Book 6
for the present juncture, however, I will show what my judgment is. The cities we are about to attack are, as I learn by report, large, and neither subject to one another nor in need of any such change as a person might be happy to accept in order to escape from enforced servitude to an easier condition, nor likely to accept our rule in place of liberty; and the number is large, for a single island, of cities of Hellenic origin.
For except Naxos and Catana, which I expect will side with us on account of their kinship to the Leontines, there are seven others;Syracuse, Selinus, Gela, Agrigentum, Messene, Himera, Camarina (Schol.). and these are equipped with everything in a style very like to our own armament, and not least those against which our expedition is more immediately directed, Selinus and Syracuse.
For they can supply many hoplites, archers and javelin-men, and possess many triremes and a multitude of men to man them. They have wealth, too, partly in private possession and partly in the temples at Selinus; and to the Syracusans tribute has come in from time immemorial from certain barbarians also; but their chief advantage over us is in the fact that they have many horses, and use grain that is homegrown and not imported.
"To cope with such a power we need not only a naval armament of such insignificant size, but also that a large force for use on land should accompany the expedition, if we would accomplish anything worthy of our design and not be shut out from the land by their numerous cavalry; especially if the cities become terrified and stand together, and some of the others, besides Egesta, do not become our friends and supply us cavalry with which to defend ourselves against that of the enemy.
And it would be shameful to be forced to return home, or later to send for fresh supplies, because we had made our plans at first without due consideration. So we must start from home with an adequate armament, realizing that we are about to sail, not only far from our own land, but also on a campaign that will be carried on under no such conditions as if you had gone against an enemy as allies of your subject-states over here, where it would be easy to get whatever further supplies you needed from the friendly territory; nay, you will have removed into an utterly alien land, from which during the winter it is not easy for a messenger to come even in four months.
"And so it seems to me that we ought to take hoplites in large numbers, both of our own and of our allies, and from our subjects, as well as any from the Peloponnesus that we can attract by pay or persuade; many bowmen, and also slingers, in order that they may withstand the cavalry of the enemy. And in ships we must have a decided superiority, in order that we may bring in our supplies more easily. And we must also take with us in merchantmen the grain in our stores here, wheat and parched barley, together with bakers requisitioned for pay from the mills in proportion to their size, in order that, if perchance we be detained by stress of weather, the army may have supplies. For the force will be large, and it will not be every city that can receive it. And all other things so far as possible we must get ready for ourselves, and not come to be at the mercy of the Siceliots; but we must especially have from here as much money as possible; for as to that of the Egestaeans, which is reported to be ready there, you may assume that it is indeed chiefly by report that it will ever be ready.
“For if we go from here provided with an equipment of our own that is not only equal to theirs —except indeed as regards their fighting troops of heavy-armed men—but that even surpasses it in all respects, scarcely even so shall we be able to conquer Sicily or indeed to preserve our own army.
It is, in fact, as you must believe, a city that we are going forth to found amid alien and hostile peoples, and it behooves men in such an enterprise to be at once, on the very day they land, masters of the soil, or at least to know that, if they fail in this, everything will be hostile to them.
Fearing, then, this very result, and knowing that to succeed we must have been wise in planning to a large extent, but to a still larger extent must have good fortune—a difficult thing, as we are but men—I wish, when I set sail, to have committed myself as little as possible to fortune, but so far as preparation is concerned to be, in all human probability, safe.
For these precautions I regard as not only surest for the whole state but also as safeguards for us who are to go on the expedition. But if it seem otherwise to anyone, I yield the command to him.”
So much Nicias said, thinking that he would deter the Athenians by the multitude of his requirements, or, if he should be forced to make the expedition, he would in this way set out most safely.
They, however, were not diverted from their eagerness for the voyage by reason of the burdensomeness of the equipment, but were far more bent upon it; and the result was just the opposite of what he had expected; for it seemed to them that he had given good advice, and that now certainly there would be abundant security.
And upon all alike there fell an eager desire to sail—upon the elders, from a belief that they would either subdue the places they were sailing against, or that at any rate a great force could suffer no disaster; upon those in the flower of their age, through a longing for far-off sights and scenes, in good hopes as they were of a safe return; and upon the great multitude—that is, the soldiersTaking στρατιώτης as predicate; or, “the great multitude and the soldiery were hoping to get money for the present,” etc.—who hoped not only to get money for the present, but also to acquire additional dominion which would always be an inexhaustible source of pay.
And so, on account of the exceeding eagerness of the majority, even if anyone was not satisfied, he held his peace, in the fear that if he voted in opposition he might seem to be disloyal to the state.
Finally a certain Athenian came forward and, calling upon Nicias, said he ought not to be making excuses and causing delays, but should say at once before them all what force the Athenians should vote him.
He then, though reluctantly, said that he would prefer to deliberate with his colleagues more at their leisure; so far, however, as he could see at present, they must sail with not fewer than one hundred triremes—there would also have to be as many transports as should be determined upon, furnished by the Athenians themselves and others they must call upon their allies to supply—and with hoplites, both of the Athenians and their allies, in all not fewer than five thousand, and more if possible; and the rest of the armament which they must get ready and take with them must be in proportion—bowmen from home and from Crete, and slingers, and whatever else should be determined upon.
Upon hearing this, the Athenians straightway voted that the generals should have full powers, with regard both to the size of the armament and to the whole expedition, to act in whatever way might seem to them best for Athens.
After this the preparation was begun; and they sent notice to their allies and made levies at home. Now the city had just recovered from the plague and from the continuous war, both in point of the multitude of young men who had grown up and of the money that had accumulated in consequence of the truce, so that everything was provided more easily. So the Athenians were engaged in preparation.
But in the meantime the stone statues of Hermes in the city of Athens—they are the pillars of square construction which according to local custom stand in great numbers both in the doorways of private houses and in sacred places—nearly all had their faces mutilated on the same night.
No one knew the perpetrators, but great rewards were publicly offered for their detection; and it was voted, besides, that if anyone, citizen or stranger or slave, knew of any other profanation that had been done, whoever would might fearlessly give information. The matter was taken very seriously;
for it seemed to be ominous for the expedition and to have been done withal in furtherance of a conspiracy with a view to a revolution and the overthrow of the democracy.
Accordingly, information was given by certain metics and serving-men, not indeed about the statues of Hermes, but to the effect that before this there had been certain mutilations of other statues perpetrated by younger men in drunken sport, and also that the mysteries were being performed in private houses in mockery; and Alcibiades, among others, was implicated in the charges.
They were taken up by those who were most jealous of himNotably a certain Androcles (8.65.2); cf. Plut. Alcib. 19. as an obstacle in the way of their secure preeminence among the people; and these men, thinking that if they could get rid of him they would have first place, magnified the matter and shouted that both the mockery of the mysteries and the mutilation of' the Hermae had been committed with a view to the overthrow of the democracy, and that there was none of these things but had been done in collusion with him, citing as further proofs other instances of his undemocratic lawlessness of conduct.
He defended himself at the time against the informers' charges, and was ready before sailing —for already the preparations had been completed—to be tried on the question of his having done any of these things, and if he had been guilty of any of them to pay the penalty, but demanded that if he were acquitted he should keep his command.
And he protested that they should not accept slanderous charges against him in his absence, but should put him to death at once if he were guilty, and that it was wiser not to send him at the head of so great an army, under such an imputation, until they had decided the question.
But his enemies, fearing that the army might be favourable to him if he were brought to trial at once and that the populace might be lenient, inasmuch as it favoured him because it was through his influence that the Argives and some of the Mantineans were taking part in the campaign, were eager to postpone the trial, suborning other orators who insisted that he should sail now and not delay the departure of the expedition, but that lie should come back and be tried at an appointed time. Their purpose was to have a more slanderous charge —and this they would find it easier to procure in his absence—and then to have him recalled and brought home for trial. So it was determined that Alcibiades should sail.
After that, when it was already midsummer, the departure for Sicily was made. Orders had been given beforehand for most of the allies, as well as for the provision-ships and smaller boats and all the rest of the armament that went with them, to assemble at Corcyra, with the intention that from there they should all cross the Ionian Gulf to the promontory of lapygia in one body. But the Athenians themselves and the allies that were present went down to the Peiraeus at dawn on a day appointed and proceeded to man the ships for the purpose of putting to sea.
And with them went down also all the general throng, everyone, we may almost say, that was in the city, both citizens and strangers, the natives to send off each their own, whether friends or kinsmen or sons, going at once in hope and with lamentations —hope that they would make conquests in Sicily, lamentations that they might never see their friends again, considering how long was the voyage from their own land on which they were being sent. And at this crisis, when under impending dangers they were now about to take leave of one another, the risks came home to them more than when they were voting for the expedition; but still their courage revived at the sight of their present strength because of the abundance of everything they saw before their eyes. The strangers on the other hand and the rest of the multitude had come for a spectacle, in the feeling that the enterprise was noteworthy and surpassing belief.
For this first armament that sailed for Sicily was the costliest and most splendid, belonging to a single city and with a purely Hellenic force, that had ever up to that time set sail. In number of ships, however, and of hoplites the expedition against Epidaurus under Pericles, and the same one afterwards under Hagnon against Potidaea, was not inferior; for in that voyage four thousand Athenian hoplites and three hundred knights and one hundred triremes had participated, and from Lesbos and Chios fifty triremes, and allied troops besides in large numbers.
But they had set off for a short voyage with a poor equipment; whereas this expedition, as one likely to be of long duration, was fitted out for both kinds of service, according as there might be need of either, with ships and also with land-forces.
The fleet was built up at great expense on the part both of the trierarchs and of the city: the state giving a drachma per day for each sailor and furnishing sixty emptyie. empty hulls without equipment, which the trierarch was to furnish. warships and forty transports, with crews to man them of the very best; the triearchs giving bounties to the thranitaeIn the trireme there were three ranks of oars: the thranites rowed with the longest oars; the zygites occupied the middle row; the thalamites the lowest row, using the shortest oars and drawing least pay. or uppermost bench of the sailors in addition to the pay from the state, and using, besides, figure-heads and equipments that were very expensive; for each one strove to the utmost that his own ship should excel all others both in fine appearance and in swiftness of sailing. The land-forces were picked out of the best lists, and there was keen rivalry among the men in the matter of arms and personal equipment.
And so it came about that among themselves there was emulation, wherever each was assigned to duty, and the whole thing seemed more like a display of wealth and power before the rest of the Hellenes than an undertaking against enemies.
For if one had reckoned the public expenditure on the part of the state and the private outlay of those who made the expedition—on the part of the city, both what it had already advanced and what it was sending in the hands of the generals, and on the part of private individuals whatever a man had expended on his own person or, if trierarch, on his ship, and what they were going to spend still, and, besides, the money we may suppose that everyone, even apart from the pay he received from the state, provided for himself as travelling expenses, counting upon an expedition of long duration, and all the articles for barter and sale merchant or soldier took with him on the voyage—it would have been found that many talents in all were taken from the city.
And the fame of the armament was noised abroad, not less because of amazement at its boldness and the splendour of the spectacle than on account of its overwhelming force as compared with those whom they were going against; and also because it was the longest voyage from home as yet attempted and undertaken with the highest hopes for the future as compared with their present resources.
When the ships had been manned and everything had at last been put aboard which they were to take with them on the voyage, the trumpeter proclaimed silence, and they offered the prayers that were customary before putting out to sea, not ship by ship but all together, led by a herald, the mariners as well as the officers throughout the whole army making libations with golden and silver cups from wine they had mixed.
And the rest of the throng of people on the shore, both the citizens and all others present who wished the Athenians well, also joined in the prayers. And when they had sung the paean and had finished the libations, they put off, and sailing out at first in single column they then raced as far as Aegina.
The Athenian fleet, then, was pressing on to reach Corcyra, where the rest of the armament of the allies was assembling. But meanwhile reports of the expedition were coming to Syracuse from many quarters, but were not believed at all for a long time. Nay, even when an assembly was held speeches to the following effecti.e., like those of Hermocrates and Athenagoras. were made on the part of others, some crediting the reports about the expedition of the Athenians, others contradicting them, and Hermocrates son of Hermon came forward, in the conviction that he knew the truth of the matter, and spoke, exhorting them as follows:
"Possibly it will seem to you that what I and certain others say about the reality of the expedition against us is incredible, and I am aware that those who either make or repeat statements that seem not credible not only do not carry conviction but are also regarded as foolish; but nevertheless I will not be frightened into holding my tongue when the state is in danger, persuaded as I am that I speak with more certain knowledge than my opponents.
For it is indeed against you, much as you wonder at it, that the Athenians have set out with a large armament for use on land as well as on the sea, on the pretext of an alliance with the Egestaeans and the restoration of the Leontines, but in truth with a covetous desire for Sicily, and above all for our city, thinking that once in possession of it they would easily get possession of the rest also.
With the certainty, then, that they will soon be here, consider in what way with your present resources you can best ward them off, and may neither by despising them be caught off your guard nor through incredulity neglect the whole matter.