Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/277

259 CONFIDENCE OF NIKIAS 250 within the uty itself. The ill-success of Hermokrates and his colleagues had caused them to be recently displaced from their functions as generals, to which Herakleides, Euktes, and Tellias, were appointed. But this change did not give them confidence to hazard a fresh battle, while the temper of the city, during such period of forced inaction, was melancholy in the extreme. Though eeveral propositions for surrender, perhaps unofficial, yet seem- ingly sincere, were made to Nikias, nothing definitive could be agreed upon as to the terms. 1 Had the Syracusan government been oligarchical, the present distress would have exhibited a large body of malcontents upon whom he could have w.orked with advantage ; but the democratical character of the govern- ment maintained union at home in this trying emergency. 2 We must take particular note of these propositions in order to understand the conduct of Nikias during the present critical interval. He had been from the beginning in secret correspond- ence with a party in Syracuse ; 3 whe ; though neither numerous nor powerful in themselves, were now doubtless both more active and more influential than ever they had been before. From them he received constant and not unreasonable assurances that the city was on the point of surrendering, and could not possibly hold out. And as the tone of opinion without, as well as within, conspired to raise such an impression in his mind, so he suffered himself to be betrayed into a fatal languor and security as to the farther prosecution of the besieging operations. The injurious consequences of the death of Lamachus now became evident. From the time of the departure from Katana down to the battle in which that gallant officer perished, a period seemingly of about three months, from about March to June 414 B.C., the operations of the siege had been conducted with great vigor as well as unremitting perseverance, and the building-work, espe- cially, had been so rapidly executed as to fill the Syracusans with amazement. But so soon as Nikias is left sole commander, this vigorous march disappears and is exchanged for slackness and apathy. The wall across the low ground near the harbor ' Thucyd. vi. 103. KA?M iXfyero irpof re EKELVOV KOI 7r/lw STI Kara rr/t.
 * 6?uv.
 * Tl'ucyd. vii, 5o. 3 Thucyd. vii. 49- 8