In the succeeding year, very early in the spring, the Athenian ambassadors returned from Sicily, accompanied by the Egesteans. They brought sixty talents of uncoined silver, being a month's pay for sixty sail of ships, the equipment of which for succour they were instructed to solicit from the Athenians. Upon this, an assembly of the people was called, and the reports of the Egestean and their own ambassadors were received, consisting of many points, specious indeed, but false in fact; and, so far as related to their treasure, that "sums ample enough are already deposited in their temples and their public treasury." In consequence of this, a decree was made that "a fleet of sixty ships should sail for Sicily; the commanders, Alcibiades, the son of Clinias, Nicias, the son of Niceratus, and Lamachus,† the son of Xenophanes, to be invested with full powers to act at their own discretion. The whole armament to act as an aid to the Egesteans * Before Christ 415.

+ Lamachus, the third in this commission, seems to have been picked out for the command from the peculiar constitution of his own character, which was a proper mean between the cautious and phlegmatic disposition of Nicias and the fiery impetuous ardour of Alcibiades. He was now (according to Plutarch) a brave old experienced officer. In his youth he had been remarkable for heat and fire: a length of service and years mellowed him into the right temper to deliberate before hand, and then gallantly to carry the point into execution; but then he wanted the means of properly supporting the authority and dignity of his post. He was now ranked with two of the most wealthy and noble Athenians; whereas his own condition was low; nay, he was (according to Plutarch) so exceedingly poor, that, before he went to any foreign command, he was used to petition the state for a little money to furnish him out, and even to buy him some shoes. Mr. Wass, in his notes on Thucydides, refers us for his character to a comedy of Aristophanes (The Acharnians); that is, to inquire after the character of a plain blunt officer from a professed droll, or to seek truth from him who ridiculed all mankind. Aristophanes has represented Lamachus as a vain-glorious roaring bully, a mere thing of arms, a creature of verbal pomp and parade; contrary to all the truth of history. Writers who live by turning great and good men into ridicule, should never be reckoned good evidence as to the truth and reality of characters, when history dissents.

against the Selinuntians; to replace also the Leontines in their former habitations, if the state of the war gave thein leisure to execute that service; and to manage all other points in Sicily as they should judge most beneficial for the Athenian interest."

But the fifth day after this, another assembly of the people was held upon the ways and means to expedite the equipment of the fleet, and by proper decrees to supply the commanders with what might be requisite to accelerate their departure. Nicias, who against his will had been named for a commander, was persuaded that the public determinations were rash and premature, since, on short examination, and motives merely specious, they were bent on the total reduction of Sicily, an arduous undertaking! Now, therefore, he stood up; and, having a mind to stop proceedings, he advised the Athenians as follows:

"I am aware that the present assembly is held to concert the means of expediting our preparations, and to get all in readiness for the expedition to Sicily. But, in my sentiments, we ought once more to resume the consideration of the previous point, whether upon the whole it be advisable to equip out such a fleet;' and not, by rash and premature resolves on points of such vast importance, through too easy compliance with foreign solicitations, to embroil ourselves in an unne cessary war. For my own part, truly, I am invested with honour by the present measures, and no man upon earth is so little anxious about his own personal safety. But at the same time I pronounce that person to be a valuable member of the public, who makes use of all his prudence to preserve his own life and property: for such a one, purely for his own private benefit, must be desirous that the public welfare flourish and abound. But, however, neither in the preceding assemblies could the pre-eminence of honour awarded to me bias me to speak in contradiction to my judgment; nor shall it bias me at present; but what I think tends most to the public good, that only shall I utter.

"I am also sensible, that what I can urge may have but little influence on Athenian tempers, when I attempt persuading you to secure what you already possess, and not to hazard the present for things invisible and future: but that your eagerness is quite unseasonable; and that the ends, which you too sanguinely propose, are not easy to be accomplished; -these things I shall clearly demonstrate.

"To this purpose I aver, that if the intended expedition proceeds, you are going to leave many enemies behind you here, and to take the most certain method of fetching hither more numerous opponents. You imagine, perhaps, that the late peace will be firmly and constantly observed, though it was merely a nominal peace, and that only so long as you remain inactive. Nay, such it has been made by the conduct of some even of our own community. And, should any considerable force of ours have the unhappiness to sink under hostile efforts, our old enemies will be suddenly upon us; since merely by calamities they were reduced to an accommodation, and, in a manner more disgraceful to themselves than to us, were necessitated to treat. In the next place we have found, that in the treaty itself many articles are still controverted. There are, farther, divers states, and those by no means the weakest, who have not accepted the accommodation; but, on the contrary, are still in arms against us; while others are inhibited merely by ten-day truces, and that only because the Lacedæmonian measures are hitherto pacific. But suddenly, perhaps, when once they find our strength divided, the very measure into which we are now precipitating ourselves, they may fall upon us in a general combination, augmented by the strength of Sicily, whose accession to their former confederacy they would have been glad to purchase at any price. On these possibilities we are bound sedately to reflect, that we may not plunge a state so highly exalted into superfluous dangers, nor fondly covet to wrest their empire from the hands of others before we have adequately ensured our own, since the Chalcideans of Thrace, though so many years are now elapsed since they first revolted, are not yet reduced; and some other states on the continent render us only a precarious obedience.

"Yet, to the Egesteans, our old allies, who are injuriously oppressed, we are bound in honour to send a most speedy succour. And, in the meantime, we continue to defer avenging ourselves upon those whose revolt from us is of long standing now, and whose injustice we are still obliged to suffer. Though the latter, could we once bring them back to their duty, we might easily control for the future: but the former, should we ever become their masters, remote and numerous as they are, we should not without difficulty be able to awe. It must be madness, therefore, to invade that peo

ple, whom, though conquered, you can never retain in their obedience; and who, in case the attempt against them miscarry, will for the future be much more disaffected towards you than they were before that attempt was made.

"But it is farther my real opinion, that the Sicilians, as their affairs are now circumstantiated, would become less formidable to us if once reduced to the Syracusan yoke ;—and yet on this remote contingency the Egesteans have chiefly insisted, in order to alarm us. Perhaps now it may come to pass, that its single states may combine against us to gratify the Lacedæmonians; but, in the other case, it is quite improbable that a united empire would hazard its own welfare to demolish another. For if, acting from a political precaution, they may side with the Peloponnesians to overturn our empire, those very Peloponnesians may probably, from the same principle, concur with us to demolish the Sicilian. As for us, the Grecians there may have reason to dread us most if we go not at all among them; and, what is next to that, if we only give them a sight of our power for a short time, and then withdraw. But if, acting offensively, we incur miscarriage, they will instantly despise us, and join our neighbouring foes to annoy us here. For things that are placed most remotely from us, as likewise those which yield no opportunity of adjusting our opinion of them by experience, such, it is universally known, are most apt to excite admiration. Reflect, ye citizens of Athens, that your present elevation of spirits is owing to your success against the Lacedæmonians and allies. You crouched for fear under their first attacks; till, having gained the superiority over them, to their utter disappointment, you instantly despised them. And now, nothing less than Sicily can content you. We by no means ought to be too much buoyed up by the disasters of our foes, but only to be so far confident as we are able to awe their intriguing tempers. We ought to ascribe no other view to the Lacedæmonians than a vigilant care to seize the first opportunity of wiping off their disgrace by giving us a blow, and thus recovering their former reputation; and that they are most earnest on accomplishing this, since, from time immemorial, the glory of military valour has been their warmest, most prevailing passion. Our welfare, therefore, if we knew in what our welfare consists, by no means summons us to enter the lists in behalf of the Egesteans of Sicily, who to us are mere barbarians; but

to exert our utmost vigilance to guard our own constitution from oligarchical encroachments.

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My duty obliges me also to remind you, that we have had but a short respite to breathe from the havoc made among us by pestilence and war, and to repair the prodigious waste of our fortunes and our lives. These, according to all the rules of equity, should be reserved for our own domestic exigences, and not be lavished away on a set of fugitives who implore our protection, and are bound in interest to tell specious falsehoods; though, while plunging their neighbours into hazards, they have nothing but words to contribute; and, should we redress them, know not how to be grateful; but, in case we miscarry in the attempt, must involve their friends in their own destruction.

"If there be, farther, a person who, elevated with his own designation to the command, incites you earnestly to sail : heedful of nothing but his own private views, nor qualified by his years for so important a trust; if his passion be merely to excite admiration for his fine breed of horses, or, by the gains of his commission, to repair the havoc of his fortune caused by prodigality; I conjure you to afford no such person an opportunity to make a splendid figure at the expense of your country but rest convinced, that men of such a turn will be corrupt in public office, as they are bad economists in private life; that the enterprise in hand is a very arduous trust, far beyond such measures or such exploits as a stripling can devise or execute.

"I own myself intimidated by that crowd of youths who sit by this person and abet his schemes. I am hence obliged to implore the men of years and experience, who happen to sit near them, by no means to dread that appearance of pusillanimity which, in case this decree of war be revoked, might be objected to them; by no means to indulge the same raw passions by which boys are actuated, so as to dote upon remote contingencies. You, gentlemen, by experience are convinced, that success exceedingly seldom results from hot and sanguine presumption, but most frequently from calm and prudent deliberation. In behalf, therefore, of your country, which is now on the brink of more critical dangers than ever it has known before, hold up your hands in opposition, and support what I am going to move, namely, that 'the Sicilians, confining themselves within their present limits, which