However, he gained nothing by
this speech, for the Athenians thought that he would be the best man
to command the expedition because of his experience in war, and that
his caution would serve as a salutary check upon the rashness of
Alkibiades and the easy temper of Lamachus; so that, instead of
dissuading them his words rather confirmed them in their intention.
For Demostratus, who of all the popular orators was the most eager
promoter of the expedition, rose, and said that he would put an end to
these excuses of Nikias: and he prevailed upon the people to pass a
decree that the generals, both at home and in the field, should be
invested with absolute irresponsible power.
XIII. Yet it is said that the expedition met with great opposition
from the priests; but Alkibiades found certain soothsayers devoted to
his own interests, and quoted an ancient oracle which foretold that
the Athenians should one day win great glory in Sicily. Special
messengers also came from the shrine of Ammon,[1] bringing an oracular
response to the effect that the Athenians would take all the
Syracusans. Those oracles which made against the project, people dared
not mention, for fear of saying words of ill-omen. Yet even the most
obvious portents would not turn them from their purpose, such as the
mutilation of all the Hermae, or statues of Hermes, in Athens, in a
single night, except only one, which is called the Hermes of
Andokides, which was erected by the tribe AEgeis, and stands before the
house in which Andokides lived at that time.
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