Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/324

 3l6 NICIAS CANNOT SAY ENOUGH [vil whole city. Wherefore let no one's heart be softened towards them. Do not congratulate yourselves at the mere prospect of getting safely rid of them. Even if they conquer they can only depart. But supposing that we obtain, as we most likely shall, the fulness of our desires, in the punishment of the Athenians and in the confirmation to Sicily of the liberties which she now enjoys, how glorious will be our prize ! Seldom are men exposed to hazards in which they lose little if they fail, and win all if they succeed.' 69 When Gylippus and the other Syracusan generals had, Ti ^ 7 like Nicias, encouraged their troops, and nearer, and Nicias perceiving the Athenians to be manning once more repeats to the their ships, they presently did the same. trierarchs the old tale of xt- • 1, j i_ .1 -^ ^- freedom and country, Nicias, Overwhelmed by the situation, wives and children, and Seeing how great and how near the and their fathers Gods, peril was (for the ships were on the very They then sro on board. • . r • ^ c ^• point oi rowing out), leelmg too, as men do on the eve of a great struggle, that all which he had done was nothing, and that he had not said half enough, again addressed the trierarchs, and calling each of them by his father's name, and his own name, and the name of his tribe, he entreated those who had made any reputation for themselves not to be false to it, and those whose ancestors were eminent not to tarnish their hereditar}' fame. He reminded them that they were the inhabitants of the freest country in the world, and how in Athens there was no interference with the daily life of any man'*. He spoke to them of their wives and children and their fathers* Gods, as men will at such a time ; for then they do not care whether their common-place phrases seem to be out of date or not, but loudly reiterate the old appeals, believing that the}' may be of some service at the awful moment. When he thought that he had exhorted them, not enough, but as much as the scanty time allowed, he retired, and led " Cp. ii. 37.