natural gifts of this sort, and owed his position merely to his
wealth. As he could not vie with Kleon in the versatile and humorous
power of speech by which the latter swayed the Athenian masses, he
endeavoured to gain the favour of the people by supplying choruses for
the public dramatic performances and instituting athletic sports on a
scale of lavish expenditure which never before had been equalled by
any citizen. The statue of Pallas, erected by him in the Acropolis, is
standing at this day, although it has lost the gold with which it was
formerly adorned, and also the building which supports the choragic
tripods in the temple of Dionysus, for he often gained a victory when
choragus, and never was vanquished.

It is said that once during the performance of a play at his expense,
a slave of his appeared upon the stage habited as Dionysus; a tall and
handsome youth, and still beardless. The Athenians were charmed with
his appearance, and applauded for a long time, at the end of which
Nikias rose and said that he did not think it right that one whose
body was thus consecrated to a god should be a slave; and consequently
he gave him his freedom. Tradition also tells us how magnificently and
decorously he arranged the procession at Delos. In former times the
choruses sent by the cities of Ionia to sing to the glory of the god
used to sail up to the island in a disorderly fashion, and were at
once met by a rude mob, who called upon, them to sing, so that they
disembarked in a hurry, huddling on their garlands and robes with
unseemly haste and confusion. Nikias disembarked with his chorus upon
the little island of Rhenea close by, with all their vestments and
holy things, and then during the night bridged the strait--which is
very narrow--with a bridge of boats which he had had made at Athens
expressly, which was beautifully ornamented with gilding and rich
tapestry. Next morning at daybreak, he led the procession to the god