him that the people were so furious against
him that he had no chance of a fair trial, and he therefore escaped on
the way home, when, on his failing to arrive, he was solemnly cursed, and
condemned to death. He took refuge in Sparta, where, fine gentleman as
he was, he followed the rough, hardy Spartan manners to perfection,
appeared to relish the black broth, and spoke the Doric Greek of Laconia,
as it was said, more perfectly than the Spartans themselves. Unlike
Aristides, and like the worse sort of exiles, he tried to get his revenge
by persuading the allies of Athens in Asia Minor to revolt; and when the
Spartans showed distrust of him, he took refuge with the Persian satrap
Tissaphernes.

In the meantime, after he had left Sicily, Nikias was so cautious that
the Syracusans thought him cowardly, and provoked a battle with him close
to their own walls. He defeated them, besieged their city, and had
almost taken it, when a Spartan and Corinthian fleet, headed by Gylippus,
came out, forced their way through the Athenians, and brought relief to
the city. More reinforcements came out to Athens, and there was a great
sea-fight in front of the harbour at Syracuse, which ended in the total
and miserable defeat of the Athenians, so that the army was obliged to
retreat from Syracuse, and give up the siege. They had no food, nor any
means of getting home, and all they could do was to make their way back
into the part of the island that was friendly to them. Gylippus and the
Syracusans tried to block their way, but old Nikias showed himself firm
and undaunted in the face of misfortune, and they forced their way on for
three or four days, in great suffering from hunger and thirst, till at
last they were all hemmed into a small hollow valley, shut in by rocks,
where the Syracusans shot them down as they came to drink at the stream,
so thirsty that they seemed not to care to die so long as they could
drink. Upon this, Nikias thought it best to offer to lay down his arms
and surrender. All the remnant of the army were enclosed in a great
quarry at Epipolae, the sides of which were 100 feet high, and fed on a
scanty allowance of bread and water, while the victors considered what
was to be done with them, for in these heathen times there was no law of
mercy for a captive, however bravely he might have fought. Gylippus
wanted to save Nikias, for the pleasure of showing off so noble a
prisoner at Sparta; but some of the Syracu