Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
them, about things above; as lessening the divine power, by
explaining away its agency into the operation of irrational causes
and senseless forces acting by necessity, without anything of
Providence, or a free agent. Hence it was that Protagoras was
banished, and Anaxagoras cast in prison, so that Pericles had much
difficulty to procure his liberty; and Socrates, though he had no
concern whatever with this sort of learning, yet was put to death
for philosophy. It was only afterwards that the reputation of
Plato, shining forth by his life, and because he subjected natural
necessity to divine and more excellent principles, took away the
obloquy and scandal that had attached to such contemplations, and
obtained these studies currency among all people. So his friend
Dion, when the moon, at the time he was to embark from Zacynthus to
go against Dionysius, was eclipsed, was not in the least disturbed,
but went on, and, arriving at Syracuse, expelled the tyrant. But
it so fell out with Nicias, that he had not at this time a skillful
diviner with him; his former habitual adviser who used to moderate
much of his superstition, Stilbides, had died a little before. For
in fact, this prodigy, as Philochorus observes, was not unlucky for
men wishing to fly, but on the contrary very favorable; for things
done in fear require to be hidden, and the light is their foe. Nor
was it usual to observe signs in the sun or moon more than three
days, as Autoclides states in his Commentaries. But Nicias
persuaded them to wait another full course of the moon, as if he
had not seen it clear again as soon as ever it had passed the
region of shadow where the light was obstructed by the earth.
In a manner abandoning all other cares, he betook himself wholly to
his sacrifices, till the enemy came upon them with their infantry,
besieging the forts and camp, and placing their ships in a circle
about the harbor. Nor did the men in the galleys only, but the
little boys everywhere got into the fishing-boats and rowed up and
challenged the Athenians, and insulted over them. Amongst these a
youth of noble parentage, Heraclides by name, having ventured out
beyond the rest, an Athenian ship pursued and wellnigh took him.
His uncle Pollichus, in fear for him, put out with ten galleys
which he commanded, and the rest, to relieve Pollichus, in like
manner drew forth; the result of it being a very sharp engagement,
in which the Syracusans had the victory, and slew Eurymedon, with
many others. lifter this the Athenian soldiers had no patience to
stay longer, but raised an outcry against their officers, requiring
them to depart by land; for the Syracusans, upon their victory,
immediately shut and blocked up the entrance of the harbor; but
Nicias would not consent to this, as it was a shameful thing to
leave behind so many ships of burden, and galleys little less than
two hundred. Putting, therefore, on board the best of the foot,
and the most serviceable darters, they filled one hundred and ten
galleys; the rest wanted oars. The remainder of his army Nicias
posted along by the sea-side, abandoning the great camp and the
fortifications adjoining the temple of Hercules; so the Syracusans,
not having for a long time performed their usual sacrifice to
Hercules, went up now, both priests and captains, to sacrifice.
And their galleys being manned, the diviners predicted from their
sacrifices victory and glory to the Syracusans, provided they would
not be the aggressors, but fight upon the defensive; for so
Hercules overcame all, by only de. fending himself when set upon.
In this confidence they set out; and this proved the hottest and
fiercest of all their sea-fights, raising no less concern and
passion in the beholders than in the actors; as they could oversee
the whole action with all the various and unexpected turns of
fortune which, in a short space, occurred in it; the Athenians
suffering no less from their own preparations, than from the enemy;
for they fought against light and nimble ships, that could attack
from any quarter, with theirs laden and heavy. And they were
thrown at with stones that fly indifferently any way, for which
they could only return darts and arrows, the direct aim of which
the motion of the water disturbed, preventing their coming true,
point foremost to their mark. This the Syracusans had learned from
Ariston the Corinthian pilot, who, fighting stoutly, fell himself
in this very engagement, when the victory had already declared for
the Syracusans.
The Athenians, their loss and slaughter being very great, their
flight by sea cut off, their safety by land so difficult, did not
attempt to hinder the enemy towing away their ships, under their
eves, nor demanded their dead, as, indeed, their want of burial
seemed a less calamity than the leaving behind the sick and wounded
which they now had before them. Yet more miserable still than
those did they reckon themselves, who were to work on yet, through
more such sufferings, after all to reach the same end.
They prepared to dislodge that night. And Gylippus and his friends
seeing the Syracusans engaged in their sacrifices and at their
cups, for their victories, and it being also a holiday, did not
expect either by persuasion or by force to rouse them up and carry
them against the Athenians as they decamped. But Hermocrates, of
his own head, put a trick upon Nicias, and sent some of his
companions to him, who pretended they came from those that were
wont to hold secret intelligence with him, and advised him not to
stir that night, the Syracusans having laid ambushes and beset the
ways. Nicias, caught with this stratagem, remained, to encounter
presently in reality, what he had feared when there was no
occasion. For they, the next morning, marching before, seized the
defiles, fortified the passes where the rivers were fordable, cut
down the bridges, and ordered their horsemen to range the plains
and ground that lay open, so as to leave no part of the country
where the Athenians could move without fighting. They stayed both
that day and another night, and then went along as if they were
leaving their own, not an enemy's country, lamenting and bewailing
for want of necessaries, and for their parting from friends and
companions that were not, able to help themselves; and,
nevertheless, judging the present evils lighter than those they
expected to come. But among the many miserable spectacles that
appeared up and down in the camp, the saddest sight of all was
Nicias himself, laboring under his malady, and unworthily reduced
to the scantiest supply of all the accommodations necessary for
human wants, of which he in his condition required more than
ordinary, because of his sickness; yet bearing; up under all this
illness, and doing and undergoing more than many in perfect health.
And it was plainly evident, that all this toil was not for himself,
or from any regard to his own life, but that purely for the sake of
those under his command he would not abandon hope. And, indeed,
the rest were given over to weeping and lamentation through fear or
sorrow, but he, whenever he yielded to anything of the kind, did
so, it was evident, from reflection upon the shame and dishonor of
the enterprise, contrasted with the greatness and glory of the
success he had anticipated, and not only the sight of his person,
but, also, the recollection of the arguments and the dissuasions he
used to prevent this expedition, enhanced their sense of the
undeservedness of his sufferings, nor had they any heart to put
their trust in the gods, considering that a man so religious, who
had performed to the divine powers so many and so great acts of
devotion, should have no more favorable treatment than the
wickedest and meanest of the army.
Nicias, however, endeavored all the while by his voice, his
countenance, and his carriage, to show himself undefeated by these
misfortunes. And all along the way shot at, and receiving wounds
eight days continually from the enemy, he yet preserved the forces
with him in a body entire, till that Demosthenes was taken prisoner
with the party that he led, whilst they fought and made a
resistance, and so got behind and were surrounded near the country
house of Polyzelus. Demosthenes thereupon drew his sword, and
wounded but did not kill himself, the enemy speedily running in and
seizing upon him. So soon as the Syracusans had gone and informed
Nicias of this, and he had sent some horsemen, and by them knew the
certainty of the defeat of that division, he then vouchsafed to sue
to Gylippus for a truce for the Athenians to depart out of Sicily,
leaving hostages for payment of the money that the Syracusans had
expended in the war.
But now they would not hear of these proposals, but threatening and
reviling them, angrily and insultingly continued to ply their
missiles at them, now destitute of every necessary. Yet Nicias
still made good his retreat all that night, and the next day,
through all their darts, made his way to the river Asinarus.
There, however, the enemy encountering them, drove some into the
stream, while others ready to die for thirst plunged in headlong,
while they drank at the same time, and were cut down by their
enemies. And here was the cruelest and the most immoderate
slaughter. Till at last Nicias falling down to Gylippus, "Let
pity, O Gylippus," said he, "move you in your victory; not for me,
who was destined, it seems, to bring the glory I once had to this
end, but for the other Athenians; as you well know that the chances
of war are common to all, and the Athenians used them moderately
and mildly towards you in their prosperity."
At these words, and at the sight of Nicias, Gylippus was somewhat
troubled, for he was sensible that the Lacedaemonians had received
good offices from Nicias in the late treaty; and he thought it
would be a great and glorious thing for him to carry off the chief
commanders of the Athenians alive. He, therefore, raised Nicias
with respect, and bade him be of good cheer, and commanded his men
to spare the lives of the rest. But the word of command being
communicated slowly, the slain were a far greater number than the
prisoners. Many, however, were privily conveyed away by particular
soldiers. Those taken openly were hurried together in a mass;
their arms and spoils hung up on the finest and largest trees along
the river. The conquerors, with garlands on their heads, with
their own horses splendidly adorned, and cropping short the manes
and tails of those of their enemies, entered the city, having, in
the most signal conflict ever waged by Greeks against Greeks, and
with the greatest strength and the utmost effort of valor and
manhood, won a most entire victory.
And a general assembly of the people of Syracuse and their
confederates sitting, Eurycles, the popular leader, moved, first,
that the day on which they took Nicias should from thenceforward be
kept holiday by sacrificing and forbearing all manner of work, and
from the river be called the Asinarian Feast. This was the
twenty-sixth day of the month Carneus, the Athenian Metagitnion.
And that the servants of the Athenians with the other confederates
be sold for slaves, and they themselves and the Sicilian
auxiliaries be kept and employed in the quarries, except the
generals, who should be put to death. The Syracusans favored the
proposal, and when Hermocrates said, that to use well a victory was
better than to gain a victory, he was met with great clamor and
outcry. When Gylippus, also, demanded the Athenian generals to be
delivered to him, that he might carry them to the Lacedaemonians,
the Syracusans, now insolent with their good fortune, gave him ill
words. Indeed, before this, even in the war, they had been