CONDUCT Or N!RIAb. 28 f justice to this unfortunate army not to recognize that they firs! acquiesced patiently in prolonged inaction, because their general directed it, and next did their duty most gallantly in the opera tions of the siege, down to the death of Lamachus. If even with our imperfect knowledge of the case, the ruin complained of by Nikias be distinctly traceable to his own remissness and oversight, much more must this conviction have been felt by intelligent Athenians, both in the camp and in the _ity, as we shall see by the conduct of Demosthenes ' hereafter to be related. Let us conceive the series of despatches, to which Nikias himself alludes, as having been transmitted home, from their commencement. We must recollect that the expedition was originally sent from Athens with hopes of the most glowing character, and with a consciousness of extraordinary efforts about to be rewarded with commensurate triumphs. For some months, the despatches of the general disclose nothing but movements either abortive or inglorious ; adorned, indeed, by one barren victory, but accompanied by an intimation that he must wait till the spring, and that reinforcements must be sent to him, before he can undertake the really serious enterprise. Though the disappointment occasioned by this news at Athens must have been mortifying, nevertheless his requisition was complied with ; and the despatches of Nikias, during the spring and summer of 414 B.C., become cheering. The siege of Syracuse is described as proceeding successfully, and at length, about July or August, as being on the point of coming to a triumphant close, in spite of a Spartan adventurer, named Gylippus, making his way across the Ionian sea with a force too contemptible to be noticed. Sud- denly, without any intermediate step to smoothe the transition, comes a despatch announcing that this adventurer has marched into Syracuse at the head of a powerful army, and that the Athenians are thrown upon the defensive, without power of pro- ceeding with the siege. This is followed, after a short time, by the gloomy and almost desperate communication above trans- lated. When we thus look at the despatch, not merely as it stand?- singly, but as falling in series with its antecedents, the natural
! Thucv.l. vii 42.
