Nicias

, an A then i an general, celebrated for his valour and for his misfortunes. He early conciliated the good will of the people by his liberality, and he established his military character by taking the island of Cythera from the power of Lacedæmon. When Athens determined to make war against Sicily, Nicias was appointed, with Alcibiades and Lamachus, to conduct the expedition, which he reprobated as impolitic, and as the future cause of calamities to the A then i an power. In Sicily he behaved with great firmne , but he often blamed the quick and inconsiderate measures of his colleagues. The succe of the A then i ans remained long doubtful. Alcibiades was recalled by his enemies to take his trial, and Nicias was left at the head of affairs. Syracuse was surrounded by a wall, and though the operations were carried on slowly, yet the city would have surrendered, had not the sudden appearance of Gylippus, the Corinthian ally of the Sicilians, cheered up the courage of the besieged at the most critical moment. Gylippus proposed terms of accommodation to the A then i ans, which were refused; some battles were fought, in which the Sicilians obtained the advantage, and Nicias at last, tired of his ill succe , and grown desponding, demanded of the A then i ans a reinforcement or a succe or. Demosthenes, upon this, was sent with a powerful fleet, but the advice of Nicias was despised, and the admiral, by his eagerne to come to a decisive engagement, ruined his fleet and the interest of Athens. The fear of his enemies at home prevented Nicias from leaving Sicily; and when, at last, a continued series of ill succe obliged him to comply, he found himself surrounded on every side by the enemy, without hope of escaping. He gave himself up to the conquerors with all his army, but the a urances of safety which he had received soon proved vain and false, and he was no sooner in the hands of the enemy than he was shamefully put to death with Demosthenes. His troops were sent to quarries, where the plague and hard labour diminished their numbers and aggravated their misfortunes. Some suppose that the death of Nicias was not violent. He perished about 413 years before Christ, and the A then i ans lamented in him a great and valiant but unfortunate general. Plutarch , Lives .— Cicero. — Cornel i us Nepos , Alcibiades .— Thucydides , bk. 4 , . — Diodorus , bk. 15 .――A grammarian of Rome, intimate with Cicero. Cicero , Letters .――A man of Nicæa, who wrote a history of philosophers.――A physician of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who made an offer to the Romans of poisoning his master for a sum of money. The Roman general disdained his offers, and acquainted Pyrrhus with his treachery. He is oftener called Cineas.――A painter of Athens in the age of Alexander. He was chiefly happy in his pictures of women. Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 2 , ch. 31 .