Textus Originalis

Traduzione

freebooters to Pylos to ravage Laconia, and thus plunged again into war. XI. At last the feud between Nicias and Alcibi- ades became so intense that recourse was had to the process of ostracism. This the people used to institute from time to time when they wished to remove for ten years, by the ostrakon ballot, any one man who was an object of suspicion generally because of his great reputation, or of jealousy because of his great wealth. Both the rivals were thus involved in much confusion and peril, since one or the other must in any event succumb to the ostracism. In the case of Alcibiades, men loathed his manner of life and dreaded his boldness, as will be shown more at length in his biography; and in the case of Nicias, his wealth made him an object of jealousy. Above all else, his way of life, which was not genial nor popular but unsocial and aristocratic, seemed alien and foreign: and since he often opposed the people’s desires and tried to force them againt their wishes into the way of their advantage, he was burdensome to them. ‘To tell the simple truth, it was a struggle between the young men who wanted war and the elderly men who wanted peace ; one party proposed to ostracise Nicias, the other Alcibiades. “ But ina time of sedition, the base man too is in honour,” and so in this case also the people divided into two factions, and thereby made room for the most aggressive and mischievous men. Among these was