History of the Peloponnesian War

and such men must either, the first day they land, be at once masters of the country, or know that if they fail to do so, they will find every thing opposed to them.

For myself then, being afraid of this, and knowing that on many points we must take good counsel, and on still more have good luck, (and that is difficult for such as are but men,) I wish to sail from home committing myself as little as possible to fortune, and secured against failure by our preparations, according to all reasonable hopes.

For this I consider to be at once most safe for the state at large, and conducive to the preservation of us who will go on the expedition. But if any one think otherwise, I resign the command to him.

Thus much spoke Nicias, thinking that he should either deter the Athenians by the vast scale of his measures, or that if he were compelled to join the expedition, he should in this way sail on it most safely.

They, however, had not their desire for the voyage taken from them by the burdensome nature of the preparations, but were much more eager for it than ever; and the result proved just contrary to what he had expected; for it was thought that he had given them good advice, and that now certainly they would have even abundant assurance of success.

And so all alike were seized with a longing to go on the expedition: the elder, from a belief that they should either subdue the places against which they were about to sail, or that a large force would meet with no misfortune: those in the prime of life, from a desire of foreign sights and spectacles, and because they were in good hope of returning safe from it: the mass of the people and of the soldiery, from thinking that they should both make money at present, and gain additional power, from which an unfailing fund for pay would be obtained.