ἐκκλησίας δὲ πανδήμου Συρακουσίων καὶ τῶν συμμάχων γενομένης, Εὐρυκλῆς ὁ δημαγωγὸς ἔγραψε πρῶτον μὲν τὴν ἡμέραν ἐν ᾗ τὸν Νικίαν ἔλαβον, ἱερὰν ἔχειν, θύοντας καὶ σχολάζοντας ἔργων, Ἀσιναρίαν τὴν ἑορτὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ καλοῦντας· ἡμέρα δʼ ἦν τετρὰς φθίνοντος τοῦ Καρνείου μηνός, ὃν Ἀθηναῖοι Μεταγειτνιῶνα προσαγορεύουσι.
At a general assembly of the Syracusans and their allies, Eurycles, the popular leader, brought in a motion, first, that the day on which they had taken Nicias be made a holy day, with sacrifices and abstention from labour, and that the festival be called Asinaria, from the river Asinarus (the day was the twenty-sixth of the month Carneius, which the Athenians call Metageitnion);
τῶν δʼ Ἀθηναίων τοὺς μὲν οἰκέτας ἀποδόσθαι καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους συμμάχους, αὐτοὺς δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ Σικελίας φρουρεῖν ἐμβαλόντας εἰς τὰς λατομίας, πλὴν τῶν στρατηγῶν, ἐκείνους δὲ ἀποκτεῖναι.
ταῦτα προσδεχομένων τῶν Συρακουσίων, Ἑρμοκράτης μὲν εἰπὼν ὅτι τοῦ νικᾶν κρεῖττόν ἐστι τὸ καλῶς χρῆσθαι τῇ νίκῃ, οὐ μετρίως ἐθορυβήθη, Γύλιππον δὲ τοὺς στρατηγοὺς τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐξαιτούμενον ζῶντας ἀγαγεῖν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὑβρίζοντες· ἤδη τοῖς εὐτυχήμασιν οἱ Συρακούσιοι κακῶς ἔλεγον,
and second, that the serving men of the Athenians and their immediate allies be sold into slavery, while the freemen and the Sicilian Hellenes who had joined them be cast into the stone quarries for watch and ward,—all except the generals, who should be put to death.
These propositions were adopted by the Syracusans. When Hermocrates protested that there was something better than victory, to wit, a noble use of victory, he was met with a tumult of disapproval; and when Gylippus demanded the Athenian generals as his prize, that he might take them alive to the Lacedaemonians, the Syracusans, now grown insolent with their good fortune, abused him roundly.
ἄλλως τε καὶ παρὰ τὸν πόλεμον αὐτοῦ τὴν τραχύτητα καὶ τὸ Λακωνικὸν τῆς ἐπιστασίας οὐ ῥᾳδίως ἐνηνοχότες, ὡς δὲ Τίμαιός φησι, καὶ μικρολογίαν τινὰ καὶ πλεονεξίαν κατεγνωκότες, ἀρρώστημα πατρῷον, ἐφʼ ᾧ καὶ Κλεανδρίδης ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ δώρων ἁλοὺς ἔφυγε, καὶ οὗτος αὐτός, ἀπὸ τῶν χιλίων ταλάντων ἃ Λύσανδρος ἔπεμψεν εἰς Σπάρτην ὑφελόμενος τριάκοντα καὶ κρύψας ὑπὸ τὸν ὄροφον τῆς οἰκίας, εἶτα μηνυθείς, αἴσχιστα πάντων ἐξέπεσεν. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἐν τῷ Λυσάνδρου βίῳ μᾶλλον διηκρίβωται.
They were the more ready to do this because, all through the war, they had found it hard to put up with his harshness and the Laconian style with which he exercised his authority. Timaeus says, moreover, that they denounced his exceeding penuriousness and avarice,—an inherited infirmity, it would seem, since his father, Cleandridas, was convicted of taking bribes and had to flee his country. And Gylippus himself, for abstracting thirty talents from the thousand which Lysander had sent to Sparta, and hiding them in the roof of his house—as an informer was prompt to show—was banished in the deepest disgrace. But this has been told with more detail in my Life of Lysander.
Δημοσθένην δὲ καὶ Νικίαν ἀποθανεῖν Τίμαιος οὔ φησιν ὑπὸ Συρακουσίων κελευσθέντας, ὡς Φίλιστος ἔγραψε καὶ Θουκυδίδης, ἀλλʼ Ἑρμοκράτους πέμψαντος, ἔτι τῆς ἐκκλησίας συνεστώσης, καὶ διʼ ἑνὸς τῶν φυλάκων παρέντων αὐτοὺς διʼ αὑτῶν ἀποθανεῖν· τὰ μέντοι σώματα πρὸς ταῖς πύλαις ἐκβληθέντα κεῖσθαι φανερὰ τοῖς δεομένοις τοῦ θεάματος.
Timaeus denies that Demosthenes and Nicias were put to death by the orders of the Syracusans, as Philistus and Thucydides state; but rather, Hermocrates sent word to them of the decision of the assembly while it was yet in session, and with the connivance of one of their guards they took their own lives. Their bodies, however, he says, were cast out at the prison door, and lay there in plain sight of all who craved the spectacle.
πυνθάνομαι δὲ μέχρι νῦν ἐν Συρακούσαις ἀσπίδα κειμένην πρὸς ἱερῷ δείκνυσθαι, Νικίου μὲν λεγομένην, χρυσοῦ δὲ καὶ πορφύρας εὖ πως πρὸς ἄλληλα μεμιγμένων διʼ ὑφῆς συγκεκροτημένην.
And I learn that down to this day there is shown among the treasures of a temple in Syracuse a shield which is said to have been the shield of Nicias. It is a welded mosaic of gold and purple interwoven with rare skill.
τῶν δʼ Ἀθηναίων οἱ μὲν πλεῖστοι διεφθάρησαν ἐν ταῖς λατομίαις ὑπὸ νόσου καὶ διαίτης πονηρᾶς, εἰς ἡμέραν ἑκάστην κοτύλας δύο κριθῶν λαμβάνοντες καὶ μίαν ὕδατος, οὐκ ὀλίγοι δʼ ἐπράθησαν διακλαπέντες ἢ καὶ διαλαθόντες ὡς οἰκέται. καὶ τούτους ὡς οἰκέτας ἐπώλουν, στίζοντες ἵππον εἰς τὸ μέτωπον· ἀλλʼ ἦσαν οἱ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸς τῷ δουλεύειν ὑπομένοντες.
Most of the Athenians perished in the stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily rations being a pint of barley meal and a half-pint of water; but not a few were stolen away and sold into slavery, or succeeded in passing themselves off for serving men. These, when they were sold, were branded in the forehead with the mark of a horse,—yes, there were some freemen who actually suffered this indignity in addition to their servitude.
ἐβοήθει δὲ καὶ τούτοις ἥ τʼ αἰδὼς καὶ τὸ κόσμιον· ἢ γὰρ ἠλευθεροῦντο ταχέως ἢ τιμώμενοι παρέμενον τοῖς κεκτημένοις. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ διʼ Εὐριπίδην ἐσώθησαν. μάλιστα γάρ, ὡς ἔοικε, τῶν ἐκτὸς Ἑλλήνων ἐπόθησαν αὐτοῦ τὴν μοῦσαν οἱ περὶ Σικελίαν· καὶ μικρὰ τῶν ἀφικνουμένων ἑκάστοτε δείγματα καὶ γεύματα κομιζόντων ἐκμανθάνοντες ἀγαπητῶς μετεδίδοσαν ἀλλήλοις.
But even these were helped by their restrained and decorous bearing; some were speedily set free, and some remained with their masters in positions of honor. Some also were saved for the sake of Euripides. For the Sicilians, it would seem, more than any other Hellenes outside the home land, had a yearning fondness for his poetry. They were forever learning by heart the little specimens and morsels of it which visitors brought them from time to time, and imparting them to one another with fond delight.
τότε γοῦν φασι τῶν σωθέντων οἴκαδε συχνοὺς ἀσπάσασθαι τὸν Εὐριπίδην φιλοφρόνως, καὶ διηγεῖσθαι τοὺς μέν, ὅτι δουλεύοντες ἀφείθησαν ἐκδιδάξαντες ὅσα τῶν ἐκείνου ποιημάτων ἐμέμνηντο, τοὺς δʼ, ὅτι πλανώμενοι μετὰ τὴν μάχην τροφῆς καὶ ὕδατος μετέλαβον τῶν μελῶν ᾄσαντες. οὐ δεῖ δὴ θαυμάζειν ὅτι τοὺς Καυνίους φασὶ πλοίου προσφερομένου τοῖς λιμέσιν ὑπὸ λῃστρίδων διωκομένου μὴ δέχεσθαι τὸ πρῶτον, ἀλλʼ ἀπείργειν, εἶτα μέντοι διαπυνθανομένους εἰ γινώσκουσιν ᾄσματα τῶν Εὐριπίδου, φησάντων ἐκείνων, οὕτω παρεῖναι καὶ καταγαγεῖν τὸ πλοῖον.
In the present case, at any rate, they say that many Athenians who reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affectionate hearts, and recounted to him, some that they had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what they remembered of his works; and some that when they were roaming about after the final battle they had received food and drink for singing some of his choral hymns. Surely, then, one need not wonder at the story that the Caunians, when a vessel of theirs would have put in at the harbor of Syracuse to escape pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept outside, until, on being asked if they knew any songs of Euripides, they declared that they did indeed, and were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel safely in.
Ἀθηναίοις δέ φασι τὴν συμφορὰν οὐχ ἥκιστα διὰ τὸν ἄγγελον ἄπιστον γενέσθαι. ξένος γάρ τις, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἀποβὰς εἰς Πειραιᾶ καὶ καθίσας ἐπὶ κουρεῖον, ὡς ἐγνωκότων ἤδη τῶν Ἀθηναίων λόγους ἐποιεῖτο περὶ τῶν γεγονότων. ὁ δὲ κουρεὺς ἀκούσας, πρὶν ἄλλους πυνθάνεσθαι, δρόμῳ συντείνας εἰς τὸ ἄστυ καὶ προσβαλὼν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν εὐθὺς κατʼ ἀγορὰν ἐνέβαλε τὸν λόγον. ἐκπλήξεως δὲ καὶ ταραχῆς,
The Athenians, they say, put no faith in the first tidings of the calamity, most of all because of the messenger who brought them. A certain stranger, as it would seem, landed at the Piraeus, took a seat in a barber’s shop, and began to discourse of what had happened as if the Athenians already knew all about it. The barber, on hearing this, before others learned of it, ran at the top of his speed to the upper city, accosted the archons, and at once set the story going in the market place.
ὡς εἰκός, γενομένης, οἱ μὲν ἄρχοντες ἐκκλησίαν συναγαγόντες εἰσήγαγον τὸν ἄνθρωπον· ὡς δʼ ἐρωτώμενος παρʼ οὗ πύθοιτο σαφὲς οὐδὲν εἶχε φράζειν, δόξας λογοποιὸς εἶναι καὶ ταράττειν τὴν πόλιν, εἰς τὸν τροχὸν καταδεθεὶς ἐστρεβλοῦτο πολὺν χρόνον, ἕως ἐπῆλθον οἱ τὸ πᾶν κακόν, ὡς εἶχεν, ἀπαγγέλλοντες. οὕτω μόλις ὁ Νικίας ἐπιστεύθη παθὼν ἃ πολλάκις αὐτοῖς προεῖπεν.
Consternation and confusion reigned, naturally, and the archons convened an assembly and brought the man before it. But, on being asked from whom he had learned the matter, he was unable to give any clear answer, and so it was decided that he was a storymaker, and was trying to throw the city into an uproar. He was therefore fastened to the wheel and racked a long time, until messengers came with the actual facts of the whole disaster. So hard was it for the Athenians to believe that Nicias had suffered the fate which he had often foretold to them.
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