Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/181

163 EXPEDITION AGAINST SICILY. 163 CHAPTER LVIII. FROM THE RESOLUTION OF THE ATHENIANS TO ATTACK SYRA- CUSE, DOVv r N TO THE FIRST WINTER AFTER THEIR ARRIVAL IN SICILY. FOB the two or three months immediately succeeding the final resolution taken by the Athenians to invade Sicily, described in the last chapter, the whole city was elate and bustling with prep- aration. I have already mentioned that this resolution, though long opposed by Nikias with a considerable minorky, had at last been adopted chiefly through the unforeseen working of that which he intended as a counter-manoeuvre with a degree of enthusiasm and unanimity, and upon an enlarged scale, which surpassed all the anticipations of its promoters. The prophets, circulators of oracles, and other accredited religious advisers, announced generally the favorable dispositions of the gods, and promised a triumphant result. 1 All classes in the city, rich and poor, cultivators, traders, and seamen, old and young, all em- braced the project with ardor ; as requiring a great effort, yet promising unparalleled results, both of public aggrandizement and individual gain. Each man was anxious to put down his own name for personal service ; so that the three generals, Nik- ias, Alkibiades, and Lamachus, when they proceeded to make their selection of hoplites, instead of being forced to employ constraint and incur ill-will, as happened when an expedition was unpopular, had only to choose the fittest among a throng of eager volunteers. Every man provided himself with his best arms and with bodily accoutrements, useful as well as ostentatious, for a long voyage and for the exigencies of a varied land-and- sea-service. Among the trierarchs, or rich citizens, who under- took each in his turn the duty of commanding a ship of war, the competition was yet stronger. Each of them accounted it an honor to be named, and vied with his comrades to exhibit his ship ir the most finished state of equipment. The state, indeed, 1 Thucyd. viii, 1.