* The Athenian leader Cleon and Athenian general Demosthenes revitalise the city's military and naval forces despite opposition from Nicias, a rich merchant and soldier, and his supporters.

After Pericles ' death in 429 BC, Nicias became an important Athenian politician with the aristocratic ( conservative ) party looking to him as their leader.

Alcibiades had already been a controversial figure in Athenian politics for some years before then-he had combined with Nicias to bring about the ostracism of the populist leader Hyperbolus.

Alcibiades was the expedition's leading proponent, and the leader of the war party, Nicias its leading critic and the leader of the peace party.

After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War, the temple was finished in the time of Nicias ' peace, between 421 BC and 415 BC.

A. Spranger found the political subtext of Heracleidae, never far to seek, so particularly apt in Athens towards the end of the peace of Nicias, in 419 BCE, that he suggested the date as its first performance.

When these two powers quarrelled after the peace of Nicias, it remained loyal to the Spartans.

The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in the March 421 BC, ending the first half of the Peloponnesian War.

After the two generals who opposed peace, the Athenian Cleon and the Spartan Brasidas, were slain in battle, Nicias decided to seek peace between all the warring states.

Thus, in 421 the peace of Nicias was signed.

In 415, Athens and Sparta had been formally at peace since 421, when the Peace of Nicias had brought the Archidamian War to a close.

Control of Athens ' foreign policy remained divided between a " peace party " ( or pro-Spartan party ) led by Nicias, and a " war party " led by Alcibiades.

Nicias personally surrendered to Gylippus, hoping the Spartan would remember his role in the peace treaty of 421.

As such, Nicias became the rival of Cleon's popular or democratic party.

Nicias then sent word to Athens asking for reinforcements.

Demosthenes argued for a retreat to Athens, but Nicias at first refused.

* 421 BC: The Peace of Nicias puts a temporary end to the hostilities between Athens and Sparta.

Spartan anxiety over the return of the prisoners, who were taken to Athens as hostages, contributed to their acceptance of the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC.

Against his wishes Nicias was appointed General along with Alcibiades and Lamachus, all three of whom were given full powers to do whatever was in the best interests of Athens while in Sicily.

* Athens responds to appeals from its general, Nicias, by sending out 73 vessels to Sicily under the command of Demosthenes to assist Nicias and his forces with the siege of Syracuse.

A Quadruple Alliance of Athens, Argos, Mantineia and Elis, which has been organised by Alcibiades ( in opposition to Nicias ) confronts a Spartan-Boeotian alliance.

Athens sends reinforcements under Nicias who retakes Mende.

In the wake of the Athenian defeat in Sicily, revolts began to break out among Athens ' subject states in the Aegean Sea and the Peace of Nicias fell apart ; the Peloponnesian War resumed in full by 412 BC.

Detailed summary: Nicias and Demosthenes run from a house in Athens, complaining of a beating that they have just received from their master, Demos, and cursing their fellow slave, Cleon, as the cause of their troubles.

Plutarch states that Nicias was also exceedingly generous with his wealth, using his money for charitable activities in Athens and funding many religious festivals.

According to Plutarch this was to his benefit, as Nicias was able to avoid the worst of Athens ' misfortunes, both military and political.

Athens sent reinforcements under Nicias, who recaptured Mende.

Nicias, and Pleistoanax, King of Sparta, negotiated in 421 BC the Peace of Nicias between Athens and Sparta, which brought a temporary end to the Peloponnesian War.

Against his wishes Nicias was appointed General along with Alcibiades and Lamachus, all three of whom were given full powers to do whatever was in the best interests of Athens while in Sicily.

Athens responded to appeals from Nicias by sending out in 414 BC 73 vessels and 5, 000 soldiers to Sicily under the command of Athenian generals, Demosthenes and Eurymedon, to assist Nicias and his forces with the siege of Syracuse.

The negotiations were begun by Pleistoanax, King of Sparta, and the Athenian general Nicias.

* Despite the Peace of Nicias still being in effect, Sparta's King Agis II gathers a strong army at Philus and descends upon Argos by marching at night from the north.

Finally, after the reign of Menander I, several Indo-Greek rulers, such as Amyntas, King Nicias, Peukolaos, Hermaeus, Hippostratos and Menander II, depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a benediction gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra ( thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended ), which in Buddhism signifies the transmission of Buddha's teaching.

# REDIRECT King Nicias

Fearing that he would be unjustly condemned, Alcibiades defected to Sparta and Nicias was placed in charge of the mission.

* 419 BC: The Peace of Nicias is broken when Sparta defeats Argos.

* After learning that he has been condemned to death in absentia, Alcibiades defects to Sparta and Nicias is placed in charge of the Sicilian expedition.

The Athenian general, Laches, with the support of Nicias, successfully moved in the Athenian Assembly in 423 BC for an armistice with Sparta to check the progress of Sparta's most effective general, Brasidas.

* One of the seventeen representatives for Sparta to swear an oath for the Peace of Nicias

The Peace of Nicias concluded with Sparta recovering its hostages and Athens recovering the city of Amphipolis.

Nicias was soon captured as well, and both were executed despite the contrary orders of Gylippus, who had hoped Demosthenes and Nicias could be brought back to Sparta as prisoners.