Nicias
（
Νικίας).
1.
An Athenian general who was a man of birth and fortune; but one in whom a generous temper,
popular manners, and considerable political and military talent were marred by unreasonable
diffidence and an excessive dread of responsibility. Nicias, however, signalized himself on
several occasions. He took the island of Cythera from the Lacedaemonians, subjugated many
cities of Thrace which had revolted from the Athenian sway, shut up the Megarians within
their city-walls, cutting off all communications from without, and taking their harbour
Nisaea. When the unfortunate expedition against Syracuse was undertaken by Athens, Nicias was
one of the three commanders who were sent at its head, the other two being Alcibiades and
Lamachus. He had previously, however, used every effort to prevent his countrymen from
engaging in this affair, on the ground that they were only wasting their resources in distant
warfare and multiplying their enemies. After the recall of Alcibiades, the natural indecision
of Nicias, increased by ill-health and dislike of his command, proved a principal cause of
the failure of the enterprise. In endeavouring to retreat by land from before Syracuse, the
Athenian commanders, Nicias and Demosthenes (the latter had come with re-enforcements), were
pursued, defeated, and compelled to surrender. The generals were put to death (B.C. 414);
their soldiers were confined at first in the quarry of Epipolae, and afterwards sold as
slaves. There is a life of Nicias by Plutarch.
2.
An Athenian painter, a son of Nicomedes, and a pupil of Euphranor's pupil Antidotus. He
lived during the latter half of the fourth century B.C., and was a younger contemporary of
Praxiteles. The latter, when asked which of his works in marble he specially approved, was in
the habit of answering, “Those that have been touched by the hand of
Nicias”—such importance did he attribute to that artist's method of
tinting, or “touching up with colour,”
circumlitio
(Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xxxv. 133). He painted
mainly in encaustic, and was especially distinguished by his skill in making the figures on
his pictures appear to stand out of the work by means of a proper treatment of light and
shade. He was celebrated for his painting of female figures and other subjects which were
favourable to the full expression of dramatic emotions, such as the rescue of Andromeda and
the questioning of the dead by Odysseus in the lower world. This latter picture he presented
to the city of his birth, after Ptolemy I. had offered sixty talents (about $60,000) for it
(Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xxxv. 130-133). He
insisted on the importance of an artist's choosing noble themes, such as cavalry engagements
and battles at sea, instead of frittering away his skill on birds and flowers (Demet.
De Elocutione, 76).
3.
The younger, an Athenian painter, son of Nicomedes, and pupil of Euphranor. He began to
practise his art about B.C. 320. Nicias is said to have been the first artist who used burnt
ochre in his paintings (Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xxxv.
6Pliny H. N. 35.20).
4.
The physician of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who offered to poison that monarch for a sum of
money to be paid by the Romans. The Roman general, Fabricius, rejected this offer with scorn,
and delivered Nicias over to Pyrrhus (
Gell. iii. 8).
