Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/208

190 190 HISTORY 0* GREECE. The political views, proclaimed in this remaikable speech, are deserving of attention, though we cannot fully understand it without Laving before us those speeches to which it replies. Not only is democratical constitution forcibly contrasted with oli- garchy, but the separate places which it assigns to wealth, intel- ligence, and multitude, are laid down with a distinctness not unworthy of Aristotle. Even before the debate here adverted to, the Syracusan gen- erals had evidently acted upon views more nearly approaching to those of Hermokrates than to those of Athenagoras. Already alive to the danger, they were apprized by their scouts when the Athenian armament was passing from Korkyra to Rhegium, and pushed their preparations with the utmost activity, distributing garrisons and sending envoys among their Sikel dependencies, while the force within the city was mustered and placed under all the conditions of war. 1 The halt of the Athenians at Rhegi- um afforded increased leisure for such equipment. That halt was prolonged for more than one reason. In the first place, Nikias and his colleagues wished to negotiate with the Rhegines, as well as to haul ashore and clean their ships : next, they awaited the return of the three scout-ships from Egesta : lastly, they had as yet formed no plan of action in Sicily. The ships from Egesta returned with disheartening news. Instead of the abundant wealth which had been held forth as existing in that town, and upon which the resolutions of the Athenians as to Sicilian operations had been mainly grounded, it turned out that no more than thirty talents in all could be pro- duced. What was yet worse, the elaborate fraud, whereby the Egestaeans had duped the commissioners on their first visit, was now exposed ; and these commissioners, on returning to Rhegium from their second visit, were condemned to the mortification of proclaiming their own credulity, visited by severe taunts and reproaches from the army. Disappointed in the source from whence they had calculated on obtaining money, for it appears that both Alkibiades and Lamachus had sincerely relied on thf pecuniary resources of Egesta, though Nikias was always mis Irustful, the generals now discussed their plan of action. 1 Thucyd. vi. 4.";.