Book 6
And when they saw one of their accomplices in familiar conversation with Hippias, (for he was easy of access to all,) they were alarmed, and thought that some information had been laid against them, and that they would be almost immediately arrested. They wished therefore to avenge themselves beforehand, if possible, on the man who had aggrieved them, and for whose punishment they were exposing themselves to all that danger;
and so they rushed straightway within the gates, and meeting with Hipparchus by the Leocorium, at once fell on him in a reckless manner, under the influence of the most vehement passion, inspired by love in the one case, and by insult in the other, and smote him, and slew him.
Now one of them, namely, Aristogiton, escaped from the guards at the moment, through the crowd running up; but was seized afterwards, and disposed of in no gentle manner. Harmodius was immediately slain on the spot.
When the news were brought to Hippias in the Ceramicus, he proceeded immediately, not to the scene of action, but to the armed men in the procession, before they were aware of the matter, in consequence of their being at some distance from the spot; and with his countenance feigned to suit the occasion, so as not to betray his feelings, he pointed out a certain spot, and desired them to retire into it without their arms.
Accordingly they withdrew, supposing that he would deliver an address to them; while he, after commanding his guards to remove the arms, immediately picked out such men as he was disposed to think guilty, and whoever was found with a dagger; for it was only with shield and spear that they were accustomed to make their processions.
In this manner both the original conspiracy was entered into by Harmodius and Aristogiton for a love offence, and their rash venture attempted through their alarm at the moment.
After this, the tyranny was more severe on the Athenians than before; and Hippias, being now in greater apprehension, both put to death many of the citizens, and kept his eye also on foreign states, in whatever quarter he had a prospect of a safe retreat being secured for him, in case of any revolution.
At any rate, he married his daughter Archedice to Aeantides, son of the tyrant of Lampsacus— i. e. to a native of a place so very far beneath his own country in reputation. Compare III. 59. 6, μὴ πλαταιῆς οντες ... θηβαίοις ... παραδοθῆναι: where, as in many other places, the omission of the article with the name of a people expresses something respecting the character of the people, whether good or bad. Athenian as he was, to a Lampsacene—because he saw that they had great influence with king Darius. There is a monument to her at Lampsacus, with this inscription: Beneath this dust Archedice finds peace,Whose sire was Hippias, peerless once in Greece.She, though of tyrants daughter, sister, bride,And mother, ne'er was lifted up with pride.
With regard to Hippias, having retained the tyranny at Athens three years longer, and being deposed in the fourth year by the Lacedaemonians and the banished Alcmaeonidae he went, under treaty, to Sigeum, then to Aeantides at Lampsacus, and thence to the court of king Darius; from which also he set out twenty years after, when now an old man, and accompanied the Median forces to Marathon.
Reflecting, then, on these things, and recalling to mind all that they knew by report concerning them, the Athenian people was wrathful at that time, and suspicious of those who had incurred accusation on the subject of the mysteries, and thought that every thing had been done on the strength of a conspiracy for establishing an oligarchy, or a tyranny.
So when, in consequence of their anger on this account, many persons of consideration were already in prison, and the matter appeared not to be stopping, but they were daily proceeding to greater severity and to more numerous arrests; under these circumstances one of the men in confinement, who was thought to be the most guilty of them, was persuaded by one of his fellow prisoners to give information, whether true or not; for suppositions are entertained both ways, and the certain fact respecting those who had done the deed no one was either able to state then, or has since been able.
By his arguments then he persuaded him, that he ought, even if he had not done the deed, both to save himself by gaining a promise of impunity, and to stop his country from its present suspiciousness: for that his preservation was more sure, if he confessed with a promise of impunity, than if he denied it, and were brought to trial.
Accordingly he informed both against himself and some others, respecting the Mercuries; and the Athenian people having gladly ascertained, as they supposed, the truth of the matter, and having been before indignant at the thought of not discovering those who had plotted against their commons, immediately set at liberty the informer and his companions, such as he had not accused; while with regard to those who were charged with the crime, having brought them to trial, they executed all of them who were seized, and having passed sentence upon those who had fled, proclaimed a reward in money for any one who slew them.
By this course, though it was doubtful whether those who suffer: had been punished unjustly or not, yet the rest of the community were manifestly benefited.
With regard to Alcibiades, the Athenians took a severe view of the case, being instigated by his enemies, the same men as had also attacked him before his going on the expedition. And when they fancied they were in possession of the truth respecting the Mercuries, they thought much more than ever that the affair of the mysteries also, in which he was implicated, had been done by him with the same design, and in connexion with the plot against the democracy.
For a small force of Lacedaemonians happened too, just at the time when they were in commotion on these subjects, to have advanced as far as the Isthmus, in pursuance of some scheme with the Boeotians. They thought therefore that it had come by agreement, through his agency, and not on account of the Boeotians; and that if they had not, in consequence of the information they had received, been beforehand in the arrest of the party, the city would have been betrayed to them.
One night indeed they even slept in arms in the temple of Theseus within the walls. The friends, too, of Alcibiades at Argos were at the same time suspected of a design to attack the popular government; and those persons of the Argives who had been deposited in the islands the Athenians on that occasion gave up to the Argive commons to put to death on that account.
Thus on all sides there arose suspicion against Alcibiades; and consequently wishing to bring him to trial, and put him to death, in this way they sent the ship Salaminia to Sicily, both for him and for the rest who had been informed against.
Their orders were, to charge him to accompany the vessel home to plead his defence, but not to arrest him; for they were at the same time careful to avoid raising a commotion amongst both their own soldiers in Sicily and their enemies, and especially wished the Mantineans and Argives to remain there, whom they considered to have been prevailed on by Alcibiades to join them in the expedition.
He then, with his own ship and those who had been accused with him, sailed away in the company of the Salaminia from Sicily, as though to return to Athens. But when they had reached Thurii, they followed it no further, but left the vessel and concealed themselves, being afraid of going home to trial with such a prejudice existing against them.
The crew of the Salaminia for some time made search for Alcibiades and his companions, but when they were no where to be found, they departed on their voyage back. Alcibiades therefore, being now an outlaw, crossed not long after on board a boat from Thurii to the Peloponnese: and the Athenians, ἐρήμῃ δίκῃ] Literally, by a deserted, or abandoned trial. See Herman, Pol. Ant. 144. when they were not forthcoming, passed sentence of death upon him and those with him.
After these things, the remaining generals of the Athenians in Sicily, having made two divisions of the army, and each taken by lot one of them, sailed with the whole force for Selinus and Segesta; wishing to know whether the Segestans would give the promised money, and at the same time to inspect the condition of the Selinuntines, and to learn the state of their differences with the Segestans.
And so coasting along Sicily, with the shore on their left hand, on the side towards the Tyrrhene gulf, they landed at Himera, which is the only Grecian city in that part of the island. When they would not receive them, they proceeded on their voyage;
and as they coasted along, took Hyccara, which, though a Sicanian town, was engaged in war with the Segestans, and was a petty sea-port. Having taken the inhabitants of the town for slaves, they gave it up to the Segestans, (for some of their cavalry had joined them,) and they themselves returned by land through the country of the Sicels, till they came to Catana; while their ships sailed along the coast with the prisoners on board.
Nicias, however, coasted along straightway from Hyccara to Segesta; and after transacting his other business, and receiving thirty talents, rejoined the forces. They then sold their slaves, from which were realized a hundred and twenty talents;
and sailed round to the allies of the Sicels, giving orders to send them troops. With half of their own force, too, they went against Hybla, in the territory of Gela, which was hostile to them; but did not take it. And thus the summer ended.
The following winter, the Athenians at once began to prepare for their advance upon Syracuse, and the Syracusans also, on their side, for marching against them.
For when they did not, in accordance with their first alarm and expectation, attack them immediately; as every day went on, they regained their courage more. And when they were seen to be sailing on the other side of Sicily, far away from them, and had gone to Hybla, and made an attempt on it without taking it by storm, they despised them still more, and called on their generals—acting as a multitude is wont to do when full of confidence—to lead them against Catana, since the enemy would not come to them.
Moreover, Syracusan parties of horse, sent out to reconnoitre, were continually riding up to the Athenian armament, and asking them, amongst other insulting expressions, whether they had come themselves to settle with them in a strange country, rather than to reinstate the Leontini.
The Athenian generals were acquainted with these things, and wished to draw them as far as possible from their city with their whole force, and themselves, in the mean time, to coast along with their ships by night, and quietly occupy a place for encampment in a favourable position; knowing that οὐκ ἂν ὁμοίως δυνηθέντες καὶ εἰ] Poppo, Göller, and Bloomfield, all bracket the καὶ in this passage, as utterly marring the sense of it; while Arnold only objects to the interpretation of the Scholiast, without attempting to explain it himself. In support of the translation which I have ventured to give, compare I. 143. 4, καὶ οὐκέτι ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου ἔσται πελοποννήσου μέροςτι τμηθῆναι καὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἅπασαν, and VII. 28. 4, αἱ μὲν γὰρ δαπάναιοὐχ ὁμοίως καὶ πρὶν, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ μείζους καθέστασαν, κ. τ. λ. In the latter passage the idea of excess is distinctly asserted, after being previously implied, as in the other passages, by the words οὐχ ὁμοίως καί. so they would be better able to do it, than if they should land from their ships in face of an enemy prepared to receive them, or should be known to be going by land; (for the Syracusan horse, which was numerous, while they themselves had none, would do great mischief to their light-armed and mob of campfollowers;) and that thus they would take a position where they would not be annoyed by the cavalry in a degree worth speaking of; (for some Syracusan exiles who accompanied them told them of the spot near the Olympieum, which they actually occupied.) The generals, therefore, adopted the following stratagem in furtherance of their wishes.
They send a person who was a faithful friend to them, and no less in the interest of the Syracusans, according to their opinion. The man was a Catanian, and said that he was come from certain individuals in Catana, with whose names they were acquainted, and whom they knew to be still left in the town amongst those who were well affected to them. He stated, then, that the Athenians passed the night at some distance from their arms, within the walls of the city;
and that if the Syracusans would come with all their force early in the morning of an appointed day to attack their armament, the Catanians would close the gates on the men who were with them, and would fire their ships; while the Syracusans would easily take τὸ στράτευμα.] I see no reason at all for altering this, as Arnold proposes, into τῷ στρατεύματι; as it evidently refers to all the other forces of the Athenians left behind in their camp, in opposition to the heavy infantry represented as being in the town. Compare 63. 3, where the term is undoubtedly used with reference to the encampment of the Athenians. the armament by an attack on their stockade. There were many too of the Catanians, he said, who would co-operate with them in this, and were already prepared to do so; namely, the party from which he had himself come.
The generals of the Syracusans, besides feeling confident in other respects, and intending, even without this, to make their preparations for marching to Catana, gave far too inconsiderate credence to the man, and immediately fixing a day on which they would be there, dismissed him; while they themselves (for by this time the Selinuntines and some other of their allies had also come) gave orders for all the Syracusans to march forth in a body. When their preparations were made, and the time at which they had agreed to come was near at hand, they set out for Catana, and bivouacked on the river Symaethus, in the Leontine territory.
The Athenians, on learning their approach, took the whole of their own force, with such of the Sicels, or any other people, as had joined them, and putting them on board their ships and boats, sailed by night to Syracuse.
And thus, when the morning came, the Athenians were landing on the ground opposite the Olympieum, for the purpose of securing their camp; and at the same time the Syracusan cavalry, having ridden up first to Catana, and found that the whole armament had put to sea, returned and carried the news to the infantry, when they all turned back together, and went to the aid of the city.
In the mean time, as the march they had to make was a long one, the Athenians quietly pitched their camp in a favourable position, where they would be able to commence an engagement just when they pleased, and the Syracusan horse would cause them the least annoyance, both during the action and before it. For on one side they were flanked by walls, houses, trees, and a marsh; on the other, by cliffs.
They also felled the trees near to them, and carrying them down to the sea, fixed a palisade by their ships; while with rude stones and wood they hastily erected a fort at Dasoon, where their position was most open to the enemy's attack, and broke down the bridge over the Anapus.
While they were making these preparations, no one came out from the city to stop them; but the Syracusan cavalry was what first came against them, and afterwards all the infantry was mustered. And at first they advanced near the camp of the Athenians; then, when they did not go out against them, they withdrew, and crossed the road to Helorus, and there encamped for the night.
The next day the Athenians and their allies prepared for battle, and made their dispositions as follows. The right wing was held by the Argives and Mantineans, the centre by the Athenians, and the remainder of the line by the rest of the allies. Half of their force was posted in advance, drawn up eight deep; the other half, close upon their tents, in a hollow square, which was also formed eight deep, with orders to look out where any part of the army might be most distressed, and go to its support. Within this body of reserve, too, they placed the camp-followers.
The Syracusans, on the other hand, drew up their heavy infantry sixteen deep, consisting of the Syracusans in full force, and as many allies as had joined them: (they were reinforced most extensively by the Selinuntines; next to them, by the Geloan cavalry, to the number of two hundred in all; and by about twenty horse, and fifty archers, from Camarina.) Their cavalry they posted on their right flank, amounting to not less than twelve hundred, and by their side the dartmen also.