Alcibiades

It was with a wish to withdraw them from the influence of Nicias that he did this;

and since they considered themselves injured, the Argives and their allies happening to be present, (having been introduced by Alcibiades,) they made a treaty and alliance with them on the following terms:

Amongst others who were so was Alcibiades son of Clinias, a man who in age was still at that time a youth, (as he would have been thought in any other state,) but honoured on account of the nobility of his ancestors.

I beheld also the fair Alcibiades, the son of Cleinias — I know not where, except I beheld in a fine part of Greece — having the inscription of Chalcopogon, and another with his hands cut off, which was said to be of the art of Polycles;

Nor, then, did he make Gorgias or Polus or Thrasymachus or Prodicus or Meno or Euthyphro or Anytus or Alcibiades or Laches speak in vain, when he might have removed the names;

To Croesus she gives gold, to Candaules a wife, to Peleus a sword, to Nestor a shield, to Pterelaus a golden lock of hair, to Nisus a purple lock, to Alcibiades beauty, to Socrates wisdom, to Aristides justice, to the Lacedaemonians the land, to the Athenians the sea.

Then, Apollodorus, he said, do you know, I have just been looking for you, as I want to hear all about the banquet that brought together Agathon and Socrates and Alcibiades and the rest of that party, and what were the speeches they delivered upon love.

for I will not lie if I can help it.

Ah, you would laugh at me because I am drunk?

and after treating a man with such contempt, later, when it suits his whim, he turns about, and as though he were accusing an Alcibiades or a Themistocles, the most famous men among all the Greeks, he proceeds to charge that same man with having destroyed the cities in Phocis, with having lost you the Thracian coast, with having expelled from his kingdom Cersobleptes, a friend and ally of the city.

My first experience in the field was in what is called division service, when I was with the other men of my age and the mercenary troops of Alcibiades, who convoyed the provision train to Phleius.

The competitors for that prize are Alcibiades, Nicias, and myself.

On his marriage with the sister of Callias he received a dowry of ten talents;

In addition to all this, some dare to say that the like of Alcibiades has never been before.

Alcibiades denied the charge at great length;

The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition—in fact, Lamachus’ flag-ship was already lying offshore—when suddenly Pythonicus rose before the people and cried:

According to the wife of Alcmaeonides—she had previously been married to Damon and was named Agariste—according, as I say, to Alcmaeonides’ wife, Alcibiades, Axiochus, and Adeimantus celebrated Mysteries in Charmides’ house, next to the Olympieum.

I will not parody them, as they say Alcibiades did, but I will lay quite bare, in accordance with the argument of truth, the sorcery hidden in them, and your so-called gods themselves, whose mystic rites they are;

And when Phryne the Thespian courtesan was in her bloom, all the painters reproduced the images of Aphrodite to the beauty of Phryne, just as again the stone-cutters at Athens likened the Hermae to Alcibiades.

And are you unaware, my friend, what this feeling is?

For from moment to moment I change my view under your questioning.

Perhaps also, Socrates, you are not aware that you have only just anticipated me.

Alcibiades disembarked his army at Gaurium, in the territory of Andros;

Meanwhile Alcibiades, wishing to sail home with his troops, made straight for Samos;

After this Alcibiades went off to the Hellespont and the Chersonese to collect money;

he added, too, that he was a womanizer—at which Alcibiades is said to have burst out laughing.

Did that which Alcibiades grieved at not consist of evils and vices of the mind?

For what shall we say, when Socrates had persuaded Alcibiades, as we have heard, that he was no real man, and that there was no difference between Alcibiades, born in the highest station, and any porter, and when Alcibiades, afflicting himself and weeping, was a suppliant to Socrates, that he would impart virtue to him and drive off baseness — what shall we say, Cleanthes?

Such a method Socrates points out to Alcibiades, who asks thus:

And the decree in which these gifts are recorded stands in the name of Alcibiades.

History tells us that Alcibiades lived at Athens in the good old days of her prosperity, and I want you to consider what great public services stand to his credit and how your ancestors dealt with him when he thought fit to behave like a ruffian and a bully.

For Alcibiades, Athenians, was on his father’s side one of the Alcmaeonidae, who are said to have been banished by the tyrants because they belonged to the democratic faction, and who, with money borrowed from Delphi, liberated our city, expelling the sons of Peisistratus, and on his mother’s side he claimed descent from Hipponicus and that famous house to which the people are indebted for many eminent services.

But these were not his only claims, for he had also taken arms in the cause of democracy, twice in Samos and a third time in Athens itself, displaying his patriotism, not by gifts of money or by speeches, but by personal service. He had also to his credit for the Olympian chariot-race and victories there, and we are told that he was regarded as the best general and the ablest speaker of the day.

You will next discover that Alcibiades, though his natural disposition was far inferior in respect to virtue and it was his pleasure to behave himself now arrogantly, now obsequiously, now licentiously, yet, as a fruit of his association with Socrates, he made correction of many errors of his life and over the rest drew a veil of oblivion by the greatness of his later achievements.

For if Aratus of Sicyon thought it a hard case, that private possessions of fifty years’ standing should be disturbed, how much weightier is that maxim of Augustus, that it is the character of a good man and a good subject to wish for no change in the present government, and, in the words, which Thucydides has assigned to Alcibiades, to support the constitution, under which he has been born?

And when your purpose was to accuse Socrates, as if you wished to praise him, you gave Alcibiades to him as a pupil who, as far as anybody observed, never was taught by Socrates, but that Alcibiades far excelled all his contemporaries all would agree.

Although I have many reasons for lamenting my fate, I am especially indignant for these reasons:

For even now I have had sufficient experience of evils, since at my birth I was left an orphan through my father’s exile and my mother’s death;

And when the men of the Piraeus were restored, and all the rest recovered their possessions, I alone by the influence of my personal enemies was deprived of the of the land which the people gave us as compensation for the confiscated property.

Consider first the exploits of Alcibiades.

and that the Lacedaemonians, who then appeared to be at the height of their fortune, are reduced to their present state of misfortune,—all on account of Alcibiades.

Alcibiades, however, after having caused these great calamities, was restored to his city, having won a great reputation, though not, indeed, enjoying the commendation of all.

Then I think it best to defer the sacrifice also till the time comes.

Why, that would seem, in truth, more like some sort of curse than a prayer!

Well, when will that time arrive, Socrates, and who is to be my instructor?

He is the son of Axiochus, son of the former Alcibiades, and is own cousin to the Alcibiades that now is:

Ah, but of course you have been in chase of Alcibiades and his youthful beauty!

And you found this foreigner so beautiful that he appeared to you of greater beauty than the son of Cleinias?

Meanwhile Callias and Alcibiades came, bringing with them Prodicus, whom they had induced to rise from his couch, and Prodicus’ circle also.

" By this gift Aeschines surpassed the soul of Alcibiades, the equal of riches, and all the munificence of the wealthy youths.

throw in my own face Alcibiades and Phaedrus—you who will turn out supremely happy the moment it falls to your lot to imitate our vices!