oney mentioned by the
messengers at Athens.

In the meantime came in from all quarters to the Syracusans, as well as
from their own officers sent to reconnoitre, the positive tidings that
the fleet was at Rhegium; upon which they laid aside their incredulity
and threw themselves heart and soul into the work of preparation.
Guards or envoys, as the case might be, were sent round to the Sicels,
garrisons put into the posts of the Peripoli in the country, horses and
arms reviewed in the city to see that nothing was wanting, and all other
steps taken to prepare for a war which might be upon them at any moment.

Meanwhile the three ships that had been sent on came from Egesta to the
Athenians at Rhegium, with the news that so far from there being the
sums promised, all that could be produced was thirty talents. The
generals were not a little disheartened at being thus disappointed
at the outset, and by the refusal to join in the expedition of the
Rhegians, the people they had first tried to gain and had had had most
reason to count upon, from their relationship to the Leontines and
constant friendship for Athens. If Nicias was prepared for the news
from Egesta, his two colleagues were taken completely by surprise. The
Egestaeans had had recourse to the following stratagem, when the first
envoys from Athens came to inspect their resources. They took the envoys
in question to the temple of Aphrodite at Eryx and showed them the
treasures deposited there: bowls, wine-ladles, censers, and a large
number of other pieces of plate, which from being in silver gave an
impression of wealth quite out of proportion to their really small
value. They also privately entertained the ships' crews, and collected
all the cups of gold and silver that they could find in Egesta itself or
could borrow in the neighbouring Phoenician and Hellenic towns, and each
brought them to the banquets as their own; and as all used pretty nearly
the same, and everywhere a great quantity of plate was shown, the effect
was most dazzling upon the Athenian sailors, and made them talk loudly
of the riches they had seen when they got back to Athens. The dupes in
question--who had in their turn persuaded the rest--when the news got
abroad that there was not the money supposed at Egesta, were much blamed
by the soldiers.

Meanwhile the generals consulted upon what was to be done. The opinion
of Nicias was to sail with all the armament to Selinus, the main object
of t