and the others named in the information, with instructions to
order him to come and answer the charges against him, but not to arrest
him, because they wished to avoid causing any agitation in the army or
among the enemy in Sicily, and above all to retain the services of the
Mantineans and Argives, who, it was thought, had been induced to join
by his influence. Alcibiades, with his own ship and his fellow accused,
accordingly sailed off with the Salaminia from Sicily, as though to
return to Athens, and went with her as far as Thurii, and there they
left the ship and disappeared, being afraid to go home for trial with
such a prejudice existing against them. The crew of the Salaminia stayed
some time looking for Alcibiades and his companions, and at length, as
they were nowhere to be found, set sail and departed. Alcibiades, now an
outlaw, crossed in a boat not long after from Thurii to Peloponnese; and
the Athenians passed sentence of death by default upon him and those in
his company.

CHAPTER XX

_Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of the War--Inaction of the Athenian
Army--Alcibiades at Sparta--Investment of Syracuse_

The Athenian generals left in Sicily now divided the armament into two
parts, and, each taking one by lot, sailed with the whole for Selinus
and Egesta, wishing to know whether the Egestaeans would give the money,
and to look into the question of Selinus and ascertain the state of the
quarrel between her and Egesta. Coasting along Sicily, with the shore
on their left, on the side towards the Tyrrhene Gulf they touched at
Himera, the only Hellenic city in that part of the island, and being
refused admission resumed their voyage. On their way they took Hyccara,
a petty Sicanian seaport, nevertheless at war with Egesta, and making
slaves of the inhabitants gave up the town to the Egestaeans, some of
whose horse had joined them; after which the army proceeded through the
territory of the Sicels until it reached Catana, while the fleet sailed
along the coast with the slaves on board. Meanwhile Nicias sailed
straight from Hyccara along the coast and went to Egesta and, after
transacting his other business and receiving thirty talents, rejoined
the forces. They now sold their slaves for the sum of one hundred and
twenty talents, and sailed round to their Sicel allies to urge them to
send troops; and meanwhile went with half their own force to the hostile
town of Hybla in the territory of Gela, but did no