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48.
This was the opinion of Demosthenes.
Nicias, without denying the bad state of their affairs, was unwilling to
avow their weakness, or to have it reported to the enemy that the Athenians
in full council were openly voting for retreat; for in that case they would be much less likely to effect it when they
wanted without discovery.
[2]
Moreover, his own particular information still gave him reason to hope that
the affairs of the enemy would soon be in a worse state than their own, if
the Athenians persevered in the siege; as they would wear out the Syracusans by want of money, especially with the
more extensive command of the sea now given them by their present navy.
Besides this, there was a party in Syracuse who wished to betray the city
to the Athenians, and kept sending him messages and telling him not to raise
the siege.
[3]
Accordingly, knowing this and really waiting because he hesitated between
the two courses and wished to see his way more clearly, in his public speech
on this occasion he refused to lead off the army, saying he was sure the
Athenians would never approve of their returning without a vote of theirs.
Those who would vote upon their conduct, instead of judging the facts as
eye-witnesses like themselves and not from what they might hear from hostile
critics, would simply be guided by the calumnies of the first clever
speaker;
[4]
while many, indeed most, of the soldiers on the spot, who now so loudly
proclaimed the danger of their position, when they reached Athens would
proclaim just as loudly the opposite, and would say that their generals had
been bribed to betray them and return.
For himself, therefore, who knew the Athenian temper, sooner than perish
under a dishonorable charge and by an unjust sentence at the hands of the
Athenians, he would rather take his chance and die, if die he must, a
soldier's death at the hand of the enemy.
[5]
Besides, after all, the Syracusans were in a worse case than themselves.
What with paying mercenaries, spending upon fortified posts, and now for a
full year maintaining a large navy, they were already at a loss and would
soon be at a standstill: they had already spent two thousand talents and
incurred heavy debts besides, and could not lose even ever so small a
fraction of their present force through not paying it, without ruin to their
cause; depending as they did more upon mercenaries than upon soldiers obliged to
serve, like their own.
[6]
He therefore said that they ought to stay and carry on the siege, and not
depart defeated in point of money, in which they were much superior.
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References (50 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(17):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, 216-462
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 674
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.102
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.3
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.46
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.65
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6, 6.25
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6, 6.26
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6, 6.46
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.4
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.45
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.54
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.76
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.94
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XXVI
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.40
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.61
- Cross-references to this page
(6):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, DEPENDENT SUBSTANTIVE CLAUSES (2574-2635)
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.pos=2.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.pos=2.2
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter IV
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(2):
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 3.38
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 7.73
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(25):
- LSJ, ἀμηχαν-άω
- LSJ, ἀνα_λίσκω
- LSJ, ἀνέχω
- LSJ, ἀποδέχομαι
- LSJ, ἀπορία
- LSJ, βόσκω
- LSJ, βοάω
- LSJ, ξενο-τροφέω
- LSJ, ἐκλείπ-ω
- LSJ, ἐκτρυ_χόω
- LSJ, ἐμφαν-ής
- LSJ, ἐνδίδωμι
- LSJ, ἐπικουρ-ικός
- LSJ, ἐπιτίμ-ησις
- LSJ, φθείρω
- LSJ, κατάγγελ-τος
- LSJ, καταπρο-δίδωμι
- LSJ, ὁ
- LSJ, περιπόλ-ιον
- LSJ, προσκάθ-ημαι
- LSJ, προσοφείλω
- LSJ, θα^λασσο-κρα^τέω
- LSJ, τις
- LSJ, τρίβω
- LSJ, ψηφ-ίζω
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