Mirabile dictu, the Athenians decided to send Alcibiades to Sicily in spite of the charges that were hanging over him. Thucydides explains that there was such popular support for the Sicilian expedition that Alcibiades’ enemies didn’t dare to bring him to trial for fear that he would be overwhelmingly exonerated by a jury court. So, Alcibiades got a reprieve of sorts and left for Sicily as one of the three commanders of the expedition. Using a modern legal term, he was out on bail, but that bail was revocable at any time, especially if the events in Sicily didn’t go as planned.