Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/173

155 SECOND SPEECH OK NIKIAS. . 155 was not less at variance with the temper, than with the position, of Athens, and would be ruinous to her if pursued. Her mili- tary organization would decline, and her energies would be wasted in internal rub and conflict, instead of that steady activity and acquisition which had become engrafted upon her laws and habits, which could not be now renounced, even if bad in itself, without speedy destruction. 1 Such was substantially the reply of Alkibiades to Nikias. The debate was now completely reopened, so that several speak- ers addressed the assembly on both sides ; more, however, decid- edly in favor of the expedition than against it. The alarmed Egestasans and Leontines renewed their supplications, appealing to the plighted faith of the city : probably also those Athenians who had visited Egcsta, again stood forward to protest against what they would call the ungenerous doubts and insinuations of Nikias. By all these appeals, after considerable debate, the assembly was so powerfully moved, that their determination to send the fleet became more intense than ever ; and Nikias, per- ceiving that farther direct opposition was useless, altered his tactics. He now attempted a manoeuvre, designed indirectly to disgust his countrymen with the plan, by enlarging upon its dangers and difficulties, and insisting upon a prodigious force as indispensable to surmount them. Nor was he without hopes that they might be sufficiently disheartened by such prospective hardships, to throw up the scheme altogether. At any rate, if they persisted, he himself as commander would thus be enabled to execute it with completeness and confidence. Accepting the expedition, therefore, as the pronounced fiat of the people, he reminded them that the cities which they were about to attack, especially Syracuse and Selinus, were powerful, populous, free : well prepared in every way with hoplites, horse- men, light-armed troops, ships of war, plenty of horses to mount their cavalry, and abundant corn at home. At best, Athens could hope for no other allies in Sicily except Naxus and Katana, from their kindred with the Leontines. It was no mere fleet, liiorefore, which could cope with enemies like these on their own soil. The fleet indeed must be prodigiously great, for the purpose 1 Thucvd. vi, 16-19.