Alcibiades

Alcibiades (ălsĭbī`ədēz), c.450–404 B.C., Athenian statesman and general. Of the family of Alcmaeonidae, he was a ward of Pericles and was for many years a devoted attendant of Socrates. He turned to politics after the Peace of Nicias (421 B.C.), and during the Peloponnesian War he was the leader in agitating against Sparta. He was so successful that Athens joined an alliance against Sparta. When Sparta attacked (418 B.C.) Argos, Alcibiades led an Athenian force to help the Argives, but Athens and the allies were beaten at Mantinea. He was (415 B.C.) the chief promoter of the Sicilian campaign and was one of the three leaders (with Nicias and Lamachus) of the Athenian forces. When the forces reached Sicily, he proposed an attempt to win allies rather than attacking the hostile cities of Selinus and Syracuse at once. Nicias carried out this policy to ultimate disaster. Alcibiades had meanwhile been summoned home to stand trial for the mutilation of the statues of Hermes, a crime of which he was almost certainly innocent. Instead he fled to Sparta, where he gave advice to King Agis I, who was successful against Athens. Alcibiades later fell into trouble with the Spartan king, and c.413 he fled to the protection of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and then sought to return to Athens. After the oligarchy of the Four Hundred fell (411), he was recalled at the request of Thrasybulus. Athens had a short era of greatness as Alcibiades directed brilliantly the Athenian fleet in the Aegean and in 410 won a victory over the Peloponnesian fleet off Cyzicus, and later recovered (408) Byzantium. However, Lysander, a new Spartan commander, defeated the Athenian fleet at Notium in c.406 B.C., so Alcibiades was exiled. He went to a castle he owned on the western shore of the Hellespont. There in 405 B.C. he attempted to warn the Athenian fleet at Aegospotamos against a surprise attack by the Spartans, but his advice was ignored. In 404 at the behest of Lysander, the Persian satrap Pharnabazus had Alcibiades murdered.

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Alcibiades

(born c. 450 BC, Athens—died 404, Phrygia) Athenian politician and commander. Pericles was his guardian, his father having died in battle. Alcibiades grew up without much guidance, but as a youth he was drawn to Socrates' moral strength and keen mind. Socrates, in turn, was attracted to the youth's physical beauty and intellectual promise. They served together in the Peloponnesian War, saving each other's life in battle, yet eventually Alcibiades was led by his own unscrupulous ambition. By 420 he was a general. Recalled from a Sicilian expedition in 415 on charges of sacrilege, he fled to Sparta. Though he aided the Spartan cause against Athens, he was eventually rejected and sought haven with the Persian governor at Sardis. The Athenian fleet eventually recalled him, and he directed Athenian victories 411–408. Though he achieved hero status, his enemies forced him to leave. From Thrace he warned Athens presciently of danger at the Battle of Aegospotami. He fled from Thrace to Phrygia, where the Spartans conspired to have him murdered. His political agitation was a decisive factor in the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. His notorious behaviour helped strengthen the charges brought against Socrates in 399.

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Alcibiades

450--404 bc, Athenian statesman and general in the Peloponnesian War: brilliant, courageous, and unstable, he defected to the Spartans in 415, but returned and led the Athenian victories at Abydos (411) and Cyzicus (410)