4.6
And the Cleon of AristophanesKnights, 358. It is not Cleon, but his adversary, the rampant sausage-seller, who utters the verse. blusteringly says:— I’ll bellow down the orators, and Nicias I’ll rattle. And Phrynichus plainly hints at his lack of courage and his panic-stricken air in these verses:— He was a right good citizen, and I know it well; He wouldn’t cringe and creep as Nicias always does. From a play of unknown name. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. i. p. 385.
5.1
Since he was disposed to be thus cautious of public informers, he would neither dine with a fellow citizen, nor indulge in general interchange of views or familiar social intercourse; indeed, he had no leisure for such pastimes, but when he was general, he remained at the War Department till night, and when he was councillor, he was first to reach and last to leave the council. And even if he had no public business to transact, he was inaccessible and hard to come at, keeping close at home with his doors bolted.
5.2
His friends used to accost those who were in waiting at his door and beg them to be indulgent with Nicias, for he was even then engaged upon sundry urgent matters of public business.
5.2
The man who most aided him in playing this role, and helped him to assume his costume of pompous dignity, was Hiero. He had been reared in the household of Nicias, and thoroughly instructed by him in letters and literature. He pretended to be the son of Dionysius, surnamed Chalcus, whose poemsSeven fragments appear in Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graeci, iii(;4).pp. 262 ff. are indeed extant, and who, as leader of the colonizing expedition to Italy, founded Thurii.Cf. Plut. Per. 11.5.
