 The ancient historian Xenophon reports that, by that winter, the generals in the Hellespont had to set aside time to gather funds.Causing further discontent was the fact that, by 411 BC many of the respected political figures from the nobility, such as Cimon, Pericles and Nicias, had been replaced by people of lower class, such as Cleon, Hyperbolus and the noble-born but disreputable Alcibiades.Alcibiades, in 415 BC, had been accused of defaming the god Hermes and sentenced to death "in absentia", a sentence causing him to flee and join the services of Sparta to escape.