But on the other hand the conduct of Nikias was altogether monstrous
and inexcusable. He did not give up his honourable post to his enemy
at a time when there was hope of success and little peril. He saw that
great danger was likely to be incurred by the general in command at
Pylus, and yet he was content to place himself in safety, and let the
state run the risk of ruin, by entrusting an incompetent person with
the sole management of affairs. Yet Themistokles, rather than allow an
ignorant commander to mismanage the war against Persia, bribed him to
lay down his office. So also Cato at a most dangerous crisis became a
candidate for the office of tribune of the people in order to serve
his country. But Nikias, reserving himself to play the general at the
expense of the village of Minoa, the island of Kythera, and the
miserable inhabitants of Melos,[100] when it came to fighting the
Lacedaemonians eagerly stripped off his general's cloak, and entrusted
to an inexperienced and reckless man like Kleon, the conduct of an
enterprise involving the safety of a large Athenian fleet and army,
showing himself no less neglectful of his own honour than he was of
the interests of his country. After this he was forced against his
will into the war with Syracuse, in which he seems to have imagined
that his army would capture the city by remaining before it doing
nothing, and not by vigorous attacks.
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