Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/483

 KLEON'S ARMAMENT AGAINST AMPHIPOLIS 4fl obtaii.sd no command during this immediately succeeding period we may fairly doubt whether he ever really conceived euch ex cessive personal presumption of his own talents for war, and whether he did not retain after the affair of Sphakteria the same character which he had manifested in that affair, reluctance to engage in military expeditions himself, and a disposition to see them commanded as well as carried on by others. It is by no means certain that Kleon, in proposing the expedition against Amphipolis, originally proposed to take the command of it him- self: I think it at least equally probable, that his original wish was to induce Nikias or the strategi to take the command of it, as in the case of Sphakteria. Nikias, doubtless, opposed the expedition as much as he could : when it was determined by the people, in spite of his opposition, he would peremptorily decline the command for himself, and would do all he could to force it upon Kleon, or at least would be better pleased to see it under his command than under that of any one else. He would be not less glad to exonerate himself from a dangerous service than to see his rival entangled in it ; and he would have before him the same alternative which he and his friends had contemplated with so much satisfaction in the affair of Sphakteria : either the expe- dition would succeed, in which case Amphipolis would be taken, or it would fail, and the consequence would be the ruin of Kleon. The last of the two was really the more probable at Amphipolis, as Nikias had erroneously imagined it to be at Sphakteria. It is easy to see, however, that an expedition proposed under these circumstances by Kleon, though it might command a ma- jority in the public assembly, would have a large proportion of the citizens unfavorable to it, and even wishing that it might fail. Moreover, Kleon had neither talents nor experience for com- manding an army, and the being engaged under his command in fighting against the ablest officer of the time, could inspire no confidence to any man in putting on his armor. From all these circumstances united, political as well as military, ve are not surprised to hear that the hoplites whom he took out with him went with much reluctance. 1 An ignorant general, with unwillrij* 1 Thucyd. v, 7. a? oiKodev uq UKOVTE^ airy v