Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/202

184 184 HISTORY OF GREECE. deter or obstruct the advance of the expedition until winter approached : in which case Nikias, the ablest of the three gen- erals, who was understood to have undertaken the scheme against his own consent, would probably avail himself of' the pretext to return. 1 Though these opinions of Hermokrates were espoused farther by various other citizens iu the assembly, the greater number of speakers held an opposite language, and placed little faith in his warnings. We have already noticed Hermokrates nine years before as envoy of Syracuse and chief adviser at the congress of Gela, then, as now, watchful to bar the door against Athenian interference in Sicily, then, as now, belonging to the oligarchi- cal party, and of sentiments hostile to the existing democratical constitution ; but brave as well as intelligent in foreign affairs. A warm and even angry debate arose upon his present speech. 2 Though there was nothing, in the words of Hermokrates himself, disparaging either to the democracy or to the existing magis- trates, yet it would seem that his partisans who spoke after him must have taken up a more criminative tone, and must have exaggerated that which he characterized as the " habitual quies- cence" of the Syracusans, into contemptible remissness and disorganization under those administrators and generals, charac- terized as worthless, whom the democracy preferred. Amidst the speakers, who, in replying to Hermokrates and the others, indignantly repelled such insinuations and retorted upon their authors, a citizen named Athenagoras was the most distinguished. He was at this time the leading democratical politician, and the most popular orator, in Syracuse. 3 1 Thucyd. vi, 33-36. 3 Thucyd. vi, 32-35. ruv 6e 'Lvpanociuv 6 drjfiof h> iro/iXy xpof u/ Ipidi Tjaav, etc. 3 Thucyd. vi, 35. 7rop/l$; / ua^a>v'V, denotes any express functions, ur titular office (see tho none >' L/r. Arnoid), at least in these places. It is pns^Mn that there ma^ have b."cn some Grecian town constitutions, in