Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/310

 288 HI3TOEY OF GREECE. f-ne prophet and another, 1 just as the government of Louis thj Fourteenth, and other Catholic princes, has been modified by ths change of confessors. To a life thus rigidly decorous and ultra- religious both eminently acceptable to the Athenians Nikias added the judicious employment of a large fortune with a view to popularity. Those liturgies or expensive public duties under- taken by rich men each in his turn, throughout other cities of Greece as well as in Athens which fell to his lot were performed with such splendor, munificence, and good taste, as to procure for him universal encomiums ; and so much above his predecessors as to be long remembered and extolled. Most of these liturgies were connected with the religious service of the state, so thai Nikias, by his manner of performing them, displayed his zeal for the honor of the gods at the same time that he laid up for him- self a store of popularity. Moreover, the remarkable caution and timidity not before an enemy, but in reference to his own fellow-citizens which marked his character, rendered him pre- eminently scrupulous as to giving offence or making personal enemies. While his demeanor towards the poorer citizens gen- erally was equal and conciliating, the presents which he made were numerous, both to gain friends and to silence assailants. We are not surprised to hear that various bullies, whom the comic writers turn to scorn, made their profit out of this susceptibility, but most assuredly Nikias as a public man, though he might occasionally be cheated out of money, was greatly assisted by the reputation which he thus acquired. The expenses unavoidable in such n. career, combined with strict personal honesty, could not have leen defrayed except by another quality, which ought not to count as discreditable tc Nikias, though in this too he stood distinguished from Perikles. He was a careful and diligent money-getter ; a speculator in the silver mines of Laurium, and proprietor of one thousand slaves, whom he let out for work in them, receiving a fixed sum per head for each : the superintending slaves who managed the details of 1 Thucyd. vii, 50 ; Plutarch, Nikias, c. 4, 5, 23. T pevroi Niitig. OVVTJVEX- &r) TOTE (it]fie HU.VTIV %eiv efiireipov 6 yup cvvrfdriq avrov ical rd TTO^V r#f dtiffiSaifioviaf utyaipuv Zrt/fyStefyf ere'&vfiKei fiiicpbv IpKpocr&ev. This i? sug- gcsted by Plutarch as an excuse for mistakes on the part of Nikias.