“Charikles a mina gave him, fearing he might say
    Charikles himself was born in a suspicious way;
    And Nikias five minas gave.  Now, what his reasons were
    I know full well, but will not tell, for he’s a trusty fere.”

Eupolis, too, in his comedy of Marikas has a scene where an informer meets with a poor man who is no politician, and says: 

    “A.  Say where you last with Nikias did meet. 
    B. Never.  Save once I saw him in the street. 
    A. He owns he saw him.  Wherefore should he say
    He saw him, if he meant not to betray
    His crimes? 
    C. My friends, you all perceive the fact,
    That Nikias is taken in the act. 
    B. Think you, O fools, that such a man as he
    In any wicked act would taken be.”

Just so does Kleon threaten him in Aristophanes’s play: 

     “The orators I’ll silence, and make Nikias afraid.”

Phrynichus, too, sneers at his cowardice and fear of the popular demagogues, when he says: 

    “An honest citizen indeed he was,
    And not a coward like to Nikias.”

V. Nikias feared so much to give the mob orators grounds for accusation against him, that he dared not so much as dine with his follow citizens, and pass his time in their society.  Nor did he have any leisure at all for such amusements, but when general, he used to spend the whole day in the War office, and when the Senate met he would be the first to come to the house and the last to leave it.  When there was no public business to be transacted, he was hard to meet with, as he shut himself up in his house and seldom stirred abroad.  His friends used to tell those who came to his door that they must pardon him for not receiving them, as he was not at leisure, being engaged on public business of great importance.  One Hieron, whom he had brought up in his house and educated, assisted him greatly in throwing this air of mystery and haughty exclusiveness over his life.  This man gave out that he was the son of Dionysius, called Chalkus, whose poems are still extant, and who was the leader of the expedition to Italy to found the city of Thurii.  Hiero used to keep Nikias supplied with prophetic responses from the soothsayers, and gave out to the Athenians that Nikias was toiling night and day on their behalf, saying that when he was in his bath or at his dinner he was constantly being interrupted by some important public business or other, so that, said he, “His night’s rest is broken by his labours, and his private affairs are neglected through his devotion to those of the public.  He has injured his health, and besides losing his fortune, has been deserted by many of his friends on account of his not being able to entertain them and make himself agreeable to them; while other men find in politics a means of obtaining both friends and fortune, at the expense of the state.”  In very truth the life of Nikias was such that he might well apply to himself the words of Agamemnon.