hazardous to carry on. He maintained there a multitude of slaves, and his wealth consisted chiefly in silver. Hence he had many hangers-on about him, begging and obtaining. For he gave to those who could do him mischief, no less than to those who deserved well. In short, his timidity was a revenue to rogues, and his humanity to honest men. We find testimony in the comic writers, as when Teleclides, speaking of one of the professed informers, says:—
Charicles gave the man a pound, the matter not to name,
That from inside a money-bag into the world he came;
And Nicias, also, paid him four; I know the reason well,
But Nicias is a worthy man, and so I will not tell.
So, also, the informer whom Eupolis introduces in his Maricas, attacking a good, simple, poor man:—
How long ago did you and Nicias meet?
I did but see him just now in the street.
The man has seen him and denies it not,
'T is evident that they are in a plot.
See you, O citizens! 't is fact,
Nicias is taken in the act.
Taken, Fools! take so good a man
In aught that's wrong none will or can.[1]
Cleon, in Aristophanes, makes it one of his threats:—
I'll outscream all the speakers, and make Nicias stand aghast!
Phrynichus also implies his want of spirit, and his easiness to be intimidated in the verses,
A noble man he was, I well can say,
Nor walked like Nicias, cowering on his way.
- ↑ One half of the citizens take the part of the informer, the other that of the accused.
