on of Demosthenes. Nicias, without denying the bad
state of their affairs, was unwilling to avow their weakness, or to have
it reported to the enemy that the Athenians in full council were openly
voting for retreat; for in that case they would be much less likely
to effect it when they wanted without discovery. Moreover, his own
particular information still gave him reason to hope that the affairs
of the enemy would soon be in a worse state than their own, if the
Athenians persevered in the siege; as they would wear out the Syracusans
by want of money, especially with the more extensive command of the sea
now given them by their present navy. Besides this, there was a party
in Syracuse who wished to betray the city to the Athenians, and
kept sending him messages and telling him not to raise the siege.
Accordingly, knowing this and really waiting because he hesitated
between the two courses and wished to see his way more clearly, in his
public speech on this occasion he refused to lead off the army, saying
he was sure the Athenians would never approve of their returning without
a vote of theirs. Those who would vote upon their conduct, instead of
judging the facts as eye-witnesses like themselves and not from what
they might hear from hostile critics, would simply be guided by the
calumnies of the first clever speaker; while many, indeed most, of the
soldiers on the spot, who now so loudly proclaimed the danger of their
position, when they reached Athens would proclaim just as loudly the
opposite, and would say that their generals had been bribed to betray
them and return. For himself, therefore, who knew the Athenian temper,
sooner than perish under a dishonourable charge and by an unjust
sentence at the hands of the Athenians, he would rather take his chance
and die, if die he must, a soldier's death at the hand of the enemy.
Besides, after all, the Syracusans were in a worse case than themselves.
What with paying mercenaries, spending upon fortified posts, and now for
a full year maintaining a large navy, they were already at a loss and
would soon be at a standstill: they had already spent two thousand
talents and incurred heavy debts besides, and could not lose even
ever so small a fraction of their present force through not paying it,
without ruin to their cause; depending as they did more upon mercenaries
than upon soldiers obliged to serve, like their own. He therefore said
that they ought to stay and carry on the s