Alcibiades

Alcibiades, son of Clinias, an Athenian. In him Nature seems to have tried what she could accomplish. For it is agreed among all who have left an account of him that there was nothing more remarkable than he, whether in vices or in virtues. Born in a most flourishing state, of the highest birth, by far the most handsome of all his age, and rich; fitted for every undertaking and full of resource (for he was a supreme commander both by sea and by land); eloquent, so that he was foremost in speaking, since the charm of his looks and his words was so great that no one could resist him; when the occasion demanded, hardworking and enduring; generous, splendid no less in his way of life than at table; affable, winning, most cleverly accommodating himself to circumstances: yet the same man, as soon as he relaxed and there was no reason why he should endure the labour of his spirit, was found to be luxurious, dissolute, lustful, intemperate, so that all marvelled that in one man there could be so great an unlikeness and so contrary a nature.

He was brought up in the house of Pericles (for he is said to have been his stepson) and educated by Socrates. He had for father-in-law Hipponicus, the richest of all who spoke the Greek tongue, so that, if he himself had wished to invent it, he could neither have devised more blessings nor obtained greater than either nature or fortune had bestowed. In his early youth he was loved by many in the manner of the Greeks, among them by Socrates, of which Plato makes mention in the Symposium. For he brought him in relating that he had passed the night with Socrates and had risen from his side no otherwise than a son should from a parent. After he had grown more robust, he loved no fewer himself, in whose love, so long as it was permitted, he did many wanton and sportive things — which we would relate, did we not hold greater matters more important.

In the Peloponnesian War, by his counsel and authority the Athenians declared war upon the Syracusans. To conduct it he himself was chosen leader, and two colleagues besides were given him, Nicias and Lamachus. While this was being prepared, before the fleet set out, it happened that in one night all the Hermae which were in the town of Athens were thrown down, except one, which stood before the door of Andocides (and so it was afterwards called the Mercury of Andocides). When it was plain that this had been done not without the great concert of many, and that it bore not upon private but upon public affairs, great fear was struck into the multitude, lest some sudden force should arise in the state which might crush the liberty of the people. This seemed especially to point to Alcibiades, because he was reckoned both more powerful and greater than a private man: for he had bound many to himself by his generosity, and had made still more his own by his services in the courts. Hence it came about that, whenever he appeared in public, he turned the eyes of all upon himself, and none in the state was held his equal. And so they had in him not only the greatest hope but also fear, because he could do most both to harm and to help. He was, moreover, smirched with infamy, because he was said to perform the mysteries in his own house (which was unlawful by the custom of the Athenians), and this was thought to bear not upon religion but upon conspiracy.

On this charge he was assailed in the assembly by his enemies. But the time for setting out to the war pressed. Mindful of this, and not ignorant of the temper of his fellow-citizens, he demanded that, if they wished any proceeding to be taken against him, the inquiry should rather be held while he was present, than that he should be accused in absence on a charge born of envy. But his enemies decided that they should keep quiet for the present, because they understood that he could not be harmed, and that they should await that time when the fleet had set out, so as to attack him in his absence; and so they did. For after they believed that he had reached Sicily, they arraigned him in absence on the charge of having violated the sacred rites. When a messenger was sent on this matter by the magistrate to him in Sicily, that he return home to plead his cause, and he was in high hope of administering the province well, he was unwilling to disobey and embarked on the trireme that had been sent to convey him. Carried by it to Thurii in Italy, reflecting much upon the boundless license and cruelty of his fellow-citizens toward the nobles, and thinking it most useful to avoid the impending storm, he secretly withdrew from his guards and went thence first to Elis, then to Thebes. But after he heard that he had been condemned to death and his goods confiscated, and — a thing that had never before happened — that the priests of the Eumolpidae had been forced by the people to lay a curse upon him, and that, in order that the memory of that curse might be the better attested, a copy of it engraved on a stone pillar had been set up in public, he removed to Lacedaemon. There, as he himself was wont to declare, he waged war not against his country, but against his enemies, who were likewise enemies of the state: for since they understood that he could be of the greatest service to the commonwealth, they had cast him out of it, and had obeyed their own anger more than the common advantage. And so by his counsel the Lacedaemonians made friendship with the Persian king, then fortified Decelea in Attica, and, having placed a permanent garrison there, held Athens under siege. By his work too they turned Ionia from its alliance with the Athenians. After this they began to be far superior in the war.

Yet by these doings the Lacedaemonians were not made so much friends of Alcibiades as estranged from him by fear. For when they recognized the surpassing prudence of so vigorous a man in all things, they feared lest, led by love of his country, he should at some time desert them and return to favour with his own people. And so they set about seeking a time to kill him. This could not long be hidden from Alcibiades: for he was of such keenness that he could not be deceived, especially when he had bent his mind to taking care. And so he betook himself to Tissaphernes, satrap of King Darius. When he had come into his closest friendship, and saw that, the affairs of the Athenians in Sicily having been ill conducted, their power was waning, while on the other hand that of the Lacedaemonians was growing, at first he conferred through go-betweens with the general Pisander, who held an army at Samos, and made mention of his return. For Pisander was of the same mind as Alcibiades, no friend to the power of the people and a partisan of the aristocracy. Abandoned by this man, he was first taken back by the army through Thrasybulus, son of Lycus, and made general at Samos; afterwards, on the motion of Theramenes, he was restored by decree of the people and, though absent, was set with equal command together with Thrasybulus and Theramenes. Under their command so great a change of affairs was wrought that the Lacedaemonians, who a little before had flourished as victors, terrified, sought peace. For they were beaten in five land battles and three sea-fights, in which they lost two hundred triremes, which, having been captured, had come into the power of the enemy. Alcibiades, together with his colleagues, had recovered Ionia, the Hellespont, and many Greek cities besides which are situated on the coast of Thrace, of which they had stormed several, among them Byzantium, and had attached no fewer to their friendship by policy, because they had used clemency toward their captives. Thus, laden with booty, their army enriched, having performed the greatest exploits, they came to Athens.

When the whole state had gone down to the Piraeus to meet them, so great was the eagerness of all to behold Alcibiades that the common crowd thronged about his trireme, just as if he alone had arrived. For so the people were persuaded that both the earlier reverses and the present successes had befallen by his doing. And so they ascribed both the army lost in Sicily and the victories of the Lacedaemonians to their own fault, in having expelled such a man from the state. And they did not seem to think this without reason. For after he had begun to command the army, the enemy had been able to match them neither by land nor by sea. As he stepped out of the ship, although Theramenes and Thrasybulus had had charge of the same operations and had come at the same time into the Piraeus, yet all escorted him alone, and — a thing that had never before happened save to victors at Olympia — he was crowned by the crowd with laurel wreaths and fillets. He, weeping, received this good will of his fellow-citizens, recalling the bitterness of former times. After he came into the city, an assembly being summoned, he so spoke that no one was so hard-hearted that he did not weep at his misfortune and show himself an enemy to those by whose doing he had been driven from his country, just as if some other people, and not that very one which was then weeping, had condemned him for sacrilege. His goods were therefore restored to him publicly, and the same priests of the Eumolpidae who had cursed him were again compelled to revoke the curse, and those pillars on which the curse had been written were cast headlong into the sea.

This joy of Alcibiades was not over-lasting. For when all honours had been decreed to him and the whole commonwealth at home and in war had been handed over to be administered at his sole discretion, and he himself had asked that two colleagues be given him, Thrasybulus and Adimantus, and this had not been denied, having set out with the fleet into Asia, because at Cyme he had conducted matters less to expectation, he fell again into disfavour: for they thought there was nothing he could not accomplish. From this it came about that they ascribed to his fault all that was done less prosperously, saying that he had acted either negligently or maliciously, as then happened: for they alleged that, bribed by the king, he had been unwilling to take Cyme. And so we think that excessive opinion of his ability and valour was especially to his harm: for he was feared no less than he was loved, lest, exalted by good fortune and great resources, he should covet tyranny. By these things it came about that they took away his command while he was absent and substituted another in his place. When he heard this, he was unwilling to return home and betook himself to Pactye, and there fortified three strongholds, Ornoe, Bisanthe, and Neonteichos, and, having gathered a band, was the first of any Greek citizen to enter Thrace, thinking it more glorious to be enriched by the spoil of barbarians than of Greeks. By this he had grown both in fame and in resources, and had won for himself a great friendship with certain kings of Thrace.

Yet he could not withdraw from love of his country. For when, at the river Aegospotami, Philocles, general of the Athenians, had stationed his fleet, and not far off was Lysander, general of the Lacedaemonians, who was bent on drawing out the war as long as possible, because money was being supplied to them by the king, while for the Athenians, exhausted, nothing was left over but their arms and ships — Alcibiades came to the army of the Athenians and there, in the presence of the crowd, began to urge: that, if they wished, he would force Lysander either to fight or to sue for peace; that the Lacedaemonians were unwilling to engage with the fleet at that point, because they were stronger in land forces than in ships; that it would be easy for him to induce Seuthes, king of the Thracians, to drive Lysander from the land: which done, Lysander must of necessity either fight at sea or compose the war. Although Philocles perceived that this was truly said, yet he was unwilling to do as demanded, because he felt that, if Alcibiades were received back, he himself would be of no account with the army, and that, if any success befell, no part of it in that affair would be his, whereas, if any disaster occurred, he alone would be held to answer for the fault. As he was departing, Alcibiades said: 'Since you oppose your country's victory, this one thing I advise — do not keep your naval camp close to the enemy; for there is danger that, through the indiscipline of your soldiers, an opportunity be given to Lysander of crushing your army.' Nor did this prove false. For Lysander, when he had learned through scouts that the crowd of Athenians had gone out onto the land to plunder and that the ships had been left almost empty, did not let slip the time for action, and by that onset destroyed the whole war.

But Alcibiades, the Athenians being defeated, thinking the same places no longer safe enough for himself, hid himself far away in Thrace, above the Propontis, hoping there most easily to conceal his fortune. He was deceived. For the Thracians, after they perceived that he had come with great wealth, laid an ambush, and carried off what he had brought, but could not take the man himself. He, perceiving that no place in Greece was safe for him on account of the power of the Lacedaemonians, crossed over into Asia to Pharnabazus, whom indeed he so won by his courtesy that no one took precedence of him in friendship. For Pharnabazus had given him Grynium, a fortress in Phrygia, from which he drew fifty talents of revenue. With this fortune Alcibiades was not content, nor could he endure that Athens, defeated, should be a slave to the Lacedaemonians. And so he was borne by every thought toward the freeing of his country. But he saw that this could not be done without the Persian king, and therefore desired to attach him to himself as a friend, nor did he doubt that he would easily succeed, if only he had the chance of meeting him. For he knew that Cyrus, the king's brother, was secretly preparing war for the Lacedaemonians with their help: if he disclosed this, he saw that he would gain great favour.

While he was contriving this and was asking of Pharnabazus that he be sent to the king, at the same time Critias and the other tyrants of the Athenians had sent trusty men to Lysander in Asia, to inform him that, unless he did away with Alcibiades, none of those things would be secure which he himself had established at Athens; therefore, if he wished his arrangements to stand, he should pursue him. Moved by these things, the Laconian decided that he must deal more carefully with Pharnabazus. He therefore announced to him that what had been agreed between the king and the Lacedaemonians would be at an end, unless he handed Alcibiades over to him alive or dead. The satrap could not endure this, and preferred to outrage clemency rather than that the king's resources be diminished. And so he sent Susamithres and Bagaeus to kill Alcibiades, while he was in Phrygia and was preparing his journey to the king. The men sent secretly gave the task to the neighbourhood in which Alcibiades then was, that they should slay him. They, since they did not dare to attack him with the sword, brought together by night logs around the hut in which he was resting and set them on fire, that they might destroy by burning one whom they doubted could be overcome by hand. But he, when he was roused by the noise of the flames, although his sword had been withdrawn from him, snatched the dagger of a friend of his. For there was with him a certain guest from Arcadia, who had never been willing to leave him. This man he bade follow him, and caught up what clothing there was at hand. Casting these into the fire, he passed through the force of the flames. When the barbarians saw that he had escaped the conflagration, they hurled weapons at him from a distance and slew him, and carried his head back to Pharnabazus. But the woman who had been wont to live with him, having covered him with her own woman's garment, burned, in the burning of the building that had been prepared to destroy him alive, the dead body. Thus Alcibiades, at about forty years of age, met his last day.

Though defamed by most, three of the weightiest historians have extolled him with the highest praises: Thucydides, who was of the same age, Theopompus, born somewhat later, and Timaeus — of whom indeed the two most slanderous, by I know not what means, agree in praising this one man. For they have proclaimed of him those things which we have written above, and this in addition: that, although he was born at Athens, a most splendid state, he surpassed all in the splendour and dignity of his life; that after he was expelled thence and came to Thebes, he so devoted himself to their pursuits that no one could match him in toil and bodily strength (for all the Boeotians serve bodily vigour more than keenness of mind); that the same man, among the Lacedaemonians, by whose customs the highest virtue was placed in endurance, so gave himself to hardship that he outdid all the Lacedaemonians in frugality of food and dress; that he was among the Thracians, men given to wine and the pleasures of love, and outdid these too in these very things; that he came to the Persians, among whom the highest praise was to hunt bravely and to live luxuriously, and so imitated their custom that they themselves admired him most in these matters. By these things he brought it about that, among whatever people he was, he was set first and held most dear. But enough of this man: let us proceed to the rest.