45-48] DEMOSTHENES PROPOSES TO DEPART 299 attack upon Epipolae had failed, and, in accordance with his original intention, he should vote for immediate depar- ture while the voyage was possible, and while, with the help of the ships which had recently joined them, they had the upper hand at any rate by sea. It was more expedient for the city that they should make war upon the Pelopon- nesians, who were raising a fort in Attica, than against the Syracusans, whom they could now scarcely hope to con- quer ; and there was no sense in carrying on the siege at a vast expense and with no result. This was the opinion of Demosthenes. Nicias in his own mind took the same gloomy view of 48 their affairs; but he did not wish openly .,. . , • ^ ., ' _ r J Iictas, who ts partly to confess their weakness, or by a swayed by information public vote given in a numerous from Syracuse, is in his ii,i.,i--..' t oiv>i mind undecided, assembly to let their intention reach ^ , ■ ^ ,,■ , r ■J But tn public he refuses the enemy's ears, and so lose the to go. They will be advantage of departing secretly when- censured at heme, and .1 -UiU i. Tiuj ^^" accused of treason ever they might choose to go. He had , ,, • , ,. J ^ o by their own soldiers. moreover still some reason to suppose Better to die at the that the Syracusans, of whose condition hands of enemies than he was better informed than the other % ^"^" ^' "^ , ."; Syracusans, tn debt generals, were likely to be worse off „nd dependent on mer- than themselves if they would only cenaHcs, are ivorse off ,1 • ,1 111 than themselves. persevere in the siege ; they would be worn out by the exhaustion of their resources ; and now the Athenians with their additional ships had much greater command of the sea. — There was a party in Syracuse itself which wanted to surrender the city to the Athenians, and they kept sending messages to Nicias and advising him not to depart. Having this information he was still wavering and considering, and had not made up his mind. But in addressing the council he positively refused to withdraw the army ; he knew, he said, that the Athenian people would not forgive their departure if the}' left without an order from home. The men upon whose votes their fate would depend would not, like themselves, have seen
