Nikias and Alkibiades respectively made a secret compact with one
another to suppress this villain, and so arranged matters that neither
of their leaders, but Hyperbolus himself was banished by ostracism for
ten years. This transaction delighted and amused the people for the
moment, but they were afterwards grieved that they had abused this
safeguard of their constitution by applying it to an unworthy object,
as there was a kind of dignity about the punishment which they had
inflicted. Ostracism in the case of men like Thucydides and
Aristeides, was a punishment, but when applied to men like Hyperbolus,
it became an honour and mark of distinction, as though his crimes had
put him on a par with the leading spirits of the age. Plato, the comic
poet, wrote of him

"Full worthy to be punished though he be,
Yet ostracism's not for such as he."

The result was that no one was ever again ostracised at Athens, but
Hyperbolus was the last, as Hipparchus of Cholargus, who was some
relation to the despot of that name, was the first. Thus the ways of
fortune are inscrutable, and beyond our finding out. If Nikias had
undergone the trial of ostracism with Alkibiades, he would either
have driven him into banishment, and governed Athens well and wisely
during his absence, or he would himself have left the city, and
avoided the terrible disaster which ended his life, and would have
continued to enjoy the reputation of being an excellent general. I am
well aware that Theophrastus says that Hyperbolus was ostracised in
consequence of a quarrel of Alkibiades with Phæax and not with Nikias;
but my account agrees with that given by the best historians.

XII. When ambassadors came to Athens from Egesta and Leontini,