to the relation A. M. 3588. Ant. J. C. 416.

of that of the greatest importance,
the expedition of the Athenians into
Sicily, to which they were excited
This is
by Alcibiades especially.
the sixteenth year of the Peloponne-
sian war.

Rhegium to the aid of the Leontines. The year following they sent a greater number. Two years after they sent a new fleet, something stronger than the former; but the Sicilians having put an end to all their divisions, by the advice of Hermocrates, the fleet was sent back; and the Athenians, not being able to Alcibiades had gained a surprising ascendant over prevail with themselves to pardon their generals for the minds of the people, though they were perfectly not conquering Sicily, sent two of them, Pythodorus For his great and Sophocles, into banishment; and sentenced the well acquainted with his character. qualities were united with still greater vices, which he third, Eurymedon, to pay a heavy fine; their prosperHe passed ity having blinded them to so prodigious a degree, did not take the least pains to conceal. his life in such an excess of luxury and voluptuous- that they were persuaded no power was able to resist ness, as was a scandal to the city. Nothing was seen them. They made several attempts afterwards, and in his house but festivals, rejoicings, and parties of upon pretence of sending from time to time arms and pleasure and debauchery. He showed very little re- soldiers to such cities as were unjustly treated or opgard to the customs of his country, and still less to pressed by the Syracusans, they by that means were religion and the gods. All persons of sense and judg-preparing to invade them with a greater force. ment, besides the strong aversion they had for his irregularities, dreaded exceedingly the consequences of his audacity, profusion, and utter contempt of the laws, which they considered as so many steps by which Alcibiades would rise to tyrannical power. Aristophanes, in one of his comedies, shows admirably well in a single verse, the disposition of the people towards him: "They hate Alcibiades," says he, "and yet cannot do without him." And, indeed the prodigious sums he squandered on the people; the pompous games and shows he exhibited to please them; the magnificent and almost incredible presents which he made the city; the grace and beauty of his person; his eloquence, his bodily strength, joined to his courage and his experience; in a word, this assemblage of great qualities made the Athenians wink at his faults, and bear them patiently, always endeavouring to lessen and screen them under soft and favourable names; for they called them frolics and polite pastimes, and indications of his humanity and good

nature.

Timon, the man-hater, morose and savage as he was, formed a better judgment of this conduct of Alcibiades. Meeting him one day as he was coming out of the assembly, vastly pleased at his having been gratified in all his demands, and at seeing the greatest honours paid him by the people in general, who were attending him in crowds to his house; so far from shunning him as he did all other men, on the contrary ran to meet him, and stretching out his hand to him in a friendly way; "Courage, my son," says he, "thou dost right in pushing thy fortune, for thy advancement will be the ruin of all these people." The war of Sicily will show that Timon was not mistaken. The Athenians ever since the time of Pericles, had meditated the conquest of Sicily. However, that wise guide had always endeavoured to check this amHe used frequently to inbitious and wild project. culcate to them, that by living in peace, by directing their attention to naval affairs, by contenting themselves with preserving the conquests they had already gained, and by not engaging in hazardous enterprises, they would raise their city to a flourishing condition, and be always superior to their enemies. The authority he had at that time over the people, kept them from invading Sicily, though it could not surmount the desire they had to conquer it, and their eyes were conSome time after Pericles's tinually upon that island. death,3 the Leontines being attacked by the Syracusans, had sent a deputation to Athens, to demand aid. They were originally of Chalcis, an Athenian colony. The chief of the deputies was Gorgias, a famous rhetorician, who was reputed the most eloquent man of his time. His elegant and florid diction, heightened by shining figures, which he first employed, charmed the Athenians, who were prodigiously affected with the beauties and graces of eloquence. Accordingly the alliance was concluded, and they sent ships to

But the person who most inflamed this ardour was Alcibiades, by feeding the people with splendid hopes, with which he himself was for ever filled, or rather intoxicated. He was every night, in his dreams, taking Carthage, subduing Africa, crossing from thence into Italy, and possessing himself of all Peloponnesus; looking upon Sicily not as the aim and the end of this war, but as the beginning and the first step of the exploits which he was revolving in his mind. All the citizens favoured his views, and, without inquiring seriously into matters, were enchanted with the mighty in the hopes he gave them. This expedition was the only topic of all conversations. The young men, places were the public exercises were performed, and the old men in their shops and elsewhere, were employed in nothing but in drawing the plan of Sicily; in discoursing on the nature and quality of the sea with which it is surrounded; on its good harbours, and flat shores towards Africa: for these people, infatuated by the speeches of Alcibiades, were (like him) persuaded that they should make Sicily only their place of arms and their arsenal, from whence they should set out for the conquest of Carthage, and make theinselves masters of all Africa and the sea, as far as the pillars of Hercules.

It is related that neither Socrates, nor Meton the astronomer believed that this enterprise would be successful: the former being inspired, as he insinuated, by his familiar spirit, who always warned him of the evils with which he was threatened; and the other, directed by his reason and good sense, which, pointing out what he had to apprehend in respect to the future, induced him to act the madman on this occasion; and to demand, in consideration of the unhappy condition to which he was reduced, that the Athenians would not force away his son, and would dispense with his carrying arms. SECTION VI.-ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERAL PEOPLE

WHO INHABITED SICILY.

BEFORE I enter on the relation of the war of Sicily,"

Plut. in Alcib. p. 199. In Nic. p. 532.

5 [This celebrated island constitutes the southern part of the modern kingdom of Naples, and extends from 120 45. to 160 10. east longitude of Greenwich, and from 350 40. It is of a triangular form, terto 380 15. north latitude. minating in three Capes; namely, Cape Faro, towards Italy-Cape Passaro, towards Greece-and Cape Boco, towards Africa. The Faro of Messina, dividing it from triangle, fronting the Tuscan Sea, is 215 British miles Italy, is 5 miles broad. The northren side, or base of the The S. W. side, long, from Cape Boco to Cape Faro. fronting Africa, is 180 miles long, from Cape Passaro to Cape Boco. The eastern side of the triangle, looking toThe whole suwards Greece, is the shortest, being only 120 miles in length from Cape Passaro to Cape Faro. miles. square perficies of the island contains 9400 geographical square This island was once the granary of Rome, its soil was miles, or 12,533 British It is now compaso fertile, and its produce so abundant. ratively reduced to a desert, and completely dependent on foreign supply for its support. In 1811, one million of dol More than one-third of lars were paid for imported corn. the population are in a state of absolute indigence and

it will not be improper to give a plan of the country, | SECTION VII.-THE PEOPLE OF EGESTA IMPLORE and of the nations who inhabited it: Thucydides begins in the same manner.

AID OF THE ATHENIANS. NICIAS OPPOSES, BUT TO
NO PURPOSE, THE WAR OF SICILY. ALCIBIADES CAR-
RIES THAT POINT. THEY ARE BOTH APPOINTED
GENERALS WITH LAMACHUS.

A. M. 3588.

Ant. J. C. 416.

ATHENS was in the disposition above related, when ambassadors arrived from the people of Egesta, who, in quality of their allies, came to implore their aid against the inhabitants of Selinus, who were assisted by the Syracusans. It was the sixteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. They represented, among other things, that should they be abandoned, the Syracusans, after seizing their city, as they had done that of Leontium, would possess themselves of all Sicily, and not fail to aid the Peloponnesians, who were their founders; and, that they might put them to as little charge as possible, they offered to pay the troops that should be sent to succour them. The Athenians, who had long waited for a favourable opportunity to declare themselves, sent deputies to Egesta, to inquire into the state of affairs, and to see whether there was money enough in the treasury to defray the expenses of so great a war. The inhabitants of that city had been so artful, as to borrow from the neighbouring nations a great number of gold and silver vases, worth an immense sum of money; and of these they made a show when the Athenians arrived. The deputies returned with those of Egesta, who carried threescore talents in ingots, as a month's pay for the sixty galleys which they demanded; and a promise of larger sums, which, they said, were ready both in the public treasury and in the temples. The people, struck with these fair appearances, the truth of which they did not give themselves the leisure to examine; and seduced by the advanta geous reports which their deputies made, with the view of pleasing them; immediately granted the Egestans their demand, and appointed Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, to command the fleet; with full power, not only to succour Egista, and restore the inhabitants of Leontium to their city, but also to regulate the affairs of Sicily, in such a manner as might best suit the interests of the republic.

A. M. 3589. Ant. J. C. 415.

It was first inhabited by the Lestrygones and the Cyclopes, of whom we know nothing but what we are told by the poets. The most ancient, after these, were the Sicani, who called themselves the original inhabitants of this country, though they are thought to have come into it from the neighbourhood of a river in Spain, called Sicanus whose name they gave to the island, which before was called Trinacria: these people were afterwards confined to the western part of the island. Some Trojans, after the burning of their city, came and settled near them, and built Eryx and Egesta, who all assumed the name of Elymai; and were afterwards joined by some inhabitants of Phocis, at their return from the siege of Troy. Those who are properly called Sicilians came from Italy in very great numbers; and having gained a considerable victory over the Sicani, confined them to a corner of their island, about 300 years before the arrival of the Greeks; and in Thucydides's time, they still inhabited the middle part of the island and the northern coast. From them the island was called Sicily. The Phonicians also spread themselves along the coast, and in the little islands which border upon it, for the convenience of trade; but after the Greeks began to settle there, they retired into the country of the Elymai, in order to be nearer Carthage, and abandoned the rest. It was in this manner the Barbarians first settled in Sicily. With regard to the Greeks, the A. M. 3294. first of them who crossed into Sicily were the Chalcidians of Euboea, under Theocles who founded Naxos. The year after-which, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, was the third of the seventh Olympiad-Archias the Corinthian laid the foundations of Syracuse. Seven years after, the Chalcidians founded Leontium and Catana, after having driven out the inhabitants of the country, who were Sicilians. Other Greeks, who came from Megara, a city of Achaia, about the same time founded Megara, called Hyblæ, or simply Hybla, from Hyblon a Sicilian king, by whose permission they had settled in his dominions. It is well known that the Hyblæan honey was very famous among the ancients. A hundred years after, the inhabitants of that city built Selinus. Gela, built on a river of the same name, forty-five years after the founding of Syracuse, founded Agrigentum about 108 years after. Zancle, called afterwards Messana or Messene by Anaxilas tyrant of Rhegium, who was a native of Messene a city of Peloponnesus, had several founders, and at different periods. The Zanclians Five days after,4 to hasten the execution of the debuilt the city of Himera; the Syracusans built Acra, cree, and make the necessary preparations, a second Casmene, and Camarina. These are most of the na-assembly was held. Nicias, who had had time enough tions, whether Greeks or Barbarians, who settled in Sicily.

Ant. J. C. 710.

Nicias was appointed one of the generals to his very great regret; for, besides other motives which made him dread the command, he shunned it, because Alcibiades was to be his colleague. But the Athenians promised themselves greater success from this war, should they not resign the whole conduct of it to Alcibiades, but temper his ardour and audacity with the coolness and wisdom of Nicias.

to reflect deliberately on the affair proposed, and was more and more convinced of the difficulties and dangers which would ensue from it, thought thimself oblig. mendicity, in a land capable of supporting thrice the num- ed to speak with some vehemence against a project, ber of its present inhabitants-which, in the days of Timo- the consequences of which he foresaw might be very leon and Hiero, were estimated at upwards of 5,000,000, fatal to the republic. He said, "That it was surpris after making every allowance for the inaccuracy of loose ing so important an affair should have been determined calculations. Two of its cities, Agrigentum and Syracuse, almost as soon as it was taken into deliberation: that contained upwards of 800,000 inhabitants each, according to the testimony of a respectable native historian, Diodo- without once inquiring into matters, they had given rus Siculus. All this misery and want has been the conse- credit to whatever was told them by foreigners, who quence of many ages of the grossest tyranny and misrule, were very lavish of the most splendid promises as and the baneful influence of the feudal system. The de- costing them nothing; and whose interest it was to scendants of the Norman barons, who under Roger con- offer mighty things, in order to extricate themselves quered Sicily from the Saracens, are complete masters of from their imminent danger. After all, what advanboth the people and the soil; and the Catholic clergy postage," says he, " can accrue from thence to the repubsess full one-third of all the landed property in the island, lic? Have we so few enemies at our doors, that we so that the peasantry are in a state of absolute vassalage need go in search of others at a distance from us? to the nobles and the clergy. Its population in 1716 was only 1,123.163 persons. Sicily at this moment presents a Will you act wisely, to hazard your present possespicture of the greatest misery, poverty, and want, in the midst of an earthly paradise, that is to be found in the civilized world.]

1 Thucyd. l. vi, p. 410-413,

It is called Segesta by the Romans.

Thucydid. 1. vi. p. 413-415. Diod. 1. xxi. p. 129, 180.
Plut. in Alcib. p. 200. In Nic. p. 531.
Thucyd. 1. vi. p. 415-428.

sions, on the vain hopes of an uncertain advantage? | sums I expend, particularly in the public assemblies; to meditate new conquests before you have secured besides their being just and lawful, at the same time your ancient ones? to study nothing but the aggran- give foreigners a greater idea of the glory of Athens dizing of your state, and quite neglect your own safe- and show, that it is not in such want of money as our ty? Can you place any dependence on a truce, enemies imagine. But this is not our present busiwhich you yourselves know is very precarious; which ness. Let the world forin a judgment of me, not from you are sensible has been infringed more than once; passion and prejudice, but from my actions. Was it and which the least defeat on our side may suddenly an inconsiderable service I did the republic, in bringchange into an open war? You are not ignoranting over (in one day) to its alliance, the people of how the Lacedæmonians have always been, and still Elis, of Mantinea, and of Argos, that is, the chief continue, disposed towards us. They detest our go- strength of Peloponnesus? Make use, therefore, to vernment as different from theirs; it is with grief and aggrandize your empire, of Alcibiades's youth and disdain they see us possessed of the empire of Greece; folly (since his enemies give it that name,) as well as they consider our glory as their shame and confusion; of the wisdom and experience of Nicias; and do not and there is nothing they would not attempt, to hum- repent, from vain and idle fears, your engaging in an ble a power which excites their jealousy, and keeps enterprise publicly resolved upon, which may redound them perpeturlly in fear. These are our real ene. infinitely both to your glory and advantage. The mies, and these are they whom we ought to guard cities of Sicily, weary of the unjust and cruel governagainst. Will it be a proper time to make these re- ment of their princes, and still more of the tyrannical flections, when (after having divided our troops, and authority which Syracuse exercises over them, wait while our arms will be employed elsewhere, and we only for a favourable opportunity to declare themshall be unable to resist them) we shall be attacked selves; and are ready to open their gates to any one at once by all the forces of Peloponnesus? We do who shall offer to break the yoke under which they but just begin to breathe, after the calamities in which have so long groaned. Though the citizens of Egesta, war and the plague had plunged us; and we are as being your allies, should not have a right to your now going without the least necessity to plunge our protection; yet the glory of Athens ought to engage selves into greater danger. If we are ambitious of you to support them. States aggrandize themselves carrying our arms into distant countries, would it by succouring the oppressed, and not by continuing not be more expedient to march and reduce the re-inactive. In the present state of your affairs, the bels of Thrace, and other nations who are still waver-only way to dispirit your enemies, and show that you ing and unfixed in their allegiance, than to fly to the are not afraid of them, will be, to harass one nation, succour of the inhabitants of Egesta, about whose to check the progress of another, to keep them all emwelfare we ought to be very indifferent? And will ployed, and carry your arms into distant countries. it suit our interest to attempt to revenge their inju- Athens was not formed for ease; and it was not by ries, at a time that we do not discover the least re- inactivity that your ancestors raised it to the height sentment for those we ourselves receive? Let us in which we now see it. For the rest, what hazards leave the Sicilians to themselves, and not engage in will you run by engaging in the enterprise in question? their quarrels, which it is their business to decide. If it should be crowned with success, you will then As the inhabitants of Egesta undertook the war with- possess yourselves of all Greece; and should it not out us, let them extricate themselves from it without answer your expectations, your fleet will give you an our interference. Should any of our generals ad- opportunity of retiring whenever you please. The vise you to this enterprise, from an ambitious or self- Lacedæmonians indeed may make an incursion into interested view; merely to make a vain parade of his our country; but, besides that it would not be in our splendid equipages, or to raise money to support his power to prevent it, though we should not invade Siextravagance; be not guilty of so much imprudence cily, we still shall preserve the empire of the sea, in as to sacrifice the interest of the republic to his, or spite of them; a circumstance which makes our enepermit him to involve it in the same ruin with himself. mies entirely despair of ever being able to conquer us. An enterprise of so much importance ought not to be Be not therefore biassed by Nicias's reasons. committed wholly to the conduct of a young man. only tendency of them is to sow the seeds of discord Remember it is prudence, not prejudice and passion, between the old and young men, who can do nothing that gives success to affairs." Nicias concluded with without one another; since it is wisdom and courage, declaring it his opinion, that it would be proper to counsel and execution, that gives success to all enter deliberate again on the affair, in order to prevent the prises: and this in which we are going to embark, fatal consequences with which their taking rash reso- cannot but turn to your glory and advantage." lutions might be attended.

It was plain he had Alcibiades in view, and that his enormous luxury was the object of his censure. And indeed he carried it to an incredible height; and lavished prodigious sums of money on horses, equipages and furniture; not to mention the delicacy and sumptuousness of his table. He disputed the prize in the Olympic games with seven sets of chariot horses, which no private man had ever done before him; and he was crowned more than once on that occasion. Extraordinary resources were necessary for supporting such luxury; and as avarice often serves as a resource to ambition, there were some grounds to believe, that Alcibiades was no less solicitous for the conquest of Sicily, and that of Carthage (which he pretended would immediately follow,) to enrich his family, than to render it glorious. It is natural to suppose that Alcibiades did not let this speech of Nicias go unanswered.

This," says Alcibiades, "is not the first time that merit has excited jealousy, and glory been made the object of envy. That very thing which is imputed to me for a crime, reflects, I will presume to say it, honour on my country, and ought to gain me ap. plause. The splendour in which I live; the great

The

The Athenians, flattered and pleased with Alcibiades's speech, persisted in their first opinion; Nicias, on the other side, did not depart from his; but at the same time did not dare to oppose Alcibiades any farther. Nicias was naturally of a mild and timid disposition. He was not like Pericles, master of that lively and vehement eloquence, which, like a torrent, bears down all things in its way. And indeed, the latter, on several occasions and at several times, had never failed to check the impetuosity of the populace, who, even then, meditated the expedition into Sicily; because he was always inflexible, and never slackened the reins of that authority, and kind of sovereignty which he had acquired over the minds of the people; whereas Nicias,2 both by acting and speaking in an easy, gentle manner, so far from winning over the people, suffered himself to be forcibly and involunta rily carried away and accordingly he at last yielded to the people, and accepted the command in a war which he plainly foresaw would be attended with the most fatal consequences.

rdv

1 Plut. in præc. de ger. rep. p. 802.

2

Καθάπερ ἀμβλεῖ χαλινῷ τῷ λόγῳ πειρώμενος ἀποστρέφειν dňμov, ob kaтÉOXEV.

WHEN all things were ready for They accordingly prepared to set sail,6 after having A. M. 3589. their departure, 2 and they were pre-appointed Corcyra as the rendezvous for most of the Ant. J. C. 415. paring to sail, there happened seve- allies, and such ships as were to carry the provisions ral bad omens, which filled the minds and baggage. All the citizens, as well as foreigners of the people with trouble and disquietude. The in Athens, flocked by day-break to the port of Piraeus. women were at that time celebrating the festival of The former attended their children, relations, friends, Adonis, during which the whole city was in mourn- or companions, with a joy overcast with a little soring, and full of images representing dead persons and row, upon their bidding adieu to persons that were funeral processions; and every part echoed with the as dear to them as life, who were setting out on a far distant and very dangerous expedition, from which it was uncertain whether they ever would return, though