acropolis of Athens, pp. 262 fif.), but approaches final 
 solution in W. B. Dinsmoofs paper on The Choragic Monu- 
 ment of Nicias, American Journal of Archaeology, xiv. (1910), 
 pp. 459-484 (cf. XV. pp. 168 f.). 
 
 In the costume of Dionysus: not an actor in a play, but 
 the leading, or solo singer in a Dionysiac dithyramb. 
 
 III. 4 f. Outlays at Delos: when performing the Archi- 
 theoria (§ 5), or conducting an official embassy from the city 
 to the sacred isle. Delos was the central and smallest island 
 in the Cyclades group. As the reputed birth-place of Apollo, 
 it had been from early times the seat of a national festival 
 of the lonians of Asia and the islands. The character of the 
 festival is seen from Thucydides, iii 104, and especially from 
 
182 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 the verses of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo there cited. " Mu- 
 sical and gymnastic contests were held there, and the cities 
 celebrated choral dances." The Athenians had at one time 
 participated in this festival, but it had been for a long while 
 n^lected, "owing to the misfortunes of Ionia". In the 
 winter of 426 b. c, " the Athenians, by command of an 
 oracle, purified the island. They took away the dead out 
 of all the sepulchres which were in Delos, and passed a 
 decree that henceforward no one should die or give birth 
 to a child there, but that the inhabitants when they were 
 near the time of either should be carried across to Rheneia. 
 Now Rheneia is near to Delos, so near indeed that Poly- 
 crates the tyrant of Samos, who for a time had a power- 
 ful navy, attached this island, which he conquered with 
 the rest of the islands and dedicated to the Delian Apollo, 
 by a chain to Delos. After the purification, the Athenians 
 for the first time celebrated the Delian games, which were 
 held every four years." Possibly it was this newly insti- 
 tuted quadrennial festival which Nicias conducted with such 
 lavish expenditures (Busolt, Griech, Oesch,, iii. p. 1080). 
 Boeckh, however (Staatshaushaltung *, ii p. 85), thought that 
 Plutarch's language implied at least two celebrations before 
 that which Nicias conducted, and assigned the year 418 to the 
 latter. So Hicks and Hill, Greek Historical Inscriptions \ p. 202. 
 From this great quadrennial festival, at which a trained 
 chorus from Athens vied with choruses from other cities 
 (Xen., Mem. iii. 3, 12), the annual theoria, or sending of the 
 sacred ship of Theseus to Delos, must be distinguished. 
 This was an embassy conveying thank offerings to Apollo 
 for the victory of Theseus over the Minotaur, and the de- 
 livery of Athens from her novennial tribute of seven youths 
 and seven maidens. According to Plutarch (Theseus, xxiiL), 
 the vessel sent was the very one in which Theseus had 
 sailed, though so repaired and restored as to have lost its 
 material identity. It was the absence of this vessel on its 
 annual mission which gave Socrates a month's reprieve from 
 death (Plato, Fhaedo, 58 A). 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 183 
 
 The strait between Rheneia and Delos : about half a 
 mile wide, and interrupted by two bare rocks. The bridge of 
 Nicias would seem to have been imitated in later celebra- 
 tions (Hicks and Hill, op. ciU, p. 205). 
 
 III. 6. Bronze palm-tree: Odysseus compares Nausicaa 
 to the sacred palm which he saw on Delos, near the altar of 
 Apollo (Od., vi. 162 f.). This palm became one of the tradi- 
 tional features of the sacred isle, and was still shown in 
 Cicero's time. " It was believed to be the oldest palm-tree 
 in the world and to have sprung up when Latona landed in 
 Delos ; in the act of giving birth to Apollo and Artemis 
 she laid one hand on the palm-tree and the other hand on 
 an olive. From this same sacred palm Theseus broke the 
 branch wherewith he crowned the victors in the games 
 which he celebrated at Delos " (Frazer, on Pausanias, viii, 
 48, 2). 
 
 Ten thousand drachmas : about $2000, or X400, with 
 four or five times the present purchasing power of money. 
 The drachma was a silver coin of about the worth of the 
 French franc. In weight and value it was the hundredth 
 part of a mina, and contained six obols. An obol, therefore, 
 corresponded in value nearly to the English penny. Sixty 
 minas made a talent, which was equivalent to about $1200, 
 or £225. 
 
 Graven on the stone : fulfilling his promise in i. 5 of col- 
 lecting material " found on ancient votive offerings ", Plutarch 
 gives us the gist of this Delian inscription. He may well 
 have found it in Philochorus (Introd. p. 34). 
 
 Colosscd statue of the god : excavations have brought to 
 light the base of this statue of Apollo in situ, and adjacent 
 to it sundry fragments of the statue itself. See Baedecker's 
 Greece (1894), p. 144, and Bulletin de Correspondance Helle- 
 nique, xviL (1893), pp. 129-144. 
 
 rV. 1. Ostentatious publicity : reading waprjyvpiKtiv, 
 with Madvig. 
 
 As Thuoydides says: in describing the effect upon the 
 Athenian army at Syracuse of an eclipse of the moon (viL 
 
184 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 50, 4). Much of the sternness of the historian's judgment 
 is lost in Plutarch's citation. Nicias was " far too much 
 addicted to divination and similar religious practices ". See 
 chap. xxiiL and notes. 
 
 lY. 2. One of the dialogues of Paaiphon : a dialogue 
 entitled " Nicias ", though sometimes attributed to Phaedo, 
 the disciple of Socrates, was probably the work of Pasiphon 
 the Eretrian, a notorious imitator of the Socratic disciples, 
 to whom he attributed his own compositions. See the In- 
 troduction, pp. lit 
 
 Silver mines in Laurium : the peninsula forming the 
 south-eastern extremity of Attica furnished the Athenian 
 state with most of the silver which it coined so abundantly 
 during the fifth century B. c. It was the revenue from the 
 mines here which enabled Athens to become the foremost 
 maritime power in Greece. " The Athenians, having a large 
 sum of money in their treasury, the produce of the mines at 
 Laureium, were about to share it among the full-grown 
 citizens, who would have received ten drachmas apiece, when 
 Themistocles persuaded them to forbear the distribution, and 
 build with the money two hundred ships, to help them in 
 their war against the Eginetans. It was the breaking out 
 of the Eginetan war which was at this time the saving of 
 Greece, for hereby were the Athenians forced to become a 
 maritime power. The new ships were not used for the pur- 
 pose for which they had been built, but became a help to 
 Greece in her hour of need" (Herod., vii 144). See the note 
 on the Themistocles, iv. 2. The mines were the property of 
 the state, and were leased to private individuals, who paid 
 the price of the lease and one twenty-fourth of the prod- 
 uce into the public treasury. During the Peloponnesian 
 war they continued to yield the state a revenue, but gradually 
 declined in productiveness. By the time of Augustus they 
 were abandoned. In recent times, however, the mines have 
 been actively worked again, and modem processes have made 
 the refuse of the ancient mining operations valuable. Lead, 
 and not silver, is the chief product of the modem mining. 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 185 
 
 A multitude of slaves : " It is an old story, trite enough to 
 those of us who have cared to attend to it, how once on a 
 time Nicias, the son of Niceratus, owned a thousand men in 
 the silver mines, whom he let out to Sosias, a Thracian, on 
 the following terms. Sosias was to pay him a net obol a day, 
 without charge or deduction, for every slave of the thousand, 
 and be responsible for keeping up the number perpetually at 
 that figure " (Xen., On Revenues, iv. 14, Dakyns' translation). 
 **What say you, Antisthenes ? — have friends their values 
 like domestic slaves? One of these latter may be worth 
 perhaps two minae, another only half a mina, a third five, 
 and a foiu-th as much as ten ; while they do say that Nicias, 
 the son of Niceratus, paid a whole talent for a superintendent 
 of his silver mines " (Xen., Mem, iL 5, 2). See on iii. 6. 
 
 IV. 4. Telecleides : one of the older poets of Old Comedy 
 (Introd., pp. 1 f .), but partly contemporary with Aristophanes. 
 His ridicule of Pericles is cited by Plutarch in the Pericles, 
 iiL 4 and xvi 2. The title of the play from which the follow- 
 ing extract is taken is not known (Kock, Com. Att. Frag., i, 
 p. 219). 
 
 Public informer : Athenian law permitted any person to 
 bring information against public ofifenders, and prosecute 
 them in the courts. The privilege came to be much abused, 
 and innocent men would often pay liberally to escape the 
 annoyance of a public prosecution. Eich men in particular 
 found it expedient to be on good terms with the professional 
 informer. See the art. Sycophantes in Smith's Diet of An- 
 tiquities (third ed.). 
 
 Charicles : prominent in 415 B. c. in the official efforts to 
 discover the authors of the Hermae-oxxtr^igQ ; strategus in 
 414-413 ; and afterwards, in 404, one of the " Thirty 
 Tyrants". 
 
 IV. 5. Eupolis : one of the younger poets of Old Comedy, 
 like Aristophanes. As Aristophanes had lampooned the 
 demagogue Cleon in his Knights, of the year 424, so Eupolis 
 caricatured the demagogue Hyperbolus in his Maricas, of 
 the year 421. Aristophanes accuses Eupolis of plagiarism 
 
186 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 (Clavds, 653-556). For the verses here cited, see Kock, 
 Com, Att. Frag., i p. 308. 
 
 lY. 6. The Cleon of Aristophanes : in the Knights (v. 
 358), in which Nicias and Demosthenes are represented as 
 slaves in the household of the Athenian Demus, and terror- 
 ized by a newly purchased Paphlagonian slave (Cleon) until 
 rescued by a rampant sausage-seller, it is not the Paphlago- 
 nian (Cleon), but the sausage-seller, Agoracritus, who utters 
 the verse here cited. He will out-bawl the orators bawl 
 they ever so loudly, and confound the timid Nicias. 
 
 Phryniohus : also one of the younger poets of Old Comedy. 
 He won the third place in 414, when Aristophanes was 
 second with his Birds, and the second place in 405, when 
 Aristophanes was first with his Frogs. The name of the 
 play from which the verses here cited come, is not certain 
 (Kock, Com, Att Frag., L p. 385X 
 
 V. 1. Would neither dine, etc.: from very different 
 motives Pericles also is said to have held himself aloof from 
 social life (Pericles, vii. 4). 
 
 General : there were ten of these, one from each of the 
 ten tribes, elected annually by show of hands in the Ecclesia, 
 or General Assembly. ** Originally nothing more than the 
 commanders of the tribal regiments, .... the strategi came 
 to be the most important officials of the state. In addition 
 to their command of the army, they came to conduct the 
 foreign policy of Athens, while as guardians of the state in 
 time of peace as well as of war, they were responsible not 
 only for keeping open supplies of food from abroad, but for 
 protecting the state from treasonable attacks on the part of 
 her own children" (Gardner-Jevons, Manual of Gruk An- 
 tiquities, pp. 468 fif.). 
 
 Counoillor: member of the Council of Five Hundred, 
 created by Cleisthenes (510-508 B.C.), and composed of 
 fifty men from each of the ten tribes, elected annually and 
 by lot from a body of citizens nominated by their demes, or 
 townships, for this post. The Council re»ally served as a 
 large executive committee for the Ecclesia, or General As- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 187 
 
 sembly, and all its members were also members of the Ecclesia 
 (Gardner-Jevons, op. cit., pp. 484 ff.). 
 
 V. 2. Hiero: not otherwise known. The details of his 
 relations to Nicias are probably taken from the dialogue of 
 Pasiphon mentioned in iv. 2, and Pasiphon (or whoever the 
 author is from whom Plutarch directly or indirectly draws this 
 material) probably got them from the comic poets (Intro- 
 duction, pp. 1 f.). There is therefore much allowance to be 
 made for exaggeration. 
 
 Dionysius: Athenaeus (xv. p. 669 d) speaks of him as 
 orator and poet, and explains his surname of Ghalcvs, or 
 ** The Copper ", from his having advised the Athenians to 
 mint a small copper coin of the value of J/^ of an obol, or less 
 than a farthing. His poems are often referred to, and some- 
 times cited. Seven fragments appear in Bergk's Poetae 
 Lgrici Oraeci* , ii pp. 262 ff. They are of light, symposiac 
 nature. He must, however, have been a man of influence, 
 since he was one of the commission of ten appointed by 
 Athens (scholiast on Aristophanes, Clouds, 332) to lead the 
 colonizing expedition to Thurii, in 444 b. c. To this com- 
 mission Lampon the Seer, whom Pericles favored, belonged 
 (see the Pericles, vi. 2 and note). There was probably some- 
 thing of the seer and prophet in Dionysius also, since Hiero 
 wished to be believed his son. 
 
 V. 4. Could say what Affamemnon did: this orna- 
 mental citation from the Iphigeneia at Aulis of Euripides 
 (w. 445 t), is probably Plutarch's own supplement to the 
 material derived from Pasiphon's dialogue. Kirchhoff cor- 
 rects the MSS. of Eiu-ipides into agreement with the citation 
 in Plutarch (reading, however, re for Be in both clauses). 
 
 VI.--XXVII. Having discussed the "nature" and "char- 
 acter ** of Nicias in chapters ii.-v., Plutarch now begins the 
 recital of his "deeds", in the second main division of the 
 Life. See the first note on ii. 1. 
 
 YI. 1. Fininsr Ferioles : in the autumn of 430, Pericles 
 was deposed from his office of general, tried before a court of 
 fifteen hundred jurors, found guilty of a misuse of the public 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
188 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 funds, and fined fifty talents. The sentence was purely po- 
 litical in its bearing. See the Pericles, xxxii. 2, xxxv. 4, and 
 notes. 
 
 Ostracising Damon : the institution of ostracism, devised 
 by Cleisthenes the reformer (510-508), provided that every 
 year, if the Assembly of the people so desired, the citizens of 
 Athens might vote in the agora by tribes, each citizen placing 
 in an urn a potsherd (ostrakon) inscribed with the name of 
 the person whom he wished to be "ostracised". The voting 
 was not valid unless six thousand votes at least were cast 
 (according to Philochorus, Frag. 79 b, unless the person os- 
 tracised had at least six thousand votes), and whoever had 
 most ostraka inscribed with his name was condemned to 
 leave Attica within ten days for ten years. He was allowed, 
 however, to receive the revenues from his property, and re- 
 mained a citizen in dbsentid. Originally intended to put 
 into the hands of the people the means of removing an am- 
 bitious noble who was scheming to restore the "tyranny", 
 and twice so employed in the ostracisms of Hipparchus (487) 
 and Megacles (486), the institution came, as early as 484, 
 when Xanthippus, and 482, when Aristides was ostracised, 
 to be used for the removal of a powerful opposition to the 
 wishes of a majority of the people. In a way, therefore, it 
 led to a tyranny of the majority, which is the worst of all 
 tyrannies. Grote defended this peculiar institution as a neces- 
 sary safeguard of democracy during the gradual development 
 at Athens of a " constitutional morality " {Hist of Greece^ iii. 
 pp. 372 fif.). 
 
 Damon was a celebrated musician, philosopher, and states- 
 man, to whose teachings many of the most advanced demo- 
 cratic ideas of Pericles were ascribed. His political activity 
 was afterwards obscured, like that of Ephialtes, by the more 
 eminent services of Pericles. The real grounds for his ostra- 
 cism therefore remain imknown. We cannot believe what 
 Plutarch says {AristideSy i. 5), that it was "because he was 
 thought to be rather extraordinary in his wisdom ", nor does 
 the great biographer come much nearer the truth when he 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 189 
 
 says (Pericles, iv. 2) that Damon " was ostracised for being a 
 great schemer and a friend of tyranny ". The Damonides of 
 Oea, who, according to Aristotle (Const of Athens, xxvii. 4), 
 was ostracised because he was thought to have suggested most 
 of his political innovations to Pericles, was in all probability 
 the same person (see the note on the Pericles, iv. 2). It is 
 possible that in some reaction against the more radical meas- 
 ures of Pericles, of which we have no definite record, Damon 
 (Damonides) was ostracised to make way for more conserva- 
 tive coimsels, or to rebuke a too presumptuous administration. 
 The most probable date for this ostracism is between 450 and 
 446 B. G. 
 
 DisoreditinfiT Antiphon : though a man of the greatest 
 gifts and powers, highly educated, and a trained rhetorician 
 and orator, Antiphon never won the confidence of the people. 
 He was bom during the great Persian wars, not far from 480, 
 and was always aristocratic in his political sympathies. He 
 was placed first among the ten orators of the Attic canon, 
 and some fifteen orations reputed to be his have come down 
 to us, but the genuineness of many of these is disputed. He 
 first took active and open part in politics during the revolu- 
 tion of the Four Hundred (411), and on the failure of this, 
 was tried and executed. Thucydides departs from his usual 
 impersonal methods to pay him a most remarkable tribute 
 (viii. 68, 1-2). In it is a sentence which is the best com- 
 mentary on the words of Plutarch : " To the multitude, who 
 were suspicious of his great abilities, he was an object of 
 dislike." Of course the condemnation of Antiphon cannot 
 be referred to by Plutarch here, because that was subsequent 
 to the death of Nicias. 
 
 VI. 2. The fate of Paohes: this is included in another 
 list of the shortcomings of the people in dealing with their 
 leaders, — "the exile of Themistocles, the imprisonment of 
 Miltiades, the fine of Pericles, the death of Paches in the 
 court-room (he slew himself on the rostrum when he saw 
 that he was convicted)", — given by Plutarch in his Aris- 
 tides, xxvi 3. Paches was the conqueror of the revolted 
 
 
 i'i 
 
/. 
 
 190 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Mitylenaeans, in 427. Thucydides describes his expedition 
 at great length, but says nothing of his death. Nor does 
 Diodorus (Ephonis), though his account of the subjugation 
 of Lesbos is somewhat detailed (xii 55). The context of both 
 passages in Plutarch implies that it was the imgrateful atti- 
 tude of the people which drove Paches to the fatal deed, 
 and this is doubtless true, although there is an epigram of 
 Agathias (floruit circa 575 A. D.), preserved in the Palatine 
 Anthology (viL 614), which makes his death due to the tes- 
 timony before the Athenian people of two beautiful women 
 of Mitylene, to the efifect that he had mxmiered their hus- 
 bands in order to get them into his power for haae uses. 
 The story may, or may not be true. It was no uncommon 
 thing at Athens for a successful general to be tried on his 
 return from a campaign for malversation in office. The list 
 of generals thus brought to trial is a long ona It begins 
 with Miltiades, the victor of Marathon, and contains the 
 names of Themistocles, Cimon, Pericles, Phormio, Paches, 
 Thucydides the historian, and Alcibiades. "Whether the 
 punishment of bad generals did the state good in any pro- 
 portion to the evil wrought by the unjust accusation of 
 faithful servants, is a question which may perhaps be de- 
 bated. What is beyond the possibility of doubt is the 
 injurious efifect which the fear of accusation had on gen- 
 erals in the conduct of their campaigns" (Gardner- Jevons, 
 Manual of Greek Antiquities, p. 469). We shall soon find 
 this eminently true in the case of Nicias himself, before 
 Syracuse (chap. xxiL 3; Thuc., viL 48). 
 
 VL 3. Many great reverses: the list is carelessly 
 thrown together, and shows slight regard for chronological 
 sequence, together with some inaccuracies. 
 
 Calliades : an error for Callias, the son of Calliades, who 
 should not be associated with a " reverse **. On the revolt 
 of Potidaea, in 432, the Chalcidians also revolted and swore 
 alliance with them. The Corinthians sent some two thou- 
 sand troops to aid them, whereupon the Athenians "sent 
 against the revolted towns forty ships and two thousand 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 191 
 
 of their own hoplites under the conmiand of Callias the son 
 of Calliades, and four others ". In a battle under the walls of 
 Potidaea, the Athenians were victorious, " raised a trophy, and 
 granted the Potidaeans a truce for the burial of their dead. 
 Of the Potidaeans and their allies, there fell somewhat less 
 than three hundred ; of the Athenians, a hundred and fifty, 
 and their general Callias " (Thuc, L 58-63). 
 
 Xenophon : in the summer of 429, the third year of the 
 war, Potidaea being in the possession of the Athenians, they 
 " sent an expedition against the Chalcidians of Thrace .... 
 consisting of two thousand heavy-armed troops of their own 
 and two hundred horsemen imder the command of Xenophon 
 the son of Euripides, and two others". They were out- 
 maneuvered and put to flight by their enemies. "At length 
 they escaped to Potidaea, and having recovered their dead 
 under a flag of truce, returned to Athens with the survivors 
 of their army, out of which they had lost foiu: hundred and 
 thirty men and all their generals " (Thuc, ii 79). Xenophon 
 was one of the generals to whom Potidaea had surrendered 
 in 430 (Thuc, ii 70). 
 
 The Aetolian disaster : in the summer of 426, the sixth 
 year of the war, Demosthenes and Procles were sent with 
 thirty ships round Peloponnesus. They were joined by a 
 large armament in an attack upon the island and city of 
 Leucas. But from this imdertaking, which promised suc- 
 cess, Demosthenes was lured away by the Messenians of 
 Naupactus into an invasion of Aetolia, in the bold hope of 
 penetrating by way of this country into Phocis and attack- 
 ing Boeotia. Abandoned by the Acamanians and Corcyrae- 
 ans, "with the remainder of his army, which consisted of 
 Cephallenians, Zacynthians, and three hundred marines be- 
 longing to the Athenian fleet," he set out on his rash march. 
 In the heart of the wild Aetolian country his army was sur- 
 rounded by the light-armed Aetolian mountaineers, defeated 
 and dispersed. " Many of the allies fell, and of the Athenian 
 heavy-armed about a hundred and twenty, all in the flower 
 of their youth ; they were the very finest men whom the city 
 
 t 
 
 
 ( 
 
 ■ *i 
 
192 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 193 
 
 of Athens lost during the war. Procles, one of the two gen- 
 erals, was also killed. When they had received the bodies 
 of their dead under a flag of truce from the Aetolians, they 
 retreated to Naupactus, and returned in their ships to Athens. 
 Demosthenes remained behind in Naupactus and the neigh- 
 borhood ; for, after what had happened, he feared the anger 
 of the Athenians " (Thuc, iii 91, 94-98). 
 
 At Delium : in the summer of 424, the eighth year of the 
 war, a plot for the betrayal of Boeotia into the hands of Hip- 
 pocrates and Demosthenes, the Athenian generals, was frus- 
 trated, and Hippocrates, who " had called out the whole force 
 of Athens, metics as well as citizens, and all the strangers 
 who were then in the city ", fortified Delium, a temple of 
 Apollo in Boeotia, and after leaving a garrison there, set out 
 homewards with the rest of his army. The light-armed 
 troops went on ahead, but the heavy-armed, some seven thou- 
 sand in number, and the cavalry, halted to rest. They were at- 
 tacked by the Boeotian army of seven thousand heavy-armed 
 and ten thousand light-armed troops, and routed with great 
 slaughter. " The Boeotians lost somewhat less than five 
 hundred ; the Athenians not quite a thousand, and Hippoc- 
 rates their general Delium was captured seventeen days 
 after the battle" (Thuc, iv. 89-101). 
 
 The plague : in the winter of 427, " the plague, which had 
 never entirely disappeared, although abating for a time, again 
 attacked the Athenians. It continued on this second occa- 
 sion not less than a year, having previously lasted for two 
 years. To the power of Athens certainly nothing was more 
 ruinous ; not less than four thousand four hundred Athenian 
 hoplites who were on the roll died, and also three himdred 
 horsemen, and an incalculable number of the common peo- 
 ple " (Thuc, iii 87). For the details of the first visitation, see 
 Thucydides, ii 47-58, and Plutarch, Pericles, xxxiv.-xxxvi 
 
 VL 4. The list of Nicias* successes is even more careless, 
 irregular, and inaccurate than that of the city's reverses. But 
 this fact does not lessen materially the effectiveness of Plu- 
 tarch's portraiture. Nicias took no chances, and was invari- 
 
 ably successful This truth, emphasized also by Thucydides* 
 deepens the tragedy of his final failure (c/. Thuc, v. 16, 1 ; 
 vii. 77, 2). 
 
 Captured Cythera : in the summer of 424, the eighth 
 year of the war, to offset, in some measure, the triumph of 
 Cleon in the capture of Sphacteria (chap. viiL). The loss of 
 Cythera, coming so soon after that of Pylos and Sphacteria, 
 brought the Spartans to the verge of despair (Thuc, iv. 53- 
 55). The reputed advice of Demaratus to Xerxes, that he 
 seize this island of Cythera as a menace to Sparta (Herod., 
 vii 235), may well have been invented under the tremendous 
 impression produced in the Hellenic world by this triumph- 
 ant success of Nicias. 
 
 Captured many places in Thrace : this must refer to the 
 expedition of Nicias and Nicostratus, in 423, to the Chal- 
 cidic peninsula, where they captured Mende, blockaded 
 Scione, made favorable terms with Perdiccas, king of Mace- 
 donia, who had previously been cooperating with the Spar- 
 tan Brasidas, and then returned home (Thuc, iv. 129-133). 
 
 Minoa .... Nisaea: in this sentence Plutarch blends in- 
 cidents of two entirely different expeditions, one imder com- 
 mand of Nicias, in 427, the fifth year of the war, " against 
 the island of Minoa, which lies in front of Megara " (Thuc, 
 iii 51) ; and one under command of Demosthenes and Hip- 
 pocrates, in 424, the eighth year of the war, which narrowly 
 failed in an attempt to captiu:e Megara, but did succeed in 
 taking Nisaea, its harbor-city, connected with it by long 
 walls (Thuc, iv. 66-69). 
 
 Descent upon Corinth : immediately after the surrender 
 of Sphacteria, in the summer of 425, the seventh year of the 
 war, " the Athenians attacked the Corinthian territory with 
 eighty ships, two thousand heavy-armed, and cavalry to the 
 number of two hundred conveyed on horse transports. They 
 were accompanied by allies from Miletus, Andros, and Carys- 
 tuB. Nicias the son of Niceratus, and two others, were in 
 command " (Thuc, iv. 42, 1). The Athenians gained a partial 
 victory only, on their left wing, where the Corinthians in- 
 
 i 
 
194 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 195 
 
 curred a heavy loss, and where Lycophron, their general, was 
 slain. The Athenian right wing was defeated and driven 
 back to their ships. When reenforcements for the Corinthi- 
 ans came up, " the united army then advanced against the 
 Athenians, who, fancying that a reinforcement had come 
 from the neighbouring states of Peloponnesus, quickly re- 
 treated to their ships, taking their spoils and then- own dead, 
 with the exception of two whom they could not find ; they 
 then embarked and sailed to the neighbouring islands. Thence 
 they sent a herald asking for a truce, and recovered the two 
 dead bodies which were missing. The Corinthians lost two 
 hundred and twelve men ; the Athenians hardly so many as 
 fifty " (Thuc, iv. 44). 
 
 VI. 5. Left unnoticed on the field: the tenor of the story 
 is quite different from that of Thucydides, just cited, and aims 
 to enhance the credit of Nicias, who really did nothing more 
 than his plain duty. 
 
 VI. 6. Ravaged the coeuBts of Laconia: this was in 424, 
 the eighth year of the war, immediately after the capture of 
 Cythera (§ 4), from which island the Athenians " sailed away, 
 made descents upon Asin^, Helos, and most of the other 
 maritime towns of Laconia, and, encamping wherever they 
 found convenient, ravaged the country for about seven days" 
 
 (Thuc, iv. 54). 
 
 Captured Thyrea: in the summer of 431, the Athenians 
 had " expelled the Aeginetans and their families from Aegina, 
 allying that they had been the main cause of the war. . . . 
 The Lacedaemonians gave the Aeginetan exiles the town of 
 Thyrea to occupy and the adjoining country to cultivate, 
 partly in order to annoy the Athenians, partly out of grati- 
 tude to the Aeginetans, who had done them good service 
 at the time of the earthquake and the revolt of the He- 
 lots. The Thyrean territory is a strip of land coming down 
 to the sea on the borders of Argolis and Laconia. There 
 some of them found a home ; others dispersed over Hellas " 
 (Thuc, ii 27). Now, in 424, those who had found a home 
 at Thyrea were either slain in battle by the Athenians, or 
 
 carried alive to Athens and put to death there (Thuc, iv. 57, 
 4). Of those who, in 431, had ** dispersed over Hellas ", as 
 many as could be collected together were restored to their 
 island by Lysander, after the fall of Athens, in 404 (see the 
 note on the Themistocles^ iv. 1). 
 
 VII. In iv. 2-41, Thucydides relates, in his most circum- 
 stantial and graphic manner, the campaign at Pylos and 
 Sphacteria, a major episode of the war, second perhaps in im- 
 portance only to the Sicilian e3q)edition. It is impossible to 
 condense this narrative of Thucydides without some loss of 
 clarity and vigor. How poorly it can be done, may be seen 
 in the pages of Diodorus (Ephorus), xii 61-63 ; how well, in 
 this seventh chapter of the Nicias (together with one sen- 
 tence of the eighth), where one third of the space occupied by 
 Diodorus serves to give us what is, on the whole, an admira- 
 ble r^sum^ of the famous Thucydidean episode. 
 
 VII. 1. Demosthenes fortified Pylos : Pylos was an an- 
 cient, ruined citadel, on the precipitous promontory of Cory- 
 phasium, at the north-western edge of a great harbor on the 
 western coast of Messenia, — the modem bay of Navarino. 
 In front of the harbor, running north and south, lay the nar- 
 row island of Sphacteria, leaving entrances into the harbor 
 at its two extremities. In the spring of 425 b. c, the Athe- 
 nians sent a fleet of forty ships imder Eurymedon and Soph- 
 ocles to reenforce their fleet abeady operating about Sicily 
 under Pythodorus. Demosthenes, who had partially redeemed 
 by subsequent successes his defeat in Aetolia (see on vi. 3), 
 obtained permission to go with this fleet, and to make such 
 use of it on the coast of Peloponnesus as he desired. A 
 storm drove the fleet into the harbor of Pylos. " Instantly 
 Demosthenes urged them to fortify the place ; this being the 
 project which he had in view when he accompanied the 
 fleet " (Thuc, iv. 3, 2). Neither generals nor soldiers would 
 listen to him at first, but being detained there by bad 
 weather, they at last began the work, and in six days com- 
 pleted it, and then left Demosthenes there with five ships to 
 defend it. Good results foUpwed immediately. The Spar- 
 
 V-! 
 
 i 
 
196 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 197 
 
 tans withdrew their army of invasion from Attica, and closed 
 in upon Pylos with fleet and army. Their fleet occupied the 
 harbor of Pylos, and they posted a large detachment of hop- 
 lites on the island of Sphacteria. 
 
 A battle was fought: the Lacedaemonians tried in vain 
 to storm the position of Demosthenes, and the main Athe- 
 nian fleet, returning from Zacynthus in answer to his sum- 
 mons, crushed the Spartan fleet and blockaded on the island 
 of Sphacteria a detachment of four hundred and twenty 
 hoplites, "besides the Helots who attended them" (Thuc, 
 iv. 8, 9). This produced the utmost consternation at Sparta, 
 whose magistrates "decided that with the consent of the 
 Athenian generals they would suspend hostilities at Pylos, 
 and sending ambassadors to ask for peace at Athens, would 
 endeavour to recover their men as soon as possible " (Thuc, 
 
 iv. 15, 2). 
 
 VIL 2. Vote down the truce: he persuaded them to 
 make extravagant demands, and then to refuse the request 
 of the Spartan envoys for the appointment of special commis- 
 sioners to discuss with them the terms of agreement. Un- 
 willing to plead their cause before the whole Assembly, the 
 Spartan envoys returned home (Thuc., iv. 21-22). Thu- 
 cydides says nothing about Cleon's being actuated by hatred 
 of Nicias, and it is not necessary, though it may be natural, 
 to infer this. And in judging Cleon's course it will be well 
 to remember the words of Grote, who speaks of him (v. 
 p. 240) as "a man who — like leading journals in modem 
 times — often appeared to guide the public because he 
 gave vehement utterance to that which they were already 
 feeling, and carried it out in its collateral bearings and 
 consequences ". 
 
 Angry with Cleon : according to Thucydides (iv. 27, 3), 
 Cleon knew " that he was an object of general mistrust be- 
 cause he had stood in the way of peace ". 
 
 VII. 3. It '8 not too late, etc. : " Nicias perceived that 
 the multitude were murmuring at Cleon, and asking * why 
 he did not sail — now was his time if he thought the cap- 
 
 ture of Sphacteria to be such an easy matter ' " (Thuc., iv. 
 28, 1). 
 
 VII. 4. Tried to draw back : " Cleon at first imagined 
 that the offer of Nicias was only a pretence, and was willing 
 to go ; but finding that he was in earnest, he tried to back 
 out, and said that not he but Nicias was general ... At 
 length, not knowing how to escape from his own words, he 
 undertook the expedition *' (Thuc, iv. 28). 
 
 Moved to laughter : **His vain words moved the Athe- 
 nians to laughter; nevertheless the wiser sort of men were 
 pleased when they reflected that of two good things they 
 could not fail to obtain one — either there would be an end 
 of Cleon, which they would have greatly preferred, or, if they 
 were disappointed, he would put the Lacedaemonians into 
 their hands " (Thuc., ibid.). 
 
 VII. 5. It is said: the ultimate source of the anecdote 
 may well have been some comic poet, though it is first found 
 in Theopompus (Frag, 99). Plutarch alludes to it also in his 
 Praee. ger, reip., 3 = Morals, p. 799 D. 
 
 On the hill : in the Pnyx, " about a quarter of a mile to 
 the west of the Acropolis, on the north-eastern slope of the 
 low rocky hill which rises between the Museum hill (to the 
 south), the Areopagus (to the north-east), and the Hill of 
 the Nymphs (to the north). The place is a huge artificial 
 platform or terrace in the form of a semicircle. ... It is 
 well adapted to be a place of public assembly, and could 
 easily accommodate far more than the six or seven thousand 
 persons who seem occasionally to have gathered to vote" 
 (Frazer, Fausanias, ii pp. 375 ff.). After the year 332 b. c, 
 the theatre of Dionysus became the regular place of assembly 
 for the people. 
 
 VIII. 1. The first sentence summarizes the detailed and 
 graphic story of Thucydides in iv. 29-39. The rest of the 
 paragraph is natural inference, though not expressly stated by 
 Thucydides. To atone for his mistake, Nicias became feveiv 
 ishly active, and his campaigns against Cythera and Corinth 
 were meant to be an offset to the success of Cleon at Sphacteria, 
 
 f 
 
 n 
 
198 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Served as general. . . .with Demosthenes: Demosthenes 
 had learned by a bitter experience in AetoUa, the year 
 before, that heavy-armed troops could not cope with light- 
 armed in a wooded country. He was still general, though 
 without stated command, except as he had been given per- 
 mission to utilize the passage of the Athenian fleet round 
 Peloponnesus, on its way to Sicily, for his own secret pur- 
 poses. Now that his plans had been so signaUy successful, 
 he saw that the Lacedaemonians on Sphacteria must be 
 overwhelmed by direct attack, but found that Nicias, who, 
 as head of the college of generals, was directing the cam- 
 paign from Athens, was unwilling to have the risks of such 
 tactics taken. Demosthenes therefore (in all probability) 
 came to some understanding with Cleon, and fuUy explained 
 to him the needs of the unusual case. It is not unlikely 
 that in the Assembly Cleon really outwitted Nicias. At 
 any rate, he finaUy agreed to assume the command against 
 Pylos " if he were allowed to have the Lemnian and Im- 
 brian forces now at Athens, the auxiliaries from Aenus, who 
 were targeteers, and four hundred archers from other places. 
 With these and with the troops already at Pylos he gave his 
 word that within twenty days he would either bring the 
 Lacedaemonians alive or kiU them on the spot " (Thuc, iv. 
 28, 4). Then, having been formally authorized by the Assem- 
 bly to make the attempt, — apparently so rash, but reaUy so 
 carefuUy considered and planned by Demosthenes, — " he 
 made choice of Demosthenes, one of the commanders at Pylos, 
 to be his coUeague, and proceeded to sail with all speed" 
 (Thuc, iv. 29, 1). Thucydides, in his contempt for Cleon, 
 does some injustice also to Demosthenes m not making 
 clear that enterprising general's part in the plans which re- 
 sulted in such complete success. Demosthenes probably 
 made the plans, and executed them, but Cleon^s cooperation in 
 the Assembly alone made it possible for him to get the light- 
 armed troops necessary for the execution of them, and unim- 
 peded authority as general in the use of all his forces. Be- 
 ing a vainglorious man, Cleon claimed and received more 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 199 
 
 credit for the eventual capture of the Lacedaemonians on 
 Sphacteria than he deserved. And the comic poets, espe- 
 cially Aristophanes, in his Knights, go to the other extreme 
 and deny that he deserved any credit at all. Demosthenes 
 had the Spartan cake at Pylos all kneaded and baked, when 
 Cleon stole it away and served it up at Athens {Knights, 
 w. 54-57). 
 
 Prisoners of war: "The number of the dead and the 
 prisoners was as follows: Four hundred and twenty hop- 
 lites in all passed over into the island ; of these, two hun- 
 dred and ninety-two were brought to Athens alive, the 
 remainder had perished. Of the survivors the Spartans 
 numbered about a hundred and twenty. ... On the arrival 
 of the captives the Athenians resolved to put them in chains 
 until peace was concluded, but if in the meantime the Lace- 
 daemonians invaded Attica, to bring them out and put them 
 to death " (Thuc, iv. 38, 5 ; 41, 1). The captives were sur- 
 rendered on the conclusion of peace in 421 (Thuc, v. 24, 1). 
 The Spartans among them were for a time deprived of the 
 rights of citizenship (Ibid,, 34, 2). 
 
 Cast away his shield: the mark of cowardice in a com- 
 mon soldier. " A man does not always deserve to be called 
 the thrower away of his shield ; he may be only the loser of 
 his arms " (Plato, Laws, p. 944 B). 
 
 VIII. 2. Again scoffs at him: Aristophanes has already 
 been cited against Nicias in iv. 6. The Birds was brought 
 out in the spring of 414, while Nicias was absent on the 
 Sicilian expedition. The verses here cited (w. 638 f.) are 
 spoken by the Hoopoe, after Peisthetaerus has propounded 
 to the birds his scheme for a cloud-city, and they have 
 eagerly adopted it. The next verse continues : " But just 
 as soon as ever may be, we must act." The reference is 
 therefore either to the hesitating conduct of Nicias in get- 
 ting the expedition under way, or, perhaps, to his failure to 
 accomplish anything important since the expedition started, 
 six months before. In no case can the reference be to his 
 treatment of the Sphacteria problem. 
 
 M 
 
200 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Only fragments of the Farmers have come down to us. It 
 would seem to have been brought out shortly after the cam- 
 paign at Pylos, judging from the verses here cited (Kock, 
 Com. Att Frag.y i. p. 416), and other citations bespeak for 
 it the same general character as that of the Achamians, — 
 a plea for peace. One of the rural population imprisoned 
 within the walls of the city by the Spartan invasions, wants 
 to revisit his farm in the country, and buys the privilege of 
 doing so from the Assembly. 
 
 VIII. 3. Stripped the bema of decorum: of Cleon, Aris- 
 totle says (Const, of Athens, xxviiL 3) : " He seems most of 
 all to have corrupted the people by his wild schemes, and 
 he was the first to yell upon the bema, and to resort to coarse 
 abuse, and to harangue with his robe girt high up, whereas 
 others spoke with decorum." However, Plutarch is not using 
 Aristotle here, but Theopompus, who drew from the same 
 source as Aristotle (Introd., p. 4). Plutarch's citations from 
 Aristophanes also are probably due to Theopompus. 
 
 The bema was a cube of rock about eleven feet square, 
 resting on a three-stepped platform which projected from the 
 wall of rock forming the chord of the semi-circular Pnyx 
 terrace (see the note on vii. 5). The orators ascended this 
 bema to address the Assembly. 
 
 IX. 1. Aloibiades a power: from 425 onwards he is 
 prominent enough in Athenian life to be a mark for the 
 raillery of Aristophanes ; by 421 he has a political follow- 
 ing. See the Alcihiades, chap. xiiL 
 
 Drugs . . . de€uily : a verse from the Odyssey, iv. 230. 
 
 IX. 2. The way it oame about: The phrase covers the 
 narrative following as far as the close of chap, x., which con- 
 denses Thucydides v. 18-56, and shows that Plutarch re- 
 garded the war as reopened in 419, when the Athenians 
 put Helots back in Pylos to ravage Laconian territory from 
 there. But the " doubtful truce ", as Thucydides character- 
 izes the Peace of Nicias (v. 26, 3), lasted, according to him, 
 until the Spartans renewed their invasions of Attica, in 414, 
 as retaliation for Athenian ravaging of Laconian territory 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 201 
 
 (v. 25, 3 ; vi. 105 ; vii. 18). " Including the first ten years' 
 war, the doubtful truce which followed, and the war which 
 followed that, he who reckons up the actual periods of time 
 will find that the war lasted twenty-seven years. If any one 
 argue that the interval during which the truce continued 
 should be excluded, he is mistaken. The term * peace ' can 
 hardly be applied to a state of things in which .... there 
 were violations of the treaty on both sides." 
 
 Cleon and Brasidas: " When Athens had received a sec- 
 ond blow at Amphipolis, and Brasidas and Cleon, who had 
 been the two greatest enemies of peace, — the one because 
 the war brought him success and reputation, and the other 
 because he fancied that in quiet times his rogueries would 
 be more transparent and his slanders less credible, — had 
 fallen in the battle, the two chief aspirants for political 
 power at Athens and Sparta, Pleistoanax the son of Pau- 
 sanias, king of the Lacedaemonians, and Nicias the son of 
 Niceratus the Athenian, who had been the most fortunate 
 general of his day, become more eager than ever to make an 
 end of the war" (Thuc, v. 16, 1). 
 
 IX. 3. The battle before Amphipolis : in the autumn 
 of 422. A graphic description of it is given in Thucydides, 
 V. 8-11. 
 
 To give himself rest: See the citation from Thucydides 
 in the note on ii. 4. 
 
 IX. 4. Held out hopes to the Spartans: no such prom- 
 inence is given to Nicias in the account of the negotiations 
 which Thucydides has (v. 17), but it is reasonable inference 
 and individualization on the part of Plutarch. 
 
 IX. 5. Stay of hostilities for a year: in the spring of 
 423, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians made a preliminary 
 truce for a year. Each party was to remain within its own 
 territory and retain what it had. During the year of truce, 
 ambassadors were to go from one state to the other with pro- 
 posals for a definite peace. But Brasidas in Thrace re- 
 fused to be bound by the truce, and hostilities therefore 
 continued in that quarter (Thuc, iv. 117-135). After the 
 
202 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 203 
 
 truce had expired, early in 422, Cleon made his fatal expedi- 
 tion for the recapture of Amphipolis (Thuc, v. 1-11). 
 
 Let my speax, etc.: The first verse of a beautiful frag- 
 ment of the Erechtheus of Euripides (Nauck, Trag, Graec. 
 Frag?, p. 474), which continues : — 
 
 " And let me come in peace to dwell with hoary age ; 
 And let rae wreathe my hoary head with wreaths and sing, 
 My Thracian shield upon Athena's pillared house hung high, 
 And let me hear from out the tablets* folds the words that wise men 
 utter." 
 
 The context in Plutarch is thought to give a clue to the 
 
 date of the lost play. 
 
 The saying: a folk-proverb, probably. Poly bins, in his 
 
 tirade against Timaeus (xii. 25 jin., 26 init^, accuses him of 
 putting into the mouth of Hermocrates, the Syracusan gen- 
 eral, " certain sentences of which one could scarcely believe 
 that any commonplace youth would have been capable. For 
 first he * thinks that he should remind the congress that 
 in war sleepers are woke at dawn by bugles, in peace by 
 cocks *. Next he remarks that * war is like disease, peace like 
 health. . . . Moreover, in time of peace, the old are buried 
 by the young as nature directs, while in war the case is re- 
 versed * — and so on. I wonder what other arguments would 
 have been employed by a youth who had just devoted him- 
 self to scholastic exercises and studies in history, and who 
 wished, according to the rules of the art, to adapt his words 
 to the supposed speakers ? Just these, I think, which Ti- 
 maeus represents Hermocrates as using" ''Schuckburgh's 
 translation). 
 
 IX. 6. Thrice nine years: "For I well remember how, 
 from the beginning to the end of the war, there was a com- 
 mon and often-repeated saying that it was to last thrice nine 
 years. This was the solitary instance in which those who 
 put their faith in oracles were justified by the event** (Thuc, 
 
 V. 26, 4). 
 
 IX. 7. Peace the work of Nicias : Nicias is not specially 
 prominent in Thucydides* account of the actual peace nego- 
 
 tiations. He was one of the three Athenians appointed to 
 ratify by oath the one year's truce (iv. 119, 2), and one of 
 the seventeen to ratify the fifty year peace, one year later 
 (v. 19, 2). Still, there is no doubt that, after the death of 
 Cleon, Nicias was the most influential man at Athens. In 
 v. 43, 2, Thucydides speaks of the Lacedaemonians as nego- 
 tiating the peace through Nicias and Laches, and in v. 46, 4 
 of Nicias as being held responsible at Athens for the peace. 
 Andocides speaks of the peace as " the one which Nicias the 
 son of Niceratus effected for us" (iii. 8, delivered about 
 391 B.C.). 
 
 X. 1. Articles of peace : they are given in full by Thucyd- 
 ides in V. 18. Amphipolis and Panactum were the principal 
 places to be restored by the Lacedaemonians ; Coryphasium 
 and Cythera by the Athenians. But of course the main 
 object of Sparta was the recovery of the prisoners taken at 
 Sphacteria. Panactum was a fortress on the northern 
 Athenian frontier which had been betrayed to the Boeotians 
 in 422 (Thuc, v. 3 >n.). 
 
 First to make restoration : " The Lacedaemonians — for 
 the lot having fallen upon them they had to make restora- 
 tion first — immediately released their prisoners, and sending 
 three envoys to Chalcidice, commanded Clearidas to deliver 
 up Amphipolis to the Athenians'* (Thuc, v. 21, 1). The 
 charge of Theophrastus (Introd., p. 35) that Nicias bought 
 up the lot, is absurd. It is characteristic of the spirit of 
 the Peripatetic school of biography. 
 
 X. 2. A mutual alliance : the fifty years' peace was be- 
 tween the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians and their 
 respective allies. But the vote for it was by no means unani- 
 mous. The Boeotians, Corinthians, Megarians, and Eleans 
 were bitterly dissatisfied (Thuc, v. 17, 2). Their special 
 grievances against Athens were far from being healed by the 
 general peace. They therefore refused to accept the treaty, 
 whereupon "the Lacedaemonians proceeded on their own 
 account to make an alliance with the Athenians" (Thuc, 
 v. 22, 2). They hoped by this step to isolate the powerful 
 
 i 'i 
 
 
 
 K 
 
204 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA3 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 205 
 
 state of Argos. A truce for thirty years which they had 
 made with Argos had recently expired, and the Argives were 
 unwilling to renew it except on terms which Sparta would 
 not grant. " The Lacedaemonians deemed it impossible to 
 fight against the Argives and Athenians combined. They 
 suspected also that some of the Peloponnesian cities would 
 secede and join the Argives, which proved to be the case " 
 (Thuc, V. 14, 4). 
 
 X. 3. A separate alliance with the Boeotians: finding 
 that the Argives were forming a Peloponnesian alliance 
 hostile to Sparta, and that Panactum could not be restored 
 to the Athenians without the consent of the Boeotians who 
 were in possession of it, the Lacedaemonians yielded to the 
 request of the Boeotians for a separate alliance, although 
 they knew that this involved a breach of faith with the 
 Athenians. A strong party which wished the peace with 
 Athens broken " were zealous on behalf of the Boeotians. 
 So they made the alliance about the end of winter and the 
 beginning of spring [420]. The Boeotians at once com- 
 menced the demolition of Panactum" (Thuc, v. 39). 
 
 Nor Amphipolis at all : the Lacedaemonians had with- 
 drawn their troops from this city, but could not force it back 
 into Athenian possession. They protested, however, that 
 " they had neglected nothing which lay within their power " 
 (Thuc, V. 35, 5). 
 
 X. 4. An embassy from Argos to Athens : Aldbiades 
 had opposed the general peace on the ground that Sparta's 
 object in making it was to enable her to crush Argos before 
 attacking Athens again. " As soon as the rupture occurred 
 he promptly dispatched a private message to the Argives, 
 bidding them send an embassy as quickly as they could, 
 together with representatives of Mantinea and Elis, and in- 
 vite the Athenians to enter the alliance " (Thuc, v. 43, 3). 
 Argive ambassadors were at that very time trying to nego- 
 tiate a peace with Sparta, and a written treaty had actually 
 been drawn up, but not ratified. The message of Alcibiades 
 showed the Argives that the Spartan alliance with Boeotia 
 
 had been made without the knowledge of Athens, and that 
 Athens and Sparta were again at odds. " They reflected that 
 Athens was a city which had been their friend of old ; like 
 their own it was governed by a democracy, and would be a 
 powerful ally to them at sea, if they were involved in war. 
 They at once sent envoys to negotiate an alliance with the 
 Athenians ; the Eleans and Mantineans joined in the em- 
 bassy. Thither also came in haste three envoys from Lace- 
 daemon. . . . They were sent because the Lacedaemonians 
 were afraid that the Athenians in their anger would join the 
 Argive alliance. The envoys, while they demanded the res- 
 toration of Pylos in return for Panactimi, were to apologize 
 for the alliance with the Boeotians, and to explain that it 
 was not made with any view to the injury of Athens" 
 (Thuc, V. 44). 
 
 Circumvented them : the story of Alcibiades' parliamen- 
 tary trick upon Nicias, which now follows (§§ 4-8) is, on 
 the whole, a very good condensation of Thucydides, v. 45-46. 
 The aim of Alcibiades was to alienate the Spartan envoys 
 from Nicias, " and to bring about an alliance with Argos, 
 Elis, and Mantinea, which he hoped to effect, if he could 
 only discredit them in the assembly, and create the impres- 
 sion that their intentions were not honest, and that they 
 never told the same tale twice." 
 
 X. 6. The Assembly was dissolved : when a " sign from 
 Zeus " occurred, such as thunder and lightning, earthquakes, 
 or prodigies of any kind, it was in the power of any member 
 of the Assembly to insist that it be dissolved. 
 
 Send him on an embassy ' " He prevailed on them to send 
 envoys, of whom he was himself one, requiring the Lacedae- 
 monians ... to restore Amphipolis, to rebuild and restore 
 Panactum, and to renounce their alliance with the Boeotians " 
 
 (Thuc, V. 46, 2). 
 
 X. 7. The party which had Boeotian sympathies : "The 
 Lacedaemonians refused to give up their Boeotian alliance, 
 Xenares, the Ephor, with his friends and partisans, carrying 
 this point " (Thuc, v. 46, 4). 
 
 ii 
 
 > *! 
 
 
 I 
 
 4, 
 I 
 
206 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 To the leading families of Sparta : of the two hundred 
 and ninety-two captives brought alive to Athens (Thuc, iv. 
 38, 5, cited in the note on viii. 1), only about a hundred and 
 twenty were Spartans, i, e. full citizens and descendants of 
 the ancient Dorian conquerors. The term "Lacedaemo- 
 nians" includes the Perioeci, or freemen without rights of 
 citizenship. Much the same statement about these Spartans 
 is apparently made in a corrupt passage of Thucydides (v. 
 
 15, 1). 
 
 X. 8. Elected Alcibiades general : this was probably 
 not until the spring of the following year (419), as is implied 
 by Thucydides, v. 52, 2. Plutarch is careless of chronolog- 
 ical sequence in a group of events. 
 
 An alliance with the Mantineans, Eleans, Argives : to 
 continue for a hundred years. The terms are given in full 
 by Thucydides in v. 47. It was merely a defensive alliance. 
 
 Sent freebooters to Pylos: in the summer of 421, the 
 Athenians had been persuaded by the Spartans to withdraw 
 from Pylos the Messenians, Helots, and Lacedaemonian 
 deserters with whom the place was garrisoned, and hold it 
 themselves. The objectionable garrison was settled by the 
 Athenians in the island of Cephallenia (Thuc, v. 35, 7 f.). 
 In the winter of 419, by the advice of Alcibiades, who was 
 now one of the generals, these marauders were sent back to 
 Pylos (Thuc, v. 56, 3). 
 
 Plunged again into war : see the note on ix. 2. 
 
 XL 1. At last: in 417, after the so-called Argive war 
 had ended in the defeat of the Argives and their Athenian 
 allies at Mantinea, and Sparta had regained her old prestige 
 in the Hellenic world. Then the peace party, headed by 
 Nicias, got the upper hand again, and the far-reaching 
 schemes of Alcibiades suffered eclipse. 
 
 The process of ostracism : see the note on vL 1. 
 
 From time to time : the privilege of ostracism had been 
 exercised only eight times before this. The first four cases 
 are mentioned in the note on vi 1. Themistocles was ostra- 
 cised about 472, Cimon in 461, Damon, or Damonides of 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 207 
 
 Oea, perhaps between 450 and 446, and Thucydides son of 
 Melesias in 442. 
 
 An object ofsuspicion or jealousy: Plutarch almost in- 
 variably fails to give the true object of ostracism. He has 
 no conception of its political significance. See the Themis- 
 tocles, xxiL 2 ; the Aristides, viL 2 ; the Cimon, xvii 2, with 
 the notes. In the first sentence of § 3 below, he seems to 
 grasp, for a moment, the real principle of this peculiar 
 political institution, as it came at last to be operated. The 
 people ostracised a man when a sufi&cient number of them 
 preferred that the party which he opposed should be no 
 longer obstructed in its policies. 
 
 XL 2. In his biography : see especially chapter xvl of the 
 Alcibiades, 
 
 Nicicus' way of life : see chapter v. 
 
 XL 3. In a time of sedition, etc. : a proverb in hexameter 
 verse, attributed to Callimachus, the Alexandrian poet and 
 scholar (310-235 B.C.). Plutarch uses it also in his Defra- 
 temo amore, 2 = Morals, p. 479 A. 
 
 Hyperbolus : as in the case of Cleon, it is difficult to form 
 a just opinion of this his successor in the leadership of the 
 advanced democracy, because he is so mercilessly lampooned 
 by the comic poets, and so scornfully condemned by Thucyd- 
 ides (see below on § 4). Like Cleon, Hyperbolus was a 
 manufactiurer, and not a man of ancient family. The indus- 
 trial and commercial class found in him a fervid advocate 
 of its favorite measures, especially of extended wars of con- 
 quest. But the brilliant Alcibiades was displacing him as a 
 leader of the people, so that there were really two represen- 
 tatives of extreme democracy opposed to the conservative 
 and peace-loving Nicias. Hyperbolus was glad to have the 
 people resort to the process of ostracism, hoping that they 
 would choose between Nicias and Alcibiades. But Alcibiades 
 shrewdly managed to have the choice made between Nicias 
 and Hyperbolus. He was probably aided in this political 
 maneuver by Phaeax and a body of young aristocrats under 
 his guidance, who favored war measures. See below on § 7. 
 
208 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 209 
 
 XI. 4. Took secret counBel with one another: it is 
 doubtful whether Nicias was privy to the maneuver. The 
 collapse of Alcibiades' plans for an alliance of Peloponnesian 
 states against Sparta, coupled with the distrust which was 
 felt towards him on accoimt of his wanton life, makes it seem 
 probable, so far as we can now judge the political situation, 
 that the ostracism would have fallen upon him, but for the 
 coalition which he effected with a section of the aristocratic 
 party led by Phaeax. 
 
 Hsrperbolus instead : Thucydides makes no mention of 
 this ostracism at the time it occurred. But in describing 
 the revolution of the Four Hundred, in 411, he says that a 
 body of oligarchic conspirators in the Athenian army, then at 
 Samos, plotted to support their political brethren in Athens, 
 " and prepared to attack the rest of the popular party who 
 had previously been their comrades. There was a certain 
 Hyperbolus, an Athenian of no character, who, not for any 
 fear of his power and influence, but for his villainy, and be- 
 cause the city was ashamed of him, had been ostracised. 
 This man was assassinated by them " (Thuc, viiL 73, 3). A 
 scholiast on Aristophanes, Wasps, 1007, apparently puts the 
 assassination of Hyperbolus six years after his ostracism. 
 At Samos, then, six years after his banishment from Athens, 
 Hyperbolus was a leader of the advanced democracy in the 
 Athenian army, and, as such, had to be put out of the way 
 by oligarchical plotters. It is safe to say also, in spite of 
 Thucydides, that it was in consequence of his great political 
 influence that he was ostracised, and not because " the city 
 was ashamed of him ", as Thucydides was. 
 
 XL 5. Thucydides: the son of Melesias, the able oppo- 
 nent of Pericles. He was the last victim of the ostracism 
 before Hyperbolus, in 442. His removal from Athens gave 
 Pericles a free hand in carrying out his imperial policies. See 
 the Pericles, xiv. 2 and note. 
 
 Aristides : Aristotle (Const, of Athens, xxii 7) tells us that 
 the ostracism of Aristides was coincident with the passage of 
 the naval bill of Themistocles (483-482 b. c). The removal 
 
 of Aristides, that is to say, was not due to any " envious dis- 
 like of his reputation ", as Plutarch puts it (Aristides, vii 2), 
 but to the wish of the Athenian people that Themistocles 
 should have his way in the creation of a great navy. 
 
 XL 6. Plato the comic poet: a contemporary and rival of 
 Aristophanes. He took the third prize with a " Cleophon *' 
 when Aristophanes took the first with his " Frogs " (405 B. c). 
 The name of the play from which the following verses are 
 taken, is uncertain (Kock, Corn. Att, Frag,, L p. 654). 
 
 For men of old : reading Kock's r&v irporepayp for r&v 
 rpoirav. 
 
 He was the last : heretofore the ostracism had been em- 
 ployed by the people (1) to remove a powerful noble sus- 
 pected of designs for the restoration of the " tyranny ", as in 
 the cases of Hippeu-chus and Megacles ; (2) to remove pow- 
 erful opposition to the will of the majority, as in the cases of 
 Xanthippus, Aristides, Themistocles, Cimon, and Thucydides 
 son of Melesias ; or (3) to rebuke and weaken a too aggres- 
 sive administration by the removal of a devoted counselor 
 and supporter, as in the case of Damonides. In all these 
 cases the ostracism had fallen upon men of high birth or 
 distinction. But now, in consequence of a shrewd political 
 maneuver, it had fallen upon a vulgar demagogue, and appar- 
 ently left the issue of war or peace, on which the citizens 
 were divided, as uncertain as before. No wonder then that 
 later historians like Ephorus and Theopompus, whom Plu- 
 tarch echoes, were led by the scornful words of Thucydides 
 to speak of the last ostracism as a fiasco, so shameful as to 
 bring the Athenians to abandon thenceforth the institution 
 itself. In his Aristides, vii. 3, Plutarch says that by the os- 
 tracism of Hyperbolus the people " felt that the institution 
 had been insulted and abused, and so they abandoned it ut- 
 terly and put an end to it." But this is in all probability 
 Plutarch's own inference from the fact that the process of 
 the ostracism was never resorted to again. The reasons for 
 this lay rather in the loss of imperial power by Athens, and 
 of freedom from foreign influence, so that her politics never 
 
 i-t- 
 
 p 
 
 iVl 
 
210 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 again developed such acute internal crises as to make an 
 ostracism seem desirable. It had been employed at ever in- 
 creasing intervals, and now lapsed. 
 
 But even this last ostracism was by no means the political 
 fiasco which later writers represented it to be. The elimina- 
 tion of Hyperbolus led to greater unity in the war party 
 which was opposing Nicias, so that in less than two years the 
 vote for the Sicilian expedition could be adopted by an over- 
 whelming majority, and its opponents held their peace for 
 fear of being thought unpatriotic (Thuc, vi. 24, 4). A fourth 
 principle in the exercise of the ostracism had therefore been 
 introduced, even if it was without design, that of strengthen- 
 ing the opposition to a powerful administration by removing 
 a factious and unworthy member of that opposition. 
 
 Hipparohus of Cholargus : this deme belonged to the 
 Acamantid tribe. According to Aristotle {Const of Athens ^ 
 xxii. 3), Hipparchus belonged to the deme Colly tus, of the 
 Aegeid tribe, and was ostracised in 488-487, in the first ap- 
 plication of the law made by Cleisthenes " because Peisis- 
 tratus, being a leader of the people and a general, had made 
 himself tyrant. It was on account of Hipparchus especially, 
 since he was a kinsman of Peisistratus, that Cleisthenes made 
 the law, wishing to banish him." 
 
 XL 7. Theophrastus says : this philosopher (Introd.,p. 35) 
 is not a good authority in a question of this sort, and it is pos- 
 sible to show that he was misled into this statement. Plu- 
 tarch gives a brief accoimt of the ostracism of Hyperbolus in 
 his Aristides, vii. 3, which agrees substantially with that just 
 given in the Nicias. In his AlcihiadeSy xiii., however, Phaeax 
 is brought into the story as a politician in rivalry with Al- 
 cibiades, and liable with him and Nicias to the sentence of 
 ostracism. Plutarch (or his source, possibly Ephorus) has 
 also been misled, and by the same document which misled 
 Theophrastus. This was the speech "Against Alcibiades" 
 which has come down to us among the orations of Andocides 
 (iv.). It is clearly a fictitious speech, put by its unknown 
 author into the mouth of Phaeax (c/. §§ 2 and 41). Plu- 
 
 l»f 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 211 
 
 tarch alludes to it as the work of Phaeax in the Alcibiades, 
 xiii. 2. It argues that Alcibiades and not Phaeax should be 
 ostracised, purports to be addressed to the Athenian people, 
 and involves throughout a complete misconception of the 
 nature and process of ostracism. It assumes a situation 
 which could never have existed. See Jebb, Attic Orators, i. 
 p. 137 ; Meyer, Gesch, d. Alt,, iv. p. 492. Ivo Bnms (Das 
 Literarische Portraet der Griechen^Y^, 514 ff.) has made it 
 seem probable that this literary fiction was composed about 
 the middle of the fourth century B.C., by some rhetorical 
 sophist, at a time when the relative merits and demerits of 
 Alcibiades had become matter of heated controversy, and 
 when a simulated invective against Alcibiades would tend 
 rather to enhance his fame. 
 
 Phaeax: our earliest glimpse of this son of Erasistratus is 
 given by Aristophanes in \n& Knights (w. 1377-1380), which 
 was brought out in 424. 
 
 '* Phaeax is sharp — he made a good comeK)ff, 
 And saved his life ia a famous knowing style. 
 I reckon him first-rate ; quite capital 
 For energy and compression ; so collected. 
 And such a choice of language ! Then to see him 
 Battling against a mob — it 's quite delightful I 
 He 's never cowed ! He bothers *em completely " (Frere). 
 
 The peculiar diction of the original characterizes Phaeax 
 as a public speaker who afifected a fluent and ornamental 
 style, in a conversational manner, and so Plutarch speaks of 
 him in the Alcibiades, xiii. 2, citing a verse of the comic 
 poet Eupolis in confirmation. In 422, Phaeax was sent on a 
 mission to Sicily " to warn the Sicilians that the Syracusans 
 were aiming at supremacy, and to unite the allies of Athens, 
 and if possible the other cities, in a war against Syracuse " 
 (Thuc, V. 4, 5-6). He met with indifferent success. This 
 is all that is known about him. He could not have been a 
 candidate for ostracism himself, and yet he must have been 
 prominent enough in the process which resulted in the 
 ostracism of Hyperbolus to afford some basis for the mistake 
 
 
212 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 of the author of the speech " Agamst Alcihiades ". He 
 probably controUed the votes of a coterie of the younger 
 members of the aristocratic party who favored war rather 
 than peace, and particularly war in Sicily, and was induced 
 by Alcibiades to throw these votes in favor of the ostracism 
 of Hyperbolus, on the plea that in this way Nicias would 
 not be harmed, and Alcibiades would be saved. Thus agam, 
 as already in the matter of the embassy from Sparta (chap. 
 X.), when the political game seemed completely in the hands 
 of Nicias, the tables were turned upon him by a clever ruse 
 of his unscrupulous young opponent 
 
 Most writers : i, e. the source which Plutarch is usmg, 
 
 probably Theopompus. 
 
 XII. 1. An embassy from Bgesta and Leontini : in the 
 
 spring of' 415. As early as the middle of the century the 
 commercial relations of Athens with the western Greeks 
 were supplemented by closer political relations. In 454-453 
 Egesta, hard pressed by Selinus, had sought help from Athens, 
 but that city was then unable to do more than enter mto 
 treaty relations. However, as the industrial and commercial 
 interests of the Athenian democracy increased, covetous eyes 
 were cast upon the rich island of SicQy, and a poUcy of west- 
 em conquest became popular. This poUcy was doubtless 
 among the reasons which led to the alliance of Athens with 
 Corcyra in 433. The Athenians " considered that Corcyra 
 was conveniently situated for the coast voyage to Italy and 
 Sicily " (Thuc, i 44/7i.). As long as Pericles lived, however, 
 this policy of western conquest was held in check. He " told 
 the Athenians that if they would be patient and would at- 
 tend to their navy, and not seek to enlarge their dominion 
 while the war [with Sparta] was going on, nor imperil the 
 existence of their city, they would be victorious " (Thuc, il 
 65, 7). But after his death there was no one who could 
 keep the policy of western conquest from developing into a 
 passion, and Alcibiades, his pupil and poHtical heir, fanned 
 the passion into flame. In the summer of 427 a felicitous 
 time for mtervention in the affairs of SicUy seemed once 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 213 
 
 more to have come, and a fleet of twenty ships was sent 
 thither under the command of Laches and Charoeades. 
 
 The situation in the island, according to Thucydides (vL 
 2-5), was as follows. Of the earlier barbarian peoples occu- 
 pying it, the Sicanians were in the southern and western 
 parts ; the Elymi, with their two cities Eryx and Egesta, in 
 the north-western part; and the Sicels in the central and 
 southern regions. The Phoenicians at one time had settle- 
 ments all round the island, but had retired before the Hel- 
 lenes to the western shore, at the point where the passage 
 from Carthage is shortest. The first Hellenic city in the 
 island was Naxos, founded in 735 b. c. by colonists from 
 Chalcis in Euboea. From Naxos, two more Chalcidic cities 
 were founded about 730, Leontini and Catana. These three 
 cities, with Ehegium of Italy, were usually friendly to 
 Athens and hostile to the Dorian cities of Sicily. Of these 
 the chief were Syracuse, founded from Corinth in 734 ; Gela, 
 founded from Rhodes and Crete in 690 ; Agrigentum (Acra- 
 gas), founded from Oela in 582 ; and Selinus, founded from 
 Megara in 728-628. Messene, originally called Xancle, 
 and a Chalcidian colony, was now occupied by "a mixed 
 multitude ". 
 
 In 427, Syracuse was at war with Leontini, and all the 
 Dorian cities but one were in alliance with Syracuse, all the 
 Chalcidian cities with Leontini The Dorian cities were part 
 of the Lacedaemonian confederacy, but had taken no active 
 part in the Peloponnesian war. *' The Leontines and their 
 allies sent to Athens, and on the ground, partly of an old al- 
 liance [of which we know nothing], partly of their Ionian 
 descent, begged the Athenians to send them ships, for they 
 were driven off both sea and land by their Syracusan ene- 
 mies. The Athenians sent the ships, professedly on the ground 
 of relationship, but in reality because they did not wish the 
 Peloponnesians to obtain com from Sicily. Moreover they 
 meant to try what prospect they had of getting the affairs of 
 Sicily into their hands " (Thuc, iiL 86). In 426, Charoeades 
 was killed in battle, and Laches took entire command of the 
 
214 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 expedition (Thuc, iii. 90). Not succeeding well, the allies 
 of the Athenians in Sicily called for larger forces to aid 
 them, and in 425 an additional fleet of forty ships was sent 
 out under Eurymedon, Sophocles, and Pythodorus (Thuc, iv. 
 2), _ the fleet with which Demosthenes operated to secure 
 Pylos. This force also met with indifferent success in Sicily, 
 and on the establishment of peace between the Sicilian cities, 
 came home in 424. ** When the generals returned the Athe- 
 nians punished two of them, Pythodorus and Sophocles, with 
 exile, and imposed a fine on the third, Eurymedon, believing 
 that they might have conquered Sicily but had been bribed 
 to go away " (Thuc, iv. 65). It was just after the dazzling 
 success at Sphacteria, and "they expected to accomplish 
 everything, possible or impossible, with any force, great or 
 small ". But the disaster of Delium and the loss of Amphi- 
 polis in this year had humbled them, and the embassy of 
 Phaeax to Sicily in 422, on the renewal of war between 
 Syracuse and Leontini and the destruction of the latter city, 
 had been a failure (see the note on xi. 7). 
 
 In 416, the old hopes of conquering the island were re- 
 vived by a second embassy from Egesta requesting aid against 
 Syracuse and Selinus. The Athenians " virtuously professed 
 that they were going to assist their own kinsmen and their 
 newly acquired allies, but the simple truth was that they as- 
 pired to the empire of Sicily ** (Thuc, vi. 6). The chief argu- 
 ment of the Egestaeans was " that if the Syracusans were 
 not punished for the expulsion of the Leontines, but were al- 
 lowed to destroy the remaining allies of the Athenians, and 
 to get the whole of Sicily into their own hands, they would 
 one day come with a great army, Dorians assisting Dorians, 
 who were their kinsmen, and colonists assisting their Pelo- 
 ponnesian founders, and would unite in overthrowing Athens 
 herself ". The Egestaeans pressed their case before the As- 
 sembly of Athens, and promised to provide money sufficient 
 for the war. At length the Assembly voted to send envoys 
 to ascertain whether the Egestaeans really had the means 
 which they professed to have, and to report on the state of 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 216 
 
 the war with Selinus. The Athenian envoys returned in the 
 spring of 415, accompanied by another embassy from Egesta 
 with a large sum of ready money. Both Athenian and Eges- 
 taean envoys assured the people of Athens " that there was 
 abundance of money lying ready in the temples and in the 
 treasury of Egesta ". 
 
 It is this last embassy from Egesta to which Plutarch al- 
 ludes in the opening sentence of chapter xiL The Leontines 
 are not mentioned by Thucydides as actually forming part of 
 the embassy, but their reinstatement in their city was to be 
 one of the objects of the expedition, and at the second Assem- 
 bly to consider the question " certain Leontine exiles " joined 
 their entreaties with those of the Egestaeans (vi. 19). In the 
 account of Diodorus (Ephorus), xiL 83, 2, they are joint am- 
 bassadors with the Egestaeans. 
 
 Drawinar maps of Sioily : the imaginative picture which 
 Plutarch gives of the infatuation of the Athenians is fully 
 justified by Thucydides, vi 24. 
 
 XIL 2. A mere bcuse of operations: in his speech at 
 Sparta, after his condemnation and banishment, Alcibiades 
 says (Thuc, vL 90), ** We sailed to Sicily hoping in the first 
 place to conquer the Sicilian cities ; then to proceed against 
 the Hellenes of Italy ; and lastly, to make an attempt on the 
 Carthaginian dominions, and on Carthage itself." 
 
 XII. 3. Voted for the war, etc. : "they passed a vote that 
 sixty ships should be sent to Sicily ; Alcibiades the son of 
 Qeinias, Nicias the son of Niceratus, and Lamachus the son 
 of Xenophanes were appointed commanders. They were told 
 to assist Egesta against Selinus ; if this did not demand all 
 their military strength they were empowered to restore the 
 Leontines, and generally to further in such manner as they 
 deemed best the Athenian interest in Sicily" (Thuc.,vi. 8,2). 
 Apparently the three generals had an equal vote in a council 
 of war (Thuc., vi. 47-60). 
 
 A second session of the Assembly : " five days afterwards 
 another assembly was called to consider what steps should 
 be taken for the immediate equipment of the expedition, and 
 
216 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 to vote any additional supplies which the generals might re- 
 quire. Nicias, who had been appointed general against his 
 will, thought that the people had come to a wrong conclu- 
 sion, and that upon slight and flimsy grounds they were as- 
 piring to the conquest of Sicily, which was no easy task. So, 
 being desirous of diverting the Athenians from their purpose, 
 he came forward and admonished them " (Thuc, vi 8, 3-4). 
 In the foUowing chapters (9-14), Thucydides puts into the 
 mouth of Nicias a speech in which all the arguments against 
 such an expedition to Sicily are massed in the most dignified 
 and effective manner. It contains this scathing allusion to 
 Alcibiades (chap. 12, 2) : " I dare say there may be some 
 young man here who is delighted at holding a command, and 
 the more so because he is too young for his post ; and he, re- 
 garding only his own interest, may recommend you to sail ; 
 he may be one who is much admired for his stud of horses, 
 and wants to make something out of his command which 
 will maintain him in his extravagance." 
 
 In chapters 15-18, Thucydides first gives a lively pen- 
 portrait of Alcibiades, and then puts into his mouth a speech 
 in reply to Nicias which defends his ostentatious life and 
 his daring projects with all the grace of sophistry. Both 
 speeches, that of Nicias and that of Alcibiades, are character- 
 speeches, in the best manner of Thucydides, and present 
 vividly the sentiments actuating the two parties in conflict 
 with each other, — the old men who wanted peace, and the 
 young men who wanted war. 
 
 XII. 4. The experience from which he spoke : this is 
 shown especially in a second speech put into the mouth of 
 Nicias by Thucydides, not replying to Alcibiades, but, seeing 
 that the people were resolved upon the war, insisting on the 
 difficulties of the undertaking and the magnitude of the forces 
 which would be required (Thuc, vl 20-23). "He meant 
 either to deter the Athenians by bringing home to them the 
 vastness of the undertaking, or to provide as far as he could 
 for the safety of the expedition if he were compeUed to pro- 
 ceed. The result disappointed him. Far from losing their 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 217 
 
 enthusiasm at the disagreeable prospect, they were more de- 
 termined than ever ; they approved of his advice, and were 
 confident that every chance of danger was now removed. All 
 alike were seized with a passionate desire to sail " (Thuc, 
 vi 24, 1-3). 
 
 Roughness of Lamachus : correcting the irpcuhrjra (mild- 
 ness) of the text to 6pa<TVTr)Ta, or some equivalent word, as 
 would seem to be demanded by the epithets applied to Lam- 
 achus in the Alcibiades, xviiL and xxL, and in the Acham- 
 tans of Aristophanes, passim. 
 
 Lamachus had accompanied Pericles on his Pontic expedi- 
 tion as early as 436 (?), as is seen from Plutarch's Pericles, 
 xxL 1. He also commanded independently another Pontic 
 expedition in 424, clearly in consequence of his experience 
 with Pericles (Thuc, iv. 75, 1). In the Acharnians of 
 Aristophanes, brought out in 425, he is the comic repre- 
 sentative of the blustering "Jingo". But he was made 
 one of the commanders of the Sicilian expedition because 
 of his practical military experience and great ability. He 
 advocated an immediate attack upon Syracuse (Thuc, vi. 49), 
 which would in all probability have been successful. His 
 untimely death in battle was the severest of many severe 
 blows to the Athenian cause. In the Frogs, brought out in 
 405, Aristophanes pays his memory an honorable amend for 
 the lampoons of the Acharnians, — " But others, many and 
 brave, he taught, of whom was Lamachus, hero true " (verse 
 1039, Rogers' translation). 
 
 Demostratus : in Thucydides (vL 25-26), " an Athenian 
 came forward, and calling upon Nicias, said that they would 
 have no more excuses and delays; he must speak out and 
 say what forces the people were to vote him." Nicias there- 
 upon gave the magnificent estimate of one himdred triremes 
 of their own and more from their allies ; not less than five 
 thousand he^vy-armed troops, " and more if they could pos- 
 sibly have them " ; and the rest of the armament in propor- 
 tion, including archers and slingers. He thought to deter 
 his hearers from their project by the magnitude of his esti- 
 
 
 i 
 
218 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 mates. But '* the Athenians at once decreed that the gen- 
 erals should be empowered to act as they thought best in the 
 interest of the state respecting the numbers of the army and 
 the whole management of the expedition." 
 
 To this decree Plutarch doubtless had access, directly or 
 indirectly, in the collection of Craterus (Introd., p. 35), and 
 took from it the name of the mover. That the name is 
 correct is made probable by the passage from Aristophanes 
 cited in the note on xiiL 7, where Demostratus is the mover 
 of other decrees relating to the expedition. 
 
 XIII. 1. Is said: that much of the material in this chap- 
 ter is derived, ultimately at least, from Cleitodemus (Introd., 
 p. 34), is clear from Pausanias, x. 15, 4-5. Describing the 
 votive offerings at Delphi, he says : " The bronze palm-tree 
 and the gilt image of Athena on it were dedicated by the 
 Athenians out of the spoils of the two battles — the battle 
 on land and the naval battle on the river — which they won 
 on the same day at the Eurymedon. I observed that in some 
 places the gilding on the image was damaged. I laid the 
 blame on evil-doers and thieves. But Cleitodemus, the old- 
 est of all the writers who have described Attica, says in his 
 work on Attica, that when the Athenians were fitting out 
 their armament to attack Sicily, an innumerable flock of 
 crows flew to Delphi, pecked this image, and tore the gold 
 off it with their beaks. He says, too, that they broke off the 
 spear and the owls and the mimic fruit on the palm. He 
 also describes other omens which warned the Athenians not 
 to sail for Sicily." Judging from chap. L 3 of the Nicias, it 
 was Timaeus who collected this and other material which 
 Plutarch uses here. 
 
 Sundry oracles : when the war began, " many were the 
 prophecies circulated and many the oracles chanted by divin- 
 ers, not only in the cities about to engage in the struggle, but 
 throughout Hellas " (Thuc, ii. 8, 2). And after the expedi- 
 tion to Sicily had met with destruction, the Athenians " were 
 furious with the orators who had joined in promoting the ex- 
 pedition, and with the soothsayers, and prophets, and all who 
 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 219 
 
 by the influence of religion had at that time inspired them 
 with the belief that they would conquer Sicily " (Thuc., viii 
 
 1,1). 
 
 The shrine of Ammon: in an oasis of the Libyan desert. 
 CJroesus consulted this oracle among many others (Herod., L 
 46) ; it was consulted by the Lacedaemonians more frequently 
 than by the rest of the Greeks (Pans., iiL 18, 2) ; Cimon, who 
 was of known Laconian sympathies, sent envoys to it just 
 before his death (Plutarch, Cimon, xviiL 6) ; and the visit of 
 Alexander the Great to the oracle is well known. 
 
 Would capture cJl the Ssrracusans: for the supposed ful- 
 fillment of this prophecy, see chap. xiv. 5 f. Another decep- 
 tive oracle is given by Pausanias (viii 11, 12) : " Again, the 
 Athenians received an oracle from Dodona bidding them 
 to colonize Sicily; now this Sicily is a small hill not far 
 from Athens. But they, not understanding the meaning, 
 were lured into foreign campaigns." 
 
 XllI. 2. Mutilation of the Hermae : quadrangular pil- 
 lars of marble, about the height of the human figure, sur- 
 mounted by an archaic bust of the god Hermes, and with 
 the significant mark of the male sex in front, stood " every- 
 where at the doorways both of temples and private houses " 
 in Athens, according to Thucydides (vL 27, 1). They stood 
 also near the most frequented porticoes, at the intersection of 
 cross-ways, and in the public agora. ** They were thus pres- 
 ent to the eye of every Athenian in all his acts of intercom- 
 munion, either for business or pleasure, with his fellow 
 citizens. The religious feeling of the Greeks considered the 
 god to be planted or domiciliated where his statue stood, 
 so that the companionship, sympathy, and guardianship of 
 Hermes, became associated with most of the manifestations 
 of conjunct life at Athens, political, social, commercial, or 
 gymnastic " (Grote, Hist of Greece, vi. pp. 4 t ). 
 
 In the Alcibiades, xviii 3, Plutarch notes the report that 
 the Corinthians were at the bottom of the sacrilege, in the 
 hope of stopping the expedition against Syracuse, their col- 
 ony. This explanation of the outrage came from Philochorus 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 Vv 
 
 1:^ 
 
220 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 (schol. on Aristophanes, Lysist, 1094), and is adopted by 
 Wilamowitz (Aristoteles und Athen, ii. p. 113), who is fol- 
 lowed by Bury (Eist of Greece, p. 469). Many at the time 
 thought that the outrage was merely the wanton work of young 
 men flown with wine (Alcibiades, xviii. 4), and many are of 
 that opinion to-day (Meyer, Gesch, d. Alt, iv. p. 503). But 
 more held it to be " ominous of the fate of the expedition ", 
 the work of " conspirators who wanted to effect a revolution 
 and to overthrow the democracy " (Thuc, vi 27). Which- 
 ever view is correct, " no one knew at the time, or to this 
 day knows, who the offenders were " (Thuc, vi 60, 2), and 
 this seems to deny more than a mere knowledge of the names 
 of the offenders. 
 
 Andocides : see the Introd., pp. 42 ff., as well as the Aid- 
 biades, xxL, and notes. 
 
 The altar of the Twelve Gk>d8 : this was in the agora, and 
 was dedicated by Peisistratus the Younger, a grandson of the 
 Tyrant, during his archonship (Thua, vi 54, 6), sometime 
 between 523 and 515 b.c. From it the Athenians reckoned 
 all distances in Greece, as the Komans from the mUiarium 
 aureum, 
 
 XIII. 3. A Palladium : see on iii. 3. 
 XIII. 4. Seek peace: it is impossible to reproduce per- 
 fectly in English the play on words here. They were bidden 
 Tr)v iipeiav ayetv, to fetch the priestess; they were meant 
 T^v rfo-vxiav (Htrvxuiv) ayeiv, to keep the peace (Peace). 
 
 XIII. 5. The astrologer Meton: the most famous math- 
 ematician and astronomer of his time. In 432, he published 
 a new calendar with a cycle of nineteen years, intended to 
 reconcile the lunar and the solar years. It was not adopted, 
 however, until a century later. His wisdom and fame are 
 attested by Aristophanes in the Birds, w. 998 ff. The first 
 version of the story about his attitude towards the Sicilian 
 expedition is found with greater detaU in Aelian, Varia 
 Historia, xiii 12. In this, he feigns madness to save him- 
 self. The variant version remarked by Plutarch makes him 
 commit arson to save his son. 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 221 
 
 XIII. 6. Socrates: the story bears all the marks of infer- 
 ential invention. The « divine guide " never gave Socrates 
 positive information or instruction, but simply withheld him 
 from certain courses of action. 
 
 XIII. 7. The festival of Adonis : in mid-summer, when 
 the first fruits ripen, this beloved husband of Aphrodite was 
 believed to wither away and die, but to be restored to her in 
 the following spring. He was, then, '' a type of vegetation, 
 which after a brief blossoming, always dies again." With the 
 little images of the god, the " gardens of Adonis " — pots 
 holding all kinds of herbs that come out quickly and as 
 quickly fade, were finally committed to the water. A splen- 
 did celebration of the festival at the court of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus in Alexandria is commemorated in the famous 
 fifteenth Idyll of Theocritus. 
 
 Thucydides says that the expedition sailed about the mid- 
 dle of summer (vi 30, 1), and a passage in the Lysistrata of 
 Aristophanes (w. 387 ff.) represents the demagogue Demos- 
 tratus as pushing sundry motions for the equipment and sail- 
 ing of the expedition through the Assembly, while the cries 
 of women on the house-tops could be heard lamenting 
 Adonis. Still, in spite of all adverse omens and anxious 
 fears, the great armament left the Piraeus with a confidence 
 and an enthusiasm to which Thucydides (vi 30-34) bears 
 the most eloquent testimony. ** Never had a greater expe- 
 dition been sent to a foreign land ; never was there an enter- 
 prise in which the hope of future success seemed to be better 
 justified by actual power." 
 
 XIV. 2. (Hzine back homewards, etc. : there is nothing 
 of this detail in Thucydides, but it is natural inference from 
 the situation and the man. The Athenians and their allies 
 collected at Corcyra, and crossed in three squadrons to Rhe- 
 gium in Italy. There were one hundred and thirty-four tri- 
 remes in all, besides two fifty-oared Rhodian vessels, and one 
 horse transport, and they conveyed fifty-one hundred hop- 
 lites, four hundred and eighty archers, seven himdred sling- 
 ers, one hundred and twenty light-armed troops, and thirty 
 
 
 ! 
 
 .^i 
 
 );•! 
 
 11- 
 
222 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 horsemen. The crews of the triremes must have numbered 
 at least twenty-five thousand. One hundred and thirty mer- 
 chant ships and smaller vessels conveyed provisions, bakers, 
 masons, carpenters, and si^e-tools. 
 
 Ehegium would not receive them within its walls, but al- 
 lowed them to encamp on the shore, and furnished them 
 with a market Here the ships sent on in advance to pre- 
 pare the way reported that the Egestaeans had only a trifling 
 sum of money with which to defray the expenses of the war 
 in their behalf, as they had deceitfully promised to do. This 
 disappointment, together with the unexpected conduct of the 
 Ehegians, on whose alliance they had counted, cooled the 
 spirits of commanders and men. The generals then held a 
 council of war (Thuc, vi. 42-46). 
 
 XIY. 3. Lamaohus . . • Alcibiades . . . Nioias: Thucyd- 
 ides gives the opinions of the three generals in full, but in 
 reverse order (vi 47-49). Plutarch gives the merest gist of 
 the opinions. Lamachus, after urging a course of action 
 which, had it been adopted, would in all probability have re- 
 sulted in the capture of Syracuse, gave his vote for the pro- 
 posals of Alcibiades, and a war of diplomacy was at once 
 begun. Messene refused, and Naxos accepted alliance ; the 
 city and harbor of Syracuse were reconnoitered ; Catana was 
 seized and made headquarters for operations against Syra- 
 cuse. From Catana Alcibiades was summoned home (about 
 September, 415). 
 
 XIV. 4. To stand his trial : even before his departure ** a 
 party who were jealous of his influence over the people .... 
 took up and exaggerated the charges against him, clamor- 
 ously insisting that both the mutilation of the Hermae and 
 the profanation of the mysteries [see the Alcibiades^ xix.- 
 xxi.] were part of a conspiracy against the democracy, and 
 that he was at the bottom of the whole affair " (Thuc, vi. 
 28 fin.), Alcibiades had insisted in vain upon an immediate 
 triaL His enemies succeeded in persuading the people to 
 vote ** that he should sail now and not delay the expedition, 
 but should return and stand his trial within a certain num- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 223 
 
 ber of days. Their intention was that he should be recalled 
 and tried when they had stirred up a stronger feeling against 
 him, which they could do better in his absence " (Thuc, vL 
 29 fin.). Now, " from every quarter suspicion had gathered 
 around Alcibiades, and the Athenian people were determined 
 to have him tried and executed ; so they sent the ship Sal- 
 aminia to Sicily bearing a summons to him and to others 
 against whom information had been given. He was ordered 
 to follow the ofl&cers home and defend himself " (Thuc, vi. 
 61, 4 f.). 
 
 Nioiaa wielded sole power : " The two Athenian generab 
 who remained in Sicily now divided the fleet between them 
 by lot, and sailed towards Selinus and Egesta " (Thuc, vL 
 62, 1). This was in accordance with the policy of Nicias 
 (see § 3), and shows that Lamachus could not prevail against 
 him. 
 
 The hox>es of his men: reading aur&v, with the Sintenis 
 (Teubner) text. The Bekker (Tauchnitz) text has airr^, 
 " his hopes ". 
 
 XIY. 5. Made proolamation, etc. : " On their approach- 
 ing the city a herald was to proclaim from the decks that 
 the Athenians had come to restore their allies and kinsmen 
 the Leontines to their homes, and that therefore any Leon- 
 tines who were in Syracuse should regard the Athenians as 
 their friends and benefactors, and join them without fear. 
 When the proclamation had been made, and the fleet had 
 taken a survey of the city, and harbours, and of the ground 
 which was to be the scene of operations, they sailed back to 
 Catana " (Thuc, vL 50, 4 f .). 
 
 In 422, there had been a political revolution in Leontini. 
 The oligarchs had driven out the democrats, with the aid of 
 the Syracusans, and had then deserted the city, and settled 
 in Syracuse as citizens. A few of them afterwards became 
 discontented, left Syracuse, and occupied strongholds in the 
 Leontine territory. " Here they were joined by most of the 
 common people who had been previously driven out, and 
 from their strongholds they carried on a continual warfare 
 
 ^ % 
 
 ^ 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
224 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 against Syracuse " (Thuc, v. 4, 4). The Athenian proclama- 
 tion, therefore, must have been made for effect upon the 
 Leontine oligarchs still in Syracuse. 
 
 Captured a ship with tablets: there is nothing of this in 
 Thucydides. The item probably comes from Philistus (In- 
 trod., pp. 10, 31), an eyewitness perhaps of the event. 
 
 XIV. 6. The oracle: see xiiL 1. 
 
 They say: this is in all probability the fanciful comment 
 of Timaeus (Introd., p. 34), as is clear from the date (353 
 B.C.), of the event in which he finds the oracle fulfilled. 
 Dion the Syracusan, a friend and son-in-law of the tyrant 
 Dionysius I., was banished by Dionysius II., and took up 
 residence in Athens. He returned to Sicily in 357 and ex- 
 pelled Dionysius from Syracuse. Here he soon roused hos- 
 tility by his harsh measures, and was slain by conspirators 
 instigated by Callippus, an Athenian friend who had accom- 
 panied him from Greece. See Plutarch's Dion, liv.-lviL 
 
 In another circumstanoe : reading erepy, with the Bekker 
 (Tauchnitz) text and the MSS ; the Sintenis (Teubner) text 
 adopts the conjecture hepoi of Keiske, " others say ", etc. 
 XV. 1. Alcibiades sailed away : see the Alcibiades, xxL 
 
 1, and note. 
 
 Nioias took entire command: not officially, but as a mat- 
 ter of fact. See the note on xiv. 4. 
 
 Lamachus: see the note on xii 4. The details of his 
 pettiness here given may well have come primarily from the 
 jibes of contemporary comedy. " And as for Lamachus, he 
 always put down in his bill of charges, when he was general, 
 the money laid out for his shoes and coat " (Plutarch, Fraec. 
 reip. ger,, 31 = Morals, p. 822 E). 
 
 XV. 2. It is said, etc.: neither source nor authenticity of 
 the following anecdote can be determined. We have no 
 good evidence that Sophocles the poet was ever general ex- 
 cept with Pericles in the Samian war (440-439). He was 
 not too young a man then to give point to such an anecdote 
 as this, and Nicias was young enough, if his serving as a col- 
 league of Pericles (see the note on ii. 2) could possibly be re- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 225 
 
 ferred to this same Samian war. All the possibilities of the 
 case are discussed by Busolt, Griech, Gesch., iii. p. 576, note. 
 
 XV. 3 f . The events briefly, and rather imfairly, summar- 
 ized in these paragraphs are given in full detail by Thucyd- 
 ides in vL 62. In the following chapter, however, wishing 
 to give the impression produced upon the Syracusans by the 
 Athenian campaign, he says: "when they found that their 
 enemies did not assail them at once, as in their first panic 
 they had expected, day by day their spirits rose. And now 
 the Athenians, after cruising about at the other end of Sicily, 
 where they seemed to be a long way off, had gone to Hybla, 
 and their attack upon it had failed. So the Syracusans de- 
 spised them more than ever " (vi. 63, 1 f.). It is this resump- 
 tive sentence of Thucydides which has most influenced 
 Plutarch's account. The operations of the expedition were 
 really not wholly insignificant. On the way towards Egesta 
 and Selinus, whose war with each other had been the osten- 
 sible cause of the expedition, they touched at Himera, a Hel- 
 lenic city which refused to receive them, and took Hyccara, 
 a city of the Sicanians which was hostile to the Egestaeans, 
 reducing its inhabitants to slavery. Then, dividing their 
 forces, the ships sailed round the island (in accordance with 
 the plan of Nicias, Thuc., vi 47), conveying the prisoners 
 and reconnoitering Selinus, back to Catcma, on the eastern 
 coast above Syracuse; while the troops (probably under 
 Lamachus) marched back thither through the interior of 
 the island, where they counted on finding the Sicels will- 
 ing allies. Nicias himself sailed in advance from Hyccara 
 to Egesta, obtained there a meager thirty talents, and rejoined 
 his fleet. At Catana, the sale of the captives brought in one 
 hundred and twenty talents. From Catana the Sicels were 
 again visited and asked for reenforcements, while with half 
 the army Hybla, a small city a few miles west of Catana, was 
 attacked, but not taken. 
 
 XV. 4. It is said: by Timaeus (Introd., p. 34), as is plain 
 from Athenaeus, p. 589 a. According to the scholiast on 
 Aristophanes, Huttis, 179, Lais was seven years of age, and was 
 
 
 
226 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 bought by a Corinthian and sent as a present to his wife at 
 Corinth. On the road from Cenchreae to Corinth Pausanias 
 saw her tomb, « which is surmounted by a lioness holding a 
 ram in her fore-paws. There is another tomb in Thessaly 
 which claims to be the tomb of Lais ; for she went to Thessaly, 
 too, for love of Hippostratus. It is said that she was a native 
 of Hycara in Sicily, that she was captured as a child by the 
 Athenians under Nicias, and that being sold to a Corinthian 
 purchaser she surpassed in beauty all the courtesans of the 
 age, and was so much admired by the Corinthians that they 
 still claim her as a native of Corinth " (iL 2, 4). 
 
 If some of the most romantic incidents connected with the 
 death of Alcibiades could be believed, we might assume that 
 Timandra (or Damasandra), the mother of Lais, was captured 
 with her at Hy ccara (Plutarch, A Icibiades, xxxix. 4). Learned 
 men have been much interested in the story of the beautiful 
 Lais, as may be seen in Freeman's History of Sicily, iiL 
 pp. 157 f., and Note x., pp. 650 fif. 
 
 XVI. 1. The summer was spent, etc.: ** Eariy in the 
 ensuing winter the Athenians made preparations for an at- 
 tack upon Syracuse; the Syracusans likewise prepared to 
 take the offensive. . . . Syracusan horsemen, who were al- 
 ways riding up to the Athenian army and watching their 
 movements, would ask insultingly whether, instead of reset- 
 tling the Leontines in their old home, they were not them- 
 selves going to settle down with their good friends the 
 S^Tacusans in a new one '* (Thuc, vi. 63). 
 
 XVI. 2. He secretly sent: this is natural individual- 
 ization in the biographical narrative. In Thucydides (vL 64) 
 it is " the Athenians " and " the generals " who are aware 
 of the purpose of the Syracusans, and concoct the plan to 
 decoy them out of their city. Otherwise the paragraph is 
 a good condensation of the historian's long chapter. 
 
 XVI. 3. This paragraph is a brief summary of Thucyd- 
 ides, vi. 65, without, however, any of the interestmg military 
 details. It was at dawn of day that the Athenian forces 
 disembarked " opposite the temple of Olympian Zeus ", on 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 227 
 
 the western shore of the great harbor, south of the river 
 Anapus. At this very time the Syracusan horse, advanc- 
 ing before their main army to Catana, "discovered that 
 the whole Athenian army had put out to sea, whereupon 
 they returned and told the infantry ; and then all together 
 hurried back to protect the city." 
 
 The enemy's harbors: Syracuse had two harbors, the 
 lesser harbor, on the north of the island Ortygia (the site 
 of the most ancient part of the city); and the Great 
 Harbor, on the south. The latter was a spacious bay of 
 about five miles in circumference. Its entrance, between 
 the island Ortygia and the headland Plemm)nium,was about 
 twelve hundred yards wide. The lesser harbor plays no par- 
 ticular part in the story of the Athenian operations. 
 
 XVI. 4. Led swiftly affainst them : Plutarch has been 
 misled by the opening sentence of Thucydides, vL 69, which 
 describes the opening of a battle on the day following the 
 return of the Syracusan forces from Catana. The distance 
 from Catana to Syracuse was considerable, and a day was 
 occupied by the Syracusans in returning and by the Athe- 
 nians in fortifying themselves. When the Syracusans at last 
 got back, they marched up to the Athenian position and of- 
 fered battle, but the offer was not accepted, " so they retired 
 and encamped on the other side of the Helorine road " (Thuc., 
 vi 66). On the following day the battle took place, as de- 
 scribed at great length and with minute detail by Thucydides 
 in VL 67-70. The S3rracusans were surprised after all by the 
 suddenness of the Athenian attack, but made a stubborn re- 
 sistance. They were put to flight, but were not pursued far, 
 since their cavalry interposed successfully. They re-formed 
 after their defeat, and sent some of their forces to guard the 
 Olympieimi. The rest of them returned to the city. " The 
 Athenians, however, did not go to the temple at all, but col- 
 lecting their dead, and laying them on a pyre, they passed 
 the night where they were " (Thuc, vi 71, 1). 
 
 Did not slay many : ** There had fallen of the Syracusans 
 and their allies about two hundred and sixty; of the 
 
 ' 4 
 
228 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Athenians and their allies not more than fifty" (Thuc.. 
 
 * Destroying the bridges: there waa but one, and that had 
 been destroyed by the Athenians on the previous day, as part 
 of their measures of defense (Thuc., vi. 66, 2). 
 
 Gave Hermoorates occasion to say, etc. : doubtless an 
 authentic item from PhUistus (Introd. p. 10), but pertinent 
 to the previous day, when the Athenians kept dose behmd 
 their intrenchments and declined battle. 
 
 XVI 5. This paragraph, too, is out of place. It was not 
 till after the Athenians had saUed back to Catana, on the day 
 after the battle, that the Syracusans called an assembly, and 
 on the advice of Hermocrates substituted three generals with 
 full powers for the fifteen they had had before. « The division 
 of authority had produced disorganization and disorder among 
 
 the troops " (Thuc, vi 72 f.). 
 
 XVI 6 This paragraph is an enlargement and distortion 
 (probably 'by Timaeus, Introd. p. 33). of the simple facts 
 given by Thucydides in vi 70>. ; 71, 1 (cited above on § 4). 
 The Athenians had had ample opportunity to seize the Olym- 
 pieum on the day before, if they desired to do so. 
 
 XVI 7 After a few days: on the day after the battle, 
 according to Thucydides (vi. 71, 1), the Athenians « took 
 with them the spoils of their enemies and sailed back to 
 Catana ". Winter had set in. they lacked horsemen, money, 
 and food, and therefore decided to go into winter quarters 
 and prepare for an attack upon Syracuse in the spring. 
 "Accordingly they sailed away to Naxos and Catana. m- 
 
 tending to winter." 
 
 Spent the winter: after an unsuccessful attempt on Mes- 
 sene the Athenians went to Naxos. " and having surrounded 
 their camp with a palisade, proposed to pass the wmter there. 
 They also despatched a trireme to Athens for money and cav- 
 alry, which were to arrive at the beginning of spring" (Thua, 
 
 vi 74). ... ^ . .^ 
 
 Burnt the Athenian camp: after fortifying their city 
 and the Olympieum, knowing that the Athenians were win- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 229 
 
 tering at Nazos, the Syracusans " marched with their whole 
 army to Catana, ravaged the country and burnt the huts and 
 camp of the Athenians ". They then took measures to coim- 
 teract the Athenian attempts to win over Camarina to their 
 side (Thuc, vi 75). 
 
 XVI. 8. This criticism of Nicias is discriminatine and 
 fair. There is, however, little doubt that he acted wisely in 
 retiring to Naxos and Catana and waiting for cavalry and 
 supplies. But it would have been the part of good general- 
 ship to attack Syracuse earlier in the season, as Lamachus 
 had urged him to do (chap. xiv. 3). 
 
 ^^11- 1- Moved back to Ssrracuse: early in the spring 
 of 414, as described minutely by Thucydides in vl 97. Dur- 
 ing the winter the Athenians had tried to win over as many 
 of the Sicels in the interior as they could ; had moved from 
 Naxos to Catana and reconstructed there the camp which the 
 Syracusans had destroyed ; had sent triremes to Carthage and 
 Tyrrhenia with proposals of friendship ; had levied horsemen 
 from the Sicels and from Egesta, and prepared materials and 
 tools for siege operations in the spring. At the very begin- 
 ning of spring, before the arrival of the horsemen summoned 
 from Athens, they had made successful forays along the coast 
 of Sicily between Catana and Syracuse. Returning to Catana 
 they foimd that horsemen, archers, and money had arrived 
 from Athens. They at once started for Syracuse with all 
 their forces (Thuc, vL 88, 94, 97). 
 
 The Syracusans, on their part, besides fortifying their city 
 and the immediate neighborhood, had sent envoys to Corinth 
 and Lacedaemon with an appeal for aid. A Corinthian em- 
 bassy accompanied the Syracusan envoys to Lacedaemon, and 
 there they found Alcibiades and his fellow exiles. In con- 
 sequence of the advice and arguments of Alcibiades, the 
 Lacedaemonians determined to fortify Deceleia in Attica, 
 and to send Gylippus the Spartan to command the Syracusan 
 forces. The Corinthians were to send ships (Thuc., vi 75, 
 88-93). 
 
 Thapsus: "a peninsula with a narrow isthmus not far 
 
 '"f: 
 
 I! 
 
 f 
 
 t 1 
 
 y 
 
232 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Pausanias speaks (i. 29, 9), and introduced a list of the 
 names of those who perished. 
 
 More than that : the narrative of Thucydides speaks of 
 
 nine. 
 
 XVIII. 1-3. Plutarch here singles out two of the many 
 incidents connected with the Athenian investment of Syra- 
 cuse, viz, the death of Lamachus and the straits of Nicias. 
 They are narrated by Thucydides in vi 101 f. 
 
 Within the walls: i. e. within the circular fort which the 
 Athenians had built in the center of Epipolae (see the last 
 note on xvii. 1). 
 
 SyracTisans .... trying to run a wall, etc : they made 
 three attempts in all to intersect the Athenian wall of in- 
 vestment. The first was by a wall running from the fortified 
 western outpost of the city across Epipolae to the south of 
 the Athenian circular fort. Its destruction by the Athenians 
 is described in Thucydides, vL 100. The second, of which 
 Plutarch here speaks, was run out through the marshes of the 
 Anapus, to the south of Epipolae, in order to prevent the 
 Athenian wall from reaching the great harbor. Hastening 
 to tell of the fate of Lamachus, Plutarch omits to state that 
 this wall too was totally destroyed by the Athenians. A 
 third cross wall of the Syracusans, run out across Epipolae 
 to the north of the Athenian circular fort, was successful, 
 and put a stop to the building of the Athenian wall to 
 Trogilus on the north of Syracuse (Thuc., viL 4 and 6). 
 
 XVIII. 2. Lamachus was isolated: Lamachus was has- 
 tening from his victorious left wing, before which the S>Ta- 
 cusans had fled back into the city, to the succor of his right 
 wing, which had been thrown into temporary confusion by 
 an unexpected rally and onslaught of the Syracusan cavalr}\ 
 " But pressing forward across a certain ditch he and a few 
 who had followed him were cut off from the rest, and he fell 
 with five or six others. The Syracusans hastily snatched up 
 their bodies, and carried them across the river out of the 
 reach of the enemy. But when they saw the rest of the 
 Athenian army advancing towards them they retreated" 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 238 
 
 (Thuc., vi 101). Lamachus fell, therefore, in a petty skir- 
 mish which made only a slight halt in his well earned 
 victory. He was a seasoned and successful soldier, and his 
 untimely death was nothing less than a catastrophe for the 
 Athenians. For a time they carried on their investment of 
 Syracuse with the momentum due to the efforts of Lamachus, 
 but the work soon slackened when Nicias was left alone in 
 command. 
 
 Gallicrates : this detail is not even hinted at by Thucyd- 
 ides, and doubtless comes ultimately from Philistus (Introd. 
 p. 10), though the story of the duel has a Homeric flavor 
 probably due to Timaeus (Introd. p. 33). 
 
 XVIII. 3. Meuie a dash upon the Athenian walls : not 
 those Syracusans who had thrown the right wing of Lama- 
 chus into temporary confusion, but those who had fled into 
 the city before his victorious left (Thuc, vi 102, 1). They 
 attacked the circular fort in the center of Epipolae. The 
 previous fighting had been in the marshes by the Anapus. 
 
 With none to succor him : there is much pathos in the 
 story of Plutarch which finds no place in Thucydides. The 
 Syracusans "did indeed take and demolish the outwork; 
 but Nicias, who happened to have been left there because 
 he was ill, saved the fort itself " (Jowett, " the lines them- 
 selves ** ). 
 
 XVIII. 4 Was in great hopes : this seems to be an 
 abrupt and illogical transition from the feelings natural after 
 the portentous vigor shown by the Syracusans and the crip- 
 pling death of Lamachus. But it is fully justified by the 
 narrative of Thucydides. The Athenian army in the plain 
 of the Anapus quickly recovered from its confusion, repulsed 
 the Syracusans in front of it, and then sent aid to the har- 
 assed Nicias. The entire fleet at the same time entered the 
 great harbor, coming from its station at Thapsus, and all the 
 Syracusans, "seeing this combined movement, quickly re- 
 treated into the city, thinking that with their present force 
 they were no longer able to prevent the completion of the 
 line of wall towards the sea ** (vi 102, 3 L). 
 
234 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 Ships full of grain, etc.: "Provisions came to their army 
 in abundance from various parts of Italy. Many of the 
 Sicel tribes who had hitherto been hesitating now joined the 
 Athenians, and three penteconters came from the Tyrrhe- 
 nians. Everything began to answer to their hopes " (Thuc., 
 
 VL 103, 2). 
 
 Proposals from the Syracusans: "The Syracusans de- 
 spaired of saving the city by arms, for no help reached them 
 even from Peloponnesus. Within the walls they were talk- 
 ing of peace, and they began to enter into communication 
 with Nicias, who, now that Lamachus was dead, had the sole 
 command " (Thuc, vi 103, 3). 
 
 XVIII. 5. Gylippus: in consequence of the urgent ad- 
 vice of Alcibiades to the Spartans (Thuc., vi 91), a Spartan 
 commander was chosen and sent out to organize and lead 
 the Syracusan forces. The choice fell upon Gylippus, prob- 
 ably because of his intimate acquaintance with the affairs 
 of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks. His father, Cleandridas, 
 had been banished from Sparta in 445, on the charge of hav- 
 ing taken Athenian bribes, and had then become a citizen of 
 Thurii (see on xxviii. 3). " Meanwhile Gylippus the Lacedae- 
 monian and the ships from Corinth were already at Leucas. 
 They were alarmed at the reports which were continually 
 pouring in, all false, but all agreeing that the Athenian lines 
 round Syracuse were now complete. Gylippus had no longer 
 any hope of Sicily, but thought that he might save Italy " 
 (Thuc, vi 104, 1). 
 
 XVIII. 6. Made no account of Gylippus: "Nicias heard 
 of his approach, but despised the small number of his ships. 
 He thought that he had come on a mere privateering expe- 
 dition, and for some time set no watch " (Ibid,). 
 
 Sailed through the straits : Gylippus and Pythen the 
 Corinthian with four ships had hurried on in advance of 
 the main fleet at Leucas, and, after experiencing a disabling 
 storm, had reached Locri in Italy. " Nicias, when he heard 
 that they were at Locri, although he had despised them at 
 first, now sent out four Athenian ships to intercept them ; but 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 236 
 
 these came too late.** So Gylippus sailed through the strait 
 to Himera, raised a force of about three thousand men there, 
 and then marched towards Syracuse, having learned that the 
 city was not yet completely invested, but that an army might 
 enter by way of Epipolae (Thuc, vii. 1). 
 
 XVIII. 7. Called an assembly: see the citation from 
 Thucydides in the note on xix. 1. 
 
 Quite small: see the citation from Thucydides in the 
 note on xvii 2—4. 
 
 XIX 1. In this nick of time : the Corinthian ships which 
 Gylippus and Pythen had left at Leucas (see on xviii 6) 
 were finally ready, and started with all speed for Syracuse. 
 ** Gongylus, one of the Corinthian commanders, who started 
 last in a single ship, arrived at Syracuse before the rest of 
 the fleet, and a little before Gylippus. He found the citizens 
 on the point of holding an assembly at which the question 
 of peace was to be discussed. From this intention he dis- 
 suaded them " (Thuc, vii 2). 
 
 XIX. 2. Donned their arms : unless H^mrXO^ovro can be 
 rendered by "saUied forth under arms". By the tidings 
 of Gongylus the Syracusans were reassured, "and at once 
 went forth with their whole army to meet Gylippus, who, 
 as they were informed, was now close at hand. He .... 
 came to Epipolae, taking the path by the Euryelus, where 
 the Athenians had found a way before him [see the last note 
 on xvii 1]. Having formed a junction with the Syracusans, 
 he marched against the Athenian lines. He arrived just at 
 the time when the Athenians had all but finished, etc.", as 
 cited in the third note on xvii. 2-4. 
 
 This was the turning point in the fortunes of the Athenian 
 expedition. " Few incidents ", says Grote (Hist, of Greece, 
 vi pp. 100 f.), "throughout the whole siege of Syracuse 
 appear so unaccountable as the fact that the proceedings and 
 march of Gylippus, from his landing at Himera to the mo- 
 ment of his entering the town, were accomplished without 
 the smallest resistance on the part of Nikias." Gylippus 
 " had first to march all across Sicily, during which march he 
 
236 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 might have been embarrassed and perhaps defeated; and 
 could then approach Syracuse only by one road, — over the 
 high ground of Euryalus in the Athenian rear, through passes 
 few in number, easy to defend, by which Nikias had him- 
 self first approached, and through which he had only got by 
 a well-laid plan of surprise. Yet Nikias leaves these passes 
 unoccupied and \mdef ended ; he takes not a single new pre- 
 caution ; the relieving army enters Syracuse as it were over 
 a broad and free plain." The same negligence was shown 
 by the Athenian guard-ships in allowing Grongylus to get 
 into Syracuse. There is partial but still insufficient explana- 
 tion in the facts that Lamachus was dead, and that Nicias 
 was a sick man. 
 
 Sent a herald, etc. : the Athenians were disconcerted by 
 the sudden advance upon them of Gylippus and the Syra- 
 cusans, but formed in order of battle. Gylippus " halted as 
 he approached, and sent a herald to them offering a truce if 
 they were willing to quit Sicily within five days taking 
 what belonged to them. But they despised his offer, and 
 sent away the herald without an answer. Whereupon 
 both armies set themselves in order of battle" (Thuc, 
 
 vil 3, 1 f.). 
 
 XIX. 3. Some of his soldiers mooked: this chaffing of 
 the herald by the Athenian soldiery is not indicated by 
 Thucydides. It may well have been reported by Philistus 
 (Introd. p. 10). 
 
 Restored three hundred men : the captives of Sphacteria 
 (see viii. 1 and note), two hundred and ninety-two in number. 
 
 XIX. 4. Timaeussays: Plutarch seldom if ever mentions 
 this writer with approval (Introd. p. 33). Here he convicts 
 him of self-contradiction in a desire to belittle the services 
 of Gylippus. 
 
 XIX. 5. The first battle : it is not the purpose of Plu- 
 tarch to give a history of all the operations before Syracuse, as 
 he explains in his first chapter. Several days elapsed between 
 the coming of Gylippus and this battle. In the mean time 
 important and significant events had happened. Labdalum, 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 237 
 
 the Athenian fort on the northern edge of Epipolae (see the 
 last note on xviL 1), was captured by the Syracusans, as well 
 as an Athenian trireme which was watching the entrance of 
 the great harbor (Thuc, vii 3, 5). A third cross wall was 
 started by the Syracusans (see on xviii 1-3), and carried 
 rapidly across Epipolae to the north of the Athenian circular 
 fort, while the investing wall of the Athenians was con- 
 stantly threatened. Most important of all, Nicias fortified 
 Plemmyrium, "a promontory which runs out opposite the 
 city and narrows the entrance to the Great Harbour." 
 Thither he transferred his ships, a portion of his army, and 
 his stores. Twenty ships were sent out to intercept the 
 approaching Corinthian fleet. At last, after some days of 
 threatening maneuvers, Gylippus offered battle, and was de- 
 feated, because he had chosen a field where the Syracusan 
 cavalry was useless, viz. the space between the Athenian and 
 the Syracusan walls. He magnanimously took all the blame 
 for the defeat upon himself, and promised better things in 
 the next engagement (Thuc, vii 4 and 5). 
 
 And also Gkingylus : this item, given by Plutarch in true 
 Herodotean spirit, is not found in Thucydides, and probably 
 comes from Philistus (Introd. p. 10). 
 
 On the day following : '' on the first opportunity ", says 
 Thucydides (viL 6, 1), who gives minute details of this sec- 
 ond battle. The whole Athenian army was driven within its 
 lines, and on the following night the Syracusans carried 
 their cross wall past the enclosing wall of the Athenians, 
 who were thua deprived of all hope of completely investing 
 the city. 
 
 XIX. 6. Manning their ships : not long after the victory 
 of the Syracusans the Corinthian fleet eluded the Athenian 
 guard-ships and sailed into the harbor of Sjracuse. The Cor- 
 inthians were able seamen, having been the first ship-builders 
 among the Greeks, and found willing pupils in the Syracu- 
 sans (Thuc, i. 13, 2 ; vil 7, 4). 
 
 XIX. 7. Nicias became dejected : '* he now thought the 
 situation so critical that, if the Athenians did not at once 
 
238 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 recall them or send another considerable army to their help, 
 the expedition was lost" (Thuc, vii 8, 1). 
 
 Wrote a dispatch : Thucydides gives (in viL 11-15) what 
 purports to be the contents of this letter of Nicias. Like 
 many of the speeches, it is probably composed of " the senti- 
 ments proper to the occasion", expressed as Thucydides 
 thought Nicias "would be likely to express them" (L 22, 1), 
 and so amounts to a graphic commentary on the situation by 
 Thucydides. To his mind the Athenians, now that the 
 Syracusans had succeeded in intersecting their line of en- 
 closing walls, were rather the besieged than the besiegers 
 (viL 11, 4). 
 
 XX. 1. The leading men: representatives of the most ad- 
 vanced and radical democracy, l^e Peisander and Androcles. 
 With Alcibiades in banishment and Nicias in Sicily there 
 was none to oppose them. Of their delaying a second expe- 
 dition through jealousy of Nicias, we read only here, but it is 
 not improbable. 
 
 Demosthenes: the real hero of Pylos and Sphacteria, and 
 the most experienced and able general of his time, although 
 less fortunate than others. He had been reappointed general 
 in 424, and had been partially successful in one campaign of 
 that year against Megara, but totally unsuccessful in that 
 against Boeotia, which ended with the disaster of DeliuuL 
 See the notes on vL 3 and 4. He was one of the seventeen 
 Athenians chosen to ratify the peace in 421, but does not 
 appear again in history until now. 
 
 Eurymedon : one of the commanders of the expedition to 
 Sicily in 425-424. He had been fined on his return after 
 the conclusion of peace between the Sicilian cities (see on 
 xii. 1), but his experience rendered him invaluable now. No 
 abler or more fitting colleagues for Nicias than Demos- 
 thenes and Eurymedon could have been chosen. " Euiymedon 
 was despatched immediately to Sicily about the winter sol- 
 stice ; he took with him ten ships conveying a hundred and 
 twenty talents of silver, and was to tell the army in Sicily 
 that they should receive assistance and should not be DE- 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 239 
 
 lected. Demosthenes remained behind, and was busied in 
 getting ready the expedition which he was to bring out in 
 the spring " (Thuc, vii. 16, 2 ; 17, 1). 
 
 GoUeafiTues for Nicias: to serve only until the regular 
 colleagues, Demosthenes and Eurymedon, should arrive. 
 The Athenians did not wish Nicias " to bear the burden in 
 his sickness alone ". Eurymedon, after performing his errand, 
 returned as far as Corcyra, where he met Demosthenes, and 
 cooperated thereafter with him (Thuc, vii. 31, 3). 
 
 XX. 2-3. In the mean time : a vague phrase. It was in 
 the opening spring of the year 413, when the Lacedaemonians 
 had invaded Attica and were fortifying Deceleia (Thuc, vii 19, 
 1); while merchant ships laden with heavy-armed troops to 
 reenforce the Syracusans were sailing from Peloponnesus 
 (Ibid,) ; while Demosthenes was assembling his armament at 
 Aegina (Thuc, vii 20, 3); and after Gylippus had returned 
 to Syracuse with reenforcements from the Sicilian cities 
 which he had won over (Thuc, vii 21, 1). 
 
 By land and sea: graphic details of this combined attack 
 upon the Athenians by the Syracusans are given by Thucyd- 
 ides in vii. 22-24. "The loss of Plemmyrium was one 
 of the greatest and severest blows which befell the Athenians. 
 For now they could no longer even introduce provisions with 
 safety, but the Syracusan ships lay watching to prevent 
 them, and they had to fight for the passage. General dis- 
 couragement and dismay prevailed throughout the army." 
 Eurymedon heard of the loss of Plemmyrium on his voyage 
 homewards, and reported it to Demosthenes at Corcyra 
 (Thuc, vii 31, 3). Plutarch made no mention in its proper 
 place of the occupation of Plemmyrium by Nicias (see the 
 note on xix. 5). Of the marvellous activity on the part of 
 •ihe Syracusans which followed their successes, Thucydides 
 gives a glowing picture in vii 25. From this is taken the 
 statement in Plutarch that the Syracusans considered them- 
 selves to blame for their naval defeat. 
 
 XX. 4-5. Menander and Euthydemus : there is nothing 
 in Thucydides of their rivalry with Demosthenes and Nicias, 
 
 M^i 
 
240 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 241 
 
 or of their forcing a decision to fight another sea fight. It 
 was the Syracusans who forced this upon Nicias, as it was 
 good policy for them to do before the arrival of Demosthenes 
 (Thuc, vii. 36, 1). Plutarch is probably drawing here upon 
 Philistus, who is good authority for what pertains to the Syra- 
 cusan side of the struggle, but not so good for the Athenian 
 side. And the Syracusans had every reason for taking the 
 offensive. "Hitherto the Sicilian cities had only watched 
 the course of events, but now the whole island, with the ex- 
 ception of Agrigentum, which was neutral, united with the 
 Syracusans against the Athenians " (Thuc, vii 33, 2). 
 
 Out-maneuvered by Ariston : this is the crowning inci- 
 dent in a three days* struggle, which is fully described by 
 Thucydides in vii. 36-41. After strengthening their fleet 
 and perfecting their plans, the Syracusans attacked the Athe- 
 nians again both by land and sea. On the first day neither 
 side could gain any decisive advantage. On the second, the 
 Syracusans remained quiet, while the Athenians repaired 
 their ships and made special preparations for defense. On 
 the third day the Syracusans attacked again by land and 
 sea. The day was wearing away, like the first, without a 
 decisive engagement, when the Syracusans put in to shore 
 and disembarked for the mid-day meal. The Athenians took 
 this as a confession of defeat, and themselves retired and 
 disembarked, thinking there would be no more fighting that 
 day. But food had been brought down to the shore by the 
 Syracusans, so that their crews took their meal close by 
 the ships, and then suddenly reembarked and bore down on 
 the Athenian ships. The Athenians were thus compelled to 
 put out for battle in great disorder and most of them fasting. 
 They were defeated and driven to their moorings, where 
 they could with difficulty keep the Syracusans from destroy- 
 ing their ships. The Syracusans at last retired, flushed with 
 victory, and confident of superiority over their foes on sea 
 now as well as on land. They had damaged many of the Athe- 
 nian ships, and sunk seven, either killing their crews or 
 taking them prisoners. 
 
 XXI. 1. This paragraph is essentially the same as Thucyd- 
 ides, vii. 42, 1. The number three thousand for the darters, 
 archers, and slingers takes the place of "not a few" in 
 Thucydides, and some rhetoric is devoted to the spectacular 
 entry of Demosthenes upon the scene. 
 
 XXI. 2. Fear reigned among the Syracusans : this also 
 is Thucydidean (vii. 42, 2). The historian adds by way of 
 contrast that "the first Athenian army regained a certain 
 degree of confidence after their disasters ". 
 
 XXI. 2-4. The joy of Nicias forced to yield: this 
 
 whole passage is clearly a transfer by Plutarch into terms 
 appropriate to Nicias, the subject of his biography, of 
 what Thucydides gives (viL 42, 3 — 43,1) in terms appro- 
 priate to Demosthenes. Thucydides, that is, speaks from the 
 standpoint of Demosthenes, and Plutarch transposes the 
 material to the standpoint of Nicias, with more or less 
 freedom. 
 
 Demosthenes determined that he would not duplicate the 
 failures of Nicias, and so planned to destroy the Syracusan 
 cross wall, now that the Athenians had regained their former 
 superiority both by land and sea. But his frontal attacks 
 upon this wall were repulsed by the Sjn^cusans, and he 
 therefore determined to carry out a cherished plan of attack- 
 ing Epipolae and the enemy's camp there by way of Eurye- 
 lus, where the Athenians had once ascended (see the last 
 note on xviL 1). If successful in the attempt, the Syracusan 
 cross wall could then be taken by attacks in flank and rear. 
 To this course he succeeded in persuading Nicias and his 
 colleagues. 
 
 In oommunication with Nicias : see on xviii. 4 
 
 XXI. 5-9. This is, on the whole, a fair paraphrase of 
 three wonderful chapters in Thucydides (vii. 43-45). Some 
 minor variations suggest, though they do not necessarily 
 demand, the use of another source also, like Philistus 
 (Introd. p. 10), who may have been an eyewitness of the events. 
 More detail would doubtless have been adopted by Plutarch 
 had Nicias been engaged in the undertaking. But he 
 
 \\\ 
 
242 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 remained in camp. Rather surprising, even so, is the omis- 
 sion of the perplexities caused the Athenians by the misuse 
 of their watchword, and by the singing of the Paean, a 
 Dorian battle-hymn, on both sides. An additional item or 
 two, like the number two thousand for the Athenian dead, 
 may come from Philistus. Diodorus (Ephorus) puts the 
 number at twenty-five hundred (xiii. 11, 5). Thucydides 
 speaks only of "a considerable number" (vii. 45), The 
 Athenians received their dead imder a flag of truce. 
 
 XXII. This chapter is, on the whole, a good condensation 
 of Thucydides, viL 47-50, 3. Some details might be clearer. 
 The Athenian generals held a formal council of war. Dem- 
 osthenes was for returning home while it was still possible, 
 to wage war upon the Peloponnesians in Attica. But 
 Eurymedon, who had already tasted the displeasure of the 
 Athenians at his failure to accomplish their wishes, seems to 
 have sided with Nicias against this proposal He was, how- 
 ever, in full accord with Demosthenes in urging a change of 
 base to Thapsus or Catana, but Nicias opposed even this, 
 and so a fatal delay ensued. For the fear of Athenian 
 displeasure which actuated Nicias, see the note on vi. 2. 
 
 XXII. 3. Leon of Byzantium : this item is an addition 
 of Plutarch's, and probably comes from some standard collec- 
 tion of " memorable sayings ". Leon was a rhetorician and 
 historian of Byzantium in the time of Philip of Macedon, 
 who besieged the city in 340, but did not capture it, owing 
 to relief sent from Athens. The anecdote may be connected 
 with this siege. 
 
 XXII. 4. A fresh army: collected by Gylippus in the 
 interior of Sicily, and including some sixteen himdred heavy- 
 armed troops sent from Peloponnesus (see the note on xx. 
 2-3), who had made a roundabout journey to Selinus by 
 way of Libya, under stress of weather (Thuc, viL 50, 2). 
 
 Nicias decided ... ordered : in Thucydides, the generals 
 in council do the deciding and ordering, Nicias only stipulat- 
 ing that there should be no voting on the question by the 
 subordinate officers. 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 243 
 
 XXIII. 1. A ffreat terror, etc. : ''The mass of the army 
 was greatly moved, and called upon the generals to remain " 
 (Thuc, vii. 50, 4). 
 
 XXIII. 2-6. These paragraphs are a compilation from 
 various sources other than Thucydides. Plutarch had already 
 written {De superstitioiie, S = Morals, p. 169 A): "And per- 
 haps it had been better if the Athenian general, Nicias, had 
 been eased of his folly the same way that Midas and Aris- 
 todemus were [these had made away with themselves], than 
 for him to sit still for fear of a lunar eclipse, while he was 
 invested by an enemy. . . . There was nothing formidable 
 in the interposition of the earth betwixt the sun and the moon, 
 neither was there anything dreadful in the shadow's meeting 
 the moon at the proper time. No, the dreadfulness lay here, 
 that the darkness of ignorance should blind and befool a 
 man's reason at a time when he had most occasion to use it." 
 
 XXIIL 2. Anaxagoras: a native of Olazomenae in Ionian 
 Asia Minor. He was bom about 500 b. c, and came to 
 Athens about 460, where he had great influence on advanced 
 thinkers like Pericles and Euripides. The enemies of Per- 
 icles secured the banishment of Anaxagoras about 432, and 
 he died at Lampsacus in 428. Two of his doctrines antici- 
 pated some of the noblest phases of modem thought, — the 
 doctrine of Mind as the source of order in the universe, and 
 the doctrine of " rotation ", our " Nebular Hypothesis ". See 
 the note on the Themistocles, ii 3. 
 
 XXIIL 3. Protagoras : of Abdera, in Thrace, the first to 
 call himself a " sophist " and to teach for pay, an occupation 
 in which he amassed wealth. The excitement caused by his 
 second visit to Athens, bringing in his train many disciples 
 won in other Greek cities, is playfully described in Plato's 
 Protagoras, pp. 309-315. At a later visit (not far from 411 
 B. c.) he was accused of impiety and, to escape certain con- 
 demnation, fled, but only to perish on the sea. 
 
 XXIIL 4 Dion: see the note on xiv. 6. The ardent de- 
 votion of Dion to Plato, and his desire to have Svracuse 
 governed according to the political philosophy of his teacher, 
 
 .rii'i 
 
244 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIA8 
 
 was the cause of his downfall The eclipse of the moon as 
 he was on the point of setting out from Zacynthus against 
 Dionysius did not disturb Dion, " who understood the revo- 
 lutions of eclipses, and the way in which the moon is over- 
 shadowed and the ea:rth interposed between her and the sim." 
 His soldiers, however, had to have the portent explained to 
 them as foreshadowing the eclipse of the splendid sovereignty 
 of Dionysius (Plutarch, Dion, xxiv.). 
 
 XXIII. 5. A soothsayer who was expert: there was no 
 lack of soothsayers, according to Thucydides (vii. 50, 4). 
 ** Nicias himself, who was too much under the influence of 
 divinations and omens, refused even to discuss the question 
 of their removal imtil they had remained thrice nine days, as 
 the soothsayers prescribed." 
 
 Stilbides: so eminent that his name became representa- 
 tive of the whole profession to the comic poets (Aristophanes, 
 Peace, 1031, and scholia). His relations with Nicias must 
 have been established by the Hiero of whom we read in 
 
 chap. V. 
 
 Philoehonis: see the Introd. p. 34. It is he who notes 
 the presence and death of Stilbides in Sicily, as is clear from 
 the scholia on Aristophanes referred to in the last note. 
 
 XXIII. 6. Autocleides: an Athenian of unknown date, 
 author of a work on sacrificial ritual and tradition (Ath- 
 enaeus, xL p. 473 b). Plutarch probably finds him cited by 
 Philochorus. 
 
 Nicias persuaded the Athenians: see the citation from 
 Thucydides above on § 5. When, however, the Syracusans be- 
 gan to close the mouth of the great harbor, the council of 
 generals decided to attempt departure at once (Thuc., vii 60), 
 by sea if possible, otherwise by land. 
 
 XXIV. At this point in the story Thucydides has recourse 
 to his most epic manner, as a brief summary of the chapters 
 in his history which are covered by this single chapter of 
 Plutarch will show : 
 
 vii 51. The Syracusans, hearing of the intention of the 
 Athenians to depart, resume the offensive, practicing their 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 245 
 
 ships for another engagement, and attacking the Athenian 
 lines on land. 
 
 52-54. In a third sea fight the Syracusans are completely 
 victorious, cutting ofif and destroying Eurymedon with a 
 division of ships, and threatening the safety of the rest of 
 the Athenian fleet. In their attack upon the Athenian 
 camp, however, they are repulsed. 
 
 55. By this brilliant success of the Syracusans on the sea 
 the Athenians are plunged into despair. " They had failed 
 at almost every point, and were already in great straits." 
 
 56. The Sjrracusans, on the other hand, elated by their 
 success, think no longer merely of achieving their own de- 
 liverance, but of destroying the Athenians and their allies by 
 land and sea, and of thus becoming the leading city of 
 Hellas. 
 
 57-58. Detailed epic review of all the forces arrayed on 
 both sides. 
 
 59. The Syracusans begin to close up the mouth of the great 
 harbor, and prepare for a fourth and decisive sea fight. 
 
 60. The Athenians on their part also prepare for another 
 sea fight, which should secure their departure in their fleet 
 They concentrate their lines on land, and man one hundred 
 and ten ships for battle, adopting new and special devices. 
 
 61-64. Speech of Nicias to his men. 
 
 65. The Syracusans include in their preparations special 
 precautions against the new and special devices of the 
 Athenians. 
 
 66-68. Speech of Gylippus and his generals to their men. 
 
 69. After a pathetic supplementary appeal to his trier- 
 archs, Nicias disposes his land forces along the shore, while 
 Demosthenes and his colleagues proceed towards the mouth of 
 the harbor with their ships, intending to force their way out. 
 
 XXIV. 2. The particular incidents leading up to the third 
 sea fight are additions to the accoimt of Thucydides, probably 
 coming from Philistus (Introd. p. 10). 
 
 XXIV. 3. Bade them withdraw by land : this is imdue 
 anticipation by Plutarch of the effects of the third sea fight 
 
246 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 According to Thucydides (chap. 60), the generals and officers 
 met in council, considered the difficulties of the situation, and 
 decided to fight a decisive battle with their ships, " and, if 
 they conquered, go to Catana ; but if not, they would bum 
 their ships, and retreat by land in good order." 
 
 XXIV. 4. The Heraoleum : on the high grounds of Epi- 
 polae, near the city. Thucydides is silent on this matter, 
 which probably comes to Plutarch through Timaeus (Introd. 
 
 p. 33). 
 
 XXV. 1. The first part of this paragraph probably comes 
 from Timaeus (Introd. p. 33), being a continuation of 
 xxiv. 4. The second part is the briefest possible compen- 
 dium of two of the most vividly descriptive chapters in the 
 whole work of Thucydides (vii. 70 and 71). Here, if any- 
 where, he " surpasses himself in vividness, pathos, and va- 
 riety " (i 1), and Plutarch does well to avoid comparisons. 
 
 XXV. 2. The details of this paragraph, while not incon- 
 sistent at all with the story of Thucydides, are not taken from 
 it, but, in all probability, from that of Philistus (Introd. 
 p. 10). Ariston the Corinthian captain had already been 
 the author of one victory for the Syracusans (xx. 5). 
 
 XXV. 3. " The Athenians, overwhelmed by their misery, 
 never so much as thought of recovering their wrecks or of 
 asking leave to collect their dead. Their intention was to 
 retreat that very night " (Thuc, vii. 72, 2). Then follows a 
 significant detail for which Plutarch might well have found 
 a place. Demosthenes proposed to Nicias that at day- 
 break they make another attempt, with their remaining ves- 
 sels, which still outnumbered those of the Syracusans, to 
 force a passage at the mouth of the harbor. Nicias ap- 
 proved, but the sailors were paralyzed by their defeat and 
 refused to embark. " So the Athenians all made up their 
 minds to escape by land." 
 
 XXVI. This chapter is an admirable condensation and 
 improvement of Thucydides, vii. 73 -77. Certain slight varia- 
 tions may be noted, and one or two important omissions 
 supplied. 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 247 
 
 XXVI. 1. Ghrlippus: of him there is no mention here in 
 Thucydides. It is Hermocrates who goes to the Syracusan 
 authorities and proposes to mareh out that very night and 
 obstruct the way of the Athenians. The authorities decide 
 that this is impossible, whereupon Hermocrates concocts his 
 stratagem. 
 
 XXVI. 2. Thucydides gives the significant detail of the 
 capture by the Syracusans of all the ships of the Athenians 
 except a few which were burned (vii 74, 2). 
 
 XXVI. 3. And then set out : ** They seemed, not like an 
 army, but like the fugitive population of a city captured after 
 a siege ; and of a great city too. For the whole multitude 
 who were marching together numbered not less than forty 
 thousand " (Thuc, viL 75, 5). 
 
 Lighter than those to come : '' having suffered calamities 
 too great for tears already, and dreading miseries yet greater 
 in the unknown future " (Thua, vii 75, 4). 
 
 XXVI. 4-6. This pathetic picture of Nicias is fair infer- 
 ence from and improvement of the material of the speech 
 which Thucydides here puts into his mouth for the encour- 
 agement and consolation of his men (vii 76 t). 
 
 XXVII. 1. For eight successive days: minutely de- 
 scribed, day by day, in Thucydides, viL 78-85. Plutarch 
 passes over the events of the first five days, and takes up the 
 story at the surrender of Demosthenes, on the sixth day. 
 
 The estate of Polyzelus : the detail of the name undoubt- 
 edly comes from Philistus (Introd. p. 10). Thucydides 
 speaks of it as " a walled enclosure, having a road on both 
 sides and planted thickly with olive trees'* (vii 81, 4). 
 The division of Demosthenes, forming the rear guard, 
 and comprising the larger half of the army, "got severed 
 from the other division, and marched in less order" (Thuc, 
 vii 80, 4). This was during the night following the fifth 
 day. By noon of the sixth day some six miles separated the 
 two divisions, and the Syracusans came upon that of Demos- 
 thenes *' marching slowly and in disorder " (Thuc, vii. 81, 2). 
 Nicias, on the other hand, " marched faster, thinking that 
 
248 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 their safety depended at such a time, not in remaining and 
 fighting, if they could avoid it, but in retreating as quickly as 
 they could, and resisting only when they were positively 
 compelled. Demosthenes, on the other hand, who had been 
 more incessantly harassed throughout the retreat, because 
 marching last he was first attacked by the enemy, now, when 
 he saw the Syracusans pursuing him, instead of pressing on- 
 ward, had ranged his army in order of battle. Thus linger- 
 ing he was surrounded " (Thuc, viL 81, 3 f.). 
 
 XXVII. 2. Gave himself a thrust : Thucydides says noth- 
 ing of this attempt at suicide on the part of Demosthenes, 
 but it is known to have been reported by Philistus (Introd. 
 p. 10). Pausanias, speaking of a monument on the road 
 to the Academy "raised to the men who fell in Euboea 
 and Chios, and who perished in the farthest r^ons of 
 Asia and in Sicily ", says (i. xxix. 9) : ** Inscribed are the 
 names of the generals, except Nicias, and the names of the 
 soldiers, both citizens and Plataeans. According to Philis- 
 tus, whose account I follow, the reason why Nicias was left 
 out was that he surrendered voluntarily, whereas Demos- 
 thenes made terms for every one but himself, and tried to 
 kill himself when he was taken." The terms which Demos- 
 thenes made for his men were, according to Thucydides (viL 
 82, 2), that " their arms were to be surrendered, but no one 
 was to suffer death, either from violence or from imprison- 
 ment, or from want of the bare means of life. So they all 
 surrendered, being in number six thousand." 
 Told Nicias : on the following (seventh) day. 
 XXVII. 3-5. These paragraphs are essentially Thucydi- 
 dean. Plutarch omits the minor detail of a night march 
 attempted in vain by Nicias. He omits also many realistic 
 details of the bloody carnage in the river Asinarus, where 
 ** the water at once became foul, but was drunk aU the same, 
 though muddy and dyed with blood, and the crowd fought 
 for it '* (Thuc, vii. 84, 5). Also, Plutarch is much more 
 dramatic than Thucydides in his account of the final surren- 
 der of Nicias, although he clearly says nothing that may not 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 249 
 
 have been suggested by Thucydides, or naturally inferred 
 from the well known circumstances of the case. 
 
 XXVII. 6. These details, and the note of triumph at the 
 close of the paragraph, undoubtedly come from Philistus 
 (Introd. p. 10). Thucydides simply says: "The Syracusans 
 and their allies collected their forces and returned with the 
 spoil, and as many prisoners as they could take with them, 
 into the city " (viL 86, 1). And when he sums up his mar- 
 velous story of the expedition, it is from an impartial, but 
 still distinctly Athenian standpoint that he says (vii ^Ifin.) : 
 " Of all the Hellenic actions which took place in this war, or 
 indeed of aU Hellenic actions which are on record, this was 
 the greatest — the most glorious to the victors, the most 
 ruinous to the vanquished ; for they were utterly and at all 
 points defeated, and their sufferings were prodigious. Fleet 
 and army perished from the face of the earth ; nothing was 
 saved, and of the many who went forth few returned home." 
 
 XXVIII. 1. These details come, doubtless, from Philistus 
 (Introd. p. 10). Thucydides says (viL 86, 2) : " The captive 
 Athenians and allies they deposited in the quarries, which 
 they thought would be the safest place of confinement. 
 Nicias and Demosthenes they put to the sword, although 
 against the will of Gylippus. For Gylippus thought that to 
 carry home with him to Lacedaemon the generals of the enemy, 
 over and above all his other successes, would be a brilliant 
 triumph. One of them, Demosthenes, happened to be the 
 greatest foe, and the other the greatest friend of the Lacedae- 
 monians, both in the same matter of Pylos and Sphacteria. 
 For Nicias had taken up their cause, and had persuaded the 
 Athenians to make the peace which set at liberty the pris- 
 oners taken in the island. The Lacedaemonians were grate- 
 ful to him for the service, and this was the main reason why 
 he trusted Gylippus and surrendered himself to him." See 
 chap. xxviL 4-5 of the Nicias. 
 
 Gameius, Metaffeitnion : Dorian and Ionian names, re- 
 spectively, for the month corresponding to the latter half of 
 August and the first half of September. 
 
 /i 
 
250 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 XXVIII. 2. Hermoorates protested : an item from Phil- 
 istus (Introd. p. 10). 
 
 XXVIII. 3. Timaens says : cf, chap. xix. 4. 
 
 Cleandridas: the guardian and adviser of the Spartan 
 king Pleistoanax, on the invasion of Attica in 446. He was 
 believed to have been bribed by Pericles to induce Pleisto- 
 anax to withdraw. " When the army had withdrawn and 
 had been disbanded to their several cities, the Lacedaemo- 
 nians, in indignation, laid a heavy fine upon their King, the 
 full amount of which he was unable to pay, and so betook 
 himself out of Lacedaemon, while Cleandridas, who had gone 
 into voluntary exile, was condemned to death. He was the 
 father of that Gylippus who overcame the Athenians in 
 Sicily. And nature seems to have imparted covetousness to 
 the son, as it were a congenital disease, owing to which he 
 too, after noble achievements, was caught in base practices 
 and banished from Sparta in disgrace. This story, however, 
 I have told at length in my life of Lysander {Perieles, xxiL 3). 
 Cleandridas betook himself to Magna Graecia, became a 
 citizen of Thurii (Thuc.,vL 104, 2), and distinguished himself 
 in his adopted home as a soldier (Frontinus, <Si<ra^., ii. 3, 12). 
 
 In my life of Lysander : chapters xvL f . 
 
 XXVIII. 5. The shield of Nioias : with this item, pos- 
 sibly taken from Timaeus, Plutarch takes his leave of Nicias. 
 He has already, in xxvi 6, anticipated the memorable words 
 with which Thucydides takes his leave of him (vii 86, 5) : 
 ** No one of the Hellenes of my time was less deserving of 
 so miserable an end ; for he lived in the practice of every 
 virtue " ( Jowett) ; or, " in the entire practice of what men 
 regarded as virtue " (hih rrjv iraaav e? aperrjv v€vofiuTfi€vr)v 
 hnrrihevtnv). I find no sarcasm, much less malice, in these 
 words, as Professor Bury does, who interprets: "In my 
 opinion, says Thucydides, Nicias deserved such an end less 
 than any other Athenian, considering his conventional virtue. 
 In other words, a man of such conventional virtue was un- 
 suited for such an unconventional end " {Ancient Greek His- 
 torians, p. 119). In his last speech to the army Thucydides 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 251 
 
 has Nicias say (vii. 77, 2) : " My days have been passed in 
 the performance of many ordained religious rites, and of 
 many just and blameless services to mankind " (Jowett has 
 ** of many a religious duty, and of many a just and blame- 
 less action "). 
 
 XXIX. This chapter, again, is a compound of material 
 furnished by Thucydides and Philistus (Introd. p. 10). The 
 corresponding passage in Thucydides is best given in full : 
 "Those who were imprisoned in the quarries were at the 
 beginning of their captivity harshly treated by the S}Tacu- 
 sans. There were great numbers of them, and they were 
 crowded in a deep and narrow place. At first the sun by 
 day was still scorching and suffocating, for they had no roof 
 over their heads, while the autumn nights were cold, and the 
 extremes of temperature engendered violent disorders. Being 
 cramped for room they had to do everything on the same 
 spot The corpses of those who died from their wounds, 
 exposure to the weather, and the like, lay heaped one upon 
 another. The smells were intolerable; and they were at 
 the same time afflicted by hunger and thirst. During eight 
 months they were allowed only about half a pint of water 
 and a pint of food a day. Every kind of misery which could 
 befall man in such a place befell them. This was the condi- 
 tion of all the captives for about ten weeks. At length the 
 Syracusans sold them, with the exception of the Athenians 
 and of any Sicilian or Italian Greeks who had sided with 
 them in the war. The whole number of the public prisoners 
 is not accurately known, but they were not less than seven 
 thousand " (vii. 87). 
 
 The rations allowed their captives in the quarries by the 
 Syracusans were only half the regular rations of a slave. 
 The Athenians allowed the Lacedaemonians to send to the 
 besieged on Sphacteria " two Attic quarts of barley-meal for 
 each man, and a pint of wine, and also a piece of meat ; for 
 an attendant, half these quantities" (Thuc, iv. 16, 1). 
 
 XXIX. 1. The mark of a horse : an emblem of Syracuse, 
 as the owl was of Athens. The Athenians were said to have 
 
250 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 I' 
 
 XXVIII. 2. Hermoorates protested : an item from Phil- 
 is tus (Introd. p. 10). 
 
 XXVIII. 3. Timaeus says : cf, chap. xii. 4. 
 
 Cleandridas : the guardian and adviser of the Spartan 
 king Pleistoanax, on the invasion of Attica in 446. He was 
 believed to have been bribed by Pericles to induce Pleisto- 
 anax to withdraw. " When the army had withdrawn and 
 had been disbanded to their several cities, the Lacedaemo- 
 nians, in indignation, laid a heavy fine upon their King, the 
 full amount of which he was unable to pay, and so betook 
 himself out of Lacedaemon, while Cleandridas, who had gone 
 into voluntary exile, was condemned to death. He was the 
 father of that Gylippus who overcame the Athenians in 
 Sicily. And nature seems to have imparted covetousness to 
 the son, as it were a congenital disease, owing to which he 
 too, after noble achievements, was caught in base practices 
 and banished from Sparta in disgrace. This story, however, 
 I have told at length in my life of Lysander {Pericles^ xxiL 3). 
 Cleandridas betook himself to Magna Graecia, became a 
 citizen of Thurii (Thuc.,vi 104, 2), and distinguished himself 
 in his adopted home as a soldier (Frontinus, <S>^ra^, ii. 3, 12). 
 
 In my life of Lysander : chapters xvi. f . 
 
 XXVIII. 5. The shield of Nioias : with this item, pos- 
 sibly taken from Timaeus, Plutarch takes his leave of Nicias. 
 He has already, in xxvL 6, anticipated the memorable words 
 with which Thucydides takes his leave of him (vii 86, 5) ; 
 '♦ No one of the Hellenes of my time was less deserving of 
 so miserable an end ; for he lived in the practice of every 
 virtue " ( Jowett) ; or, " in the entire practice of what men 
 regarded as virtue " (hi.h rrjv iraaav h ap€Tr)v pevofiia-fievrjv 
 hnrrihevaiv), I find no sarcasm, much less malice, in these 
 words, as Professor Bury does, who interprets: "In my 
 opinion, says Thucydides, Nicias deserved such an end less 
 than any other Athenian, considering his conventional virtue. 
 In other words, a man of such conventional virtue was un- 
 suited for such an unconventional end " {Ancient Greek His- 
 torians, p. 119). In his last speech to the army Thucydides 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 261 
 
 has Nicias say (viL 77, 2) : " My days have been passed in 
 the performance of many ordained religious rites, and of 
 many just and blameless services to mankind " (Jowett has 
 " of many a religious duty, and of many a just and blame- 
 less action "). 
 
 XXIX. This chapter, again, is a compound of material 
 furnished by Thucydides and Philistus (Introd. p. 10). The 
 corresponding passage in Thucydides is best given in full : 
 "Those who were imprisoned in the quarries were at the 
 beginning of their captivity harshly treated by the S}Tacu- 
 sans. There were great numbers of them, and they were 
 crowded in a deep and narrow place. At first the sun by 
 day was still scorching and suffocating, for they had no roof 
 over their heads, while the autumn nights were cold, and the 
 extremes of temperature engendered violent disorders. Being 
 cramped for room they had to do everything on the same 
 spot The corpses of those who died from their wounds, 
 exposure to the weather, and the like, lay heaped one upon 
 another. The smells were intolerable; and they were at 
 the same time afflicted by hunger and thirst. During eight 
 months they were allowed only about half a pint of water 
 and a pint of food a day. Every kind of misery which could 
 befall man in such a place befell them. This was the condi- 
 tion of all the captives for about ten weeks. At length the 
 Syracusans sold them, with the exception of the Athenians 
 and of any Sicilian or Italian Greeks who had sided with 
 them in the war. The whole number of the public prisoners 
 is not accurately known, but they were not less than seven 
 thousand " (vii. 87). 
 
 The rations allowed their captives in the quarries by the 
 Syracusans were only half the regular rations of a slave. 
 The Athenians allowed the Lacedaemonians to send to the 
 besieged on Sphacteria " two Attic quarts of barley-meal for 
 each man, and a pint of wine, and also a piece of meat ; for 
 an attendant, half these quantities" (Thuc, iv. 16, 1). 
 
 XXIX. 1. The mark of a horse : an emblem of Syracuse, 
 as the owl was of Athens. The Athenians were said to have 
 
252 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 V 
 
 branded Samian prisoners with the mark of an owL See on 
 the Pericles, xxvi. 3. 
 
 XXIX. 3. The Caunians: Caunns was a city of Caria, 
 belonging to the Khodians. It joined the lonians in their 
 revolt from Persia in 499. It had dockyards, and a noted 
 harbor which could be closed. Browning has made an artis- 
 tic use of the incident here narrated as an introduction to his 
 transcription of the Alcestis of Euripides, in Balaustion's 
 
 Adventure, 
 
 XXX. They say : the story which follows has no author- 
 ity, and smacks of romantic invention. It is given more at 
 length by Plutarch in his De garrulitate, 13 = Morals, p. 509 : 
 " It was a barber that first reported the news of the great 
 overthrow which the Athenians received in Sicily ; for being 
 the first that heard the relation of it in the Piraeus, from a 
 servant of one of those who had escaped out of the battle, he 
 presently left his shop at sixes and sevens, and flew into the 
 city as fast as his heels could carry him, 
 
 * For fear some other should the honor claim 
 Of being first, when he but second came ' (Jliad, xxii. 207). 
 
 Now you may be sure that the first spreader of this news 
 caused a great hubbub in the city, insomuch that the people, 
 thronging together in th,e market-place, made diligent en- 
 quiry for the first divulger. Presently the barber was 
 brought by head and shoulders to the crowd, and examined ; 
 but he could give no account of his author, only one that he 
 never saw or knew in his life before had told him the news. 
 Which so incensed the multitude, that they immediately 
 cried out, * To the rack with the traitor, tie the lying rascal 
 neck and heels together. This is a mere story of the rogue's 
 own making. Who heard it ? Who gave any credit to it 
 beside himself ? ' At the same instant the wheel was brought 
 out, and the poor barber stretched upon it, — not to his ease, 
 you may be sure. And then it was, and not before, that the 
 news of the defeat was confirmed by several that had made 
 a hard shift to escape the slaughter. Upon which the people 
 
 NOTES ON THE NICIAS 
 
 253 
 
 scattered every one to his own home, to make their private 
 lamentation for their particular losses, leaving the unfortu- 
 nate barber bound fast to the wheel ; in which condition he 
 continued till late in the evening, before he was let loose. 
 Nor would this reform the impertinent fool ; for no sooner 
 was he at liberty but he would needs be enquiring of the 
 executioner, what news, and what was reported of the man- 
 ner of Nicias the general's being slain. So inexpugnable 
 and incorrigible a vice is loquacity." 
 
 Another story connected with the arrival of the news at 
 Athens is told by Athenaeus (ix. p. 407) on the authority of 
 Chamaeleon of Pontus, an immediate disciple of Aristotle. 
 Hegemon, the famous inventor of parody, waa reciting in the 
 theater his parody of the Gigantomachy, and was moving 
 the Athenians to excessive laughter, when the news was 
 brought to the audience of the disaster in SicUy. " No one 
 left his place, although almost every one had lost kindred. 
 They veiled their faces and wept in secret, but did not leave 
 their places, that men from other cities who were at the 
 spectacle might not see that they were overwhelmed by their 
 calamity. And they continued to listen to the recital, but 
 Hegemon, when he heard the news, decided to hold his 
 
 peace." 
 
 XXX. 2. Messengers came : members of the expedition 
 who had made their escape from Sicily. "The news was 
 brought to Athens, but the Athenians could not beUeve that 
 the armament had been so completely annihilated, although 
 they had the positive assurances of the very soldiers who had 
 escaped from the scene of action. At last they knew the 
 truth ; and then they were furious with the orators who had 
 joined in promoting the expedition — as if they had not 
 voted it themselves — and with the soothsayers, and prophets, 
 and all who by the influence of religion had at the time m- 
 spired them with the belief that they would conquer Sicily" 
 (Thuc., viii. 1, 1). 
 
NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 % 
 
 fssoMamBsmmm 
 
NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 I. 1. The family of Aloibiades: on his father's side 
 Alcibiades belonged to the noble family of the Eupa- 
 tridae (a specific clan name to be distinguished from the 
 same name used generically for all Athenians of noble birth), 
 and his grandfather, Alcibiades the Elder, had been associ- 
 ated with Cleisthenes the reformer in the expulsion of the 
 Peisistratidae (510 B. c, cf. Isoc, xvi 26). For political 
 reasons this Alcibiades renounced the office of Proxenus, or 
 Consul Resident, for Sparta at Athens, which his more 
 famous grandson tried to resume (Thuc., v. 43, 2). The 
 name itself was Spartan, and had early passed over into the 
 Athenian family (Thuc, viiL 6, 3). 
 
 To Eurysaces: in the Alcibiudes /., a dialogue attributed 
 to Plato, p. 121, Socrates is made to draw from Alcibiades 
 the boast that his race goes " back to Eurysaces, and he to 
 Zeus". To this Socrates playfully rejoins, *' And mine, noble 
 Alcibiades, to Daedalus, and he to Hephaestus, son of Zeus." 
 But there was no noble family of Eurysacidae at Athens, 
 as some have thought (see Toepfifer, Attische Genealogie, 
 pp. 175 if., 278). 
 
 An Alcmaeonid .... Meffades : this was the most famous, 
 and at different times the most powerful clan at Athens, suc- 
 cessfully rivalling that of the Philaldae. To the latter Cimon 
 belonged, to the former Pericles. It traced its origin through 
 an Alcmaeon to Neleus, the father of the Homeric Nestor. 
 Megacles was the third of that name in the family line, the 
 nephew of Cleisthenes the reformer, and brother of Agariste 
 the mother of Pericles. 
 
 At his own cost : the State usually fiunished the trier- 
 arch with hull, mast, and pay and rations for the crew. 
 
 At Artemisium: in 480 b.g. At the close of the third 
 day of fighting the Persian and Greek fleets drew apart for 
 
 -CBS 
 
 ii 
 
258 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 the night. " On the side of the Greeks the Athenians bore 
 ofif the meed of valour; and among them the most distin- 
 guished was Cleinias, the son of Alcibiades, who served at 
 his own charge with two hundred men, on board a vessel 
 which he had himself furnished *' (Herod., viiL 17). 
 
 At Coroneia: In 447 B. c, the Athenians under Tolmides 
 invaded Boeotia, but were most disastrously defeated. See 
 the Pericles, xviii., and cf. Isoc, xvL 28 ; Plato, Alcibiades /., 
 p. 112. 
 
 His near kinsznen : they were first cousins once removed, 
 through Agariste, the mother of Pericles, as shown by the 
 following genealogical table. 
 
 Megacles II. + Agariste (d. of Cleisthenes of Sicyon) 
 
 Cleisthenes (the Reformer) 
 
 1 
 
 Hippocrates 
 
 Megacles III. 
 
 Cleinias + Deinomache 
 
 Agariste + Xanthippos 
 
 Pericles Ariphron 
 
 Alcibiades 
 
 From Plato's Protagoras, p. 320, we learn that Cleinias, the 
 younger brother of Alcibiades, was also a ward of Pericles, 
 who placed him with Ariphron to be educated, fearing that 
 he would be corrupted by Alcibiades. "But before six 
 months had elapsed, Ariphron sent him back, not know- 
 ing what to do with him." 
 
 I. 2. The favor whioh Socrates showed him: if the 
 story told by Xenophon {Mem. i 2, 40) is authentic, Alci- 
 biades was a follower of Socrates shortly before the death of 
 Pericles (429 b. c), and Plato {Symp, p. 215 A) represents 
 him as still a warm admirer of the Master more than a dozen 
 years later, just before the Sicilian expedition. But Socrates 
 carefully disavowed being any man's teacher, and never spoke 
 of his " pupils ", but of his " associates ". 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 259 
 
 Prominent men : the first three of the list were associated 
 in the Sicilian expedition (see the Nieias, xviii 2 ; xx. 1 and 
 passim). Phormio served Athens successfully as general on 
 various occasions from 440 to 429. He is most famous for 
 his remarkable naval victories in the Corinthian gulf during 
 the last year. These are vividly described by Thucydides 
 (iL 83-92). Thrasybulus came into prominence as a naval 
 commander after the Sicilian expedition, and was the hero of 
 the restoration of the democracy in 403, after the rule of the 
 " Thirty Tyrants ". For Theramenes, see on the Nicias, iL 1. 
 
 His nurse .... a Spartan woman: as a result of the 
 athletic training of Spartan women, they were acknowledged 
 to be the most beautiful and healthy in Greece, and were gen- 
 erally sought for by well-to-do families as nurses for chil- 
 dren. They gave the limbs of infants free play, instead of 
 wrapping them tightly in swaddling bands. 
 
 His tutor : the iraiSaytoyo^:, or Greek tutor, was merely a 
 sort of guardian of the boy, conducting him to and from 
 school or palaestra, and holding him to his regimen. See 
 Plato's Lysis, p. 223, for a picture of tutors in function. '* The 
 law", says St. Paul (Gal. iiL 24), "was our 7raiBaya>y<k,*' 
 our tutor, " to bring us unto CJhrist " the teacher. 
 
 Antisthenes : one of the most devoted followers of Soc- 
 rates, and, after his Master's death, the foimder of the Cynic 
 school of philosophy. According to Diogenes Laertius (iL 
 7, 3) he was the author of a dialogue entitled Alcibiades, and 
 in one of his works entitled Cyrus he is known to have 
 vehemently attacked Alcibiades (Athen., p. 220 c). 
 
 Plato : ** whereas Pericles gave you, Alcibiades, for a tutor 
 Zopyrus the Thracian, a slave of his who was past all other 
 work " (Alcibiades L, p. 122, Jowett's trans.). 
 
 L 3. The saying of Euripides: the story is given in 
 Aelian, Var. Hist, xiii. 4. At a symposium given by Arch- 
 elaus king of Macedon, Euripides, who was reclining on a 
 couch with Agathon the tragic poet, then forty years of 
 age, embraced and kissed him. When Archelaus asked if 
 he was still a lover of Agathon, Euripides answered, " Yes 
 
260 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 indeed ! It is not the spring time only of beauty which is 
 very beautiful, but also the autumn." In his Apophtheg, 
 reg, et imp,, p. 177, telling the same story, Plutarch has 
 Archelaus say to his friends, anent the action of Euripides, 
 ** Be not surprised ; beauty's autumn, too, is beautiful.* 
 
 The case with Aloibiades : the Protagoras of Plato opens 
 thus : " Where do you come from, Socrates ? And yet I need 
 hardly ask the question, as I know that you have been in 
 chase of the fair Alcibiades. I saw him the day before 
 yesterday; and he had got a beard like a man, — and he 
 is a man, as I may tell you in your ear. But I thought 
 that he was still very charming." And at the beginning 
 of the Alcibiades L (p. 104) Socrates is made to say to 
 Alcibiades: "You think that you are the fairest and tall- 
 est of the citizens, and this every one who has eyes sees 
 to be true." Antisthenes, who was no friend of Alcibiades 
 (see on § 2), said he was vigorous and manly, undisciplined 
 and bold, and fair to look upon in every period of his life 
 (Athen., p. 534 c). 
 
 I. 4. Aristophanes notices this lisp : in the Wasps (422 
 B. c), w. 44 ff. Sosias is telling his fellow slave, Xanthias, 
 his wonderful vision of Cleon speaking to the Athenians in 
 the Pynx : — 
 
 (Sosias) *' Methought beside him, on the ground, I saw 
 Theorus seated, with a raven's head. 
 Then Alcibiades lisped out to me, 
 Owemarlc t Theocums has a cwaverCs head. 
 
 (Xanthias) Well lisped ! and rightly, Alcibiades ! ** (Rogers' trans.) 
 
 The "lisp" of Alcibiades turned his r's into Ts, and the play 
 is on the Greek words Kopa^, raven, and K^ka^, flatterer, — 
 or craven, as the exigencies of translation will have it. The- 
 orus is thus pilloried as one of the innumerable flatterers and 
 minions of the great demagogue, Cleon. 
 
 Arohippus: a minor poet of Old CJomedy. His most 
 famous play was "The Fishes", in which the Athenians, as 
 excessive eaters of fish, were attacked and brought to terms 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 261 
 
 by the animals themselves. The passage which is partly 
 paraphrased and partly quoted here, cannot be assigned to 
 any definite play. See Kock, Com. Att Frag., L p. 688. 
 
 The son of Alcibiades : by Hipparete, daughter of Hip- 
 ponicus (chap, viii 2-4). He seems to have been dissolute 
 and weak. We have an oration of Isocrates in his defense 
 (xvL) ; and two orations of Lysias attacking him for military 
 cowardice (xiv. and xv.). These are described more at length 
 in the Introduction, p. 3. He came into unenviable po- 
 litical notice for a short time during the Corinthian war (395- 
 390 B. c). 
 
 II. 2. The source of the wrestling story is unknown. 
 Plutarch has it again in Apophtheg. reg. et imp., p. 186 D, and 
 also, of an unnamed Spartan, in Apophtheg. Lacon., p. 234 E. 
 
 IL 3. The knuckle-bones story is found only here. The 
 astragalus, or knuckle-bone, came from the hind ankle-joint 
 of such doven-footed animals as sheep and goats, and owing 
 to their peculiar squareness and smoothness, were used as 
 playthings by children, and as dice by men, women, and 
 children. Cf. the Alcibiades L, p. 110. 
 
 II. 4. Refused to play the flute : in the Alcibiades /., 
 p. 106, Socrates says, " According to my recollection, Alci- 
 biades, you learned the arts of writing, of playing on the 
 lyre, and of wrestling; the flute you never would learn." 
 The Boeotians, and especially the Thebans, led all Greece in 
 the art of flute-playing. "Their lawgivers," says Plutarch 
 (Pelopidas, xix.), "designing to soften, whilst they were 
 young, their natural fierceness, brought the pipe into great 
 esteem, both in serious and sportive occasions." The Athe- 
 nians, on the other hand, held that the music of the flute 
 was too exciting, and its moral efiects, therefore, bad. Much, 
 however, must have depended on the style of music played. 
 The objection of Alcibiades, in this story, to the art, is wholly 
 aesthetic. See W. Rhys Roberts, Ancient Boeotians, pp. 33 ff. 
 IL 6. Athena .... Apollo, etc. : " Athena is said to have 
 invented the pipes or double flute. But as she played on 
 them in the forest of Mt. Ida, she saw her puffed and swollen 
 
262 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 263 
 
 \ . 
 
 cheeks reflected in the water of a spring. Disgusted at the 
 sight, she threw away the pipes with a curse on whoever 
 should pick them up. They were found by the satyr Mar- 
 syas, who picked them up and practiced on them. At last 
 he challenged Apollo to a musical contest, he to play on his 
 flutes, and Apollo to play on his lyre. Being vanquished, 
 Marsyas was tied up to a pine-tree and flayed alive " (Frazer, 
 on Pausanias, i. 24, 1 and ii. 7, 9). The skin of Marsyas was 
 to be seen in historical times at Celaenae in Phrygia (Herod., 
 vii. 26 ; Xen., Anal. L 2, 8). 
 
 III. Antiphon : the Rhamnusian. See on the Nidas, vL 1. 
 An abusive oration of his against Alcibiades is cited in 
 Athenaeus, p. 525 b. It was in all probability a fabrication, 
 by some unknown sophist, dating from about the middle of 
 the fourth century B. c, when the growing cult of Alcibiades' 
 memory roused much hostile literary activity. The oration 
 was falsely attributed by its unknown author to Antiphon, 
 but has not come down to us among his writings, as the sim- 
 ilar oration against Alcibiades attributed to Andocides has. 
 See on the Nicias, xi. 7, and Bruns, Literarisches Fortraet, 
 
 pp. 510 f. 
 
 Ariphron : one of his guardians (i. 1). 
 
 If he is dead, etc.: this should perhaps be added to the list 
 of " memorable sayings " attributed to Pericles, given in the 
 note on the Pericles, viii 6. 
 
 IV. 1. By flattery and favor: ''his influence in the 
 state and among the allies exposed him to the corruption 
 of many an adept in the art of flattery " (Xen., Mem., i. 
 
 2, 24). 
 
 IV. 2. That he ciuinot be reached by . . . philosophy: 
 
 « that philosophic should not take holde on him with her free, 
 severe, and quicke reasons " (North). 
 
 Saw all that was in Soorates cuid olave to him : so Plato 
 always represents the attachment of Alcibiades to Socrates, 
 particulariy in the long and ardent, eulogium of Socrates 
 which he puts into the mouth of Alcibiades in the Sym- 
 posium, pp. 215 ff: A different idea is given by Xenophon 
 
 i {Mtm, i. 2, 12-48), in rescuing the memory of Socrates from 
 the odium of his having been the teacher of Critias and Alci- 
 biades. Neither of these young men, according to Xeno- 
 phon, associated with Socrates because they f oimd him or the 
 life he led really pleasing to them. Bather, they sought 
 thereby to make their own his marvelous powers of argu- 
 ment, his independence and self-control, that they might 
 prevail among professed politicians, and obtain the headship 
 of the state. When Alcibiades can out-argue Pericles, he 
 has no further use for Socrates. " As soon as the desired 
 superiority over the politicians of the day seemed to be at- 
 tained, Critias and Alcibiades turned their backs on Socrates. 
 They found his society imattractive, not to speak of the an- 
 noyance of being cross-questioned on their own shortcom- 
 ings. Forthwith they devoted themselves to those affairs of 
 state but for which they would never have come near him 
 at alL " Plato's conception of the relation between Socrates 
 and Alcibiades is far more reasonable. In youth and early 
 manhood Alcibiades may well have felt with Socrates that 
 virtue, rather than royal power, must be the aim of individ- 
 uals or states, if they would be happy (Plato, Alcibiades L 
 p. 135), and may have sincerely said to him : " From this day 
 forward, I must and will follow you as you have followed 
 me ; I will be the disciple, and you shall be my master." 
 Afterwards, the deceitfulness of ambition and the cares of 
 the world brought on estrangement from and neglect of the 
 A- great teacher. 
 
 IV. 3. He orouohed, etc.: this iambic trimeter, of un- 
 known authorship, is cited by Plutarch also in the Pelopidas, 
 xxix, and the Amatoriiis, IS =:^ Morals, p. 762 F. 
 
 rV. 4. As Plato says : " when he is with the lover, both 
 cease from their pain, but when he is away, then he longs as 
 he is longed for, and has love's image, love for love (Anteros), 
 lodging in his breast" {Phaedrus, p. 255). 
 
 Tenting with Socrates: during an expedition to Potidaea, 
 432/431 B. c. (Thuc, L 64, 2) . "All this ", Alcibiades is made 
 to say in the Symposium, p. 219 E, " happened before he and I 
 
 ■^s 
 
 '-> t 
 
 »ar<MH#«iHK*f %r«,«f M^^lYT"**' "-- • ->• 
 
 » a »( -•- 1 - • 
 
264 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 265 
 
 went on the expedition to Potidaea ; there we messed to- 
 gether." See on vii. 3. 
 
 IV. 5 f. Anytus: a wealthy tanner, who became prom- 
 inent as general and politician during the last decade of the 
 century. He once belonged to the circle of Socrates, but 
 became embittered against the Master, and at last, with 
 Meletus and Lycon, headed the prosecution which resulted 
 in his death (399) . When the Athenian people repented of 
 this judicial murder, Anytus was banished, and betook him- 
 self to Heracleia, on the Euxine sea, where he is said to have 
 been stoned to death by the enraged populace. This story of 
 Alcibiades' drunken frolic at his house is told by Plutarch 
 also in the Amatorius, 17 = Morals, p. 762 C, and by Satyrud 
 in Athenaeus, p. 534 e, f. In this last version, it is to 
 Thrasyllus, an indigent companion, that Alcibiades has the 
 golden booty carried. For Satyrus, see on xii. 1. 
 
 V. A variant of this story, with much less detail, is found 
 in the comments of Proclus (412-485 A. d.) on Plato's Alci- 
 Hades /. (p. 108) : *' To a lover of his who sold his farm for 
 a hundred drachmas, Alcibiades, they say, managed to have 
 ten talents given by the farmers of the public revenues." 
 Here the money values differ widely from those which Plu- 
 tarch gives. The gold coin most commonly called a stater 
 was worth twenty drachmas (silver coins of about the value 
 of a franc), and corresponded to the modem napoleon. It 
 took three hundred of them to make the value of a talent. 
 The talent was equivalent to about Si 200, or £250, though 
 the purchasing power of money was at least five times greater 
 then than now. The farmers of the public revenues, in this 
 case, probably, were thought of as men who leased certain 
 public lands. The anecdote cannot be regarded as a source 
 for exact economic detail The best description of the finan- 
 cial system of Pericles is now to be found in Ed. Meyer's 
 Gesch, d. Alt, iv. pp. 28 fif. 
 
 V. 1. A resident alien: a metic (fieroiKO^), enjoyed com- 
 mercial privileges, paid certain taxes and performed many 
 civic duties, but had no civic rights. See Grardner-Jevons, 
 
 ^A" 
 
 Manual of Greek Antiquities, pp. 454 fif. In the summer of 
 431, when the entire Athenian force, including the metics, 
 was called into service, the citizen hoplites numbered thir- 
 teen thousand, and the metic hoplites three thousand (Thuc.^ 
 1131). 
 
 VI. 1. Wrung his heart, etc.: "Thus Socrates humbled 
 Alcibiades, forced him into unfeigned tears, and turned his 
 heart, when he argued the case with him " (Plutarch, Quomodo 
 adulator etc., 2d = Morals, p. 69 F). See also the passages 
 from Plato's Symposium cited below on § 4. 
 
 Hunted down by him*, this is also the metaphor of Plato 
 in the passage from the opening of the Protagoras cited on 
 
 L3. 
 
 VI. 2. Gleanthes: of Assos in the Troad,an ardent dev- 
 otee of philosophy in spite of poverty (300-220 B. c), was 
 long a disciple of Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school at 
 Athens, and succeeded him about 260 b. c. as head of the 
 school He was a man of the simplest life and sternest 
 morality. Of all his writings only a striking hymn to Zeus 
 
 is still extant. 
 
 Of which Thucydides speaks: in his terse characteriza- 
 tion of Alcibiades (vi 15). ** The people feared the extremes 
 to which he carried his lawless self-indulgence." 
 
 VI. 4. As iron, etc.: ** For as we first soften iron in the 
 fire and then dip it in water, to harden it into a due con- 
 sistence ; so, after we have warmed and mollified our friend 
 by a just commendation of his virtues, we may then safely 
 temper him with a moderate reprehension of his vices " (Plu- 
 tarch, Qtu)mx)do adulator etc,, 36 = Morals, p. 73 CJ). 
 
 In the Symposium of Plato (pp. 215 f.), Alcibiades is 
 made to say to, and of, Socrates, *' When we hear any other 
 speaker, even a very good one, his words produce absolutely 
 no efifect upon us in comparison, whereas the very fragments 
 of you and your words, even at second hand, and however 
 imperfectly repeated, amaze and possess the souls of every 
 man, woman, and child who comes within hearing of them. 
 . . . My heart leaps within me more than that of any Cory- 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 ^^v» V 1% ^Am 4*m * sx ■ 
 
 > ,.v 
 HP««HMl 
 
 0t A '-^ •*.-«.. ♦• 
 
 
 ►#•»•' 
 
266 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 bantian reveller, and my eyes rain tears when I hear them. 
 . . . He is the only person who ever made me ashamed, which 
 you might not think to be my nature, and there is no one 
 else who does the same. For I know that I cannot answer 
 him or say that I ought not to do as he bids, but when I 
 leave his presence the love of popularity gets the better 
 of me." 
 
 VII. 1. The first of the two stories in this paragraph is 
 told by Plutarch also in his Apophthegmata reg. et imp,, 
 p. 186 E, where, however, more correctly, it is a rhapsody 
 of the Iliad for which Alcibiades asks. 
 
 VII. 2. This story ia also told by Plutarch in the same 
 place as the first, and as it is told here. A much more dra- 
 matic form of it is foimd in Diodorus (Ephorus), xii. 38, 3. 
 Alcibiades finds Pericles in despair over the accounts which 
 he has been bidden to put in, and advises him to devise some 
 way of not putting them in at all ; whereupon Pericles plunges 
 his country into the Peloponnesian war to distract attention 
 from his accounts ! This form of the story is found also in 
 Valerius Maximus, iii. 1, 3, with the additional detail that it 
 was the accounts for expenditures on the Propylaea which 
 had been demanded of Pericles. For the motives of 
 Pericles in favoring the Peloponnesian war, see the Pericles, 
 zxzii. 3. 
 
 VII. 3. The campaign of Potidaea: see on iv. 4 In 
 the Symposium of Plato (p. 220), Alcibiades is made to say 
 of Socrates, "I will also tell, if you please — and indeed I 
 am bound to tell — of his courage in battle ; for who but he 
 saved my life ? Now this was the engagement in which I 
 received the prize of valour : for I was woimded and he would 
 not leave me, but he rescued me and my arms ; and he ought 
 to have received the prize of valour which the generals wanted 
 to confer on me partly on account of my rank, and I told 
 them so (this Socrates will not impeach or deny), but he was 
 more eager than the generals that I and not he should have 
 the prize." Cf, also the opening of the Charmides, p. 153. 
 In Isoc. xvi. 29 there is no mention of Socrates, and Athenaeus 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 267 
 
 has a long tirade against the credibility of Plato's testimony 
 to the soldierly exploits of the Master (p. 215). 
 
 VII. 4. The battle of Delixim: see on the Mdas, vi. 3. 
 Continuing the citation from Plato's Symposium in the preced- 
 ing note, Alcibiades says," There was another occasion on which 
 his behaviour was very noticeable — in the flight of the army 
 after the battle of Delium, where he served among the heavy- 
 armed, and I had a better opportunity of seeing him than at 
 Potidaea, as I was myself on horseback, and therefore com- 
 paratively out of danger. He and Laches were retreating as 
 the troops were in flight, and I met them and told them not 
 to be discouraged, and promised to remain with them. And 
 there you might see him, just as he is in the streets of Athens, 
 stalking like a pelican, and rolling his eyes, calmly contem- 
 plating enemies as well as friends, and making very intelli- 
 gible to anybody, even from a distance, that whoever attacked 
 him would be likely to meet with a stout resistance ; and in 
 this way he and his companion escaped — for persons of this 
 class are never touched in war ; those only are pursued who 
 are running away headlong. I particularly observed how su- 
 perior he was to Laches in presence of mind." In Plato's 
 Laches, p. 181, Laches says Socrates was his companion in 
 the retreat from Delium, and highly praises his bravery. And 
 in Plato's Apology, p. 28 e, Socrates speaks of his serving also 
 in the campaign against Amphipolis, in 422. See the Introd., 
 
 p. 11. 
 
 VIII. 1. Hipponioos: the third of the name in this 
 wealthy family. He is mentioned by Thucydides (iii. 91) 
 as a general who successfully cooperated with Nicias in an 
 incursion into the territory of Tanagra, in Boeotia, in 426. 
 According to [Pseudo-]Andocides, iv. 13, he was killed at 
 the battle of Delium, in 424 (see on the Nicias, vi 3), serving 
 there also as general. His father, CaUias II., bore the sur- 
 name of " Pit-wealthy " (see on the Aristides, v. 4) ; his son, 
 Callias III., dissipated the vast wealth of the family on soph- 
 ists, flatterers, and women. It is at his house that the scene 
 is laid in Plato's Protagoras and Xenophon's Symposium. 
 
 ■li»Nfclft >«>ll< 
 
 • ». • -- 
 
 i**.*_«^»<— «. w-» 1 .« >♦"-»»..« >«■.«—' 
 
268 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 269 
 
 VIIL 2-4. Some say : that Callias and not Hipponicus 
 gave Hipparete to Alcibiades in marriage^ looks like an un- 
 warranted inference from the language of [Pseudo-]Andoc- 
 ides in iv. 13-15, where the details of this and the two 
 following paragraphs are to be found. The story of § 1 is 
 not now to be found elsewhere. For the character of the 
 oration against Alcibiades attributed to Andocides, see on 
 
 the NiciaSy xi 7. 
 
 A dowry of ten talents : about SI 2000, or £2500 (see on 
 v.), an enormous dowry, as dowries went. The state awarded 
 the daughters of Aristides a dowry of half a talent each (see 
 on the Aristides f xxviL 1). 
 
 VIII. 5. This paragraph is evidently Plutarch's own de- 
 fense, and a questionable one, of Alcibiades' conduct. 
 [Pseudo-]Andocides calls it a shameless defiance of the mag- 
 istrates, the laws, and his fellow citizens. 
 
 IX. This anecdote is found also, in briefer form, in Plu- 
 tarch's Apophth. reg. et. imp., p. 186 D. There, however, the 
 price of the dog is put at 6000 drachmas, or a talent. In re-tell- 
 ing the story Plutarch has increased the sum to seventy 
 minas. or 7000 drachmas. This is the way with good story- 
 tellers. 
 
 Three obols was a low living wage at Athens for a man of 
 family. The obol corresponded closely to the English penny, 
 though it had several times its purchasing power, as did all 
 ancient money when compared with sums equivalent now. 
 There were six obob in a drachma, one hundred drachmas 
 in a mina, and sixty minas in a talent 
 
 X. 1. Contributions to the state: aside from the regular 
 public services, or ** liturgies ", imposed by the state upon 
 wealthy citizens (see on the Nicias, iii. 2), voluntary contribu- 
 tions of money, weapons, or ships were often called for in 
 the public assembly, when the expenses of the state were 
 greater than its revenue. " Those who were willing to con- 
 tribute then rose and mentioned what they would give; 
 while those who were unwilling to give anything remained 
 silent or retired privately from the assembly. The names of 
 
 / 
 
 those who had promised to contribute, together with the 
 amount of their contributions, were written on tablets, which 
 were placed before the statues of the Eponymi [statues of 
 the heroes from whom the ten Athenian tribes were named, 
 standing near the CJouncil House in the market place], where 
 they remained till the amount was paid " (Smith's Dictionary 
 of Antiquities, 3d ed., art. Epidoseis ; see also Boeckh's 
 Staatshaushaltung, i. * pp. 685 f .). The " Mean Man " of 
 Theophrastus (Char, xxv., Jebb), " when subscriptions for the 
 treasury are being made, will rise in silence from his place 
 in the Ecclesia, and go out from the midst." 
 
 Made a contribution : much later forms of the story (Pro- 
 clus on Plato, Alcibiades L p. 110, cited by Baehr) give the 
 amount as ten talents, and make Alcibiades the merest boy 
 at the time. Plutarch alludes to the incident of the quail 
 in the Praec, reip. ger,, 3 = Morals, p. 799 D, as though Al- 
 cibiades were making a speech at the time. Cf. chap, xvi 3. 
 
 The quail which he was carrying : quail- and cock-fights 
 were very popular at Athens, and the birds were trained 
 with the greatest care. In Plato's Alcibiades I. p. 120, Soc- 
 rates is made to refer Alcibiades '*to Midias the quail- 
 breeder and others like him, who manage our politics." For 
 the fashionable amusement of quail-filliping, see Mr. Eogers' 
 note on Aristophanes, Birds, 1299. 
 
 Antioohus: afterwards the means of Alcibiades' undoing 
 
 , (xxxv. 4-6). 
 
 I X. 2. The most powerful of orators : Demosthenes, who, 
 
 in his speech " Against Meidias ", § 145, after enumerating 
 some of the great services which Alcibiades had rendered 
 the state, adds, ** and he was held to be the most able of all 
 speakers." 
 
 .X. 3. Theophrastus: see the Introd., p. 35. Plutarch 
 cites this testimony also in the Qioomodo quis suos etc,, 9= 
 Morals, p. 80 D, and the Fraec. reip. ger,, S^Morals, p. 804 A- 
 This tribute of Theophrastus to Alcibiades is not unlike 
 that of Thucydides to Themistocles (see on the Themistocles, 
 ii. 1). 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ) < 
 
 I <« <k 4 •••••• «.«^>^ » 
 
270 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 XT, 1. His breeds of horses : in characterizing Alcibiades 
 Thucydides says (vi. 15, 3), « He had a great position among 
 the citizens and was devoted to horse-racing and other pleas- 
 ures which outran his means." And in the memorable debate 
 in the Assembly over the Sicilian expedition he has Nicias 
 say (vi. 12, 2), boldly attacking Alcibiades, « I dare say there 
 may be some young man here who is deUghted at holding a 
 command, and the more so because he is too young for his 
 post ; and he, regarding only his own interest, may recom- 
 mend you to sail ; he may be one who is much admired for 
 his stud of horses, and wants to make something out of his 
 command which will maintain him in his extravagance." 
 
 At the Olympic games : the great quadrennial festival at 
 Olympia, in Elis, in which the whole HeUenic world partici- 
 pated. It was probably the festival of the year 416 at which 
 Alcibiades thus eclipsed all records, after his Peloponnesian 
 pontics had brought him into national prominence. "He 
 wished to win fame and honor for himself, and at the same time 
 to present before the eyes of the whole Hellenic world a daz- 
 zling picture of the wealth and power of his native city. 
 The ambitious and self-seeking representative of an Athe- 
 nian policy of war and conquest celebrated the most splendid 
 triumph. Influential cities of the Athenian empire sought 
 his favor with costly gifts. In the stately race of four-horse 
 chariots he won the victory, was proclaimed second also, and 
 secured the third or fourth place besides. With the greatest 
 generosity he entertained the festival assemblage. His fel- 
 low citizens bestowed upon him the honor of pubUc mainte- 
 nance in the Prytaneium. Euripides composed a hymn of 
 victory " (Busolt, Griech, Gesch,, iii p. 1269). 
 
 Thucydides makes Alcibiades reply to the taunts of Nicias 
 (vi. 16), " These doings of mine for which I am so much 
 cried out against are an honour to myself and to my ances- 
 tors, and a soUd advantage to my country. In consequence 
 of the distinguished manner in which I represented the 
 state at Olympia, the other HeUenes formed an idea of our 
 power which even exceeded the reality, although they had 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 271 
 
 previously imagined that we were exhausted by war. I sent 
 into the lists seven chariots,— no other private man ever 
 did the like ; I was victor, and also won the second and 
 fourth prize; and I ordered every thing in a style worthy of 
 my victory. The general sentiment honours such magnifi- 
 cence ; and the energy which is shown by it creates an im- 
 pression of power." In a Uke vein Isocrates has the younger 
 Alcibiades speak in defense of his father (xvL 32-35). Cf. 
 
 Athenaeus, p. 3 e. 
 
 According to Euripides : with whom Isocrates also agrees 
 
 (xvi 34). 
 
 XI. 2. This fragment of an epinikion, or hymn of victory, 
 by Euripides, is translated after the text of Beigk (Poet. 
 Lyr. Graeci, iL * p. 266). Alcibiades must have driven the 
 victorious chariot himself, and retainers of his the others. 
 
 We get another fragment of this same epinikion of Euri- 
 pides in the opening words of Plutarch's Demosthenes, 
 « Whoever it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in honor of 
 Alcibiades, upon his winning the chariot-race at the Olym- 
 pian games,— whether it was Euripides, as is most commonly 
 thought, or some other person, — he teUs us that * to a man's 
 being happy it is in the first place requisite he should be 
 bom in some famous city* ". 
 
 It will be remembered that all of the extant poems of 
 Pmdar are epinikia, or hymns of victory. In commissioning 
 Euripides to celebrate his victory, Alcibiades was reviving 
 an obsolete custom. So the great tyrants of Syracuse and 
 Agrigentum, Hiero and Theron, had patronized Pindar. 
 
 XII. 1. Rivalry of cities : the following items are found 
 in [Pseudo-]Andocides " Against Alcibiades " (iv. 30), and 
 are there correctly connected with the Olympic festival 
 Satyrus, a biographer of the Peripatetic school who flourished 
 during the first half of the second century B. c, is quoted at 
 length on Alcibiades by Athenaeus (pp. 534 f.). He makes 
 the four cities furnish Alcibiades thus sumptuously for aU 
 his journeys abroad. Plutarch makes a similar lapse in 
 xiii. 2. 
 
272 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 273 
 
 XII. 2. It is said : apparently, Plutarch has here blended 
 two stories of high-handed proceedings by Alcibiades in the 
 matter of racing-chariots for the Olympic games. One 
 victim was Diomedes, and the other, Tisias. The former, a 
 friend of Alcibiades, was joint owner with him of a chariot 
 and horses which were sent up to Olympia, but Alcibiades 
 had them entered in his own name alone, and enjoyed all the 
 fruits of their victory (Diodorus, xiiL 74). A variant on this 
 story is that Alcibiades took the horses and chariot from 
 Diomedes by force, screened by his prevailing influence with 
 the Elean masters of the games ([Pseudo-]Andoc., iv. 26). 
 The case of Tisias was quite different. He had commis- 
 sioned Alcibiades to buy a likely chariot and horses for him 
 in Argos, and Alcibiades had bought them for himself in- 
 stead. The details were given in the lost opening paragraphs 
 of the speech of Isocrates in defense of the younger Alci- 
 biades (Introd. p. 3). For the influence of Alcibiades in Aigos, 
 see chap. xv. 
 
 XIII. Much of the material of this chapter is identical 
 with that of the Nicias, xi, and has had full comment there. 
 The treatment of the subject in the Nicias is the earlier and 
 by far the better. In the present chapter Plutarch takes 
 from his source — which was probably the same as for the 
 Nicias, xL and the Aristidcs, viL, since all three accoimts 
 are in substantial agreement — more material bearing upon 
 the personality of Phaeax (see on the Nicias, xL 7). 
 
 XIII. 1. Though still a stripling : Thucydides introduces 
 him into his story as " a man who would have been thought 
 young in any other city, but was influential by reason of his 
 high descent " (v. 43, 1). 
 
 XIIL 2. Eupolis : a poet of the Old Comedy, a contem- 
 porary and rival of Aristophanes. Horace (Sat, L 4, 1) 
 names him with Cratinus and Aristophanes as the most im- 
 portant representatives of that branch of poetry. Both 
 Eupolis and Aristophanes, who were of about the same age, 
 imitated and borrowed from each other, and attacked each 
 other therefor. The verse cited here is from the " Demes "» 
 
 so named from the chorus, which consisted of representatives 
 of the townships of Attica. The play satirized the internal 
 politics of Athens, and called up from Hades the great men 
 of the past, like Solon, Miltiades, Aristides, and Pericles, to 
 aid with their counsels. Cf. the Pericles, iii 4, and see Kock, 
 Com. Att Frag,, L pp. 279, 281. 
 
 A speech written by Phaeax: reading vtto, instead of 
 ical ^alaKo^, the evident correction of Coraes. This is the 
 speech "Against Alcibiades" attributed to Andocides, so 
 often alluded to already in the notes. See on the Nicias, 
 XL 7. 
 
 At his regular table: the accusation is foimd in § 29 of 
 the speech, and is closely connected with other charges of 
 high-handed conduct at the Olympic festival of 416. Alci- 
 biades borrowed the city's utensils for use when he enter- 
 tained the multitude who had witnessed his victories, not, 
 of course, for his " regular table" (see on xii 1). 
 
 XIII. 3. H3n?©rbolus : see on the Nicias, xL 3. 
 
 XIII. 4. Assuaging their envy : see on the Nicias, xL 1. 
 
 On one of the three : this is impossible. Ostracism drew 
 the lines between two men, and the two policies which they 
 represented, in this case, war and peace. Perhaps Phaeax 
 controlled the votes of a body of aristocrats, and these, won 
 by the diplomacy of Alcibiades, helped turn the scales against 
 Hyperbolus (see on the Nicias, xL 3). 
 
 Borne say: from the Nicias, xL 7, it is clear that the 
 authority here referred to is Theophrastus. Phaeax headed 
 no party, as Alcibiades and Nicias each did, and as Hyper- 
 bolus wished to do, but at most a coterie, or political club. 
 It is probable that Theophrastus was misled into the state- 
 ment which Plutarch cites, by the [Pseudo-JAndocides 
 speech " Against Alcibiades ". See the note on Nicias, xL 7. 
 
 XIII. 5. Plato, the comic poet: see on the Nicias, xL 6. 
 
 More at length elsewhere : in the Nicias, xi. The ostra- 
 cism of Hyperbolus did not occur till the spring of 417, 
 nearly three years after the events narrated in the next 
 chapter (xiv.). Chronologically, therefore, the story is better 
 
274 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 placed in the Nicias, where it foUows those events. It is 
 also more correctly told there. 
 
 XIV. This chapter repeats, in slightly different form, 
 what has already been told in the Nicias, ix. 6 — x., and 
 f uUy commented upon. Both versions are excellent conden- 
 sations of Thucydides, who is unusuaUy full and precise in 
 narrating the parliamentary ruse of Alcibiades. 
 
 XIV. 1. Consul Resident for the Lacedaemonians : it is 
 plain from Thucydides, v. 43, 2 and vi. 89, 2, that the relation 
 was not recognized by the Lacedaemonians. " For they had 
 not consulted him, but had negotiated the peace through 
 Nicias and Laches, despising his youth, and disregarding an 
 ancient connection with his famUy, who had been then: prox- 
 eni; a connection which his grandfather had renounced, and 
 he, by the attention which he had paid to the captives from 
 Sphacteria, had hoped to have renewed." In his speech at 
 Sparta, after his flight from arrest in 415, Alcibiades is made 
 to say, " My ancestors in consequence of some misunderstand- 
 ing renounced the office of Lacedaemonian Proxenus ; I my- 
 self resumed it, and did you many good offices, especially 
 after your misfortune at Pylos. My anxiety to serve you 
 never ceased, but when you were makmg peace with Athens 
 you negotiated through my enemies, thereby conferrmg 
 power on them, and bringing dishonour upon me." 
 
 XIV. 5. Nicias himself, he said: this speech is inferen- 
 tial rhetorical elaboration of what is merely suggested m 
 
 the Nicias, x. 3. 
 
 Friends of Athens: reading 'A^T/i/atW with the Bekker 
 
 (Tauchnitz) text, instead of 'A^t;vatow. 
 
 XIV. 7. What is the matter with you, etc : this speech 
 likewise is inferential elaboration of what is merely suggested 
 
 in the Ninas, x. 4. 
 
 XIV. 8. On the following day: strangely enough, this 
 version omits all mention of the portentous earthquake 
 (Nicias, X. 6) which delayed the decision of the Assembly 
 for one day. It is natural, however, in a biography of Alci- 
 biades, that the inglorious mission of Nicias to Sparta 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 275 
 
 (Nicias, x. 7), for the results of which the Athenians waited 
 before entering into the alliance with Argos, should be passed 
 
 over. 
 
 XV. 1. Alcibiades was probably appointed general in the 
 spring of 419, but the alliance with the Argives, Mantineans, 
 and Eleans was effected in the summer of 420. See on the 
 Nicias, x. 8. The battle of Mantinea was not fought till 
 the late summer of 418. Then Alcibiades was no longer 
 general, having failed of election in the spring of that year, 
 and given place to Nicias with other representatives of the 
 peace party which had come again into power. The alliance 
 with Argos, however, was not broken off, and a force of 
 Athenians under Laches and Nicostratus took part in the 
 disastrous battle of Mantinea, where both generals felL 
 The brilliant policy which Alcibiades had inaugurated of 
 uniting with the maritime empire of Athens a league of 
 democratic agricultural states in northern Peloponnesus, 
 which should hem in the power of Sparta, came to grief, and 
 the prestige of Sparta was completely restored by her victory. 
 ** They wiped out the charge of cowardice, which was due to 
 their misfortune at Sphacteria, and of general stupidity and 
 sluggishness, then current against them in Hellas. They 
 were now thought to have been hardly used by fortune, but 
 in character to be the same as ever" (Thuc, v. 75, 3). In 
 his speech defending himself against the insinuations of 
 Nicias in the Assembly, Alcibiades is made to say, " Did I 
 not, without involving you in any great danger or expense, 
 combine the most powerful states of Peloponnesus against 
 the Lacedaemonians, whom I compelled to stake at Manti- 
 nea all that they had upon the fortune of one day ? And 
 even to this hour, although they were victorious in the 
 battle, they have hardly recovered courage** (Thuc, vi, 
 
 16, 6). 
 
 This chapter, like the preceding, is based almost wholly 
 
 upon Thucydides. 
 
 8o many warlike shields, etc. : this reads like an orna- 
 mental citation. 
 
276 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 XV. 2. The Thousand : a select corps of young men of 
 high birth, " whom the city had long trained at the public 
 expense in military exercises " (Thuc, v. 67, 2). 
 
 In consequence of the defeat of the alliance at Mantinea, 
 Aigos made peace with Sparta, and then alliance, and pro- 
 ceeded to act with her against Athens. Mantinea also came 
 to terms with Sparta. " Next the Lacedaemonians and the 
 Argives, each providing a thousand men, made a joint expe- 
 dition: first the Lacedaemonians went alone and set up a 
 more oligarchical government at Sicyon ; then they and the 
 Argives, uniting their forces, put down the democracy at 
 Argos, and established an oligarchy which was in the interest 
 of the Lacedaemonians. These changes were effected at the 
 close of winter towards the approach of spring " (Thuc, v. 
 81, 2). This was the spring of 417. 
 
 The populace took up arms again: in the ensuing sum- 
 mer of 417. "The popular party at Argos, reconstituting 
 themselves by degrees, plucked up courage, and, taking ad- 
 vantage of the festival of the Gymnopaediae at Lacedaemon, 
 attacked the oligarchy. A battle took place in the city: 
 the popular party won, and either killed or expelled their 
 enemies " (Thuc, v. 82, 2). 
 
 Aloibiades came : there is no mention of him in the nar- 
 rative of Thucydides, but his presence is a most natural in- 
 ference. See the next note. 
 
 XV. 3. " Meanwhile the democracy at Argos, fearing the 
 Lacedaemonians, and again courting the Athenian alliance 
 in which their hopes were centred, built Long Walls to the 
 sea, in order that if they were blockaded by land they might 
 have the advantage, with Athenian help, of introducing pro- 
 visions by water. The whole Argive people, the citizens 
 themselves, their wives, and their slaves, set to work upon 
 the wall, and the Athenians sent them carpenters and 
 masons from Athens" (Thuc, v. 82, 5). In the ensuing 
 winter (417/416) the still unfinished walls were captured 
 and destroyed by the Lacedaemonians (Thuc, v. 83, 2), and 
 in the summer of 416 Alcibiades sailed to Argos with 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 277 
 
 twenty ships and expelled three hundred of the Lacedae- 
 monian sympathizers (Thuc, v. 84, 1). 
 
 Persuaded the people of Patrae • this was two years ear- 
 lier, in the summer of 419, when Alcibiades was organizing 
 the affairs of his new North-Peloponnesian confederacy. 
 ** (Toming to Patrae, he persuaded the citizens to build walls 
 reaching down to the sea " (Thuc, v. 52, 2). Patrae was the 
 chief sea-port of Achaia, and in possession of it Athens could 
 better control the commerce of the Corinthian gulf. The 
 fine apophthegm of Alcibiades which Plutarch gives is not 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 XV. 4. The sanctueuT of Agraulus : among the rocks on 
 the northern slope of the Acropolis. " It was at this point 
 that the Medes ascended and massacred those Athenians 
 who thought they knew more about the oracle than Them- 
 istocles, and had fortified the Acropolis with logs and stakes " 
 (Pausanias, L 18, 2). In this sanctuary the Athenian youth 
 (the Epheboi) took the oath of loyalty to the state. See 
 Gardner-Jevons, Manual of Cheek Antiquities, pp. 635 fif. ; 
 Harrison- Verrall, Mythology and Monuments of Athens, 
 pp. 163 ff. 
 
 XVI. 1. The decks of his triremes : the place of the 
 trierarch was at the stem of his trireme, where a tent was 
 pitched and a couch spread for him. The " Mean Man " of 
 Theophrastus (Char., xxv., Jebb), "when he is trierarch, will 
 spread the steersman's rugs under him on the deck, and put 
 his own away." 
 
 A golden shield: this item is found in the long screed 
 against Alcibiades cited from Satyrus by Athenaeus (see on 
 xiL 1). 
 
 XVI. 2. By Aristophanes: in the Frogs, w. 1425 and 
 1431-1433. The play was brought out (405) when Alci- 
 biades was a second time in exile. 
 
 XVI. 3. Voluntaxy contributions : see on x. 1. 
 
 Publio exhibitions: see on the Nicias, iii 2. 
 
 XVI. 4. Affatharohus : of Samos, specially prominent at 
 Athens as a theatrical scene-painter (460-420 b. c). As the 
 
278 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 279 
 
 
 Story is told in [P8eudo-]Andocide8, iv. 17, Agatharchus made 
 his escape after three months, whereat Alcibiades was in- 
 censed, and threatened the artist for thus abandoning his 
 task. See the Pericles, xiii. 2, and notes. 
 
 Taureas: as the story is told at length in [Pseudo-] 
 Andocides, iv. 20 f., Taureas was a competing choregus with 
 Alcibiades at the Greater Dionysia in a dith}Tambic contest. 
 A dispute arose concerning the parentage of one of the sing- 
 ers of Taureas, and Alcibiades beat Taureas out of the or- 
 chestra. The audience sympathized with Taureas, but the 
 judges, out of fear and seeking the favor of Alcibiades, 
 awarded him the victory. Demosthenes refers to the outrage 
 in xxi. 147, as well as to the imprisonment of Agatharchus. 
 
 The prisoners of Melos: during the summer of 416, the 
 island of Melos, colonized by the Lacedaemonians, which had 
 preferred to remain independent of Athens, was attacked by 
 her under the influence of Alcibiades. The town of Melos 
 was invested by land and sea, and surrendered at discretion 
 in the ensuing winter. " The Athenians thereupon put to 
 death all who were of military age, and made slaves of the 
 women and children. They then colonized the island, send- 
 ing thither five hundred settlers of their own " (Thuc., v. 116, 
 fin.). By means of an imaginary colloquy between Athe- 
 nian envoys and the Melian government (v. 85-111), the his- 
 torian has thrown into dramatic form " the overbearing spirit 
 of the Athenians, flown with insolence, on the eve of an en- 
 terprise which was destined to bring signal retribution and 
 humble their city in the dust" (Buiy, History of Greece, 
 
 p. 463). 
 
 The story of Alcibiades and his Melian mistress is told 
 with great display of rhetoric in [Pseudo-] Andocides, iv. 22 f. 
 
 XVI. 5. Aristophon painted Nemea, etc: Satyrus, 
 quoted by Athenaeus (see on xiL 1), says that Alcibiades, 
 on his return from Olympia, dedicated two pictures by 
 Aglaophon: one representing Olympias and Pythias (per- 
 sonifications of Olympia and Delphi) crowning Alcibiades ; 
 the other Nemea, seated, and holding Alcibiades in her lap, 
 
 who was made fairer than the faces of women. There can 
 be no doubt that this is the picture of which Plutarch here 
 speaks, and to which Pausanias alludes (L 22, 7) as ** a pic- 
 ture of Alcibiades containing emblems of the victory won by 
 his team at Nemea ". Satyrus is probably correct in making 
 Aglaophon, and not Aristophon, the author of the picture. 
 The latter was a brother of the great Polygnotus (see the 
 Cimon, iv. 5 and 6, with notes) ; the former u son or nephew 
 of Polygnotus, bearing the same name as his grandfather. 
 Such a painter, Aglaophon, was flourishing in 420-417, ac- 
 cording to Pliny {K ff, xxxv. 60), and so might have 
 painted Alcibiades. 
 
 Smacked of lawlessness : " it was forbidden by law to 
 give the name of a quadrennial festival (like the Nemean, 
 Olympian, and Pythian festivals) to a slave-girl, a prostitute, 
 or a flute-girl (Athenaeus, p. 587 c) ; for the model who sat 
 for Nemea in Alcibiades* portrait would almost certainly be- 
 long to one of these classes." See the excellent note of 
 Frazer on Pausanias, L 22, 7. 
 
 Archestratus : perhaps the choral poet who is mentioned 
 in the Aristides, i. 4, as flourishing during the Peloponnesian 
 war. That the story comes from Theophrastus is clear from 
 the Lysander, xix. 3, where the same mot is uttered con- 
 cerning Lysander by Eteocles the Lacedaemonian, and 
 ** Theophrastus says that Archestratus said the same thing 
 about Alcibiades." The two stories are blended in Athe- 
 naeus, p. 533 d. 
 
 XVI. 6. Timon the misanthrope: attacked by Aris- 
 tophanes and other comic poets as a man-hating solitary, — a 
 • limb of the Furies ", and made famous by the dialogue of 
 Lucian which bears his name. Plutarch devotes chapter 
 Ixx. of his Antony to a short sketch of Timon. "This 
 Timon was a citizen of Athens, and lived much about the 
 Peloponnesian war, as may be seen by the comedies of Aris- 
 tophanes and Plato, in which he is ridiculed as the enemy and 
 hater of mankind. He avoided and repelled the approaches 
 of every one, but embraced with kisses and the greatest 
 
280 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 show of affection Alcibiades, then in his hot youth. And 
 when Apemantus was astonished, and demanded the reason, 
 he replied that he knew this young man would one day do 
 infinite mischief to the Athenians." 
 
 XVII., XVIIL These chapters are evidently a later and 
 less artistic presentation of material which the author has 
 already treated much more fully in the Nidas xiL and xiii, 
 to the notes upon which the reader is referred. There are 
 many omissions in the Alcibiades of items given in the Nicias, 
 some slight variations in the treatment of the same detail, 
 much difference in the order of the various items, and one 
 important addition, viz. the attribution to Corinthians of the 
 defacement of the ffermae (xviii. 3). 
 
 XVII. 1. For the gradual rise of Athenian interest in and 
 ambition to control Sicily, see on the Nicias, xiL 1. 
 
 XVII. 2, 3. Compare the Nicias, xiL 1-2. 
 
 XVII. 4. Socrates : see on the Nicias, xiiL 6. 
 Meton : see on the Nicicts, xiii 5. 
 
 XVIII. 1-2. See the NiciaSy xii. 2-4, with the notes. 
 
 XVIII. 3-4. See the Nicias, xiii 7 and 2, with the 
 
 notes. 
 
 XIX. This chapter reproduces, substantially, Thucydides, 
 vi. 28 and 29, with several interesting accretions in the way 
 of detail, and with much rhetorical elaboration. 
 
 XIX. 1. The myBteries of BleusiB: originally a local 
 agricultural cult, developed round the myth of Demeter and 
 Persephone in earUest times at Eleusis, the little city com- 
 manding the Thriasian plain, between Athens and Megara. 
 When Eleusis became part of the Athenian state, early in 
 the seventh century b. c, its mysteries became part of the 
 Athenian state religion, and one of the chief festivals of the 
 Attic year, receiving various additional elements. During 
 the years immediately following the Peace of Nicias (421), 
 if not more than a decade earlier, a tax upon the fruits of 
 the earth was laid on the farmers of Attica and the Athenian 
 allies for the support of the worship of Eleusis, and " all Hel- 
 lenic cities whom it seemed possible to approach on the mat- 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 281 
 
 ter " were invited to send first-fruits. The festival, that is, 
 became Pan-Hellenic. "All Greeks, not impure through 
 any pollution, were welcome to the rites of initiation ; women 
 were not excluded by their sex, nor slaves by their condi- 
 tion " (Bury). On the fourth of the nine days of the cele- 
 bration, the image of lacchus was taken from its shrine in 
 Athens, and carried in solemn procession along the Sacred 
 Way to the temple of the goddesses at Eleusis, which was 
 reached at night, by the light of torches. The crowning 
 function of the whole festival was the performance of the 
 religious drama based on the passion of Demeter. To trav- 
 esty this was as serious a sacrilege at Athens as the parody 
 of the rite of the Holy Communion by a student of Hertford 
 College, Oxford (Gribble, Eomance of the Oxford Colleges, 
 p. 311). " Even the divulgation in words to the uninitiated, 
 of that which was exhibited to the eye and ear of the assem- 
 bly in the interior of the Eleusinian temple, was accounted 
 highly criminal: much more the actual mimicry of these 
 ceremonies for the amusement of a convivial party. More- 
 over the individuals who held the great sacred offices at 
 Eleusis (the Hierophant, the Daduch or Torch-bearer, and the 
 Keryx or Herald) — which were transmitted by inheritance 
 in the Eumolpidae and other great families of antiquity and 
 importance, were personally insulted by such proceedings, 
 and vindicated their own dignity at the same time that they 
 invoked punishment on the offenders in the name of Demeter 
 and Persephone " (Grote). 
 
 For further and more minute details of the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, the general reader may be referred to the article 
 Eleminia in the classical dictionaries, to Gardner-Jevons, 
 Manual of Greek AntiquUies,!^^. 274-284, or to Bury, Gh-eek 
 History, pp. 313-316. The special student will find the liter- 
 ature of the subject fully cited in Frazer's Fausanias, il 
 
 pp. 513 t 
 
 Androoles: ** certain metics and slaves gave information," 
 says Thucydides, with no mention of Androcles. The name 
 has perhaps been inferentially and plausibly supplied from 
 
282 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 288 
 
 Thucydides, viiL 65. In 411, when the oligarchical revolu- 
 tion at Athens was under way and half accomplished, " some 
 of the younger citizens had conspired and secretly assassi- 
 nated one Androcles, a great man with the people, who had 
 been foremost in procuring the banishment of Alcibiades. 
 Their motives were two-fold: they killed him because he 
 was a demagogue ; but more because they hoped to gratify 
 Alcibiades, whom they were still expecting to return and to 
 make Tissaphemes their friend." 
 
 They said, eta: according to Andocides {On the Mysteries^ 
 11-17), no less than four informations were laid before the 
 Assembly of profane travesties of the mysteries, at two of 
 which Alcibiades was present. But these contain no speci- 
 fications of the part taken by the different feasters (c/. xx. 
 2, fin.). Such details Plutarch has here wrongly anticipated 
 from the formal impeachment of Alcibiades introduced by 
 Thessalus to the Council (cited in full at xxii. 3) later in the 
 year, after the expedition had sailed. This was a different 
 case. 
 
 XIX. 3. A thousand in number : either exaggeration or 
 misunderstanding of Thucydides, vL 43, 2, where the Argive 
 hoplites number five hundred, and the Mantinean and other 
 (Arcadian) mercenaries two hundred and fifty. 
 
 XX. This chapter contains, in §§ 1-3, matter greatly con- 
 densed from Thucydides, vL 43-53, and 60 ; and, in §§ 4, 5, 
 matter found in Andocides {On the Mysteries) ^ and in Di- 
 odorus (Ephorus), with a citation from Phrynichus. 
 
 XX. 2. Taking Rhenium : this is inaccurate. Rhegium, 
 like the other Italian cities, would not admit the Athenians 
 within her walls, but allowed them to encamp on the shore, 
 and furnished them with a market (Thuc., vi. 44, 3). 
 
 Proposed a plan : as did each of the other generals, in a 
 formal council of war (Thuc., vL 47-49). Cf. the Nidas, 
 xiv. 3. 
 
 Secured the allegiance of Catana: as described at length 
 in Thucydides, vL 50 f. 
 
 Ihavesfldd: Plutarch should have said this in xix. 1, 
 
 instead of introducing there specific details (see the note 
 
 ad loc). 
 
 XX. 3. This is substantially what Thucydides says in vL 
 
 53, 60 t 
 
 XX. 4. Thucydides omiUed, etc: although he must 
 have known them, if in no other way, from the speech of 
 Andocides " On the Mysteries ", delivered in 399. It was not 
 appropriate to the large and general character of his story to 
 give such minute details. He says that some of the most 
 respectable citizens were imprisoned " on the evidence of 
 wretches" (vi. 53, 2). 
 
 Others: Andocides, On the Mysteries, §§ 34-38. 
 
 Phrynichus : one of the most distinguished poets of Old 
 Comedy, somewhat older than, though a rival of Aristoph- 
 anes. His Muses took the second place when Aristophanes 
 gained the first with his Frogs (405). The name of the play 
 from which the following verses are cited is uncertain. See 
 Kock, Com. Att. Frag., i. p. 385, who thinks it may have 
 been "The Solitary", which took third place when Aris- 
 tophanes gained second with his Birds (414). 
 
 Dearest Hermes, etc : some one addresses a stone figure 
 which he has erected, and the Hermes replies as if alive. 
 
 XX. 5. One of them : Diocleides (see Andocides, On the 
 Mysteries, § 38), in teUing his story to the Council, said that 
 it was the time of full moon, and that he recognized the 
 faces of most of the three hundred 5erma«-defacers by the 
 light of the moon. It was afterwards proven that, at the 
 time (early morning) when Diocleides professed to have seen 
 these men, the moon had set. His lying tale, however, 
 could never have found the credence that it did if he had lied 
 80 clumsily as to put such a memorable night at the time of 
 full moon when it was really the time of new moon, i. e., 
 when there was no moon at alL But later tradition as repre- 
 sented by Plutarch, in this passage, and Diodorus (xiiL 2, 
 5 I), made the story more piquant by putting the events at 
 the time of new moon. Plutarch evidently draws from the 
 same source as Diodorus (Ephorus), rather than directly from 
 
 t 
 
284 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 Andocides. See Grote, History of Greece (Eng. ed.), vi. p. 
 35 ; Busolt, Griech, Gesch., iii. pp. 1288 f. 
 
 Casting into prison : stimulated by large rewards ofifered 
 to informers, Teucer, a metic, had accused eighteen persons 
 as violators of the Hermae, and Diocleides had designated 
 forty-two out of the band of three hundred conspirators 
 whom he professed to have seen. All of these who did not 
 at once take to flight, were arrested and imprisoned. 
 
 XXL 1. Andocides: see the Introduction, pp. 42 ff. 
 Thucydides does not give his name. " One of the prisoners, 
 who was believed to be deeply implicated, was induced by a 
 fellow-prisoner to make a confession — whether true or false 
 I cannot say ; opinions are divided, and no one knew, or to 
 this day knows, who the offenders were "(vi. 60). 
 
 Hellanicus : of Mitylene, a prolific author of genealogical, 
 chorographical, and chronological works, whose activity 
 covered the greater part of the fifth century b. c. See the 
 
 Introduction, p. 42. 
 
 XXI. 2. The only one to remcdn unharmed: in his 
 speech "On the Mysteries" (§§ 48-66), Andocides explains this 
 by saying that it was assumed by the convivial party which 
 (as he testified) defaced the Herman, that he would under- 
 take the mutilation of this particular Hermes himself, but 
 he was confined to his bed on the night of the outrage. For 
 the outrage itself, see on the Nicias, xiiL 2. 
 
 Its inscription : of dedication by the Aegeid tribe. 
 
 A man named Timaeus : in the story of Andocides, it is 
 Charmides, a cousin and friend of his, who made the appeal 
 to him, and b^ged him, by means of a voluntary confession 
 which would procure immunity from punishment for himself, 
 to save the lives of many innocent persons, many of them 
 his own kinsmen, and to rescue the city from its panic fears. 
 Whence Plutarch got his divergent testimony, cannot be de- 
 termined. It may be that it embodies what Andocides really 
 said in 415, and that his account of the affair in his speech 
 of 399 puts the matter differently. In that case we have to 
 remember « that the version of the matter given in his speech 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 285 
 
 on the mysteries is, on the whole, true in itself, but is untrue 
 as a representation of what he stated in 415 " (Jebb, Attic 
 Orators y L p. 79). 
 
 XXI. 4. All those whom he named: he named twenty- 
 two in all; but eighteen of these had already been denoimced 
 by Teucer (see on xx. 5), and the other four took to flight at 
 once, without waiting to be arrested. 
 
 Were put to death: Andocides repeatedly (§§ 52, 59, 67) 
 claims that the eighteen had already been put to death in 
 consequence of the deposition of Teucer. But this is highly 
 improbable, and is in direct contradiction to the testimony of 
 Thucydides, who says that the Athenians " immediately lib- 
 erated the informer and all whom he had not denounced. 
 The accused they brought to trial, and executed such of them 
 as could be found. Those who had fled they condemned to 
 death, and promised a reward to any one who would kQl 
 them. No one could say whether the sufferers were justly 
 punished ; but the beneficial effect on the city at that time 
 was imdeniable" (vi 60, 5). In consequence also of the 
 testimony of Andocides, Diocleides was called before the 
 authorities, and confessed that he had given a false deposi- 
 tion (see on xx. 5). He was condemned to death and 
 executed. 
 
 Some of his own household servants : the enemies of An- 
 docides affirmed that he included in his list of culprits some 
 of his own nearest relatives. This Andocides denies in his 
 speech, but says he offered his slaves to be tortured, in order 
 that his story of being sick in bed on the night of the out- 
 rage might be confirmed by their testimony. Plutarch seems 
 to jumble together the two cases. 
 
 XXI. 5. Dashed .... against Aloibiades: his enemies 
 revived against him the charges of travestying the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, made just before the expedition sailed. These 
 were now readily proven (see xxii 3-4, and notes). He was 
 not connected in any way with the disfigurement of the 
 Hermae, which was clearly the work of his enemies. 
 
 The Salaminian state-galley : one of three sacred galleys 
 
 
 •ii 
 
286 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 reserved at Athens for special state services. The others 
 were the " Paralus ", and the Delian vessel. The absence of 
 the last, on its annual mission to Delos, gave Socrates a 
 month's reprieve from death. The Paralus was sent from the 
 army at Samos to announce at Athens the fall of the Samian 
 oligarchy, but fell into the hands of the Four Hundred 
 (Thuc, viii 74). Both the Paralus and the Salaminia served 
 also as war vessels. 
 
 Accompany them home : on his own trireme. ** He was 
 ordered to follow the officers home and defend himself, but 
 they were told not to arrest him'; the Athenians, having re- 
 gard to their interests in Sicily, were anxious not to cause 
 excitement in their own camp or to attract the attention of 
 the enemy, and above all not to lose the Mantineans and 
 Argives, whom they knew to have been induced by his influ- 
 ence to join in the expedition. He in his own ship, and 
 those who were accused with him, left Sicily in company 
 with the Salaminia, and sailed for Athens " (Thuc, vi. 61, 5 t). 
 
 XXI. 6. Lamaohus: see the Nicias, xv. 1, and note. 
 
 XXII. 1. Robbed the Athenians of Messene: "ForAl- 
 cibiades, when he was recalled and gave up his command, 
 foreseeing that he would be an exile, communicated to the 
 Syracusan party at Messene the plot of which he was 
 cognizant" (Thuc, vi 74, 1). This was in September, 
 
 415. 
 
 XXII. 2. These reputed utterances of Alcibiades are also 
 given by Plutarch in the Apoph. reg, et imp. = Morals, 
 p. 186 F, and by Aelian, Var. Hist., xiiL 38. 
 
 XXIL 3. His impeachment is on record: in the collec- 
 tion of Craterus (Introd. p. 35), to which Plutarch is often 
 
 indebted. 
 
 Thessalus, sonof Cimon: see on the Cimon, xvi. 1. He 
 was of course an oligarch, like his father, but seems to have 
 been comparatively unimportant. The leaders of the pop- 
 ular party, who really pressed the case against Alcibiades, 
 were glad to use a man of such great family prestige. 
 
 In his own house: before the departure of the expedition 
 
 ; 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 287 
 
 a slave, Andromachus, had deposed before the Assembly 
 that he had been in the house of Pulytion when Alcibiades, 
 Niciades, and Melebus went through a sham celebration of 
 the mysteries (see on xix. 1 Jin.). That sacrilege is referred 
 to by Pausanias (i. 2, 5) as follows : " One of the colonnades 
 [running from the Dipylum gate to the inner Cerameicus] 
 contains sanctuaries of the gods and a gymnasium called the 
 gymnasium of Hermes. In it, too, is the house of Pulytion, 
 in which, they say, some illustrious Athenians parodied the 
 Eleusinian mysteries." 
 
 After the departure of the expedition, among the many 
 depositions induced by the rich rewards promised to inform- 
 ers, a woman named Agariste, wife of Alcmaeonides, of the 
 highest rank and family in the city, deposed that Alcibiades, 
 Axiochus, and Adeimantus had parodied the mysteries in 
 the house of Charmides (Andoc, De myst, 16). 
 
 The sacrilege alleged against Alcibiades in the formal im- 
 peachment brought by Thessalus before the Council of Five 
 Hundred, was a different one from these, and was committed 
 in his own house, where he was assisted by Pulytion and 
 Theodorus. Neither of these men is mentioned in the other 
 two depositions. The fine house of Pulytion, in which the 
 first of the three sacrileges was committed, was pledged for 
 debt, and probably occupied by another man (see Busolt, 
 Griech. Gesch., iii- PP- 1293, 1318). Neither in xix. 1 of this 
 Life, nor in Quaest. Conv. i. 3 = Morals, p. 621 C, does Plu- 
 tarch distinguish between the first and third cases: ** Al- 
 cibiades and Theodorus turned Pulytion's banquet into a 
 place of initiation, and represented there the sacred proces- 
 sion and mysteries of Ceres." 
 
 Mystae. Epoptae : " Initiates ", " Beholders ". It is some- 
 times held, though it is incapable of complete proof, that the 
 first term refers to those who had undergone the initial rites 
 of purification only, and the second to those who had been 
 admitted to the crowning feature of the celebration, — the 
 religious drama in the temple at Eleusis. See on xix. 1. 
 XXn. 4. His case went by default : " The Athenians, on 
 
 \i 
 
 \\ 
 
288 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 h 
 
 his non-appearance, sentenced him and his companions to 
 death " (Thuc, vi. 61 Jin,). 
 
 His property was oonflscated: this followed as matter 
 of course. Five fragmentary inscriptions have been found 
 which relate to the sale at public auction of the confiscated 
 property of those who had been condemned for defacing the 
 Hermae and profaning the mysteries. One of them is a 
 partial inventory of the bed-room furniture of Alcibiades, 
 which indicates extreme luxury. See Hicks and Hill, Gruk 
 Hist. Insc.^, pp. 142 ff. 
 
 By all priests and priestesses : this is manifest exaggera- 
 tion. The curse was pronounced by the " Eumolpidae, Heralds, 
 and Priests of Eleusis " only, as is clear from chap, xxxiii. 3, 
 which agrees with Diodorus (Ephorus), xiii. 69, 2 and Nepos, 
 Ale, iv. ; vi (Theopompus). When the recall of Alcibiades 
 was being discussed at Athens in 412, " the Eumolpidae and 
 Ceryces [Heralds] called heaven and earth to witness that 
 the city must never restore a man who had been banished 
 for profaning the mysteries " (Thuc, viii. 53, 2). 
 
 Theano : whence this detail comes is not known. Plu- 
 tarch refers to it in Aetia Bom., 44 = Morals, p. 275 D: 
 **And an execration is a fearful and a grievous thing. Hence 
 neither is it thought fit that priests should curse others. 
 Wherefore the priestess at Athens was commended for re- 
 fusing to curse Alcibiades, when the people required her 
 to do it; for she said, 'I am a praying, not a cursing 
 priestess.* " 
 
 XXIII. 1. Eegarding the movements of Alcibiades after 
 leaving Sicily, Thucydides is unusually explicit (vi 61, 6 f. ; 
 88, 9 f.) : " He in his own ship, and those who were accused 
 with him, left Sicily in company with the Salaminia, and sailed 
 for Athens. When they arrived at Thurii they followed no 
 further, but left the ship and disappeared, fearing to return 
 and stand their trial when the prejudice against them was so 
 violent The crew of the Salaminia searched for them, but 
 after a time, being unable to find them, gave up the search 
 and went home. Alcibiades, now an exile, crossed not long 
 
 \f 
 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 289 
 
 afterwards in a small vessel from Thurii to Peloponnesus, 
 and the Athenians on his non-appearance sentenced him 
 and his companions to death." " At Lacedaemon the Cor- 
 inthian ambassadors met Alcibiades and his fellow exiles. 
 He had sailed at once from Thurii in a trading vessel to 
 Cyllene in Elis, and thence proceeded to Lacedaemon on 
 the invitation of the Lacedaemonians themselves, first obtain- 
 ing a safe-conduct." It looks as though Thucydides had 
 taken more than ordinary pains to give minute details on a 
 controverted point. For romantic, apologetic, and hostile 
 invention became busy with the career of Alcibiades, as 
 with that of Themistocles, as soon as he had left his own 
 country and become busy in foreign parts. Like Themis- 
 tocles, romantic invention made Alcibiades take refuge first 
 in Argos, and be driven from there into the service of his 
 country's foes by attempts of the Athenians to have him 
 delivered up to them. This version relieved somewhat the 
 heinousness of the treachery of Alcibiades, and therefore was 
 readily adopted by Isocrates in the speech which he wrote 
 for the younger Alcibiades, — a speech which is largely an 
 apology for his client's father. " Considering himself out- 
 raged in that when he was at home the people would not try 
 his case, but when he was absent condemned him, not even so 
 did he consent to go over to the enemy. Nay, he was so 
 careful to do no wrong to his native city even when an exile 
 from her, that he went to Argos and remained there quietly. 
 But his enemies were so wanton as to persuade you [the 
 people] to banish him from all Hellas, and publish his sen- 
 tence on a stone tablet, and send envoys to demand his per- 
 son from the Argives" (De higis,9). But the undisputed 
 fact of Alcibiades' betrayal to the Messenians of Athenian 
 designs upon their city (xxii 1) revealed clearly his willing- 
 ness to i^y the r6le of arch-traitor. 
 
 The statements of Thucydides were evidently followed by 
 Ephorus (as represented in Diodorus, xiii 5, 7) ; the more 
 romantic inventions by Theopompus (as represented in the 
 citation from Satyrus in Athenaeus, p. 534 b, and in Nepos, 
 
 (i 
 
290 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 Ale iv 4 • xi. 3. In the latter, Alcibiades is made to show 
 his wonderful power of adapting himself to varying surroimd- 
 ings by visiting Thebes, and even Thessaly, rather than 
 Argos. More than two years elapsed between his recaU 
 from Sicily and his appearance in Ionia with a Spartan fleet 
 (chap. xxiv. 1), and his wanderings in exile were as mythi- 
 cal as those of Themistocles. See Busolt, GrMi. GescK 
 
 in. p. 1328. . , ' . 
 
 XXIII. 2. Thucydides puts a long speech mto the moutn 
 of Alcibiades, by which the measures briefly noted in this 
 paragraph were successfully urged upon the Spartans (vu 
 89-93). It is one of the historian's most iHuminating char- 
 acter-speeches, « no less masterly ", says Grote, « in reference 
 to the purpose and the audience, than mfamous as an mdi- 
 cation of the character of the speaker." 
 
 GyUppus: see on the Nicias, xviiL 5. It was not 
 unta the autumn of 414 that he effected his entry into 
 
 Syracuse. , . ^ 
 
 Deceleia: a mountain citadel of Attica, about fourteen 
 miles from Athens towards Boeotia (Thuc, viL 19, 2), com- 
 manding the Athenian plain, and visible from Athens. It 
 commanded also the shortest routes by land from Athens to 
 Boeotia and Euboea. Its occupation and fortification by the 
 Spartans in the spring of 413 put a new phase on the struggle 
 with Athens, and proved more than a full retaUation for the 
 Athenian occupation of Pylos in Messenia. Attica suffered 
 now from a permanent instead of a transitory mvasion, of 
 which there had been five during the first decade of the war, 
 and Athens, as Grote says, « instead of a city, was reduced 
 to the condition of something like a military post." In 
 Thucydides, vi. 91, 6 f., Alcibiades thus sums up the advan- 
 tages which the Spartans would gain by the occupation of 
 Deceleia : " The whole stock of the country will fall mto 
 your hands. The slaves will come over to you of then: own 
 accord; what there is besides will be seized by you. The 
 Athenians will at once be deprived of the revenues which 
 they obtain from the silver mines of Laurium, and of all the 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 291 
 
 profits which they make by the land or by the law courts. 
 Above all, the customary tribute will fail ; for their allies, 
 when they see that you are carrying on the war in earnest, 
 will not mind them." 
 
 XXIII. 3-5. These delightfully rhetorical paragraphs are 
 probably based on the romantic version of Theopompus (see 
 on § 1). Describmg the arts of a flatterer, Plutarch says 
 {Quom. aduL etc., 7=Morals, p. 52 E) : « Besides this, I appeal 
 to the practices of men notorious for flattery and popularity 
 to back my observation. Witness he who topped them all, 
 Alcibiades, who, when he dwelt at Athens, was as arch and 
 witty as any Athenian of them all, kept his stable of horses, 
 played the good fellow, and was imiversally obliging; and 
 yet the same man at Sparta shaved close to the skin, wore 
 his cloak, and never bathed but in cold water. When he so- 
 journed in Thrace, he drank and fought like a Thracian ; and 
 again, in Tissaphemes's company in Asia, he acted the part 
 of a soft, arrogant, and voluptuous Asiatic And thus, by an 
 easy compliance with the humors and customs of the people 
 amongst whom he conversed, he made himself master of their 
 affections and interests." 
 
 Milesian wool: among the articles enumerated by the in- 
 scription referred to in the note on xxiL 4, are two Milesian 
 couches. The Milesians, like the rest of the lonians, were at 
 this period famous for luxury. Their couches and other fur- 
 niture were celebrated, and their woolen cloths and carpets 
 highly esteemed. 
 
 XXIII. 6. No child of .Achilles, etc.: the first part of 
 the passage in quotation marks is an adaptation of an iambic 
 trimeter by some unknown poet, which Plutarch uses entire 
 in Quom, adul. etc., h = Morals, p. 51 C : the flatterer, striving 
 to adapt his nature by imitation to that of the person on 
 whom he has designs, " so neatly resembles the original that 
 one would swear, — ' Achilles' very self thou art, and not his 
 son.' " See Nauck, Trag. Grace. Frag?, p. 907. 
 
 The selfs€tme woman still: the wan Electra, in the 
 Orestes of Euripides (w. 128 f.), as Helen goes to have her 
 
292 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 shorn locks and drink-offerings placed upon the tomb o! her 
 sister Clytaemnestra, cries : — 
 
 «* Her locks ? behold, she shears off but the very tips, ^ 
 To save her beauty. 'T is the selfsame woman still." 
 
 I XXIII. 7-8. The details of this famous scandal are given 
 by Plutarch at even greater length in his Agenlaus, chap. iiL 
 (c/. the De tranq., 6 = MoraU, p. 467 F, and Lysander, xxiL), 
 on the authority of Duris of Samos (Introd. p. 47), whom he 
 generally distrusts. The essential features, however, are ac- 
 cepted by Xenophon {Hell. iii. 3, 1-3). The more sensational 
 touches only are due to Duris. Thucydides merely remarks, 
 in his lofty manner, that Agis hated Alcibiades with a deadly 
 hatred (viii. 12, 2 ; 45, 1). 
 
 Was refused the royal succession: although he had 
 prevailed upon Agis " by his prayers and tears to declare him 
 his son before several witnesses upon his death-bed **. So 
 Plutarch (Ages, iii. ; Lysander, xxiL) and Pausanias (iii. 8, 7) 
 
 both testify. 
 
 Whatever may be the truth about the parentage of Leo- 
 tychides, the intrigue of Alcibiades with Queen Timaea was 
 common gossip, as is shown by the citation from an unknown 
 comic poet in Athenaeus, p. 574 d. It was m 398 that 
 Agesilaus, a half-brother of Agis, became king of Sparta with 
 the active support of Lysander. He disappointed Lysander 
 by becoming an able and independent monarch, and reigned 
 till his death in 361. 
 
 XXIV. 1. After the Athenian disaster in Sicily: with 
 these words the two years which had now elapsed since the 
 flight of Alcibiades (xxii. 1) are passed over, so far as the 
 Sicilian expedition is concerned. They are covered by 
 the narrative of the Ni4iia8 (xv.-m.). During these two 
 vears Alcibiades was active at Sparta. 
 
 The Chians, Lesbians, and Oyzioenes: as a result of 
 the Sicilian disaster, the aUies of Athens " were everywhere 
 willing even beyond their power to revolt ; for they judged 
 by their excited feelings, and would not admit a possibility 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 293 
 
 that the Athenians could survive another summer " (Thuc, 
 viii 2, 2). The Euboeans sent envoys to negotiate with King 
 Agis, who was in command at Deceleia. He accepted their 
 proposals, and was about to make an expedition into the 
 island, when envoys came to him from Lesbos, which was 
 likewise anxious to revolt. As the Boeotians favored the 
 Lesbians, "Agis was persuaded to defer the expedition to 
 Euboea while he prepared to assist the Lesbians. . . . While 
 he was supporting the Lesbians, certain Chians and Ery- 
 thraeans (who were also ready to revolt) had recourse, not 
 to Agis, but to Lacedaemon ; they were accompanied by an 
 envoy from Tissaphernes, whom King Darius the son of Ar- 
 taxerxes had appointed to be governor of the provinces on 
 the coast of Asia. Tissaphernes too was inviting the assist- 
 ance of the Lacedaemonians, and promised to maintain their 
 troops. . . . He hoped also to make the Lacedaemonians allies 
 of the King. . . . While the Chians and Tissaphernes were 
 pursuing their common object, CaUigeitus the son of Laophon, 
 a Megarian, and Timagoras the son of Athenagoras, a Cyzi- 
 cene, both exiles from their own country, who were residing 
 at the court of Phamabazus the son of Pharnaces, came to 
 Lacedaemon. They had been commissioned by Phamabazus 
 to bring up a fleet to the Hellespont ; like Tissaphernes he 
 was anxious, if possible, to induce the cities in his province 
 to revolt from the Athenians, .... and he wanted the alli- 
 ance between the Lacedaemonians and the King to come from 
 himself. The two parties — that is to say, the envoys of 
 Phamabazus and Tissaphernes — were acting independently ; 
 and a vehement contest arose at Lacedaemon, the one party 
 urging the Lacedaemonians to send a fleet and army to Ionia 
 and Chios, the other to begin with the Hellespont" (Thuc, 
 viii 4-6). These extracts show how inaccurate a condensa- 
 tion of Thucydides the words of Plutarch are. 
 
 The court of Phamabazus was at Dascyliimi, near the Pro- 
 pontis; that of Tissaphernes at Sardis. For the first time 
 since the victories of Cimon Persia intrudes herself into Hel- 
 lenic affairs. She was destined to play an important part 
 
 i 
 
294 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 there untU the conquests of Alexander. The Great King had 
 never renounced his claims upon the Greek cities of Asia 
 Minor which had withdrawn from his allegiance and become 
 a part of the Athenian empire. He now ordered his satraps 
 at Sardis and DascyUum to coUect arrears of tribute from 
 those cities. This they could do only in case the cities were 
 freed from their subjection to Athens, and to free them from 
 that subjection the aid of Sparta and her fleet was essential 
 
 The persuasion of Alcibiades : he was a hereditary f nend 
 of Endius, one of the Spartan Ephors for that year, and the 
 influence of the two together was sufficient to have the plans 
 of King Agis for the Lesbians relegated to the second place. 
 « Agis, when he saw that the Lacedaemonians were bent on 
 going to Chios first, offered no opposition ; so the aUies held 
 a conference at Corinth, and after some deUberation deter- 
 mined to sail, first of all to Chios . . . then to proceed to 
 Lesbos ... and finally to the Hellespont " (Thuc, vul 8 2). 
 During this same summer (412), however, the Chians helped 
 the Lesbians to revolt, but the Athenians speedily recovered 
 
 the island (Thuc., viii 22 ; 23). 
 
 Alcibiades set sailin person: the ships of the Pelopon- 
 nesian allies, on setting out from the Isthmus for Chios, were 
 attacked and roughly handled by an Athenian fleet, and 
 finally shut up in a lonely harbor on the Corinthian coast. 
 The Spartans were to have sent out five ships to join the 
 allies " under the command of Chalcideus, who was to be 
 accompanied by Alcibiades," but on hearing of the plight of 
 the aUied fleet, they were disheartened, and thought of giv- 
 ing up the expedition. But Alcibiades, with his usual splen- 
 did initiative, persuaded Endius and the other Ephors to 
 persevere. They would arrive before the Chians could hear 
 of the defeat of the allied ships, and he would at once secure 
 the revolt of the Ionian cities. « To Endius he argued in 
 private that he would gain honour if he were the instrument 
 of effecting a revolt in Ionia, and of gaining the aUiance of 
 the King ; he should not aUow such a prize to fall mto the 
 hands of Agis " (Thuc, viii. 12, 2). There was often friction 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 295 
 
 and jealousy between the Ephors and the Kings at Sparta, 
 and Alcibiades well knew how to reap advantage from it in 
 this case. 
 
 Wrought injury to the Athenians: as detailed in Thu- 
 cydides, viii 13-44. 
 
 XXIV. 2. The wrong he had sufTered : see chapter xxiiL 
 
 7-8. 
 
 Orders that he be put to death : " After the death of 
 Chalcideus and the engagement at Miletus, Alcibiades feU 
 under suspicion at Sparta, and orders came from home to As- 
 tyochus [the Spartan admiral] that he should be put to death. 
 For he was hated by Agis, and generally distrusted. In fear 
 he retired to Tissaphernes, and soon, by working upon him, 
 did all he could to injure the Peloponnesian cause " (Thuc, 
 viii 45, 1). A new set of Ephors had come into of&ce at 
 Sparta towards the end of the year 412, to which Endius, the 
 friend of Alcibiades, did not belong, and which was in sym- 
 pathy with King Agis. 
 
 XXIV. 3. His timely discovery of this: Astyochuswas 
 not bitterly hostile to Alcibiades (Thuc., viii. 50, 3), and may 
 have warned him. Romantic tradition, as represented in 
 Justin, v. 2, 6, had the warning come from Queen Timaea. 
 
 XXIV. 4-5. In describing the life of Alcibiades among 
 Persian grandees, romantic invention has been busy, as in the 
 case of Themistocles. Many of the rhetorical details in 
 these paragraphs come from Theopompus, who found in Alci- 
 biades welcome justification for his hatred of demagogues. 
 See the Introduction, pp. 32 ff. 
 
 XXV. 1-9. These paragraphs are, on the whole, fair con- 
 densation of, and inference from Thucydides, viL 45-51. In 
 some instances the very phraseology of the historian is 
 reproduced. 
 
 XXV. 1. Began to malign them : see the citation from 
 Thucydides in the note on xxiv. 2. 
 
 XXV. 2. Loved and admired his adviser: "For he gave 
 his full confidence to Alcibiades, whose advice he approved " 
 (Thuc, viii 46, 5). 
 
 > •« ^ »» »■ t« « • 
 
296 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 If his native city were destroyed: "He knew that, if 
 he did not destroy his country altogether, the time would 
 come when he would persuade his countr>'men to recall him ; 
 and he thought that his arguments would be most effectual if 
 he were seen to be on intimate terms with Tissapheraes. And 
 the result proved that he was right " (Thuc, viii. 47, 1). 
 
 XXV. 3. At this time: during the winter of 412-411. 
 While the other Ionian aUies of Athens, b^inning with 
 powerful and wealthy Chios, were falling away from her and 
 clamoring for Spartan help, the great state of Samos, in con- 
 sequence of a democratic revolution there which threw the 
 oligarchic party completely out of power, remained faithful 
 (Thuc, viii 21). After their unsuccessful attempt to reduce 
 the revolting city of Miletus, the Athenian forces, on the 
 sagacious advice of Phrynichus, retired to Samos, and made 
 that island their base of operations (Thuc, viii. 27). 
 
 The fleet of Phoenician triremes : " Alcibiades also ad- 
 vised Tissaphernes not to be in a hurry about putting an end 
 to the war, and neither to bring up the Phoenician fleet which 
 he was preparing, nor to give pay to more Hellenic sailors" 
 (Thuc, viiL 46, 1 ; 5). " For the Phoenician fleet of a hun- 
 dred and forty-seven ships came as far as Aspendus — there 
 is no doubt about this ; but why they never came further is 
 matter of conjecture " (Thuc, viii. 87, 3). 
 
 XXV. 4. Bring Tissaphernes over, etc. : " He would at 
 the same time make Tissaphernes their friend; but they 
 must establish an oligarchy, and abolish the villainous de- 
 mocracy which had driven him out " (Thuc, viiL 47, 2). 
 
 XXV. 5. Had no more use, etc. : " He maintained, aud 
 rightly, that Alcibiades cared no more for oligarchy than he 
 did for democracy, and in seeking to change the existing form 
 of government was only considering how he might be recalled 
 and restored to his country " (Thuc, viii 48, 4). 
 
 XXV. 10. Afterwards: in the summer of 411, Phryn- 
 ichus having been deposed from his command at Samos 
 (Thuc, viii. 54, 3), and having shown himself an ardent 
 supporter of the revolutionary Four Hundred at Athena. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 297 
 
 **He was afraid of Alcibiades, whom he knew to be cog- 
 nizant of the intrigue which when at Samos he had carried 
 on with Astyochus, and he thought that no oligarchy would 
 ever be likely to restore him " (Thuc, viii 68, 3). He had 
 been sent with eleven other oligarchs to Sparta, authorized 
 "to make peace with Lacedaemon upon anything like tol- 
 erable terms" (Thuc, viiL 90, 2). But the friends of de- 
 mocracy began to bestir themselves. " As yet the murmurs 
 of discontent had been secret and confined to few; when 
 suddenly Phrynichus, after his return from the embassy to 
 Lacedaemon, in a full market-place, having just quitted the 
 council-chamber, was struck by an assassin, one of the force 
 employed in guarding the frontier, and fell dead. The man 
 who dealt the blow escaped ; his accomplice, an Argive, was 
 seized and put to the torture by order of the Four Hundred, 
 but did not disclose any name or say who had instigated the 
 deed. All he would confess was that a number of persons 
 used to assemble at the house of the commander of the fron- 
 tier guard, and in other houses " (Thuc, viii. 92, 2). 
 
 Hermon : the name is wrong, and has crept into the story 
 by a curious error. Emboldened by the failure of the oli- 
 garchs to pimish the murderers of Phrynichus, the people 
 b^an to take more open and active measures. Some hop- 
 lites who were at work in the Piraeus upon a fortification 
 designed to put control of the harbor in the hands of the 
 oligarchs, seized an oligarchical general and imprisoned him. 
 ** Others joined in the act, including one Hermon, who com- 
 manded the frontier guard stationed at Munychia " (Thuc, 
 viii 92, 5). In the course of the story's tradition some one, 
 either in carelessness or of set purpose, has identified the 
 frontier guardsman who slew Phrynichus and escaped, with 
 Hermon the commander of the frontier guard in Munychia. 
 
 An Athenian decree of the year 409, a time just subse- 
 quent to the restoration of the democracy, gives us Thrasyb- 
 ulus the Calydonian and Apollodorus the Megarian as the 
 assassins of Phrynichus. To each, citizenship and a grant of 
 land was voted, and to Thrasybulus the honor of a golden 
 
 ■:.-;*<*..»l"4'- •*>*'« . 
 
298 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 299 
 
 crown with public proclamation. See Hicks and Hill, Oreek 
 Historical Inscriptions^ , pp. 148 ff. 
 
 Some time before this the murdered Phrynichus had been 
 tried for treasonable conduct at Samos and found guilty. 
 His property was confiscated, his house torn down, his re- 
 mains exhumed and sent out of the country, and the decrees 
 against hini engraved upon a bronze pillar (see Busolt, Griech. 
 Gesch., iii pp. 1511 f.). The vengeance of Alcibiades was cer- 
 tainly complete. 
 
 XXVI. Nothing could be more explicit and clear than the 
 account which Thucydides gives of the Kevolution of the 
 Four Hundred (viil 47-97). Plutarch, however, as is often 
 the case when he attempts to describe large political move- 
 ments, gives no clear idea of the sequence of events. He 
 can hardly have used his Thucydides at first hand, or else his 
 charity prevails over his biographical fidelity, since he has 
 nothing to say about the exposure of the impotence and cun- 
 ning of Alcibiades when his oligarchical friends called upon 
 him to make good his promise to bring Tissaphemes into 
 alliance with Athens (Thuc, viii 56). 
 
 XXVI. 1. The friends of Alcibiades : the oligarchical 
 conspirators in the Athenian army at Samos. They never 
 succeeded in getting control of the army and putting down 
 democracy there. But they did inform the main body of 
 the army " that the King would be their friend and would 
 supply them with money if Alcibiades was restored and de- 
 mocracy given up", and " the prospect of the King's pay was 
 so grateful to them that they offered no opposition " (Thuc, 
 viii 48, 2 f .). At a conference of the conspirators, however, 
 Phrynichus protested against the plan, as already described 
 by Plutarch in xxv. 5. His objections did not avail, and the 
 conspirators " prepared to send Peisander and other envoys to 
 Athens, that they might manage the recall of Alcibiades 
 and the overthrow of the democracy, and finally make Tis- 
 saphemes a friend of the Athenians " (Thuc, viii 49). Then 
 followed the treacherous negotiations of Phrynichus with the 
 enemy, as already described by Plutarch in xxv. 6-9. 
 
 XXVI. 2. The so-called Five Thousand: Peisander and 
 his colleagues arrived at Athens and proposed their plan, 
 which aroused angry opposition. But at last " a decree was 
 passed that Peisander himself and ten others should go out 
 and negotiate to the best of their judgment with Tissaphemes 
 and Alcibiades." On the denunciation of Peisander, Phryn- 
 ichus was deposed from his command at Samos (see on xxv. 
 10). After setting a secret plot on foot for the overthrow of 
 the democracy at Athens, Peisander and his colleagues, as 
 they had been directed to do, set out to interview Tissa- 
 phemes (Thuc, viii 53 f.). But they found that Tissaphemes, 
 acting under advice from Alcibiades, craftily raised his de- 
 mands beyond even their willingness to accept, and at last 
 it dawned upon them that they had been duped by Alcibi- 
 ades. They therefore returned in wrath to Samos (Thuc, 
 viii 56). But although they gave up Alcibiades, they did 
 not give up their conspiracy against the democracy at Samos 
 and Athens. Peisander and one half the envoys retumed to 
 Athens, whUe the other half were sent to set up oligarchies 
 in subject cities of Athens. Arrived at Athens, Peisander 
 found that his plot had been working weU during his absence, 
 and that the city was in a terrorized state. The program of 
 the oligarchs had been made pubHc. « No one ought to re- 
 ceive pay who was not on military service ; and not more 
 than five thousand should have a share in the government; 
 those, namely, who were best able to serve the state in per- 
 son and with their money " (Thuc, viii 63-66). 
 
 Only four hundred: finding all things ripe for the final 
 stroke, Peisander and his coUeagues called an Assembly, and 
 secured the election of ten commissioners empowered to frame 
 a constitution, which should be laid before the people on a 
 fixed day. When that day came, the commissioners summoned 
 an Assembly and proposed that any Athenian should be per- 
 mitted to propose any resolution whatsoever, subject to none of 
 the usual penalties for unconstitutional action. This proposal 
 having been adopted, Peisander moved ** to abolish all the 
 existing magistracies and the payment of magistrates, and to 
 
 i 
 
 ■t. 1% ;► 
 
300 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 choose a presiding board of five ; these five were to choose a 
 hundred, and each of the hundred was to co-opt three others. 
 The Four Hundred thus selected were to meet in the council- 
 chamber; they were to have absolute authority, and might 
 govern as they deemed best ; the Five Thousand were to be 
 summoned by them whenever they chose " (Thuc, viiL 67 
 {.). The terrorized Assembly passed this motion and was 
 dissolved. Then the Four Hundred, armed, and supported 
 by armed accompHces, burst into the council-chamber, where 
 the CouncQ of Five Hundred were in session, and told the 
 Councilors to take their pay and begone. The Council re- 
 tired without remonstrance, and the Four Hundred proceeded 
 to rule despotically, and to make overtures of peace to the 
 Lacedaemonians (Thuc, viiL 69 f.). 
 
 XXVI. 3. Many had been slain: including Androcles 
 
 (see on xix. 1). 
 
 When the army in Samoa learned, etc. : the Four Hun- 
 dred sent ten commissioners to Samos to inform the army of 
 what had been done, and to pacify them. They were afraid 
 that the Athenian sailors would be impatient of oligarchy 
 (Thuc, viiL 72). But these commissioners got no farther than 
 Delos for some time. There they heard that the Samian oU- 
 garchs had just been crushed in an attempted revolution, with 
 the aid of the Athenian army, and that Samians and Athe- 
 nians alike were now bound by the most solemn oaths "to 
 maintain a democracy and be of one mind, to prosecute vig- 
 orously the war with Peloponnesus, to be enemies to the Four 
 Hundred, and to hold no parley with them by heralds." For 
 news of the revolution at Athens had already come to the 
 army at Samos in this way. The Paralus (see on xxL 5) had 
 been sent from Samos to Athens with dispatches, and its crew 
 seized by the Four Hundred. Its commander, however, made 
 his escape, and got back to Samos with wUdly exaggerated 
 stories of the outrageous proceedings of the Four Hundred. 
 The commissioners of the Four Hundred halting at Delos 
 heard also that the Athenian army at Samos had appointed 
 new generals and trierarchs who could not be suspected of 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 301 
 
 oligarchical sympathies, and considered that Athens had re- 
 volted from them, and that they were strong enough, with 
 Samian aid and sympathy, to put down the revolt (Thuc, 
 viii. 72-77). Strangely enough, the revived democracy in 
 the Athenian army at Samos in its turn looked to Alcibiades 
 for salvation, in spite of the fact that the oligarchic conspira- 
 tors had found his promises to bring Tissaphemes over to 
 their side vain and false. " Alcibiades," they said, " if we 
 procure his recall and pardon, will be delighted to obtain for 
 us the alliance of the King " (Thuc, viiL 76, 7). 
 
 Started to sail to the Piraeus : this happened twice. The 
 first time it was in consequence of the speech of Alcibiades 
 to them after he had been brought over from Tissaphemes to 
 Samos with promise of full pardon. He lamented the cruel 
 fate which had banished him ; inspired them with bright 
 hopes of victory ; and assured them that Tissaphemes had 
 promised him to bring up the Phoenician ships which were 
 at Aspendus to assist the Athenians and not the Lacedae- 
 monians, provided only that Alcibiades were restored to 
 power. ** The Athenians immediately appointed him a col- 
 league of their other generals, and placed everything in his 
 hands ... so excited were they that under the influence of 
 his words they despised the Peloponnesians, and were ready 
 to sail at once for the Piraeus." But Alcibiades forbade 
 them to do this and leave so powerful an enemy behind them. 
 He would go at once to Tissaphemes, and devote himself 
 to the conduct of the war ; and to him he went " straight 
 from the assembly ". He wished to have the Athenians think 
 that he did nothing without Tissaphemes, and also to show 
 Tissaphemes that he was now general of the Athenians, and 
 could be of service to him. " Thus Alcibiades frightened the 
 Athenians with Tissaphemes, and Tissaphemes with the Ath- 
 enians " (Thuc, viiL 81 f.). 
 
 But it is the second threat of the army to sail to the Pi- 
 raeus which Plutarch here has in mind (see the next note). 
 
 XXVI. 4. The salvation of the city: after Alcibiades had 
 satisfied himself that Tissaphemes was still minded to aid 
 
302 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 308 
 
 neither Athenians nor Peloponnesians, hut to allow them to 
 wear one another out, he returned to the army at Samos. 
 Thither came also at last the envoys of the Four Hundred 
 who had been tarrying at Delos. At an assembly of the army, 
 they attempted to defend the revolution at Athens, but the 
 more they said the more furious the army became, and again 
 insisted on sailing to the Piraeus. « Then Alcibiades appears 
 to have done as eminent a service to the state as any man ever 
 did. For if the Athenians at Samos in their excitement had 
 been allowed to sail against their fellow-citizens, the enemy 
 would instantly have obtained possession of Ionia and the 
 Hellespont. This he prevented, and at that moment no one 
 else could have restrained the multitude : but he did restrain 
 them, and with sharp words protected the envoys against the 
 fury of individuals in the crowd " (Thuc, viii 85 i). 
 
 XXVI. 6. Thrasybulus did the shouting : this is 
 
 not Thucydidean testimony, but inference, probably, from the 
 well known facts that Thrasybulus was prominent in restor- 
 ing the democracy at Samos, and had insisted on the recall of 
 Alcibiades (Thuc, viii. 81, 1). As a bit of literary embellish- 
 ment, it may have been suggested by the famous story of 
 Darius arriving at the Danube on his retreat from Scythia, 
 finding his bridge broken up, and bidding " an Egyptian, who 
 had a louder voice than any man in the world ", call Histi- 
 aeus the Milesian (Herod., iv. 141). 
 
 XXVI. 7. Credited with this diversion of the ships: and 
 with perfect justice, since it was undoubtedly Alcibiades 
 who had suggested to Tissaphemes the policy of wearing 
 both contestants out, and helping neither, though promising 
 aid to both. When the Peloponnesians had become angry 
 with Tissaphemes because of his repeated deceptions, the 
 Satrap went to Aspendus to fetch the Phoenician ships up 
 to their aid, as he assured them. But the ships never came 
 any further than Aspendus. Various reasons for this were 
 given, which Thucydides carefully enumerates (viii 87). 
 But the real reason was " that he wanted to wear out and to 
 neutralize the Hellenic forces .... and not strengthen 
 
 either of them by his alliance ". Alcibiades knew the real 
 mind of Tissaphemes, and when he leamed that the Satrap 
 had gone to Aspendus, promptly sailed thither himself, 
 promising the Athenians to do them one of two great services : 
 either he would bring the Phoenician ships to them, or, at 
 least, prevent them from being brought to the Peloponne- 
 sians, — a promise which was easily fulfilled (Thuc, viii 88). 
 For it was perfectly dear, etc : so Thucydides thought 
 
 (viiL 87, 4). 
 
 XXVIL 1. The Four Hundred overthrown: as narrated 
 by Thucydides in viii 89-97. They had usurped the power 
 in June of 411 ; they fell from it in September of the same 
 year. They were deposed by an assembly of the people, 
 which voted that the government should be in the hands of 
 the Five Thousand (see on xxvi 2). " No one was to receive 
 pay for holding any office, on pam of falling under a curse. 
 In the numerous other assemblies which were afterwards 
 held they re-appointed Nomothetae, and by a series of de- 
 crees established a constitution. This govemment during 
 its early days was the best which the Athenians ever enjoyed 
 within my memory. Oligarchy and Democracy were duly 
 attempered. And thus after the miserable state into which 
 she had fallen, the city was again able to raise her head. 
 The people also passed a vote recalling Alcibiades and others 
 from exile, and sending to him and to the army in Samos 
 exhorted them to act vigorously ** (Thua, viiL 97). 
 
 The friends of Alcibiades : no longer the oligarchical con- 
 spirators, as at xxvL 1, but men who believed that Alcibiades 
 alone had the ability necessary for conducting the war 
 
 against Sparta. 
 
 Set sail from Samos: he had returned with his thirteen 
 ships from the pretended visit to Tissaphemes at Aspendus 
 (see on xxvi 7), " announcing that he had prevented the 
 Phoenician fleet from coming to the assistance of the enemy, 
 and that he had made Tissaphemes a greater friend of the 
 Athenians than ever. He then manned nine additional 
 ships, and exacted large sums of money from the Halicar- 
 
 •M 
 
304 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 \\ 
 
 nassians. He also fortified Cos, where he left a governor, 
 and towards the autumn returned to Samos" (Thuc, viii 
 108, 1 f.)- But even before his first return to Samos the 
 seat of war had been suddenly transferred from the Ionian 
 sea to the narrow waters of the Hellespont. Exasperated by 
 the endless duplicity of Tissaphemes, the Peloponnesians 
 under Mindarus, the Spartan admiral, had abruptly left 
 Miletus and sailed for the Hellespont, to cooperate with 
 Phamabazus against the Greek cities in that r^on which 
 still remained faithful to Athens. They had been closely 
 followed by the Athenian fleet at Samos under Thrasyllus 
 (Thuc, viii. 99-103). Thrasyllus and the other generals 
 doubtless left orders at Samos for Alcibiades, which he 
 obeyed by making the cruise to Halicamassus and Cos. 
 
 XXVII. 2. There he heard: rather at Samos, before start- 
 ing on this cruise. 
 
 Hastened to the assistance of their generals : not until 
 they had won a great victory over the Peloponnesians in the 
 battle of C}Tiossema (a promontory in the Hellespont), re- 
 covered the city of Cyzicus, which had revolted, and sum- 
 moned reenforcements from every possible quarter to fight 
 another and a decisive battle with the strongly reenforced 
 Peloponnesian fleet (Thuc, viii 104-107). 
 
 By chance : this is not likely. The phrase is taken from 
 Ephorus, and not Xenophon, who now succeeds Thucydides 
 as our chief authority (see the next note). Alcibiades had 
 probably been commissioned to keep watch of Dorieus, a 
 Spartan commander with fourteen ships at Rhodes. As 
 soon as Dorieus left Rhodes and sailed to the Hellespont, at 
 the beginning of November, to effect a junction with Minda- 
 rus, Alcibiades followed in hot pursuit But Dorieus had 
 about twelve hours the start. His arrival at the mouth of the 
 Hellespont brought on a general engagement between the 
 Athenian and Peloponnesian fleets off Abydos, which had 
 lasted nearly all day when Alcibiades came up (Xen., HelL 
 
 i. 1, 2-5). 
 
 XXVII. 3 f. The simple and straightforward account 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 306 
 
 which Xenophon gives {HelL L 1, 6 t) of the course of the 
 battle off Abydos after the arrival of Alcibiades, is here 
 colored by sensational items from Ephorus, of whose story 
 we get a good idea in Diodorus (xiii 46, 2-5). It is char- 
 acteristic of Plutarch, however, to make his hero the princi- 
 pal author of the victory. Xenophon says : " Victory and 
 defeat hung still in the balance, when Alcibiades came sail- 
 ing up vnith eighteen ships. Thereupon the Peloponnesians 
 fled towards Abydos, where, however, Pharnabazus brought 
 them timely assistance. Mounted on horseback, he pushed 
 forward into the sea as far as his horse would let him, doing 
 battle himself, and encouraging his troopers and the infantry 
 alike to play theii- parts. Then the Peloponnesians, ranging 
 their ships in close-packed order, and drawing up their battle- 
 line in proximity to the land, kept up the fight. At length 
 the Athenians, having captured thirty of the enemy's vessels 
 without their crews, and having recovered those of their own 
 which they had previously lost, set sail for Sestos." 
 
 XXVII. 4. Visit the Satrap: " After the above incidents, 
 Tissaphemes arrived in the Hellespont, and received a visit 
 from Alcibiades, who presented himself with a single ship, 
 bringing with him tokens of friendship and gifts, whereupon 
 Tissaphemes seized him and shut him up in Sardis, giving 
 out that the king's orders were to go to war with the Athe- 
 nians " (Xen., HelL i. 1, 9). 
 
 Tissaphemes had been at Aspendus, busy with his ruse of 
 bringing the Phoenician fleet into Ionian waters (see on 
 xxvL 7). When he heard there that the Peloponnesian fleet 
 had gone to the Hellespont and Phamabazus, he hastened 
 back to Ionia. He had come to the end of his double-deal- 
 ing with the Peloponnesians, and felt that they were now his 
 enemies. ** He was also disgusted at discovering that Phar- 
 nabazus had induced the Peloponnesians to join him, and was 
 likely in less time and at less expense to be more successful 
 in his war with the Athenians than himself. He therefore 
 determined to go to the Hellespont, and complain of their 
 conduct . . . , offering at the same time the most plausible 
 
 Vl 
 
306 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 defence which he could concerning the non-arrival of the 
 Phoenician fleet and their other grievances. He first went 
 to Ephesus, and there offered sacrifice to Artemis . . . ," and 
 with these words the work of Thucydides breaks off abruptly, 
 and we are left to the tender mercies of Xenophon. 
 
 XXVIII. 1. "Thirty days later Alcibiades, accompanied 
 by Mantitheus, who had been captured in Caria, managed to 
 procure horses and escaped by night to Clazomenae" (Xen., 
 
 Hell i 1, 10). 
 
 Clazomenae was an Ionian city on the southern shore of the 
 bay of Smyrna. It had revolted from Athens with Chios in 
 412, but was soon reduced (Thuc, viiL 23), and successfuUy 
 resisted the Spartan admiral Astyochus (Thuc, viii. 31). 
 Part of an Athenian decree ratifying, in 408, certain agree- 
 ments between the city and the Athenian generals made two 
 years earlier, is preserved (Hicks and Hill, Qruk Historical 
 Inscriptions^ t pp. 146 f.). 
 
 To the camp of the Athenians : this was now at Cardia, 
 a city of the Thracian Chersonese, at the head of the gulf of 
 Melas. After the victory of Abydos (early in November of 
 411), the Athenians retained only forty ships at Sestos. 
 The others, some forty or fifty m number, were sent ofif un- 
 der different commanders on different errands, chief of which 
 was the collection of moneys from subject cities to pay the ex- 
 penses of the fleet. The Peloponnesian fleet meanwhile was 
 receiving subsidies from Phamabazus, who was a generous 
 and honorable man, in great contrast with Tissaphernes. 
 Not long afterwards Tissaphernes arrived in the region, and 
 Alcibiades made him his luckless visit During the captivity 
 of Alcibiades at Sardis, Mindarus restored his fleet to fight- 
 ing condition, and early in February of 410 « the Athenians at 
 Sestos, hearing that Mindarus was meditating an attack upon 
 them with a squadron of sixty sail, gave him the sUp, and 
 under cover of night escaped to Cardia. Hither also Alci- 
 biades repaired from Clazomenae" (Xen., Hell i 1, 11). 
 
 Where he learned, etc.: according to the trustworthy 
 story of Xenophon, which is here rhetorically abridged, Alci- 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 307 
 
 biades learned at Cardia that the Peloponnesian fleet " had 
 left Abydos and was in full sail for Cyzicus ". Accordingly 
 he set ofif himself overland to Sestos, bidding the Athenian 
 fleet sail round the peninsula and meet him tnere. Just as 
 he was putting out from Sestos, Theramenes with twenty 
 ships, and Thrasybulus with as many more came up. Al- 
 cibiades bade these commanders follow him to Parium as 
 soon as they could clear for action. This they did, and tbe 
 united squadron of eighty-six vessels pushed on during the 
 night to Proconnesus. "Here they learnt that Mindarus 
 was in Cyzicus, and that Phamabazus, with a body of infan- 
 try, was with him " (Xen., Hdl L 1, 11-14). 
 
 XXVIIL 2. Boused the spirits of the soldiers : not at 
 Cardia. On the day following their arrival at Proconnesus 
 (see the preceding note), Alcibiades summoned an assembly 
 and heartened up his men, warning them that a three-fold 
 service was now expected of them (Xen., Hell L 1, 14). 
 
 Giving orders, etc. : this had been done on the day before 
 the assembly was held, immediately upon arriving at Pro- 
 connesus (Xen., Hell L 1, 15). "He had further caused a 
 proclamation to be made, that any one caught sailing across 
 to the opposite coast would be punished with death." 
 
 XXVIII. 3-4. Plutarch's story of the engagement ofif 
 Cyzicus, besides revealing slight embellishments of his own, 
 is seen to be a blend of the accounts of Xenophon and 
 Ephorus (Diodorus, xiii. 49-51). The latter is clearly a fan- 
 ciful sketch, full of the author's weU known military con- 
 ceits. These two paragraphs of Plutarch correspond to the 
 following words of Xenophon {Hell i. 1, 16-17) : " When 
 the meetmg [see the preceding note] was over, he got his 
 ships ready for action, and stood out to sea towards Cyzicus 
 in torrents of rain. Ofif Cyzicus the sky cleared, and the sun 
 shone out and revealed to him the spectacle of Mindarus's. 
 vessels, sixty in number, exercising at some distance from the 
 harboiu-, and, in fact, intercepted by himself. The Peloponne- 
 sians, perceiving at a glance the greatly increased number of 
 the Athenian galleys, and noting their proximity to the port. 
 
n 
 
 308 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 made haste to reach the land, where they brought their ves- 
 sels to anchor in a body, and prepared to engage the enemy 
 as he sailed to the attack." 
 
 XXVIII. 5. " But Alcibiades, sailing round with twenty 
 of his vessels, came to land and disembarked. Seeing this 
 Mindarus also landed, and in the engagement which ensued 
 he fell fighting, whUst those who were with him took to 
 
 flight " (Xen., Hdl i 1, 18). 
 
 XXVIII. 6. " As for the enemy's ships, the Athenians 
 succeeded in capturing the whole of them (with the excep- 
 tion of the Syracusan vessels, which were burnt by their 
 crews), and made off with their prizes to Proconnesus. From 
 thence' on the following day they sailed to attack Cyzicus. 
 The men of that place, seeing that the Peloponnesians and 
 Pharnabazus had evacuated the place, admitted the Athe- 
 nians" (Xen., Hell. i. 1, 18 f.). 
 
 A dispatch : from the vice-admiral of Mindarus. It was 
 taken to Athens (Xen., Eell 1 1, 23). If we trust Ephorus or 
 Theopompus (Diodorus, xiiL 52 f.), — and most historians do, 
 although Xenophon is silent on the subject, — so great was 
 the depression at Sparta produced by the loss of its fleet m 
 the Hellespont, that informal overtures of peace were made to 
 Athens. But the popular party at Athens had come to its 
 own again with the brilliant victories of its sailors, and cher- 
 ished anew the most extravagant hopes of final success, now 
 that Alcibiades was once more serving them with his un- 
 equaled military genius. The overtures of Sparta were re- 
 jected (see Grote, History of areece, vi pp. 345 f.). 
 
 Nothing shows the irresistible magnetism of Alcibiades 
 better than his returning from captivity in Sardis, discredited, 
 after aU his boasts, by the manifest enmity of Tissaphernes, 
 and at once taking the offensive against Mindarus. He had 
 able colleagues, it is true, in Theramenes and Thrasybulus ; 
 but these men were ardent admirers of his, and willing to 
 cooperate with him to the utmost of their powers. It was 
 clearly Alcibiades to whom the phenomenal success of the 
 Athenians at Cyzicus was chiefly due. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 309 
 
 XXIX. 1. Not long before this : the victory of Cyzicus 
 was won in the early spring of 410. During the following 
 summer Thrasyllus conducted an imsuccessful expedition 
 into Ionia, returning to join Alcibiades at Sestos in the late 
 autumn. From there the united forces crossed over to Lamp- 
 sacus, to the fortification of which they devoted the winter 
 of 410-409. But the soldiers of Alcibiades refused to be in- 
 corporated into one body with those of Thrasyllus (Xen., 
 Hell. i. 2, 15). 
 
 Their bronze trophy : the detail of material is not given 
 by Xenophon (HelL i. 2, 10), in speaking of two trophies 
 which the Ephesians erected, and is thought to have reached 
 Plutarch through Theopompus (Busolt, Griech. Gesch,, iiL p. 
 
 1551). 
 
 XXIX. 2. Attacked the forces of Thrasyllus : according 
 to Xenophon (Hell. L 2, 16 f.), the expedition was made by 
 the entire Athenian force, and community of struggle and 
 victory brought the two factions together in amity. 
 
 XXIX. 3. On the following day : " This expedition was 
 followed by other incursions during the winter into the inte- 
 rior, where they found plenty to do in ravaging the king's 
 territories " (Xen., Hell. I 2, 17). The specific detail of Plu- 
 tarch's paragraph must come from Ephorus or Theopompus. 
 It is fetching, of course, to have a commander, who was still 
 under the curse of the Eleusinian priesthood (chap. xxii. 4), 
 treat a barbarian priesthood with such consideration. 
 
 Betting out to attack Chalcedon : this was in the early 
 spring of 409. According to Xenophon (HelL L 3, 3), Alci- 
 biades was supported in his expedition against the Bithynian 
 Thracians by the fleet, which followed along the coast. 
 
 Chalcedon was a flourishing Greek city in Bithynia, just 
 opposite Byzantium, and a short distance below the entrance 
 to the Thracian Bosporus. It was a colony of Megara, and 
 therefore Dorian in sympathy. 
 
 XXX. 1. Prom sea to sea: from the Bosporus to the 
 Propontis. 
 
 Pat Pharnabazus to flight : according to the account of 
 
 h 
 
310 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 Xenophon (EelL I 3, 4-7), ThrasyUus faced Hippocrates, 
 and Alcibiades Phamabazus. Alcibiades not only prevented 
 his opponent from effecting a junction with Hippocrates, but 
 with a detachment of hopHtes and cavalry came to the assist- 
 ance of ThrasyUus. Phamabazus withdrew to his camp. 
 
 XXX. 2. Levied moneys : the exhausted state of the 
 Athenian finances compelled the generals to support their 
 expeditions by enforced contributions. According to Xeno- 
 phon, Alcibiades visited the Thracian Chersonese also on this 
 
 expedition (Hell, i. 3, 8). 
 
 XXX. 2-5. Selymbria was a Greek city on the northern 
 shore of the Propontis, forty-four miles west of Byzantium. 
 It was a colony of Megara, Uke Byzantium, and had once 
 been a member of the Athenian aUiance. In the spring of 
 410 twenty days after the victory of Cyzicus (see on xxix. 
 1) Alcibiades had visited Perinthus and Selymbria. The 
 former place admitted him within its walls ; the latter re- 
 fused this, but gave him money (Xen., Hell. L 1, 21). Now, 
 a year later, after coUecting moneys in the Hellespont (^ 2), 
 he visited Selymbria a second time, and captured it. This is 
 all that Xenophon states (HeU. i. 3, 10). Diodorus (xiu. 66, 
 4) adds that the place was betrayed, and probably found in 
 Ephorus, from whom he was excerpting, the lengthy descrip- 
 tion of the cit/s capture by stratagem which Plutarch here 
 incorporates into his story. Most of the details are doubt- 
 less the invention of Ephorus, although it may well be that 
 Alcibiades found within the city a party which favored 
 
 Athenian occupation. 
 
 Portions of a decree confirming the agreements under which 
 Selymbria reentered the Athenian alliance are preserved 
 (Hicks and Hill, Greek Historical Inscriptions ^ pp. 155 f.). 
 
 XXX. 4. Thracian soldiers : after the capture of Selym- 
 bria, Alcibiades " appeared before the waUs of Byzantium at 
 the head of the men of Chersonese, who came out with then- 
 whole force ; he was aided further by troops ivom Thrace, 
 and more than two hundred horse " (Xen., Hell, i. 3, 10). 
 
 Good will they bore Alcibiades : cf. chap, xxiii. 4 f. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 311 
 
 XXXI. 1. The Athenian generals: ThrasyUus and Ther- 
 amenes. The paragraph agrees substantially with Xenophon 
 (Eell. i. 3, 8 f.). The sum of money paid by Phamabazus 
 was twenty talents. 
 
 An Athenian embassy : to win the King over to the sup- 
 port of Athens. Such an embassy, consisting of seven 
 members, was escorted by Phamabazus as far as Gordium in 
 Phrygia, where they spent the winter (409-408). In the 
 spring, as they were setting out on their further journey, 
 they were met by a Spartan embassy returning successful 
 from the King, escorted by C3mis, who had been newly ap- 
 pointed Satrap of Asia Minor, and commissioned to aid the 
 Lacedaemonians. Cyrus had the Athenian embassy detained 
 until the close of the war, three years later (Xen., Hell, i. 3, 
 13 ; 4, 1-7). 
 
 XXXL 2. Came back from Selymbria: to Byzantium, 
 the siege of which he at once began. From Byzantium he 
 went towards Chalcedon as far as Chrysopolis, where he met 
 envoys of Phamabazus, and whence he sent his own envoys 
 to Phamabazus at Chalcedon. The two commanders not only 
 took the general oath, but made a special covenant of friend- 
 ship with one another (Xen., Hell, L 3, 11 f.), and Athens was 
 thus assured of Persian aid. 
 
 XXXL 3. Then he saUed off, etc. : this stratagem, too, 
 like the one at Selymbria, is the invention of Ephoms 
 (Diodoms, xiii. 67), who could not rest satisfied with the 
 simple story of Xenophon (Hell, L 3, 14-22). Clearchus 
 the Lacedaemonian was commander in Byzantium, with a 
 force of perioeci, helots, Megarians, and Boeotians. These 
 he kept well supplied with provisions, while the Byzantians 
 went hungry. As long as he remained in Byzantium, the 
 besiegers made little headway. But when he left the city to 
 the command of his lieutenants and went out to raise forces 
 wherewith to drive off the besiegers, the Athenians came to 
 an imderstanding with the party of Byzantians who were 
 friendly to them. These opened the city to them by night, 
 admitting Alcibiades and the army. The lieutenants of 
 
312 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 Clearchus, with their forces, surrendered, and were sent 
 prisoners to Athens. 
 
 XXXI. 4 In garrison at Byzantium: according to the 
 fictitious stratagem of Ephorus, they were lured from the 
 city to the harbor by the attack of the Athenian fleet. 
 
 XXXI. 5 f. These paragraphs are merely a rhetorical 
 amplification of Xenophon (§§ 18 t), probably in the man- 
 ner of Ephorus, though Diodorus has not included the 
 matter in his excerpts. 
 
 Acquitted the men : Xenophon mentions three besides 
 Anaxilaus and Lycurgus. 
 
 XXXII. 1. Set sail: from Samos. Byzantium was re- 
 captured during the winter of 409-408, and in the spring 
 of 408, having assured the whole Hellespontic region to 
 Athens, Alcibiades went with the greater part of his arma- 
 ment to Samos, in order to renew the struggle for the subjec- 
 tion of Ionia. Before taking this up in earnest again, how- 
 ever, he wished to revisit Athens and enjoy the rewards for his 
 marvelous successes. He plundered Caria to raise one hun- 
 dred talents, sent Thrasyllus with the larger part of the fleet 
 to Athens, and Thrasybulus with thirty ships to subdue 
 Thasos and the adjacent Thracian coasts. He himself with 
 twenty ships visited Paros, and from there made a detour to 
 Gytheium, the naval arsenal of Sparta, wishing to reconnoiter 
 the triremes said to be building there. At this place he 
 heard that Athens was eager to see him, and had elected 
 him general again, together with his friend and supporter, 
 Thrasybulus. He therefore hesitated no longer to return to 
 his native city, after nearly seven years' absence (Xen., Hell L 
 4, 8-12). The rhetorical ornaments of this paragraph come 
 from Ephorus, as is clear from Diodorus (xiii 68, 2 f.). 
 
 XXXII. 2. Duris the Samian : see the Introduction, p. 47. 
 His lurid description is given at greater length in Athenaeus, 
 
 p. 535 c, d. 
 
 Chrysogonus- known besides only as the author of a poem 
 entitled " Politeia ", attributed by some to Epicharmus (Athe- 
 naeus, p. 648 d). 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 313 
 
 CaUipides: famous especially for his realistic imitations 
 of the actions of ordinary life. Puffed up with his fame, 
 as Plutarch narrates {Ages. xxL), he once forced himself 
 upon the notice of the Spartan king Agesilaus, asking 
 « Dost thou not recognize me, O King ? " " Art thou not ", 
 said the King, looking him full in the face, " CaUipides the 
 
 buffoon ? " 
 
 XXXII. 3. Theopompus, Ephorus, Xenophon: see the 
 
 Introduction, pp. 8 ; 32 ; 45 ; 50. 
 
 Was in actual fear : " When the vessels came to their 
 moorings, Alcibiades, from fear of his enemies, was unwilling 
 to disembark at once. Mounting on the quarter-deck, he 
 looked to see if his friends were there. Presently his eyes 
 lit on Euryptolemus, the son of Peisianax, who was his 
 cousin, and then on the rest of his relations and other friends. 
 Upon this he landed, and so, in the midst of an escort ready 
 to put down any attempt upon his person, made his way to 
 the city " (Xen., Hdl i. 4, 18 f.). 
 
 XXXIL 4 This paragraph in all probability represents 
 Theopompus, as may be inferred from Nepos, Ale, vL 1-3 : 
 * Sic enim populo erat persuasum, et adversas superiores et 
 praesentes secundas res accidisse eius opera .... Hie ut e 
 navi egressus est, quamquam Theramenes et Thrasybulus 
 eisdem rebus praefuerant simulque venerant in Piraeum, 
 tamen unumomnes ilium prosequebantur, et, id quod num- 
 quam antea usu venerat nisi Olympiae victoribus, coronis 
 lAiu-eis taeniisque vulgo donabatur." 
 
 Xenophon {Hell L 4, 13-17) dwells at length on the con- 
 flicting feelings both of his friends and of his enemies in the 
 crowd. The former thought him the ablest of the citizens, 
 unjustly banished in consequence of the malicious plottings 
 of inferior men, and driven by necessity to court the favor of 
 his country^s enemies. " Others, however, insisted that for 
 all their past miseries and misfortunes Alcibiades alone was 
 responsible : ' if more trials were still in store for the State, 
 here was the master mischief-maker ready at his post to pre- 
 cipitate them.' " It was hard then, as it is perhaps harder 
 
314 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 315 
 
 now, rightly to estimate ** a man whom neither friends nor 
 enemies could describe with moderation ** ( Jebb). 
 
 XXXIII. 1. Before this: neariy three years before, in the 
 late autumn of 411, after the overthrow of the Four Hundred 
 
 (Thuc, viii. 97, 3). 
 
 On motion of Critias : Critias, later one of the " Thirty 
 Tyrants ", is cited by Plutarch twice in the Cimon (x. 5 ; 
 xvi. 81), and once in the Lycurgus (ix. 4). A brilliant fol- 
 lower of Socrates, like Alcibiades, he also brought odium 
 upon the Master, and gave color to the charge against him of 
 corrupting the youth. As one of the " Thirty Tyrants \ he 
 was conspicuous for rapacity and cruelty, and brought about 
 the death of Theramenes, then the champion of moderation. 
 He was the author of tragedies of considerable merit, a few 
 fragments of which survive (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag? 
 pp. 770 ff.), and also of elegies, or elegiac poems on political 
 subjects, six fragments of which are extant (Bergk, FoeU 
 
 Lyr. Graecly ii.* pp. 279 ff.)« 
 
 According to Ephorus (Diod., xiiL 38, 2) and Theopompus 
 (Nepos, Ale. V. 4), it was Theramenes who was foremost in 
 securing the recall of Alcibiades, and it is probable that Cri- 
 tias merely acted for him in bringing in his formal motion. 
 
 XXXIII. 2. At this time: on the actual return of Alci- 
 biades, in the eariy summer of 408. 
 
 Addressed them: according to Xenophon {B^elL L 4, 20), 
 he spoke both before the Council and the Assembly, "defend- 
 ing himself against the charge of impiety, and asserting that 
 he had been the victim of injustice, with other like topics, 
 which in the present temper of the Assembly no one ven- 
 tured to gainsay." Ephorus evidently followed Xenophon 
 (Diod., xiiL 69, 1). Theopompus, on the contrary, if we may 
 judge from Nepos (Ale. vi 4), put a more pathetic speech into 
 the mouth of Alcibiades on this occasion, modeled cleariy 
 upon the speech which Alcibiades had made to the army at 
 Samoe on his return to them in 411 (Thuc., viiL 81, 2). Plu- 
 tarch here follows Theopompus. 
 
 Crowned him with crowns of gold: this seems to be 
 
 Plutarch's exaggerating touch. None of his sources, so far 
 as we control them, speak of such an honor. 
 
 General with sole powers: he had been elected one of 
 the generals for the current year before his return (see the 
 note on ttctcW. 1). He was now made commander-in-chief. 
 Here the sources are imanimous. The board of ten generals 
 constituted the ministry, and that one of them on whom " full 
 powers" were conferred, was the prime minister. But this 
 ** ministry " was subject to constant direction and correction 
 from the Assembly. They practically held office only from 
 month to month, and only on condition of good behavior. 
 See Gardner-Jevons, Manual of Greek Antiquities, pp. 
 
 517 fif. 
 
 XXXIII. 3. The items of this paragraph are not given 
 by Xenophon, but there is no sufficient reason for thinking 
 Ephorus (Diod., xiiL 69, 2) and Theopompus (Nepos, Ale. 
 vi. 5) untrustworthy here. For the movable property which 
 had been confiscated and sold (see on xxii. 4), restitution 
 could be made with lands belonging to the state. The pillars 
 on which his condemnation had been inscribed were thrown 
 into the sea. Theoilorus the High Priest, refusing to recant, 
 is an artistic counterpart of Theano the priestess who refused 
 to curse (xxiL 4). 
 
 Alcibiades, who had often aspired to be the political heir 
 of Pericles, now stood on the same pinnacle of power which 
 that great statesman had occupied so long, and with him, as 
 with Pericles, success was merely a question of retaining the 
 confidence of the people. 
 
 XXXIV. 1. Prospering brilliantly: in appearance only. 
 During the four months of his stay at Athens (a fatal delay 
 as it proved), Lysander came out to Ionia as Spartan admiral 
 He was the equal of Alcibiades in ability, and his superior 
 in self-controL Lysander won the favor of Cyrus, who now 
 took the places of Tissaphernes and Phamabazus in dealing 
 with Hellenic affairs for the Great King. Tissaphernes had 
 tried to wear out both Spartans and Athenians ; Phamabazus 
 had favored the Spartans, but had at last wearied of them 
 
 ,1 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
316 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 and taken up the cause of the Athenians. Cyrus, however, 
 was an implacable enemy of Athens, and gave Sparta, as rep- 
 resented by Lysander, undeviating and generous support It 
 was this combination which finally turned the scales deci- 
 sively against Athens. The coming of Lysander to Ephesus 
 bears a relation to the war in Ionia like that of the commg 
 of Gylippus to Syracuse to the SicUian expedition. Plutarch 
 sums up the situation well in his Lysander (m. 1 f.) : The 
 Peloponnesian war having now been carried on a long time, 
 and it being expected, after the disaster of the Athenians in 
 Sicily that they would at once lose the mastery of the sea, 
 and ere long be routed everywhere, Alcibiades, returning from 
 banishment, and taking the command, produced a great 
 change, and made the Athenians again a match for their op- 
 ponents by sea: and the Lacedaemonians, in great alarm at 
 this, and calling up fresh courage and zeal for the conflict, 
 feeling the want of an able commander and of a powerful ar- 
 mament, sent out Lysander to be admiral of the seas." 
 
 On the very day. etc.: "on the very day of the festival 
 of the Plynteria, when the statue of Athena is veiled and 
 screened from public gaze. This was a coincidence, as some 
 thought, of evil omen, and unpropitious alike to himself and 
 the State, for no Athenian would transact serious busmess on 
 such a day" (Xen., HelL I 4, 12). The Plynteria was a sa- 
 cred washing-day, on which the robes of the ancient wooden 
 image of Athena in the Erechtheium were cleansed by the 
 holy gens of the Praxiergidae. The Attic month Thargelion 
 corresponded to the latter part of May and first part of June, 
 and the festival fell therefore about the middle of June. 
 
 XXXIV. 2. One hundred triremes were manned: after 
 the celebration of the mysteries, according to Xenophon {Hell. 
 L 4 20 f.), Alcibiades coUected a force of fifteen hundred 
 hoplites, one hundred and fifty horsemen, and one hundred 
 ships. Preparations for this armament, however, must have 
 been making during most of the summer. 
 The Bleusinian mysteries: see on xix. 1. 
 XXXIV. 3. Since Deoeleia had been fortified: in the 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 317 
 
 spring of 413, five years before, in accordance with the advice 
 of Alcibiades to the Spartans. See on xxiii 2. 
 
 XXXIV. 4-6. This detailed description reads as though 
 based upon Ephorus, but Diodorus has preserved no men- 
 tion even of the celebration, and Nepos is silent on the sub- 
 ject. Xenophon is very brief : " armed with this authority, 
 his first act was to institute anew the processional march to 
 Eleusis ; for of late years, owing to the war, the Athenians 
 had been forced to conduct the mysteries by sea. Now, at 
 the head of the troops, he caused them to be conducted once 
 again by land " {Hell, L 4, 20). The paragraphs of Plutarch, 
 whether of independent origin or not, are clearly nothing 
 but a free and imaginative expansion of the words of Xeno- 
 phon. It was certainly a master stroke of Alcibiades, who 
 had been accused of profaning the mysteries, thus to restore 
 their celebration to its customary forms. 
 
 XXXIV. 6. This paragraph must not be taken as history. 
 It rests on no reliable source. It is inferential literary em- 
 bellishment, such as Theopompus might have allowed him- 
 self. With Ionian Greece still to a large extent refractory, 
 and Sparta more than ever sure of Persian support, there 
 was no occasion and no excuse for any body's dreaming of a 
 " tyranny " at Athens. Nor could the Athenian people, even 
 **of the humbler and poorer sort", have desired it. The 
 main reason why the profanations of the mysteries in 415 
 had so agitated the people was the fear that they covered 
 some conspiracy to set up oligarchy or tyranny (Thuc., vi. 60, 
 1). At that time the people did think that Alcibiades " was 
 aiming at a tyranny, and set themselves against him " (Thuc, 
 
 vL 15, 4). 
 
 XXXV. 1. Anxious to have him sail : not so much, we 
 may feel sure, because they feared that he might assume a 
 " tyranny ", for which the time was not ripe, even had Alci- 
 biades cherished the idea, as because they longed to have 
 Spartan power in Ionia crushed. 
 
 Ck>lleacrues of his own choosinfir : the ten generals for the 
 year 408-407 had already been chosen. Alcibiades was now 
 
 1 
 
 .i 
 
 11 
 
318 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 allowed, as commander-in-chief, to select from these Aristo- 
 crates and Adeimantus as his special colleagues for land 
 operations (Xen., Hell. L 4, 21). 
 
 Andros: an island forming a continuation of Enboea. It 
 had revolted from Athens in 411. Setting sail for Ionia 
 towards the end of October (408), Alcibiades attempted on 
 the way to carry the city of Andros by storm, but failed. 
 The situation in Ionia was so grave that he could not think 
 of tarrying to conduct a siege of Andros. He therefore 
 left Conon with twenty ships to do this, while he himself, 
 after a few days, proceeded to Samos, and made this his 
 base of operations during the ensuing winter (Xen.,2ZeW. L 4, 
 22 f. ; 5, 18 ; Diod., xiiL 69, 5). 
 
 Fresh charges : reading KaivS^v for KOiviav, with Bekker, 
 
 after Haiting. 
 
 XXXV. 2. Would not believe in his inability : *' nihil 
 enim eum non efl&cere posse ducebant" (Nepos, Ak, vii. 2). 
 
 The Chians : see on xxiv. 1. 
 
 XXXV. 3. An almoner of bounty in the Great King : 
 when Lysander with a Spartan embassy interviewed Cyrus 
 at Sardis and urged him to prosecute the war against Athens 
 with vigor, " Cyrus replied that not only had he received 
 express injunctions from his father to this effect, but that 
 his own views coincided with their wishes, which he was 
 determined to carry out to the letter. He had, he informed 
 them, brought with him five hundred talents ; and if that 
 sum failed, he had still the private revenue, which his father 
 allowed him, to fall back upon, and when this resource was 
 in its turn exhausted, he would coin the gold and silver 
 throne on which he sat, into money for their benefit " (Xen., 
 
 EelL L 5, 3 f.). 
 
 XXXV. 4. Four obols : see on the NiciaSy iiL 6. Lysan- 
 der had asked Cyrus to pay his seamen a drachma (six 
 obols) per diem, on the plea that the Athenian seamen 
 would then desert. But Cyrus had appealed to a definite 
 agreement between the Lacedaemonians and the King, in 
 accordance with which thirty minas (t. e, 3000 drachmas, or 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 319 
 
 18000 obols) were to be given to each vessel per month, 
 ''whatever number of vessels the Lacedaemonians might 
 choose to maintain " (Xen., Hell i. 5, 5). Since the regular 
 crew of a war trireme consisted of 200 men, this allowance 
 would mean three obols per diem for each man. 
 
 To the reply of Cyrus "Lysander at the moment said 
 nothing. But after dinner, when Cyrus pledged his health, 
 asking him what he could do to gratify him most, Lysander 
 replied, * Add an obol to the sailors' pay.* After this the 
 pay was raised to four instead of three obols, as it hitherto 
 had been " (Xen., Hell, i 5, 6 i). Cf. also the Lysander, 
 
 chap. iv. 
 
 In the winter of 412, Tissaphemes had distributed one 
 month's pay among the Peloponnesian ships, at the rate of 
 an Attic drachma a day per man, " as his envoy had promised 
 at Lacedaemon." For the future, however, he proposed to 
 give only half that sum, which was the regular wage (Thuc, 
 
 viiL 29). 
 
 Sail for Caria, etc. : from his headquarters at Samos Alci- 
 biades did undoubtedly make several expeditions during the 
 winter of 408-407 for the purpose of levying moneys. But 
 it was on none of these that Antiochus was left thus in 
 charge of the fleet. Lysander, when his fleet was duly 
 organized, lay quietly at Ephesus, secure in its ample harbor, 
 perfecting his ships and crews. It was as much for his in- 
 terest to postpone a decisive engagement as it was impera- 
 tive for Alcibiades to provoke one. At length, in the spring 
 of 407, Alcibiades left Samos and stationed his fleet at 
 Notium, just north of Ephesus, in the hope of enticing 
 Lysander out to battle. While here, he heard that Thras- 
 ybulus had come down out of the Hellespont with his 
 squadron, and was besieging the Ionian city of Phocaea. 
 Alcibiades sailed to join Thrasybulus, from military motives 
 which can readily be imagined, and left Antiochus in charge 
 of the fleet at Notium (Xen., Hell. L 5, 10 ff.). 
 
 Antiochus : a favorite, perhaps on accoimt of his rescue 
 of the quaU of Alcibiades (chap. x. 1). He was merely the 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 i* 
 
320 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 pQot of Alcibiades* ship, a paid officer, and yet he had been 
 set over trierarchs," who paid their pilots, and served at their 
 own cost " (Grote). The two generals who were colleagues 
 of Alcibiades had been appointed expressly for service on 
 
 land (see the note on § 1). 
 
 XXXV. 5 t These paragraphs are a free and rather brief 
 reproduction of Xenophon {Hell. L 5, 12-15). Dramatic jus- 
 tice demands the death of Antiochus, but neither Xenophon 
 nor Diodorus mentions it It is easy inference from the sim- 
 ple story of Xenophon that the Athenians fought with no 
 order, but in haphazard fashion, owing to the absence of their 
 commander-in-chief. They lost fifteen triremes, and retired 
 to Samos. Lysander set up his trophy of victory at Notium, 
 
 Cf, Plutarch's Lysander, v. 1 f . 
 
 XXXVI. 1. Thrasybulus, the son of Thraso : to be dis- 
 tinguished from the illustrious commander, who was the son of 
 Lycus (Thuc, viiL 75, 2). This detail probably comes from 
 Ephorus, judging from Diodorus, xiii. 73, 6. Ephorus also re- 
 lated the mishandling by Alcibiades of the allied city of Cym4, 
 ambassadors from which brought complaints against Alcibi- 
 ades to Athens at this time. But Cym^ had revolted from 
 Athens, Uke Phocaea, a fact which Ephorus, a native of the 
 city, glosses over by this invention. The charge which the 
 enemies of Alcibiades naturally found most efifective against 
 him was that he was again acting in collusion with Tissa- 
 phemes in an effort to protract the war until both parties to it 
 were exhausted. Xenophon mentions only the charges of 
 negligence and dissolute conduct {Hell. i. 5, 16). 
 
 It is not impossible to make out a good defense of Alcibi- 
 ades. He was in a desperate strait owing to the refusal of 
 Lysander to fight The operations of his colleague Thrasybu- 
 lus, at Phocaea, offered him an opportunity to levy the ever 
 necessary moneys, and also to lure Lysander out from his safe 
 refuge in the harbor of Ephesus in pursuit of him. In such a 
 case the Athenian fleet at Notium, with strict orders not to 
 engage the enemy in the absence of Alcibiades, might have 
 been used to catch Lysander between two hostUe squadrons. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 821 
 
 The ruse, if such it was, failed because of the disobedience of 
 Antiochus (Busolt, GrUch. Gesch., iii pp. 1574 f.). 
 
 XXXVI. 2. Near Bisanthe : on the north-western coast 
 of the Propontis. He had another fortress near Pactye, on 
 the Thracian Chersonese, south-west of Bisanthe. It was to 
 this latter that he retired (§ 3> This time his exile was self- 
 imposed. 
 
 XXXVL 3. Chose other generals: "accordmgly they 
 
 chose ten new generals Alcibiades, who was moreover 
 
 in bad odor in the camp, sailed away with a single trireme to 
 his private fortress in the Chersonese " (Xen., Hell. i. 5, 16 
 f.). The sequence of events is here not very clear. Prob- 
 ably Alcibiades was first deposed from office, and Conon, 
 who was conducting the siege of Andros (see on xxxv. 1), 
 was sent to Samos to take provisional command in his place 
 (Xen., Hell. i. 5, 18). At the following annual elections, 
 held later in the same spring of 407, the principle of a smgle 
 commander-in-chief with autocratic powers, and two assist- 
 ants (xxxiii 2 ; xxxv. 1), was abandoned, and a board of ten 
 generals with equal authority was elected, of whom Conon 
 
 was one. 
 
 XXXVI. 4. At Aegospotami : on the western shore of 
 the Hellespont, directly opposite Lampsacus. Plutarch's 
 story leaps over the events of two and a half years, — from the 
 spring of 407 to the autumn of 405 (see the chronological 
 table). The Athenian fleet under Conon and his fellow gen- 
 erals, for lack of means, was compelled to confine itself to 
 predatory excursions from Samos as its base. Callicratidas, 
 the successor of Lysander, managed, even without Persian 
 aid, to raise a powerful fleet, which defeated Conon and 
 blockaded him in the harbor of Mitylene. With the last 
 energies of despair the Athenians sent out still another fleet 
 of one hundred and ten ships. Callicratidas was defeated 
 in the battle off the Arginusae islands, and Conon was re- 
 lieved (summer of 406). But this achievement exhausted 
 Athenian powers. Well planned initiative was beyond 
 them, and they were soon absorbed in the misguided prose- 
 
 <|i 
 
 ^^ 
 
 vVl 
 
 t 
 
 'f 
 
322 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 cution of their victorious generals for neglect of duty. Early 
 in 405 Lysander resumed the direction of Spartan affairs, 
 and with Persian aid equipped a powerful fleet About the 
 middle of the summer he proceeded to the Hellespont and 
 captured Lampsacus, in the harbor of which he took up a 
 safe position. The Athenian fleet pursued, and occupied 
 an unfavorable station directly opposite. No master mind 
 dominated their counsels, and discipline was lax. Their 
 ships numbered one hundred and eighty. 
 
 XXXVL 5. Aloibiadee: from his stronghold near Pactye, 
 he could see the operations of the Athenian fleet (Xen., Hell. 
 
 ii. 1,25). ^ . » 
 
 Prom Sestos: about two mfles south of Aegospotami. 
 « He advised them to shift their anchorage to Sestos, where 
 they would have the advantage of a harbour and a city. ' Once 
 there,' he concluded, ' you can engage the enemy whenever it 
 suits you ' " (Xen., loc dt.). Even in his self-imposed exile 
 he makes it clear to us that he, and he alone, could have 
 coped with so wUy and able a foe as Lysander. 
 
 XXXVII. 1. Tydeus insulted him: "But the generals, and 
 more particularly Tydeus and Menander, bade him go about 
 his business. ' We are generals now — not you,' they said ; 
 and so he went away " (Xen. , Hell. ii. 1, 26). 
 
 This is the last mention of Alcibiades in Xenophon's his- 
 tory, and also the last well attested fact in his career. 
 
 HetoldhiaaoquaintanoM^eto.: the remainder of the 
 paragraph and the first two sentences of the next consist of 
 questionable material, furnished, in different form, by Epho- 
 rus, or Theopompus, or both, as may be seen in Diodorus, 
 liii. 105, 3 f. and Nepos, Ale. viii Xenophon says nothing 
 of it. It'reads Uke the mventions of Ephorus, containing here 
 and there an ingenious and plausible inference. Strangely 
 enough, Plutarch does not use it in the far more extended 
 story of the same events which he gives in his Lysander, 
 
 XXXVII. 2. The event aoon testified: for five days in 
 succession the Athenians proceeded as described in xxxvl 4 ; 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 323 
 
 then Lysander fell upon them. Xenophon gives a succinct 
 account of the battle (ffelL ii 1, 27-29), and Plutarch an 
 amplified version of this in his Lysander ^ x. f. 
 
 Eight of their triremes: not counting the Paralus (see on 
 xxi. 5), which Conon sent with tidings to Athens. 
 
 XXXVII. 3. Three thousand: "asto the men themselves," 
 says Xenophon {Hell, ii 1, 28), " the large majority of them 
 were easily made prisoners on shore, a few only escaping to 
 the small fortresses of the neighborhood." This would or- 
 dinarily mean many more than three thousand, even if the 
 one hundred and seventy-one captured ships were not 
 manned with the full complement of two hundred men. 
 But the greater part of the crews doubtless consisted of me- 
 tics, slaves, and mercenaries, so that three thousand might 
 well represent the actual Athenian citizens among the pris- 
 oners. All these, according to Xenophon {Hell, ii 1, 32), 
 except the general Adeimantus, were put to death. It was 
 charged that the Athenians had voted to cut off the right 
 hands of their prisoners if they were victorious, and this in 
 spite of the protest of Adeimantus. Some, however, charged 
 that general with betrayal of the fleet to Lysander, in recom- 
 pense for which his life was spared. 
 
 In a short time: in the spring of 404, some eight months 
 later. 
 
 XXXVII. 3 — XXXIX. Little is reaUy known about 
 Alcibiades from this point on, and especially about the manner 
 of his death, judging from the orations of Isocrates (xvi 40) 
 and Lysias (xiv. 38), which were written in 397 and 395 
 respectively. " The conscientious historian, in giving what 
 he believes to be true history in this matter, cannot go much, 
 if any, beyond what was known to Isocrates and Lysias: 
 Alcibiades, soon after the accession of the Thirty to power 
 in Athens, sought refuge from enemies whom he feared the 
 more, with Phamabazus, whom he feared the less, but was 
 soon put out of the way by that Satrap, in response to the 
 demands of Sparta " {Trans. Am. Phil, Ass., xxirvd. pp. 25- 
 37). All else is plausible inference or romantic invention 
 
 < 
 
 ' «*tt^eAte».flU&. JMf«E4&.«*d»A;a^ 
 
324 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 825 
 
 on the part of oral tradition or rhetorical historians like 
 Ephorus and Theopompus. 
 
 The account of Ephorus is preserved for us in distinct 
 citation by Diodonis (xiv. 11, 1-4), and doubtless represents 
 the current belief of his time. In one unessential point 
 Ephorus controverts the current belief, viz, in his over-ingen- 
 ious and improbable interpretation of the motives which 
 prompted Phamabazus to send his murderers against Alcibi- 
 ades. It was not, Ephorus declares, to please the Lacedae- 
 monians, as was generally thought, but, in his own interests, 
 to prevent Alcibiades from forestalling him in bringing the 
 rebellious schemes of Cyrus to the notice of the Great King. 
 The emissaries of Phamabazus, Ephorus goes on to say, 
 found Alcibiades encamped in a certain village of Phrygia, 
 and surrounded his tent in the night with a mass of firewood. 
 When this had been lighted and was in a great blaze, Alci- 
 biades attempted to defend himself, but was overwhelmed 
 by the fire and the darts shot at him by his enemies, and so 
 
 perished. 
 
 Nepos, three centuries later than Ephorus, in his account 
 of the death of Alcibiades {Ale. ix. f.), shows us that by his 
 time a mass of invented detail had accumulated around the 
 simple Ephorean nucleus. Nepos combines (as he himself 
 states) material from Theopompus, the rival of Ephorus; 
 from Timaeus of Tauromenium, who flourished in the cen- 
 tury after Ephorus and Theopompus; and doubtless from 
 stock Alexandrian biography through which these versions 
 came down to him. In the main, however, we may feel 
 reasonably confident that he represents the tradition of 
 Theopompus. 
 
 We find in the story of Nepos many accretions both to the 
 causes assigned for the death of Alcibiades in the Ephorean 
 version, and to the circumstances of it. For most of these 
 accretions it is not difficult to suggest a probable genesis. 
 Alcibiades, according to the tradition of Theopompus in 
 Nepos, learns of the plotting of Cyrus against the Great 
 King, and asks from Pharnabazus, at whose court he has 
 
 been treated like another Themistocles, an escort up to the 
 royal court, that he may make use of his knowledge there to 
 gain the favor of the King. But the Thirty at Athens warn 
 Lysander in Asia that Alcibiades must be put out of the way 
 if Lysander's work at Athens is to endure, and Lysander 
 therefore demands Alcibiades from Pharnabazus, dead or 
 alive. The Satrap chose to violate his hospitality rather 
 than to alienate the Spartans from the King, and sent 
 Susamithres and Bagaeus to kill Alcibiades in Phrygia, 
 where he was preparing his journey to the King. Coming 
 secretly to the place where Alcibiades was, they took meas- 
 ures to kill him. They dared not attack him with ordinary 
 weapons, and so by night they heaped firewood around the 
 house where he was sleeping, and set it on fire, in order to 
 kill with the flames one whom they despaired of overwhelm- 
 ing by force. Alcibiades, roused by the flames, although his 
 sword had been removed from him, snatched a dagger from a 
 faithful Arcadian friend whom he had with him, and who had 
 vowed never to leave him. This man he bade follow him, 
 and then snatching up what clothing there was at hand, 
 threw it upon the flames, and so passed safely through them. 
 When the Barbarians saw that he had escaped the fire, they 
 hurled their weapons at him from afar, slew him, and brought 
 his head to Phamabazus. But a woman, who was accus- 
 tomed to live with him, wrapped his dead and headless 
 body in her woman's garments, and burned it in the flames 
 of the house where his enemies had planned to bum him 
 alive. 
 
 More than a century after Nepos, Plutarch gives his artis- 
 tic version of events at the close of Alcibiades' career, follow- 
 ing in the main the tradition of Theopompus rather than 
 that of Ephorus. Certain deviations and additions peculiar 
 to Plutarch may be briefly indicated here, before seeking to 
 get the total effect of his narrative. We find in Plutarch a 
 little more definiteness in the adventures of Alcibiades be- 
 fwe reaching Phamabazus. It is in Bithynia that the 
 Thracians rob him, rather than " supra Propontidem ", The 
 
 3m&ECS&fil' 
 
 "^♦•♦•^ • 
 
 •«««&-" 
 
326 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 analogy of Themistocles is used very differently. It is at 
 the court of Artaxerxes, not that of Phamabazus, that Alci- 
 biades wishes to revive the r6le of Themistocles, and to this 
 end he seeks successfully the favor of the Satrap. In Plu- 
 tarch, Lysander is reluctant to meet the wishes of the Thirty, 
 and only when the Ephors order him to put Alcibiades out of 
 the way, does he require Phamabazus to perfonn the deed. 
 There is no ghastly, oriental decapitation of the victim in 
 the main story of Plutarch, although in a curious way he 
 shows his acquaintance with this grosser phase of the tra- 
 dition. Instead of being on a journey to the King, Alci- 
 biades was living in the Phrygian village with Timandra, 
 and shortly before his death had a prophetic vision. Plutarch 
 gives two versions of this vision, the second of which only 
 is based on that form of the tradition which has Alcibiades 
 beheaded and his headless body burned. The version which 
 Plutarch adopts is conformed to that softened and pathetic 
 account of the final disposition of Alcibiades' body which 
 the gentle writer either constructed himself or selected from 
 his sources. And the bravery of Alcibiades is much en- 
 hanced in Plutarch's story. There is no Arcadian attendant 
 to assist the hero. Alone he scatters the Barbarians who 
 have set fire to his house, and alone he falls by their mis- 
 siles. Timandra, whose escape from fire and missiles is not 
 explained, wraps his body in her own woman's garments, 
 and gives it such honorable burial as she can. Ai.'nost all 
 the essential variations of his story from that of the tradi- 
 tion of Theopompus are such as one would expect in a writer 
 of Plutarch's temperament and character, if he were allowing 
 himself artistic freedom in the reproduction of the material 
 of tradition. His result we must regard as romantic and 
 beautiful historical fiction. 
 
 XXXIX. 1. Phrygia: Lesser Phrygia, on the Hellespont, 
 a province subject to Phamabazus. Under Roman rule in 
 Asia Minor, the traditions of the death of Alcibiades had 
 fixed themselves upon a village of Greater Phrygia, which, at 
 the time of Alcibiades' death, had been part of the domain 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADES 
 
 827 
 
 of Gyms. In this village, called Melissa, the emperor Ha- 
 drian caused a memorial to be erected, which was surmounted 
 by a statue of Alcibiades, of Parian marble (Athenaeus 
 
 p. 574 t). 
 
 XXXIX. 4 Lais the Ck>iinthian : see on the Nicias, xv. 4. 
 
 XXXIX. 5. Some say : what writers (or writer) are here 
 meant, is wholly uncertain. 
 
 If we may trast the elder Pliny (K ff. xxxiv. 12) and 
 Plutarch (Numa, viii Jin,), a statue of Alcibiades stood in 
 the Boman comitium from the time of the Samnite wars 
 down to that of Sulla, to commemorate " the bravest of the 
 Hellenes ". And the encomium pronounced upon Alcibiades 
 by Isocrates ( Or. xvi.) bears witness already to a strong re- 
 action in favor of his memory. Even shortly before the ca- 
 tastrophy at Aegospotami, Aristophanes in his Frogs (w. 
 1431 ff.) had clearly voiced the belief of many that the only 
 salvation for Athens lay in the restoration of Alcibiades to 
 command. At the time of the Macedonian supremacy, two 
 generations of men after Aristophanes, when Ephorus and 
 Theopompus wrote their ffellenica, the prevailing attitude 
 toward the memory of Alcibiades was one of admiration for 
 his great powers, rather than of detestation for his excesses 
 and follies. This is clear from the reference to him by De- 
 mosthenes (contra Meid. 143-147). How prominent a figure 
 he became in men's recollections of the great age of Athens, 
 is shown by the fact that when Aristotle wishes to illustrate 
 the individualizing procedure of history as opposed to the 
 generalizing procedure of poetry, he selects the achievements 
 and sufferings of Alcibiades {Poet. ix. 4). The long debate 
 between the enemies and the friends of the memory of Alci- 
 biades ended with the triumph of his friends. And Plutarch 
 is one of his friends. ** It is tme, indeed," he says, in com- 
 paring Alcibiades with Coriolanus (ii. 3 f.), " that Alcibiades, 
 by his resentment, was the occasion of great disasters to his 
 country, but he relented as soon as he foimd their feelings to 
 be changed ; and after he was driven out a second time, so 
 far from taking pleasure in the errors and inadvertencies of 
 
328 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALCIBIADE8 
 
 their commanders, or being indifferent to the dangers they 
 were thus incurring, he did the very thing that Aristides is 
 so highly commended for doing to Themistocles ; he came to 
 the generals who were his enemies, and pointed out to them 
 what they ought to do." 
 
 INDEX 
 
 'i 
 
 HI 
 
INDEX 
 
 Full-faced numerals refer to pages of the Lives ; the oth- 
 ers to the Introduction and Notes. References to the Lives 
 usually cover the explanatory matter of the Notes alsa 
 
 Adeimantus, Athenian general, 164, 
 318, 823 
 
 Adonis, festival of, 79, 138 f. 
 
 Aeginetans, 6S 
 
 Aegospotami, 164 
 
 Aetolian disaster, 64, 198 
 
 Agamemnon, 68 
 
 Agatharchos, the painter, 180 
 
 Agathon, the tragic poet, 259 
 
 Agesilaus, 9, 292, 313 
 
 Agis, 142, 148, 144, 160, 167 
 
 Agraulus, sanctuary of, 129 
 
 Alcibiades, in Socratic dialogue, 11 f. ; 
 dates of birth and death, 12 ; fam- 
 ily, 111; physique and character, 
 68, 112; boyhood traits, 112-114; 
 beloved of Socrates, 111, 114 f., 
 117 f.; treatment of Anytus and 
 other lovers, 115 ff . ; love of pleas- 
 are and fame, 117 1 ; lessons to 
 school-teachers, 118 ; advice to Per- 
 icles, 118; at Potidaea and De- 
 lium, 11, 119; insults Hipponi- 
 cus, 119; his wife, 120; his dog, 
 121 ; enters public life, 68, 121 ; 
 his oratory, 122; his stables, 
 122 f.; at Olympia, 128; rivalry 
 with Nicias and Phaeax, 76, 128 f . ; 
 alliance with Nicias against Hy- 
 perbolus, 74, 124 f . ; his jealousy of 
 Nicias, 71, 126 ; plots with Argos 
 against the Peace of Nicias, 71, 
 126; tricks a Spartan embassy, 
 
 71 f ., 127 f . ; effects a Peloponne- 
 sian aUiance against Sparta, and is 
 elected general, 78, 128 ; assists 
 the Argive democracy, 129 ; at 
 Patrae, 129 ; luxury and prodigal- 
 ity, 129 f . ; popularity, 78, 180 ; 
 his treatment of Agatharchus and 
 Taureas, 180 ; his Melian mistress, 
 181 ; his portrait by Aristophon, 
 181 ; his meeting with Timon, 
 181; inflames Athenian passion 
 for Sicily, 76 £., 182 ; elected gen- 
 eral for the Sicilian expedition, 76, 
 188 ; accused of impieties, 184 ; 
 postponement of his trial, 186 f . ; 
 his plan for conducting the expe- 
 dition, 80, 186 ; summoned home 
 for trial, 80, 186, 189 ; treachery 
 and flight, 189 ; condemnation 
 and execration, 140; at Sparta, 
 141 f. ; intrigue with Queen 
 Timaea, 142 f . ; brings Ionia to 
 revolt from Athens, 148 ; goes over 
 to Tissaphemes, 144 f . ; plots an 
 oligarchic revolution in the Athe- 
 nian army at Samos, 146 ff . ; ac- 
 cepts command of the triumphant 
 democracy in the same army, 148 ; 
 the savior of Athens, 148 f. ; iur 
 trigues with Tissaphemes, 149 ; 
 recalled to Athens, 149; victory 
 off Abydos, 160 ; visit to Tissa- 
 phemes, 160 ; victory off Cyzicus, 
 161 f. ; besieges Chalcedon, 168 ; 
 captures Selymbria, 164 f . ; wins 
 
832 
 
 INDEX 
 
 oyer Phamabazus to Athens, 155 ; 
 captures Byzantium, 155 f. ; re- 
 turns at last to Athens, 157 ff.; 
 conducts the procession of the Eleu- 
 sinian mysteries, 160 f.; is asked 
 to make himself tyrant of Athens, 
 161; too slow in subduing Ionia, 
 168 ; his fleet defeated by Lysan- 
 der, 168 f.; deposed from com- 
 mand, 168 f.; warns the Athenian 
 generals at Aegospotami, 164 f.; 
 takes refuge with Phamabazus, 
 165 f. ; is put to death, 167 f . 
 
 The tradition of his earlier move- 
 ments in exile influenced by the 
 Themistoclean legends, 288 f., 295 ; 
 he achieves the position of Pericles, 
 315 ; his fame in the two genera- 
 tions after him, 327 
 
 Alcibiades the Younger, 8, 118 
 
 Alcmaeonid, 111 
 
 Aliens, resident-aliens, '* metics ", 
 264 
 
 Ammon, shrine of, 77 
 
 Amphipolis, 6 f., 71 
 
 Amycla, nurse of Alcibiades, 111 
 
 Anaxagoras, 96 
 
 Anaxilaus, of Byzantium, 156 f . 
 
 Andocides, 2 f. ; 42 ff. ; Hermes of, 
 77, 187 ; state's evidence, 188 
 
 Androcles, 1341. 
 
 Andros, 161 
 
 Androtion, 84 
 
 Antiochus, rescues the quail of Aici- 
 biades, 181 ; left in charge of fleet, 
 1681 
 
 Antiphon, 2, 63, 114 
 
 Antisthenes, 111 
 
 Anytus, a lover of Alcibiades, 115 f . 
 
 Archippus, 118 
 
 Argos, 188, 188 f . , 140 
 
 Ariphron, 111, 114 
 
 Aristides, ostracism of, 75 
 
 Ariston, Corinthian captain, 91, 99 
 
 Aristophanes, 2, 61, 67, 118, 
 180 
 
 Aristophon, his portrait of Alcibiades, 
 181 
 
 Aristotle, 3f., 12, 56 
 
 Asinaria, festival of, 104 
 
 Assembly, Athenian, dissolved At 
 "sign from Zeus", 78 
 
 Astyochus, treacherous Spartan ad- 
 miral, 146 f. 
 
 AUhides, 34 
 
 Autodeides, 97 
 
 B 
 
 Boeotians 70 f . ; 98 
 Brasidas, 6, 8, 68 f. 
 
 Calliades, 64 
 
 Callias, son of Hipponicus, 180 
 Callicrates, slays Lamachus, 86 
 Callippus, murderer of Dion, 81 
 Carthage, in the schemes of AJcibi- 
 
 ades, 188 
 Caunians, saved by Euripides, 106 
 Ceos, 57 
 Cerberus, 56 
 Chalcedon, 158 
 
 Charmides, cousin of Andocides, 284 
 Clazomenae, 78, 306 
 Cleandridas, father of Oylippus, 104, 
 
 234 
 aeanthes, 117 
 Cleinias, father of Alcibiades, 111 
 
 , brother of Alcibiades, 258 
 
 Cleitodemus, 34, 218 
 
 Cleon, in Attic Comedy, 2 ; 57 f . ; 
 
 gets command at Pylos, 65 ff. ; 
 
 lack of decorum on the bema, 68 ; 
 
 death, 69 
 Comedy, Old Attic, as historical 
 
 source, 1 ff. 
 Contributions, to the State, 181 
 Corinthians, dissatisfied with the 
 
 Peace of Nicias, 70 ; aid the Syra- 
 
 cusans, 237 
 Coriolanus, compared with Alcibia- 
 des, 40 
 Coroneia, battle of (447 B. c). 111 ; 
 
 battle of (394 B.C.), 9 
 Cothurnus, nickname of Theramenes, 
 
 57 
 
 INDEX 
 
 388 
 
 Council, of Five Hundred, Athenian, 
 
 186 f. 
 Crassus, 55 ; compared with Nicias, 
 
 171 f. 
 Craterus, 35 f. 
 Critias, 3, 158, 314 
 Cynis, the Younger, 9, 168, 318 f. 
 
 Damon, ostracism of, 68 
 
 Deceleia, fortified by Spartans, 141, 
 
 160 
 
 Delium, battle of, 64 
 
 Delos, festivals at, 59 f . 
 
 Delphians, seek to prevent the Athe- 
 nian expedition to Sicily, 78 
 
 Demosthenes, Athenian general, in 
 Aetolia, 64; at Pylos, 65 ff . ; 
 prepares second expedition to Sic- 
 ily, 90 ; at Syracuse, 91 ff. ; his 
 capture and attempted suicide, 
 108 ; death, 104 f . ; ability and 
 fortune, 238 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, 46 f. 
 
 Dion, of Syracuse, 81, 96 
 
 Dionysius Chalcus. 68 
 
 Diphilus, 55 
 
 Dowries, in marriage, 268 
 
 Drachma, 183, 268 
 
 Drama, Athenian, as historical source. 
 
 Iff 
 Duris, of Samos, 47, 157 
 
 Earthquakes, 78, 148 
 
 Egestaeans, 56, 75, 212 ff. 
 
 Eleusis, mysteries of, 184; parodies 
 of the mysteries, 287 
 
 Embassy, Athenian, to King of Per- 
 sia, 155 
 
 Endius, Ephor at Sparta, 294 
 
 Ephorus, 10, 33, 45 ff., 157 
 
 Epinikion^ of Euripides, 271 
 
 Epipolae, 84 ; night attack upon, 
 98 f. 
 
 Eupolis, 61, 184 
 
 Euripides, in Attic Comedy, 2 ; saves 
 
 Athenian lives, 105 f. ; cited, 63, 
 69, 85, 118, 188, 148 
 Eurymedon, Athenian general, 90t 
 98, 238, 242 
 
 V 
 
 Five Thousand, The, 147 
 Four Hundred, The, 149, 299 f. 
 Flute-playing, despised at Athens, 
 113 f. 
 
 O 
 
 Generals, at Athens, 186, 190 
 Gongylus, Corinthian captain, 87, 89 
 Gylippus, the Spartan, sent to com- 
 mand at Syracuse on the advice of 
 Alcibiades, 141 ; 86, 88, 89, 90, 
 104 
 
 Hellanicus, 5, 34, 42, 187 
 Heracleides, brave Syracusan boy, 
 
 97 
 Heracles, favors S3rracuse, 56 
 Heracleum, at Syracuse, 98 
 Bermae, at Athens, 55, 77, 184, 186 
 Hermocrates, Syracusan leader, 55, 
 
 100, 104, 105 
 Herodotus, contrasted with Thucyd- 
 
 ides, 5 ff 
 Hiero, agent of Nicias, 68 
 Hipparchus, first victim of the ostra- 
 cism, 75 
 Hipparete, wife of Alcibiades, 180 
 Hippocrates, Athenian commander at 
 
 the battle of Delium, 64 
 Hyccara, Sicilian fastness, 88 
 Hyperbolus, Athenian demagogue, in 
 
 Attic Comedy, 2 ; ostracism of, 
 
 74f.,184f. 
 
 Informers, at Athens, 61, 186, 187 
 Isocrates, 3, 32, 188 
 
834 
 
 Knuckle-bonet, in games, 201 
 
 INDEX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 885 
 
 If 
 
 Lais, the Corinthian, 83, 168 
 Lamachus, Athenian general, 78, 
 
 79, 86, 188, 189 
 Laomedon, cheats Heracles, 56 
 Lanrium, silver mines of, 60 
 Leon of Byzantium, 96 
 Liturgies, at Athens, 180 
 Lysander, Spartan admiral, 168, 
 
 168 ff., 167 
 Lysias, on Alcibiades. 2 f. ; 261 
 
 Megacles, 111 
 
 Metics, 264 f. 
 
 Meton, the astrologer, 78, 188 f. 
 
 Mina, 183, 268 
 
 Mindarus, Spartan admiral, 161 f. 
 
 Nepos, the Alcibiades of, 32 
 Nicias, at Pericles' death, 12 ; the 
 name, 66 ; his family, 175 ; Aris- 
 totle's estimate of, 66 f . ; general 
 with Pericles, 67, 224 f. ; head of 
 conservative party, 177 ; favored 
 by the people, 67 ; his character, 
 67 f . ; dedicatory offerings, 68 ; 
 outlays at Delos, 69 f . ; supersti- 
 tion, 60, 96 ; his silver mines, 60 ; 
 his slaves, 185 ; in the Comic 
 Poets, 61 ; exclusiveness, 68 ; safe 
 generalship, 63 f. ; his regard for 
 the slain in battle, 64 f . ; resigns 
 command in favor of Cleon, 66 ft. 
 the Peacemaker, 69 f., 186; 
 charged with buying up the lot, 
 70 ; tricked by Alcibiades, 71 f., 
 127 f . ; his embassy to Sparta, 
 78 f. ; rivalry with Alcibiades, 
 78 f . ; opposes expedition to Sic- 
 ily, 76 f . ; 188 ; elected general 
 
 against his will, 76, 188 ; his plan, 
 80 ; his disease, 86 ; foils the Syra- 
 cusans, 88; .investment of Syra- 
 cuse, 86 ; his straits, 86 ; his 
 overconfidence, 87 ; his dejection, 
 88 ; loses Plemmyrium, 80 : first 
 naval defeat, 91 ; communications 
 with the Syracusans, 87, 98 ; fears 
 the Athenian citizens, 96 ; fatal 
 delays, 97 f.; tricked by Hermo- 
 crates, 100 ; in retreat, 101 f . ; at 
 the river Asinarus, 108 f . ; surren- 
 der, 108 ; his death, 104 f . ; his 
 shield, 106 ; Thucydides' judgment 
 of him, 250 f. 
 
 Obol, 183, 268 
 Olympian games, 270 
 Orators, -as historical source, 2 f. 
 Ostracism, 78 f., 184, 207, 209 f., 
 273 
 
 Paches, captor of Lesbos, 68 
 
 Palladium, 68, 77 
 
 Panactiim, 71, 186 
 
 Parthian disaster, 66 
 
 Pasiphon, of Eretria, 11 f., 36 
 
 Patrae, 189 
 
 Pericles, in Attic Comedy, 2 ; nature 
 of his leadei-ship, 68 ; fined, 68 ; 
 cause of Peloponnesian war, 70, 
 186 ; guardian of Alcibiades, 111, 
 114 ; advised by Alcibiades, 118 
 
 Peripatetics, 35 
 
 Persia, re-entrance into Hellenic 
 politics, 293 f. 
 
 Phaeax, 76, 184 f . 
 
 Phanodemus, 34 
 
 Phamabazus, 160-166, 167, 293 
 
 Philistus, 10 f., 81, 66 f., 89, 104 f. 
 
 Philochorus, 34, 97 
 
 Phoenician fleet, 146, 149 
 
 Phrygia, Lesser and Greater, 826 f. 
 
 Phrynichns, the Comic Poet, 61, 187 
 
 , Athenian general, 146 f . 
 
 Plague, at Athens, 64 
 
 Plato, the Comic Poet, 76, 186 
 
 , the Philosopher, 11 f., 96, 
 
 111, 116 
 Plemmyrium, 90, 237 
 Plynteria, rites of, 169 
 Puyx, 197 
 
 Pollichus, the Syracusan, 97 f . 
 Polybius, 34 
 Polyzelus, estate of, 108 
 Protagoras, 96 
 Pylos, 66 f. 
 
 Quail, of Alcibiades, 181 
 
 8 
 
 Salaminia, Athenian state-galley, 189 
 
 Samoa, fidelity to Athens, 296 ; 
 Athenian army at, 300 f. 
 
 Scillus, in £Iis, retreat of Xenophon, 9 
 
 Selymbria, 164 f . 
 
 Sicily, Athenian passion for, 76, 
 181 f . ; Athenian relations with, 
 212 ff. 
 
 Socrates, warns Xenophon, 9 ; op- 
 poses the Sicilian expedition, 78, 
 188 ; victim of philosophy, 96 ; 
 affection for Alcibiades, 111, 114 f., 
 
 118 ; at Potidaea and Delium, 11, 
 
 119 ; influence on Critias and Al- 
 cibiades, 262 f. 
 
 Soothsayers, 97 
 
 Sophocles, the poet, general with 
 
 Nicias, 81 
 Sphacteria, 66-67 
 Stilbides, a soothsayer, 97 
 
 Talent, 183, 268 
 
 Taureas, cuffed by Alcibiades, 180 
 
 Telecleides, the Comic Poet, 61 
 
 Thapsus, 84 
 
 Themistocles, details of his exile in- 
 fluence the story of Alcibiades, 
 889 f. 
 Theophrastus, 35, 76, 188 
 Theopompus, 4, 10, 32, 167 
 Theramenes, 4, 67, 166 
 Thessalus, son of Cimon, 184, 140 
 Thousand, The, at Argos, 188 
 Thrasybulus, son of Lycus, 148 f., 
 320 
 
 , son of Thraso, 168 
 
 Thrasyllus, Athenian general, 168 f. 
 Thurii, 68 
 
 Timaea, wife of King Agis, corrupted 
 by Alcibiades, 148 f . ; warns Alcibi- 
 ades, 295 
 Timaeus, of Tauromenium, 33 f. ; 
 38 ; 66, 66 ; on Gylippus, 88, 
 104, 236 ; on the deaths of Nicias 
 and Demosthenes, 104 f . 
 Timandra, the courtesan, 167 f., 226 
 Timon, the Misanthrope, 181 
 Tissaphemes, the Satrap, 142-161 
 Thucydides, son of Melesias, 67, 76 
 
 , son of Olorus, 4 ff. ; 
 
 66 f. ; cited, 60, 88, 91, 106, 117, 
 188,184 
 Tisias, defrauded by Alcibiades, 183 
 Tragedy, Athenian, as historical 
 
 source, 1 ff. 
 Trierarch, 180, 267 
 Tutor, 111, 259 
 Twelve Gods, altar of, 77 
 
 Xenarchus (?), 66 
 
 Xenophon, son of Euripides, Athe^ 
 
 nian general, 64 
 , the historian, 8 ff., 167 
 
 Zopyrus, tutor of Alcibiades, 111 
 
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