Plutarch, a Greek writer living around the year 100 under Roman rule, composed Parallel Lives: paired biographies of Greeks and Romans. This is the life of Nicias, an Athenian of the late fifth century BC. The war he is sent to fight is in Sicily, the island off southern Italy.

Nicias was rich, pious, and the last man who should have been sent to conquer Sicily. He tried to talk Athens out of the expedition, then was given the command he had opposed. Delay, an eclipse he would not sail under, and a fear of seers — omen-readers — did the rest. Reinforcements arrived too late. A night attack on the heights failed. The retreat to the river Assinarus was a slaughter. Nicias surrendered and was killed against the wish of the Spartan commander. Plutarch pairs him with Crassus: two cautious millionaires destroyed by a war they needed for reputation. It is a painful life, caution as a kind of doom.