Comparison of Nicias and Crassus

And yet Themistocles, during the Persian wars, to prevent a worthless and senseless man from ruining the city as one of its generals, bought him off from the office; and Cato stood for the tribuneship when he saw that it would involve him in the greatest toil and danger in behalf of the city.

Nicias, on the other hand, kept himself in the command against Minoa, and Cythera, and the wretched Melians, but when it was necessary to fight the Lacedaemonians, stripped off his general’s cloak, handed over to the inexperience and rashness of Cleon ships, men, arms, and a command requiring the utmost experience, and so betrayed not only his own reputation, but the security and safety of his own country.

Wherefore he was afterwards forced, against his wish and inclination, to wage war on Syracuse, for it was thought to be no calculation of what was expedient, but merely his love of ease and lack of spirit which made him use all his efforts to rob the city of Sicily. There is, however, this proof of his great reasonableness, namely, that although he was always averse to war and avoided military command, the Athenians ceased not to elect him to it, believing him to be their most experienced and best general.

Whereas Crassus, though he was all the while eager for military command, did not succeed in getting it except in the servile war, and then of necessity, because Pompey and Metellus and both the Luculli were away. And yet by that time he had acquired the greatest honour and influence in the city. But it would seem that even his best friends thought him, in the words of the comic poet,

The bravest warrior everywhere but in the field.

And yet this did not prevent the Romans from being overwhelmed by his ambitious love of command. For the Athenians sent Nicias out to the war against his will; but the Romans were led out by Crassus against theirs. It was owing to Crassus that his city, but to his city that Nicias, suffered misfortune.