Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/365

347 FATE OF NIKIAS AND DEMOSTHENES. 347 full ascendency and an object of deep gratitude for his invaluable services, solicited as a reward to himself to be allowed to con- duct them back as prisoners to Sparta. To achieve this would have earned for him signal honor in the eyes of his countrymen ; for while Demosthenes, from his success at Pylos, was their hated enemy, Nikias had always shown himself their friend as far as an Athenian could do so. It was to him that they owed the re- lease of their prisoners taken at Sphakteria ; and he had calcu- lated upon this obligation when he surrendered himself prisoner to Gylippus, and not to the Syracusans. In spite of all his influence, however, Gylippus could not carry this point. First, the Corinthians both strenuously opposed him themselves, and prevailed on the other allies to do the same. They were afraid that the wealth of Nikias would always pro- cure for him the means of escaping. from imprisonment, so as to do them farther injury, and they insisted on his being put to death. Next, those Syracusans, who had been in secret correspondence with Nikias during the siege, were yet more anxious to get him put out of the way, being apprehensive that, if tortured by their political opponents, he might disclose their names and intrigues. Such various influences prevailed, and Nikias as well as Demos- thenes was ordered to be put to death by a decree of the public assembly, much to the discontent of Gylippus. Hermokrates vainly opposed the resolution, but perceiving that it was certain to be carried, he sent to them a private intimation before the discus- sion closed ; and procured for them, through one of the sentinels, the means of dying by their own hands. Their bodies were publicly exposed before the city gates to the view of the Syra- cusan citizens ; l while the day on which the final capture of Nikias and his army was accomplished, came to be celebrated as an annual festival, under the title of the Asinaria, on the twenty- sixth day of the Dorian month Kameius. 2 1 Thucyd. vii, 86 ; Plutarch, Nikias, c. 28. The statement which Plu- tarch here cites from Timseus respecting the intervention of Hermokrates, is not in any substantial contradiction with Phiiistus and Thucydides. The word KelevffdevTae seems decidedly preferable to /caraAevcrtfevraf, in tha text of Plutarch. a Plutarch, Nikias, c. 28. Though Plutarch says that the month Karne ins is " that which the Athenians call Metageitnion," yet it is not aft> t