Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/180

162 i.62 HISTORY OF GREECE. R-ere rash and ignorant, in contemplating the conquest of Siuly, much more extravagant were the views of Alkibiades, who looked even beyond Sicily to the conquest of Carthage and her empire. Nor was it merely ambition which he desired to gratify ; he was not less eager for the immense private gains which would be con- sequent upon success, in order to supply those deficiencies which his profligate expenditure had occasioned. 1 When we recollect how loudly the charges have been preferred against Kleon, of presumption, of rash policy, and of selfish mo- tive, in reference to Sphakteria, to the prosecution of the war generally, and to Amphipolis ; and when we compare these pro- ceedings with the conduct of Alkibiades as here described, we shall see how much more forcibly such charges attach to the latter than the former. It will be seen before this volume is finished, that the vices of Alkibiades, and the defects of Nikias, were the cause of far greater ruin to Athens than either Kleon or Hyperbolus, even if we regard the two latter with the eyes of their worst enemies. 1 Thucyd. vi, 15. Kal [luXiGTa orparriyriaai re eiu&v/iuv Kal 2iKe/.iav re (5t' OVTOV Kal Kapxjj66t>a /.frtjjea&ai, Kal TU Wia a/za Xpr/uaai TE /cat 66^y ufyel.TjCEiv. "Qv yap tv ugiufiaTi itrep ruv lioruv, rate iTTi-&vfj.iaif p.i&aiv ?/ Kara rijv i)Kupxovcav ovaiav expr/ro ef re rdf iTnrorpo tyiai; Kal ruf a/lAaf darravaf, etc. Compare vi, 90. Plutarch (Alkib. c. 19; Nikias, c. 12). Plutarch some- times speaks as if, not Alkibiades alone (or at least in conjunction with .> few partisans), but the Athenians generally, set out with an expectation of conquering Carthage as well as Sicily. In the speech which Alkibiades made at Sparta after his banishment (Thucyd. vi, 90), he does indeed state this as the general purpose of the expedition. But it seems plain that he is here describing, to his countrymen generally, plans which were only fer- menting in his own brain, as we may discern from a careful perusal of the first twenty chapters of the sixth book of Thucydides. In the inaccurate Oratio de Pace ascribed to Andokides (sect 30). it ia alleged that the Syracusans sent an embassy to Athens, a little before this expedition, entreating to be admitted as allies of the Athenians, and affirm ing that Syracuse would be a more valuable ally to Athens than Egesta 01 Ka>**a. This statement is whoUy untrue.