Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/203

 19-21 ] SECOND SPEECH OF NICIAS 195 upon war. Nicias, seeing that his old argument would no longer deter them, but that he might possibly change their minds if he insisted on the magnitude of the force which would be required, came forward again and spoke as follows : — ' Men of Athens, as I see that you are thoroughly deter- 20 mined to go to war, I accept the The Hellenic cities in decision, and will advise you accord- f"(v «'^ free and ' •' Ml 1 powcijiu ; they have ingly, trusting that the event will be n„mcroHs hoplites ami such as we all wish. The cities which cavah-y. we are about to attack are, I am informed, powerful, and independent of one another ; they are not inhabited by slaves, who would gladly pass out of a harder into an easier condition of life ; and they are very unlikely to accept our rule in exchange for their present liberty ='. As regards numbers, although Sicily is but one island, it contains a great many Hellenic states. Not including Naxos and Catana (of which the inhabitants, as I hope, will be our allies because they are the kinsmen of the Leontines), there are seven other cities fully provided with means of warfare similar to our own, above all Selinus and Syracuse, the cities against which our expedition is particularly directed. For they have numerous hoplites, archers, and javelin-men, and they have many triremes which their large population will enable them to man ; besides their private wealth, they have the treasures of the Selinuntian temples ; and the Syracusans receive a tribute which has been paid them from time immemorial by certain barbarian tribes. Moreover, they have a numerous cavalry, and grow their own corn instead of importing it : in the two last respects they have a great advantage over us. 'Against such a power more is needed than an insignifi- 21 cant force of marines; if we mean to do justice to our design, and not to be kept within our lines by the numbers Cp. vii. 55 fin.