Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/371

 PHOCION. 363 self, trusting for the safety of his person to Phocion. And when Dercyllus, who commanded the guard there, made an attempt to seize him, upon notice of it before- hand, he made his escape, and there was little doubt he would now lose no time in righting himself upon the city for the affront ; and when Phocion was found fault with for letting him get off and not securing him, he de- fended himself by saying that he had no mistrust of Nicanor, nor the least reason to expect any mischief from him, but should it prove otherwise, for his part he would have them all know, he would rather receive than do the wrong. And so far as he spoke for himself alone, the answer was honorable and high-minded enough, but he who hazards his country's safety, and that, too, when he is her magistrate and chief commander, can scarcely be acquitted, I fear, of transgressing a higher and more sacred obligation of justice, which he owed to his fellow- citizens. For it will not even do to say, that he dreaded the involving the city in war, by seizing Nicanor, and hoped by professions of confidence and just-dealing, to retain him in the observance of the like ; but it was, indeed, his credulity and confidence in him, and an over- weening opinion of his sincerity, that imposed upon him. So that notwithstanding the sundry intimations he had of his making preparations to attack Piraeus, sending sol- diers over into Salamis, and tampering with, and endeav- oring to corrupt various residents in Pirteus, he would, notwithstanding all this evidence, never be persuaded to believe it. And even when Philomedes of Lampra had got a decree passed, that all the Athenians should stand to their arms, and be ready to follow Phocion their gen- eral, he yet sat still and did nothing, until Nicanor actually led his troops out from Munychia, and drew trenches about Piraeus ; upon which, when Phocion at