Nicias   

CRASSUS, in my opinion, may most properly be set against Nicias,
and the Parthian disaster compared with that in Sicily. But here it
will be well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not to
think that I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically, vividly,
and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond himself, expressed
by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like folly with Timaeus, who,
hoping in his history to surpass Thucydides in art, and to make Philistus
appear a trifler and a novice, pushes on in his descriptions, through
all the battles, sea-fights, and public speeches, in recording which
they have been most successful, without meriting so much as to be
compared, in Pindar's phrase, to-
"One that on his feet
Would with the Lydian cars compete." He simply shows himself all along
a half-lettered, childish writer; in the words of Diphilus-
" ---of wit obese,
O'erlarded with Sicilian grease." Often he sinks to the very level
of Xenarchus, telling us that he thinks it ominous to the Athenians
that their general, who had victory in his name, was unwilling to
take command in the expedition; and that the defacing of the Hermae
was a divine intimation that they should suffer much in the war by
Hermocrates, the son of Hermon; and, moreover, how it was likely that
Hercules should aid the Syracusans for the sake of Proserpine, by
whose means he took Cerberus, and should be angry with the Athenians
for protecting the Egesteans, descended from Trojan ancestors, whose
city he, for an injury of their king Laomedon, had overthrown. However,
all these may be merely other instances of the same happy taste that
makes him correct the diction of Philistus, and abuse Plato and Aristotle.
This sort of contention and rivalry with others in matter of style,
to my mind, in any case, seems petty and pedantic, but when its objects
are works of inimitable excellence, it is absolutely senseless. Such
actions in Nicias's life as Thucydides and Philistus have related,
since they cannot be passed by, illustrating as they do most especially
his character and temper, under his many and great troubles, that
I may not seem altogether negligent, I shall briefly run over. And
such things as are not commonly known, and lie scattered here and
there in other men's writings, or are found amongst the old monuments
and archives, I shall endeavour to bring together; not collecting
mere useless pieces of learning, but adducing what may make his disposition
and habit of mind understood.
First of all, I would mention what Aristotle has said of Nicias, that
there had been three good citizens eminent above the rest for their
hereditary affection and love to the people, Nicias the son of Niceratus,
Thucydides the son of Melesias, and Theramenes the son of Hagnon,
but the last less than the others; for he had his dubious extraction
cast in his teeth, as a foreigner from Ceos, and his inconstancy,
which made him side sometimes with one party, sometimes with another,
in public life, and which obtained him the nickname of the Buskin.
Thucydides came earlier, and, on the behalf of the nobility, was a
great opponent of the measures by which Pericles courted the favour
of the people.
Nicias was a younger man, yet was in some reputation even whilst Pericles
lived; so much so as to have been his colleague in the office of general,
and to have held command by himself more than once. But on the death
of Pericles, he presently rose to the highest place, chiefly by the
favour of the rich and eminent citizens, who set him up for their
bulwark against the presumption and insolence of Cleon nevertheless,
he did not forfeit the good-will of the commonalty, who, likewise,
contributed to his advancement. For though Cleon got great influence
by his exertions-
"---to please
The old men, who trusted him to find them fees," yet even those, for
whose interest and to gain whose favour he acted, nevertheless observing
the avarice, the arrogance, and the presumption of the man, many of