Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/379

361 DISMAY AT ATHENS. 361 her hoplites as well as of her seamen had perished in Sicily without leaving their like behind, and her maritime reputation was irretrievably damaged ; while her enemies, on the contrary, animated by feelings of exuberant confidence and triumph, were farther strengthened by the accession of their new Sicilian allies. In these melancholy months October, November, 413 B.C. the Athenians expected nothing less than a vigorous attack, both by land and sea, from the Peloponnesian and Sicilian forces united, with the aid of their own revolted allies, an attack which they knew themselves to be in no condition to repel. 1 Amidst so gloomy a prospect, without one ray of hope to cheer them on any side, it was but poor satisfaction to vent their dis- pleasure on the chief speakers who had recommended their recent disastrous expedition, or on those prophets and reporters of oracles who had promised them the divine blessing upon it 2 1 Thucyd. viii, 1. Tluvi-a 6e 7ravTu.%o$ev avrovf ihinrei, etc. Thucyd. viii, 1. 'ETreidf/ de eyvuaav, ^aP.ETrot [J.EV Tjaav roff ^vfinpoiSv UT/delai TUV priropuv TUV tK.7r7.ovv, uair e p oil K avr ol fjfiaafttvnt, etc. From these latter words, it would seem that Thucydides considered tbo Athenians, after having adopted the expedition by their votes, to have debarred themselves from the right of complaining of those speakers who had stood forward prominently to advise the step. I do not at all concur in his opinion. The adviser of any important measure always makes him- self morally responsible for its justice, usefulness, and practicability ; and he very properly incurs disgrace, more or less according to the case, if k turns out to present results totally contrary to those which he had predicted Y/s know that the Athenian law often imposed upon the mover of a propo sition not merely moral, but even legal, responsibility; a regulation of doubt ful propriety under other circumstances, but which I believe to have beei useful at Athens. It must be admitted, however, to have been hard upon the adviseis of this expedition, that from the total destruction of the aimament, neither generals nor soldiers returning they were not enabled to show how much of the ruin had arisen from faults in the execution, not in the plan con- ceived. The speaker in the Oration of Lysias irepl drifievveus rov .it/tA^oO (Or. xviii, sect. 2) attempts to transfer the blame from ipon the advisers of the expedition, a manifest injus-tice. Demosthenes (in the Oration De Corona, c. 73) gives an emphatic nnu noble statement of the responsibility which he cheerfully accepts for himself as a political speaker and adviser; responsibility for seeing the beginnings and understanding the premonitory sicwi t-f coming events, and givir. . VCL. vii. 1 '