Darius to conquer it, and their eyes were continually upon that island. e * Some time after Pericles's death, the Nothus. Leontines being invaded 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 Gorgis, a famous rhetorician, who was reputed the most eloquent man of his times. His elegant and florid diction, heightened by shining figures which he first employed, charmed the Athenians, who were prodigiously affected with the beauties and graces of eloquence. Accordingly the alliance was concluded, and they sent ships to Rhegium to the aid of the Leontines. The year following they sent a greater number. Two years after they sent a new fleet, something stronger than the former; but the Sicilians having put an end to all their divisions, by the advice of Hermocrates, the fleet was sent back; and the Athenians, not being able to prevail with themselves to pardon their generals for not conquering Sicily, sent two of them, Pythodorus and Sophocles, into banishment; and sentenced the third, Eurymedon, to pay a heavy fine; their prosperity having blinded them to so prodigious a degree, that they were persuaded no power was able to resist them. They made several attempts afterwards, and upon pretence of sending from time to time arms and soldiers to such cities as were unjustly treated or oppressed by the Syracusans, they by that means were preparing to invade them with a greater force. But the person who most inflamed this ardour was Alcibiades, by his feeding the people with splendid hopes, with which he himself was for ever filled, or rather intoxicated. He was every night, in his dreams, taking Carthage, subduing Africa, crossing from thence into Italy, and possessing himself of all Peloponnesus; looking upon Sicily not as the scope and the end of this war, but as the beginning and e Diod. 1. xii. p. 99. Darius the first step of the exploits he revolved in his mind. Nothus. All the citizens favoured his views, and without en quiring seriously into matters, were inchanted with the mighty hopes he gave them. This expedition was the only topick of all conversations. The young men, in the places where the publick exercises were performed, and the old men in their shops and elsewhere, were employed in nothing but in drawing the plan of Sicily; in discoursing on the nature and quality of the sea with which it is surrounded; on its good harbours, and flat shores towards Africa: For these people, infatuated by the speeches of Alcibiades, were (like him) persuaded that they should make Sicily only their place of arms and their arsenal, from whence they should set out for the conquest of Carthage, and make themselves masters of all Africa and the sea, as far as the Pillars of Hercules. It is related that neither Socrates nor Methon the astronomer believed that this enterprize would be successful; the former, being inspired, as he insinuated, by his familiar spirit, who always warned him of the evils with which he was threatened; and the other, directed by his reason and good sense, which, pointing out what he had to apprehend in respect to the future, induced him to act the madman on this occasion; and to demand, in consideration of the unhappy condition to which he was reduced, that the Athenians would not force away his son, and would dispense with his carrying arms. SECT. VI. Account of the several people who inhabited BEFORE I enter on the relation of the war of Plat in Alcib. p. 199. In Nic. P: 532. Nothus. * It was first inhabited by the Lestrygones and the Darius Cyclopes, of whom we do not know any particulars, except what we are told by the poets. The most ancient, after these, were the Sicani, who called themselves the original inhabitants of this country, though they are thought to have come into it from the neighbourhood of a river in Spain, called Sicanus, whose name they gave to the island, which before was called Trinacria: These people were afterwards confined to the western part of the island. Some Trojans, after the burning of their city, came and settled near them, and built Erix and * Egesta, who all assumed the name of Elymai; and were afterwards joined by some inhabitants of Phocis, at their return from the siege of Troy. Those who are properly called Sicilians came from Italy in very great numbers; and having gained a considerable victory over the Sicani, confined them to a corner of their island, about three hundred years before the arrival of the Greeks; and in Thucydides's time, they still inhabited the middle part of the island and the northern coast. From them the island was called Sicily. The Phoenicians also spread themselves along the coast, and in the little islands which border upon it, for the convenience of trade: But after the Greeks began to settle there, they retired into the country of the Elymai, in order to be nearer Carthage, and abandoned the rest. It was in this manner the Barbarians first settled in Sicily. Ant.J.C. 710. With regard to the Greeks, the first of them who A. M. crossed into Sicily were the Chalcidians of Euboea, 3294. under Theocles who founded Naxos. The year after, which, according to Dionysius Halicarnassus, was the third of the seventh Olympiad, Archias the Corinthian laid the foundations of Syracuse. Seven years after, the Chalcidians founded Leontium and Catana, after having drove out the inhabitants of Thucyd. 1. vi. p. 410-413. * It is called Segesta by the Romans, Darius the country, who were Sicilians. Other Greeks, Nothus. who came from Megara, a city of Achaia, about the A. M. 416. same time, founded Megara, called Hyblæa, or barely Hybla, from Hyblon a Sicilian king, by whose permission they settled in his dominions. It is well known that the Hyblæan honey was very famous among the ancients. An hundred years after, the inhabitants of that city built Selinonta. Gela, built on a river of the same name, forty-five years after the founding of Syracuse, founded Agrigentum about an hundred and eight years after. Zancle, called afterwards Messana or Messene by Anaxilas tyrant of Rhegium, who was of Messene a city of Peloponnesus, had several founders, and at different periods. The Zanclians built the city of Himera; the Syracusans built Acre, Casmene, and Camarina. These are most of the nations, whether Greeks or Barbarians, who settled in Sicily. SECT. VII. The people of Egesta implore aid of the Athenians. Nicias opposes, but to no purpose, the war of Sicily. Alcibiades carries that point. They both are appointed generals with Lamachus. h ATHENS was in the disposition above related, 3578. when ambassadors were sent from the people of Ant. J.C.Egesta, who, in quality of their allies, came to implore their aid against the inhabitants of Selinunta, who were assisted by the Syracusans. It was the sixteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. They represented, among other things, that should they be abandoned, the Syracusans, after seizing their city as they had done that of Leontium, would possess themselves of all Sicily, and not fail to aid the Peloponnesians who were their founders; and, that they might put them to as little charge as possible, they offered to pay the troops that should be sent to suc Thucyd. 1. vi. p. 413-415. Diod. 1. xii. p. 129, 130. Plut. in Alcib. p. 200. In Nic. p. 531. 415. cour them. The Athenians, who had long waited Darius for an opportunity to declare themselves, sent depu- Nothus. ties to Egesta to enquire into the state of affairs, and to see whether there was money enough in the treasury to defray the expence of so great a war. The inhabitants of that city had been so artful, as to borrow from the neighbouring nations a great number of gold and silver vases, worth an immense sum of money; and of these they made a show when the Athenians arrived. The deputies returned with A. M. those of Egesta, who carried threescore talents in 3589. Ant.J.C. ingots, as a month's pay for the gallies which they demanded; and a promise of larger sums, which, they said, were ready both in the publick treasury and in the temples. The people, struck with these fair appearances, the truth of which they did not give themselves the leisure to examine; and seduced by the advantageous reports which their deputies made, in the view of pleasing them; immediately. granted the Egestans their demand, and appointed Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus to command the fleet; with full power, not only to succour Egesta, and restore the inhabitants of Leontium to their city; but also to regulate the affairs of Sicily, in such a manner as might best suit the interests of the republick. Nicias was appointed one of the generals, to his very great regret; for, besides other motives which made him dread that command, he shunned it, because Alcibiades was to be his colleague. But the Athenians promised themselves greater success from this war, should they not resign the whole conduct of it to Alcibiades, but temper his ardour and audacity with the coldness and wisdom of Nicias. Five days after, to hasten the execution of the decree, and make the necessary preparations, a second assembly was held. Nicias, who had had time enough to reflect deliberately on the affair proposed, Thucyd. 1. vi. p. 415-428. |