Nicias

In the course of the same summer, after the reduction of Lesbos, the Athenians made an expedition under the command of Nicias, son of Niceratus, against the island of Minoa, which lies off Megara, and which the Megareans used as a fortress, having built a tower on it.

From this spot, being more close at hand, Nicias wished the Athenians to keep their guard [over Nisaea], instead of from Budorum and Salamis, and to prevent the Peloponnesians from sailing out thence unobserved, as was formerly the case, with triremes and privateers;

Having therefore in the first instance taken by engines from the sea two towers which projected on the side of Nisaea, and having cleared the entrance to the strait between the island [and the continent], he proceeded to cut off all communication on the side of the mainland also, where there was a passage by a bridge over a morass for succouring the island, which lay not far off from the continent.

And Nicias, the son of Niceratus, because he was trusted by the citizens, though he knew what the expedition to Sicily would be, both from the god and from his own reasoning, was nevertheless compelled to go on the campaign, sick as he was, on account of this trust.

And after these, perhaps, you will say that certain others became daimones of the Athenians, such as Alcibiades the son of Cleinias, and Nicias and Cleon and Hyperbolus—some of them perhaps fair enough, others utterly base and harsh.

The competitors for that prize are Alcibiades, Nicias, and myself.

The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition—in fact, Lamachus’ flag-ship was already lying offshore—when suddenly Pythonicus rose before the people and cried:

The brother of Nicias.

You are a great general, even greater than Nicias, where stratagem is concerned.

it's no longer the time to delay and loiter like Nicias;

When Pericles died, Nicias, who died in Sicily, was at the head of the distinguished, and of the people Cleon son of Cleaenetus, who seems above all to have corrupted the people by his impetuosity, and who was the first to shout on the platform and to use abuse, and to gird up his cloak and make a speech, while the others spoke decorously.

The best of those who have taken part in public life at Athens after the men of old seem to have been Nicias and Thucydides and Theramenes.

We have sent Nicias ahead, so as to make known to your honourable selves what has been done, and that you may begin to celebrate and to give thanks to the Lord, who through us has counted your prayer worthy to be fulfilled.

but while lending money at interest and regarding the misfortunes and necessities of others as your own good fortune, you ejected your own uncle Nicias from the house of his fathers, you have taken from your own mother-in-law the resources upon which she lived, and you have, in so far as it depended upon you, rendered homeless the son of Archedemus.

You hear the award, men of the jury, which was rendered by Deinias, whose daughter the plaintiff has married, and Nicias, who is husband to her sister.

These depositions were lodged with Nicias on the third day of Hecatombaeon.

—was the theme of his speech, while at his side stood his two brothers-in-law, the very sight of whom is enough to set you in an uproar,—the disgusting Nicias, who went to Egypt as the hireling of Chabrias, and the abominable Cyrebio, the unmasked harlequin of the pageants.

In the first place, when Nicias, my herald, was kidnapped from my territory, you not only failed to bring the law-breakers to justice, but you kept the victim a prisoner for ten months, and the letters from me, of which he was the bearer, you read before your Assembly.

But I consider it right as a citizen to set the welfare of the state above the popularity of an orator.

So we gave her in marriage to Elius of Sphettus, and Menecles handed over her dowry to him—for he had become part-lessee of the estate of the children of Nicias —and he gave her the garments which she had brought with her to his house and the jewelry which there was.

This Nicias, the plaintiff, after the Thirty Tyrants came into power and his enemies threatened to expunge his name from the number of those who were to have the rights of citizenship, and to include him in Lysander’s list, being in fear of the state of affairs, mortgaged his house, sent his slaves outside of Attica, conveyed his furniture to my house, gave in trust three talents of silver to Euth …

I have no lack of reasons for speaking in behalf of the plaintiff Nicias;

for he knows that Timodemus extorted thirty minas from Nicias, not by demanding the payment of a debt, but by threatening him with summary arrest.

I do assure you, Ischomachus, this last imputation would have driven me to despair, were it not that a day or two ago I came upon the horse of Nicias the foreigner.

I also knew, when Niceratus, the son of Nicias, was arrested,—a man of wealth who, like his father, had never done anything to curry popular favour,—that those who were like him would become hostile to us.