ABSTRACT
When the news of their defeat in Sicily in 413 b.c. reached the Athenians, they received it with disbelief. Then came the realization of the full scale of the disaster, and the people, writes Thucydides, ‘were indignant with the orators who had joined in promoting the expedition, as if they [the people] had not themselves decreed it [in assembly]’. 2 To this George Grote made the following rejoinder: 3
From these latter words, it would seem that Thucydides considered the Athenians, after having adopted the expedition by their votes, to have debarred themselves from the right of complaining of those speakers who had stood forward prominently to advise the step. I do not at all concur in his opinion. The adviser of any important measure always makes himself morally responsible for its justice, usefulness, and practicability; and he very properly incurs disgrace, more or less according to the case, if it turns out to present results totally contrary to those which he had predicted.
