Nicias   

of his conduct, in the very court of justice unsheathed his sword
and slew himself. Upon such considerations, Nicias declined all difficult
and lengthy enterprises; if he took a command, he was for doing what
was safe; and if, as thus was likely, he had for the most part success,
he did not attribute it to any wisdom, conduct, or courage of his
own, but, to avoid envy, he thanked fortune for all, and gave the
glory to the divine powers. And the actions themselves bore testimony
in his favour; the city met at that time with several considerable
reverses, but he had not a hand in any of them. The Athenians were
routed in Thrace by the Chalcidians, Calliades and Xenophon commanding
in chief. Demosthenes was the general when they were unfortunate in
Aetolia. At Delium they lost a thousand citizens under the conduct
of Hippocrates; the plague was principally laid to the charge of Pericles,
he, to carry on the war, having shut up close together in the town
the crowd of people from the country who, by the change of place,
and of their usual course of living, bred the pestilence. Nicias stood
clear of all this; under his conduct was taken Cythera, an island
most commodious against Laconia, and occupied by the Lacedaemonian
settlers; many places, likewise, in Thrace, which had revolted, were
taken or won over by him; he shutting up the Megarians within their
town, seized upon the isle of Minoa; and soon after, advancing from
thence to Nisaea, made himself master there, and then making a descent
upon the Corinthian territory, fought a successful battle, and slew
a great number of the Corinthians with their captain Lycophron. There
it happened that two of his men were left by an oversight, when they
carried off the dead, which when he understood, he stopped the fleet,
and sent a herald to the enemy for leave to carry off the dead; though
by law and custom, he that by a truce craved leave to carry off the
dead was hereby supposed to give up all claim to the victory. Nor
was it lawful for him that did this to erect a trophy, for his is
the victory who is master of the field, and he is not master who asks
leave, as wanting power to take. But he chose rather to renounce his
victory and his glory than to let two citizens lie unburied. He scoured
the coast of Laconia all along, and beat the Lacedaemonians that made
head against him. He took Thyrea, occupied by the Aeginetans, and
carried the prisoners to Athens.
When Demosthenes had fortified Pylos, and the Peloponnesians brought
together both their sea and land-forces before it, after the fight,
about the number of four hundred native Spartans were left ashore
in the isle Sphacteria. The Athenians thought it a great prize, as
indeed it was, to take these men prisoners. But the siege, in places
that wanted water, being very difficult and untoward, and to convey
necessaries about by sea in summer tedious and expensive, in winter
doubtful, or plainly impossible, they began to be annoyed, and to
repent their having rejected the embassy of the Lacedaemonians, that
had been sent to propose a treaty of peace, which had been done at
the importunity of Cleon, who opposed it chiefly out of a pique to
Nicias; for, being his enemy, and observing him to be extremely solicitous
to support the offers of the Lacedaemonians, he persuaded the people
to refuse them.
Now, therefore, that the siege was protracted, and they heard of the
difficulties that pressed their army, they grew enraged against Cleon.
But he turned all the blame upon Nicias, charging it on his softness
and cowardice, that the besieged were not yet taken. "Were I general,"
said he, "they should not hold out so long." The Athenians not unnaturally
asked the question, "Why, then, as it is, do not you go with a squadron
against them?" And Nicias standing up resigned his command at Pylos
to him, and bade him take what forces he pleased along with him, and
not be bold in words, out of harm's way, but go forth and perform
some real service for the commonwealth. Cleon, at the first, tried
to draw back, disconcerted at the proposal, which he had never expected;
but the Athenians insisting, and Nicias loudly upbraiding him, he
thus provoked, and fired with ambition, took upon him the charge,
and said further, that within twenty days after he embarked, he would