contrary, seemed to take no manner of notice of him, though the rights of hospitality had subsisted between his ancestors and them. The first thing he did to infringe the peace was this: Having been informed that the people of Argos only wanted an opportunity to break with the Spartans, whom they equally hated and feared, he flattered them secretly with the hopes that the Athenians would succour them, by suggesting to them that they were ready to break a peace which was no way advantageous to them. And indeed the Lacedæmonians were not very careful to observe the several conditions of it religiously, having concluded an alliance with the Boeotians, in direct opposition to the design and tenour of the treaty; and having surrendered up the fort of Panactus to the Athenians, not fortified and in the condition it was in at the concluding of the treaty, as they had stipulated to do, but quite dismantled. Alcibiades observing the Athenians to be extremely exasperated at this breach of faith, did his utmost to increase their disgust; and taking this opportunity to embarrass Nicias, he made him odious to the people, by causing them to entertain a suspicion of his being too strongly attached to the Lacedæmonians; and by charging him with crimes which were not altogether improbable, though they were absolutely false. This new attack quite disconcerted Nicias; but happily for him there arrived, at that very instant, ambassadors from Lacedæmonia, who were invested with full powers to put an end to all the disputes. Being introduced into the council or senate, they set forth their complaints, and made their demands, which every one of the members thought very just and reasonable. The people were to give them audience the next day. Alcibiades, who was afraid they would succeed. with them, used his utmost endeavours to engage the ambassa dors in a conference with him. He represented to them, that the council always behaved with the utmost moderation and humanity towards those who addressed them, but that the people were haughty and extravagant in their pretensions; that should the ambassadors mention full powers, the people would not fail to take advantage of this circumstance, and oblige them to agree to whatever they should take it into their heads to ask. He concluded with assuring them, that he would assist them with all his credit, in order to get Pylus restored to them; to prevent the alliance with the people of Argos, and to get that with them renewed: and he confirmed all these promises with an oath. The ambassadors were extremely well pleased with this conference, and greatly admired the profound policy and vast abilities of Alcibiades, whom they looked upon as an extraordinary man; and, indeed, they were not mistaken in their conjecture. On the morrow, the people being assembled, the ambassadors were introduced. Alcibiades asked them, in the mildest terms, the subject of their embassy, and the purport of the powers with which they were invested. They immediately answered, that they were come to propose an accommodation, but were not empowered to conclude any thing. These words were no sooner spoken, than Alcibiades exclaims against them; declares them to be treacherous knaves; calls upon the council as witness to the speech they had made the night before; and desires the people not to believe or hear men who so impudently advanced falsehoods, and spoke and prevaricated so unaccountably, as to say one thing one day, and the very reverse on the next. Words could never express the surprise and confusion with which the ambassadors were seized, who, gazing at one another, could not believe either their eyes or ears. Nicias, who did not know the treacherous stratagem of Alcibiades, could not conceive the motive of this change, and tortured his brain to no purpose to find out the reason of it. The people were that moment going to send for the ambassadors of Argos, in order to conclude the league with them; when a great earthquake came to the assistance of Nicias, and broke up the assembly. It was with the utmost difficulty he prevailed so far, in that which was held next day, as to have a stop put to the proceedings, till such time as ambassadors should be sent to Lacedæmon. Nicias was appointed to head them, but returned without having done the least good. The Athenians then repented very much their having delivered up, at his persuasion, the prisoners they had taken in the island, and who were related to the greatest families in Sparta. However, though the people were highly exasperated at Nicias, they did not proceed to any excesses against him, but only appointed Alcibiades their general; made a league with the inhabitants of Mantinea and Elis, who had quitted the party of the Lacedæmonians, in which the Argives were included, and sent troops to Pylus, to lay waste Laconia. In this manner they again involved themselves in the war which they were so lately desirous of avoiding. • Plutarch, after relating the intrigue of Alcibiades, adds: No one can approve the methods he employed to succeed in his design; however, it was a master-stroke, to disunite and shake almost every part of Peloponnesus in this manner, and raise up, in one day, so many enemies against the Lacedæmonians.' In my opinion, this is too mild a censure of so knavish and perfidious an action, which, how successful soever it might have been, was notwithstanding horrid in itself, and of a nature never to be sufficiently detested. There was in Athens a citizen, named Hyperbolus, a very wicked man, whom the comic poets generally made the object of their raillery and invectives. He was hardened in evil, and become insensible to infamy, by renouncing all sentiments of honour, which could only be the effect of a soul abandoned entirely to vice. Hyperbolus was not agreeable to any one; and yet the people made use of him to humble those in high stations, and involve them in difficulties. Two citizens, Nicias and Alcibiades, engrossed at that time all the authority in Athens. The dissolute life of the latter shocked the Athenians, who besides dreaded his audacity and haughtiness. On the other side, Nicias, by always opposing, without the least reserve, their unjust desires, and by obliging them to take the most useful measures, was become very odious to them. It might be expected, that as the people were thus alienated from both, they would not fail to put the ostracism in force against one of them. Of the two parties which prevailed at that time in the city, one, which consisted of the young men who were eager for war, the other of the old men who were desirous of peace; the former endeavoured to procure the banishment of Nicias, and the latter of Alcibiades. Hyperbolus, whose only merit In Alcib. p. 198. h Plut. in Alcib. p. 196, 197. In Nic. p. 530, 531. was his impudence, in hopes of succeeding whichsoever of them should be removed, declared openly against them, and was eternally exasperating the people against both. However, the two factions uniting, he himself was banished, and by that put an end to the ostracism, which seemed to have been demeaned, in being employed against a man of so base a character; for hitherto there was a kind of honour and dignity annexed to this punishment. Hyperbolus was therefore the last who was sentenced by the ostracism; as Hipparchus, a near relation of Pisistratus the tyrant, had been the first. A. M. 3588. 416 SECT. V. ALCIBIADES ENGAGES THE ATHENIANS IN THE WAR OF SICILY.-Sixteenth and seventeenth Years of Ant. J. C. the War.-'I pass over several inconsiderable events, to hasten to the relation of that of the greatest importance, the expedition of the Athenians into Sicily, to which they were excited by Alcibiades especially. This is the sixteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. * Alcibiades had gained a surprising ascendant over the minds of the people, though they were perfectly well acquainted with his character. For his great qualities were united with still greater vices, which he did not take the least pains to conceal. He passed his life in such an excess of luxury and voluptuousness, as was a scandal to the city. Nothing was seen in his house but festivals, rejoicings, and parties of pleasure and debauchery. He showed very little regard to the customs of his country, and still less to religion and the gods. All persons of sense and judgment, besides the strong aversion they had for his irregularities, dreaded exceedingly the consequences of his audacity, profusion, and utter contempt of the laws, which they considered as so many steps by which Alcibiades would rise to tyrannical power. 6 Aristophanes, in one of his comedies,* shows admirably well, in a single verse, the disposition of the people towards him: They hate Alcibiades,' says he, and yet cannot do without him.' And, indeed, the prodigious sums he squandered on the people; the pompous games and shows he exhibited to Thucyd. 1. viii. p. 350-409. Plut. in Alcib. p. 198-200. In Nic. p. 531. please them; the magnificent and almost incredible presents which he made the city; the grace and beauty of his person; his eloquence, his bodily strength, joined to his courage and experience; in a word, this assemblage of great qualities made the Athenians wink at his faults, and bear them patiently, always endeavouring to lessen and screen them under soft and favourable names: for they called them frolics, polite pastimes, and indications of his humanity and good-nature. Timon the man-hater, morose and savage as he was, formed a better judgment of this conduct of Alcibiades. Meeting him one day as he was coming out of the assembly, vastly pleased at his having been gratified in all his demands, and at seeing the greatest honours paid him by the people in general, who were attending him in crowds to his house; so far from shunning him as he did all other men, on the contrary ran to meet him, and stretching out his hand to him in a friendly way; 'Courage, my son,' says he, thou dost right in pushing thy fortune, for thy advancement will be the ruin of all these people.' The war of Sicily will show that Timon was not mistaken. The Athenians, ever since the time of Pericles, had meditated the conquest of Sicily. However, that wise guide had always endeavoured to check this ambitious and wild project. He used frequently to inculcate to them, that by living in peace, by directing their attention to naval affairs, by contenting themselves with preserving the conquests they had already gained, and by not engaging in hazardous enterprises, they would raise their city to a flourishing condition, and be always superior to their enemies. The authority he had at that time over the people, kept them from invading Sicily, though it could not surmount the desire they had to conquer it, and their eyes were continually upon that island. 1Some time after Pericles's death, the Leontines being attacked by the Syracusans, had sent a deputation to Athens, to demand aid. They were originally of Chalcis, an Athenian colony. The chief of the deputies was Gorgias, a famous rhetorician, who was reputed the most eloquent man of his time. His elegant and florid diction, heightened by shining figures which he first 1 Dind. I. xii. p. 99. |