Comparison of Nicias and Crassus (2.3-2.4)

But if Crassus was violent and tyrannical in these matters, Nicias went to the other extreme. His timidity and cowardice in the public service, and his subservience to the basest men, deserve the severest censure. Crassus, indeed, showed a certain loftiness and largeness of spirit in this regard, for he contended not with men like Cleon and Hyperbolus, far from it, but against the brilliant Caesar, and against Pompey with his three triumphs; and he did not shrink from their path, but made himself a match for each in power, and in the dignity of his censorial office actually surpassed Pompey.

For in the supreme struggles of a political career one must not adopt a course which awakens no envy, but one which dazzles men, throwing envy into the shade by the greatness of one’s power. But if, like Nicias, you set your heart above all else on security and quiet, and fear Alcibiades on the bema, and the Lacedaemonians at Pylos, and Perdiccas in Thrace, then there is ample room in the city where you can sit at leisure, removed from all activity, and

weaving for yourself,

a crown of tranquillity.