Athenian statesman, son of Niceratus, chosen by the aristocracy and the more moderate of the democratic party, as the fittest person to lead the councils of the commonwealth after the death of Pericles, in 428 B.C. He was also a favourite with the people, as he was liberal of his wealth for their gratification, and ever ready to assist the distressed. He resembled Pericles in the conservative nature of his foreign policy, and in the thorough incorruptibility of his character. The rigid decorum and strict devout- ness of his character have been severely ridiculed by Aristophanes, in the *Equites*, as nothing better than timidity and superstition. The first matter in which Nicias and Cleon took opposite views was the punishment that ought to be inflicted on the inhabitants of Mitylene for their rebellion. Cleon proposed and carried a decree for putting every man to death, and for reducing the women and children to slavery. This monstrous proposition was opposed by all the influence of Nicias, but passed in spite of its evident injustice. Nicias led several expeditions, and was always successful, because, as Plutarch says, he selected those commands where success was nearly certain, although the glory might indeed be small. He took the islet called Minos, at the mouth of the harbour of Nisaea, the seaport of Megara; and he plundered the coast of Boeotia. He commanded the fleet, 425 B.C., at the time that the island Sphacteria was blockaded by the Athenians, and willingly gave up the command to Cleon, who exclaimed that if he were in that station he would engage to subdue the island within twenty days, and bring the garrison prisoners to Athens. To the great surprise of all parties, Cleon succeeded in the enterprise (Thucydides, iv. 29). The following year we find Nicias commanding an expedition, which was directed against the island of Cythera, an important appendage of the Lacedemonian territory, and which Nicias took without much difficulty. After the death of Cleon at Amphipolis, 422 B.C., there was a strong inclination on both sides to bring the war to a close; and as Nicias was the most active in promoting the measure, it was usually called the Nician peace. The fundamental principle of the treaty was, that each party should restore what had been taken in war, except that Nisaea was reserved to Athens, in consideration of the refusal of the Thebans to surrender Platæa. It was concluded for fifty years, 421 B.C. (Thucydides, v. 18.) At this time Alcibiades began to occupy himself with public affairs; and wishing to ingratiate himself with the popular party, he took the opposite side to Nicias in almost every question. It was so in respect to the peace; and as there were some articles liable to be disputed, Alcibiades soon managed to embroil matters, and war again broke forth in all its original fury, 418 B.C. An expedition to Sicily was next proposed by Alcibiades; and although it was strongly opposed by Nicias, the decree was passed, and Nicias was appointed, along with Lamachus and Alcibiades, 416 B.C., to command the troops. Matters were conducted with various success; but the Athenians were at length completely defeated, and Nicias fell into the hands of the Syracusans. The mob demanded his life; and although Gylippus, the Syracusan general, exerted himself to save Nicias, it was without success. When Nicias and his colleague Demosthenes heard the sentence which had been passed against them, they anticipated their fate by putting themselves to death, in the year 413 B.C. (Thucydides, vii.; Plutarch; Diodorus Siculus; Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. iii.; Grote's History of Greece, vol. vi., vii.)

great Greek painter, was the son of Nicomedes, and flourished at Athens about the fourth century B.C. He studied his art under Antidotus, a pupil of the celebrated Euphranor. One of his earliest undertakings seems to have been the painting of the marble statues of Praxiteles, a process which the Romans called *circumlitio*. But, though eminently successful in this engagement, he soon turned his hand to the more legitimate branches of his art. All his energies became absorbed in the executing of pictures. He devoted great attention to colouring, and was the first painter who used burnt ochre; he studied the subjects of his pieces with the minute care which the dramatic poet bestows upon his plot; and he was often so engrossed with his work that he forgot to take his meals. The result of such painstaking industry was, that the artist soon grew famous for the graceful design, the beautiful colouring, the exquisite light and shade and the fine general effect of his pictures. His masterpiece was entitled *Neocra*, and was a representation of the infernal regions taken from the description in the Odyssey. Ptolemy, King of Egypt, offered sixty talents for it; but the painter chose rather to present it to his native Athens. Such a patriotic liberality seems to have combined with his genius in gaining for him the esteem of his fellow-citizens; for, at his decease, he was honoured with a public funeral, and was interred in the cemetery consecrated to the great Athenian dead, on the road between the city and the academy.

The other important works of Nicias, as enumerated by Pliny, were a Nemea, a Hyacinthus, a Bacchus, and an Alexander (Paris), all at Rome. (A minute account of Nicias is given in the English Cyclopaedia.)