Kitap 6
Meanwhile, through spies, as well as from many other sources, positive information was already coming in to the Syracusans that the Athenian fleet was at Rhegium; and under these conditions they began to make preparations with all zeal, and were no longer incredulous. They sent around also to the Sicels, to some places guards, to others envoys; they brought garrisons into the forts in the outlying districts; as to affairs in the city, they made an inspection of arms and of horses, to see whether everything was up to full strength; and all other matters they were arranging with a view to a war that was imminent and all but upon them.
The three ships that had gone ahead to Egesta met the Athenians at Rhegium, announcing that the rest of the money which the Egestaeans had promised was not there, but only thirty talents were to be found.
And the generals were at once out of spirits, both because this had turned out contrary at the start, and because the Rhegians, the first people whom they had tried to persuade to join the expedition and with whom it was most likely they should succeed, seeing that they were kinsmen of the Leontines and always friendly to the Athenians, refused their consent.
Nicias, indeed, was expecting this news from the Egestaeans, but for tile other two it was actually somewhat of a surprise. The fact was that the Egestaeans had resorted to the following device at the time when the first envoys of the Athenians came to them to see about the money: they brought them into the temple of Aphrodite at Eryx and showed them the dedicatory offerings—bowls, wine-ladles, censers, and not a little other table-furniture, which being of silver made, though of small value in money, a much greater display. And in giving private entertainments for the crews of the triremes, they not only collected the gold and silver drinking-cups from Egesta itself, but borrowed those from the neighbouring cities, both Phoenician and Hellenic, and brought them each to the banquets as though they were their own.
And as all used for the most part the same vessels and there was a great display of them everywhere, it caused great astonishment to the Athenians from the triremes, and they on returning to Athens spread the report of how much treasure they had seen.
And these men who had been themselves deceived and had at the time persuaded the rest, later, when the story got out that the money was not at Egesta, were much blamed by the soldiers. The generals, however, took counsel in view of the present situation.
It was the judgment of Nicias that they should sail with their whole armament against Selinus, which was the object for which they had chiefly been sent out, and if the Egestaeans should furnish money for the whole army, they should then determine accordingly; otherwise, they should demand that they give maintenance for sixty ships, the number they had asked for, and remaining there they should reconcile the Selinuntians to the Egestaeans, either by force or by agreement. This being accomplished, the Athenians should sail along by the other cities, displaying the power of the city of Athens and making manifest their zeal towards their friends and allies, and then should sail back home—unless perchance they should be able quickly and unexpectedly either to aid the Leontines, or to bring over some of the other cities—and not imperil the safety of the state at the expense of their own resources.As opposed to those of the Egestaeans.
Alcibiades insisted that they ought not, after sailing out with so great an armament, to go back in disgrace without effecting anything; but urged rather that they send heralds to the other cities, except Selinus and Syracuse, and try to detach some of the Sicels from the Syracusans, and to make friends of others, in order that these might furnish grain and troops, but first of all that they try to persuade the Messenians; for their city, he urged, was most conveniently situated on a line of trafficἐν πόρῳ is used of the position of Corinth, 1.120.2. and at the approach to Sicily and would be a harbour and a most suitable watch-station for the armament. Then, after they had brought over these cities and knew with whose assistance they would carry on the war, they should proceed to attack Syracuse and Selinus, unless the latter came to terms with the Egestaeans, and the former permitted them to restore the Leontines.
Lamachus maintained that they ought to sail direct for Syracuse and as soon as possible make the fight near the city, while the Syracusans were still unprepared and their consternation was at its height.
For every army, lie argued, is always most formidable at first, but if it delay before coming into sight, men recover their spirit and even at the sight of it are more inclined to despise than to fear it. But if it attack suddenly, while the enemy are still in terror of its coming, it will have the best chance for victory and in every way will strike fear into them, both by the sight of it—for at this moment it would appear most numerous—and by the expectation of the fate in store for them, but most of all by the immediate peril of the battle.
And, he added, probably many people have been left behind on their farms outside the city on account of the disbelief that the Athenians will come, and while they are bringing in their property the army will not lack supplies, if it once controls the land and invests the city.
And as for the rest of the Siceliots, if we follow this course they will at once be more likely, not to make an alliance with the enemy, but to come over to us, and not to make delays, looking about to see which side will be the stronger. And he said, finally, that they should return and make a naval base and a watch-station at Megara, since it was uninhabited, and not far from Syracuse either by sea or by land.
Lamachus, though speaking to this effect, nevertheless gave his support to the opinion of Alcibiades. After this Alcibiades sailed in his own ship over to Messene and made proposals to the Messenians for an alliance; but as they could not be persuaded, answering that they would not receive him within the city, but would furnish a market outside, he sailed back to Rhegium.
Then the generals straightway manned sixty ships out of their whole number, and taking provisions sailed along the coast to Naxos, leaving at Rhegium the rest of the army and one of the generals.
The Naxians received them into their city, and they sailed on then to Catana.
When the Catanaeans would not receive them—for there were in that place men who favoured the cause of the Syracusans—they moved on to the river Terias, and having bivouacked there sailed next day to Syracuse with all their ships in single file, except ten, for this number they had sent forward to sail into the Great Harbour and observe whether any fleet was launched. After sailing up the commanders of these were to proclaim from the ships that the Athenians had come to reinstate the Leontines in their own country on the ground of alliance and kinship; any Leontines therefore who were in Syracuse should come over without fear to the Athenians as friends and benefactors.
When this proclamation had been made and they had observed the city and the harbours and the features of the country which they would have to make their base for warlike operations, they sailed back to Catana.
An assembly being held there, the Catanaeans would not receive the army but bade the generals come in and say what they wanted. While, then, Alcibiades was speaking, and the attention of the people in the city was wholly directed to the assembly, the soldiers, breaking unobserved through a posterngate that had been badly built into the wall, entered and were walking about in the market-place.
Those Catanaeans who were partisans of the Syracusans, seeing the soldiers inside, at once became much frightened and slipped away, not in any large numbers; the others voted alliance with the Athenians and bade them bring the rest of their army from Rhegium.
After this the Athenians sailed back to Rhegium, then putting out from there with their whole armament for Catana, on their arrival they set about arranging their camp.
Meanwhile news came from Camarina that if the Athenians would go thither the Camarinaeans would join them, and also that the Syracusans were manning a fleet. Accordingly they proceeded with their whole army along the coast, first to Syracuse; and when they found no fleet was being manned, they again continued along the coast to Camarina and putting to shore sent forward a herald. The Camarinaeans, however, would not receive them, saying that the terms of their oath were to receive the Athenians only if they put in with a single ship, unless they themselves sent for more.
So the Athenians sailed away without accomplishing anything; and after landing at a point in Syracusan territory and making raids, when the Syracusan cavalry had come to the rescue and killed some of their light-armed troops that were straggling they went back to Catana.
There they found that the galley SalaminiaOne of the two swift Athenian state triremes kept always manned ready for extraordinary occasions and purposes. had come from Athens for Alcibiades—to order him to come home and make his defence against the charges which the city was bringing—and for certain of the soldiers also, some of them having been denounced with him as guilty of profanation with regard to the mysteries, and some also with regard to the Hermae.
For after the armament sailed, the Athenians had been pursuing with no less zeal than before their investigation of what had been done in the matter of the mysteries as well as the Hermae; and as they did not test the witnesses, but in their state of suspicion accepted everything, on the credit of bad men they arrested and threw into prison very excellent citizens, thinking it more expedient to sift the matter to the bottom and find out the truth, than that anybody, even one reputed to be good and accused only through the villainy of an informer, should escape without close investigation.
For the people, knowing by tradition that the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons had become galling at the last, and moreover had been put down, not by themselves and Harmodius, but by the Lacedaemonians,Under Cleomenes, 510 B.C. were in constant fear and regarded everything with suspicion.
Now the daring deed of Aristogeiton514 B.C. and Harmodius was undertaken on account of a love affair, and by relating this at some length I shall prove that neither the Hellenes at large nor even the Athenians themselves give an accurate account about their own tyrants or about this incident.
For when Peisistratus died,Probably 527 B.C. as an old man, in possession of the tyranny, it was not Hipparchus, as most suppose, but Hippias, as eldest son, that succeeded to the sovereignty. And Harmodius, being then in the flower of youthful beauty, had as his lover Aristogeiton, a citizen of the middle class.
An attempt to seduce him having been made by Hipparchus son of Peisistratus without success, Harmodius denounced him to Aristogeiton. And he, lover-like, deeply resented it, and fearing the power of Hipparchus, lest he might take Harmodius by force, at once plotted, with such influence as he possessed, to overthrow the tyranny.
Meanwhile Hipparchus, having in a second attempt met with no better success in persuading Harmodius, although he had no intention of offering violence, yet laid a plan to insult him in some covert way, as though it were not for this reason.
For he did not generally so exercise his authority as to be oppressive to the mass of the people, but maintained it without giving offence. And indeed the Peisistratidae carried the practice of virtue and discretion to a very high degree, considering that they were tyrants, and although they exacted from the Athenians only five per cent. of their incomes, not only had they embellished their city, but they also carried on its wars and provided sacrifices for the temples.
In other respects the city itself enjoyed the laws before established, except in so far that the tyrants took precaution that one of their own family should always be in office. Amongst others of them who held the annual archonship at Athens was Peisistratus, a son of the Hippias who had been tyrant. He was named after his grandfather and, when he was archon, dedicated the altar of the twelve gods in the Agora and that of Apollo in the Pythian precinct.
The people of Athens afterwards, in extending the length of the altar in the Agora, effaced the inscription; but that on the altar of the Pythian Apollo can still be seen in indistinct letters, reading as follows: This memorial of his office Peisistratus son of Hippias Set up in the precinct of Pythian Apollo.
That it was Hippias who, as eldest son, succeeded to the sovereignty I positively affirm because I know it even by tradition more accurately than others,This seems to point to a near relationship of the historian with the family of the Peisistratidae, so that more exact knowledge had come to him by word of mouth (καί ἀκοῇ); cf. Marcellinus, §18, and Schol. on 1.20.2. and anyone might be convinced of it also by this simple fact—he alone of the legitimate brothers appears to have had children, as not only the altar signifies, but also the column commemorating the wrong-doing of the tyrants that was set up on the acropolis of Athens, on which no child of Thessalus or of Hipparchus is inscribed, but of Hippias five, who were borne to him by Myrrhine daughter of Callias son of Hyperochidas; for it was natural for the eldest to marry first.
And on this same column his name is written first after his father's, this also not unnaturally, as he was the eldest after him and had been tyrant.
Nor yet again would Hippias, as it seems to me, have obtained the tyranny at once with ease, if Hipparchus had been in power when killed, and had had to establish himself therein on the same day. Nay, it was owing to the habitual fear which before that he had inspired in the citizens, and the strict discipline he had maintained in the bodyguard, that he got the upper hand with superabundant security and was at no loss, as a younger brother would have been, since in that case he would not previously have been regularly used to power.
Hipparchus, however, as it fell out, having become famous by his tragic fate, obtained in aftertime the credit also of having been tyrant.
So, then, when Harmodius had repulsed his suit, Hipparchus insulted him, as he intended. For after summoning a maiden-sister of his to serve as a basket-bearerThis service of carrying at festivals baskets containing the requisites for religious ceremonies was a great distinction, so that the rejection of the maiden was regarded as a bitter insult to the family. in some procession, they rejected her, declaring they had never summoned her at all, because she was unworthy.
As Harmodius was indignant at this, Aristogeiton for his sake was far more exasperated. And now the details had been arranged by them with those who were to take part in the execution of their scheme; but they were waiting for the great Panathenaea, for on that day only it excited no suspicion for the citizens who were to take part in the procession to be assembled in arms. They were themselves to begin the attack, but the others were to join them at once in dealing with the bodyguard. The conspirators were not many, for better security;
for they hoped that, if ever so few made the bold attempt, at once even those who were not before privy to it, having arms in their hands, would be inclined to bear a part in winning their own freedom.
And when the festival came on, Hippias with his bodyguard was outside the walls, in the place called the Cerameicus, arranging the order in which the several parts of the procession were to go forward; and Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were ready with their daggers, stepped forward to put their scheme in effect.