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SKAMVONIDES (Ancient demos) ATHENS
Alcibiades, Alkibiades. The son of Clinias and Dinomache, born at Athens
about B.C. 450, and on the death of his father, in 447, brought up by his relation
Pericles. He possessed a beautiful person, transcendent abilities, and great wealth.
His youth was disgraced by his amours and debaucheries, and Socrates, who saw
his vast capabilities, attempted to win him to the paths of virtue, but in vain.
Their intimacy, however, was strengthened by mutual services. At the battle of
Potidaea (432) his life was saved by Socrates, and at that of Delium (424) he
saved the life of Socrates. After the death of Cleon (422) he became one of the
leading politicians, and the head of the war party in opposition to Nicias. In
415 he was appointed, along with Nicias and Lamachus, as commander of the expedition
to Sicily. While the preparations for the expedition were going on, there occurred
a mysterious mutilation of the busts of the Hermae, which the popular fears connected
with an attempt to overthrow the Athenian constitution. Alcibiades was charged
with being the ringleader in this attempt. He demanded an investigation before
he set sail, but this his enemies would not grant; but he had not been long in
Sicily before he was recalled to stand his Bust of Alcibiades. trial. On his return
homeward he managed to escape at Thurii, and thence proceeded to Sparta, where
he acted as the avowed enemy of his country. The machinations of his enemy, Agis
II., induced him to abandon the Spartans and take refuge with Tissaphernes (412),
whose favour he soon gained. Through his influence Tissaphernes deserted the Spartans
and professed his willingness to assist the Athenians, who accordingly recalled
Alcibiades from banishment in 411. He did not immediately return to Athens, but
remained abroad for the next four years, during which the Athenians under his
command gained the victories of Cynossema, Abydos, and Cyzicus, and got possession
of Chalcedon and Byzantium. In 407 he returned to Athens, where he was received
with great enthusiasm, and was appointed commanderin-chief of all the land and
sea forces. But the defeat at Notium, occasioned during his absence by the imprudence
of his lieutenant, Antiochus, furnished his enemies with a handle against him,
and he was superseded in his command (406). He now went into voluntary exile to
his fortified domain at Bisanthe, in the Thracian Chersonesus. After the fall
of Athens (404) he took refuge with Pharnabazus. He was about to proceed to the
court of Artaxerxes, when one night his house was surrounded by a band of armed
men and set on fire. He rushed out, sword in hand, but fell, pierced with arrows
(404). The assassins were probably either employed by the Spartans or by the brothers
of a lady whom Alcibiades had seduced. He left a son by his wife Hipparete named
Alcibiades, who never distinguished himself.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alciviades (Alkibiades), the son of Cleinias, was born at Athens about B. C. 450,
or a little earlier. His father fell at Coroneia B. C. 447, leaving Alcibiades
and a younger son (Plat. Protag.). The last campaign of the war with Potidaea
was in B. C. 429. Now as Alcibiades served in this war, and the young Athenians
were not sent out on foreign military service before they had attained their 20th
year, he could not have been born later than B. C. 449, If he served in the first
campaign (B. C. 432), he must have been at least five years old at the time of
his father's death. Nepos (Alcib. 10) says he was about forty years old at the
time of his death (B. C. 404), and his mistake has been copied by Mitford.
Alcibiades was connected by birth with the noblest families of Athens.
Through his father he traced his descent from Eurysaces, the son of Ajax (Plat.
Alcib. I), and through him from Aeacus and Zeus. His mother, Deinomache, was the
daughter of Megacles, the head of the house of the Alcmaeonids.(1)
Thus on both sides he had hereditary claims on the attachment of the people; for
His paternal grandfather, Alcibiades, took a prominent part in the expulsion of
the Peisistratids (Isocrat. De Big. 10), and his mother was descended from Cleisthenes,
the friend of the commonalty. His father Cleinias did good service in the Persian
war. He fitted out and manned a trireme at his own expense, and greatly distinguished
himself in the battle of Artemisitum (Herod. viii. 17). One of his ancestors of
the name of Cleinias earned a less enviable notoriety by taking fraudulent advantage
of the Seisachtheia of Solon. The name Alcibiades was of Laconian origin (Thuc.
viii. 6), and was derived from the Spartan family to which the ephor Endius belonged,
with which that of Alcibiades had been anciently connected by the ties of hospitality.
The first who bore the name was the grandtlather of the great Alcibiades.
On the death of his father (B. C. 447), Alcibiades was left to the
guardianship of his relations Pericles and Ariphron.(2) Zopyrus,
the Thracian, is mentioned as one of his instructors (Plat. Alc. i.). From his
very boyhood he exhibited signs of that inflexible determination which marked
him throughout life.
He was at every period of his life remarkable for the extraordinary
beauty of his person, of which he seems to have been exceedingly vain. Even when
on military service he carried a shield inlaid with gold and ivory, and bearing
the device of Zeus hurling the thunderbolt. When he grew up, he earned a disgraceful
notoriety by his amours and debaucheries. At the age of 18 he entered upon the
possession of his fortune, which had doubtless been carefully husbanded during
his long minority by his guardians. Connected as he was with the most influential
families in the city, the inheritor of one of the largest fortunes in Athens (to
which he afterwards received a large accession through his marriage with Hipparete,
the daughter of Hipponicus (3), gifted with a mind of singular
versatility and energy, possessed of great powers of eloquence, and urged on by
an ambition which no obstacle could daunt, and which was not over scrupulous as
to the means by which its ends were to be gained, -in a city like Athens, amongst
a people like the Athenians, (of the leading features of whose character he may
not unaptly be regarded as an impersonation,) and in times like those of the Peloponnesian
war, Alcibiades found a field singularly well adapted for the exercise and display
of his brilliant powers. Accustomed, however, from his boyhood to the flattery
of admiring companions and needy parasites, he early imbibed that inordinate vanity
and love of distinction, which marked his whole career; and he was thus led to
place the most perfect confidence in his own powers long before he had obtained
strength of mind sufficient to withstand the seductive influence of the temptations
which surrounded him. Socrates saw his vast capabilities, and attempted to win
him to the paths of virtue. Their intimacy was strengthened by mutual services.
In one of the engagements before Potidaea, Alcibiades was dangerously wounded,
but was rescued by Socrates. At the battle of Delium (B. C. 424), Alcibiades,
who was mounted, had an opportunity of protecting Socrates from the pursuers (Plat.
Conviv.; Isocr. De Big. 12). The lessons of the philosopher were not altogether
without influence upon his pupil, but the evil tendencies of his character had
taken too deep root to render a thorough reformation possible, and he listened
more readily to those who advised him to secure by the readiest means the gratification
of his desires.
Alcibiades was excessively fond of notoriety and display. At the Olympic
games (probably in Ol. 89, B. C. 424) lie contended with seven chariots in the
same race, and gained the first, second, and fourth prizes. His liberality in
discharging the office of trierarch, and in providing for the public amusements,
rendered him very popular with tire multitude, who were ever ready to excuse,
on the score of youthful impetuosity and thoughtlessness, his most violent and
extravagant acts, into which he was probably as often led by his love of notoriety
as by any other motive. Accounts of various instances of this kind, as his forcible
detention of Agatharchus, his violence to his wife Hipparete, his assault upon
Taureas, and the audacious manner in which he saved Hegemon from a lawsuit, by
openly obliterating the record, are given by Plutarch, Andocides, and Athenaeus
(ix. p. 407). Even the more prudent citizens thought it safer to connive at his
delinquencies, than to exasperate him by punishment. As Aeschylus is made to say
by Aristophanes (Frogs, 1427), " A lion's whelp ought not to be reared in a city;
but if a person rears one, he must let him have his way."
Of the early political life of Alcibiades we hear but little. While
Cleon was alive he probably appeared but seldom in the assembly. From allusions
which were contained in the Daitaleis of Aristophanes (acted B. C. 427) it appears
that he had already spoken there (For the story connected with his first appearance
in the assembly, see Plutarch, Alcib. 10). At some period or other before B. C.
420, he had carried a decree for increasing the tribute paid by the subject allies
of Athens, and by his management it was raised to double the amount fixed by Aristeides.
After the death of Cleon there was no rival able at all to cope with Alcibiades
except Nicias. To the political views of the latter, who was anxious for peace
and repose and averse to all plans of foreign conquests, Alcibiades was completely
opposed, and his jealousy of the influence and high character of his rival, led
him to entertain a very cordial dislike towards him. On one occasion only do we
find them united in purpose and feeling, and that was when Hyperbolus threatened
one of them with banishment. On this they united their influence, and Hyperbolus
himself was ostracised. The date of this occurrence is uncertain.
Alcibiades had been desirous of renewing those ties of hospitality
by which his family had been connected with Sparta, but which had been broken
off by his grandfather. With this view he vied with Nicias in his good offices
towards the Spartan prisoners taken in Sphacteria; but in the negotiations which
ended in the peace of 421, the Spartans preferred employing the intervention of
Nicias and Laches. Incensed at this slight, Alcibiades threw all his influence
into the opposite scale, and in B. C. 420, after tricking the Spartan ambassadors
who had come for the purpose of thwarting his plans, brought about an alliance
with Argos, Elis, and Mantineia. In 419 he was chosen Strategos, and at the head
of a small Athenian force marched into Peloponnesus, and in various ways furthered
the interests of the new confederacy. During the next three years he took a prominent
part in the complicated negotiations and military operation which were carried
on. Whether or not he was the instigator of the unjust expedition against the
Melians is not clear; but he was at any rate the author of the decree for their
barbarous punishment, and himself purchased a Melian woman, by whom he had a son.
In B. C. 415 Alcibiades appears as the foremost among the advocates
of the Sicilian expedition (Thuc. vi.), which his ambition led him to believe
would be a step towards the conquest of Italy, Carthage, and the Peloponnesus
(Thuc. vi. 90). While the preparations for the expedition were going on, there
occurred the mysterious mutilation of the Hermases-busts A man named Pythonicus
charged Alcibiades with having divulged and profaned the Elensinian mysteries;
and another man, Audrocles, endeavoiured to connect this and sismilair offeinces
with the mutilation of the Hermae. In spite of his demands for an investigation,
Alcibiades was sent out with Nicias and Lamachus in command of the fleet, but
was recalled before he could carry out the plan of operations which at his suggestion
had been adopted, namely, to endeavour to will over the Greek towns in Sicily,
except Syracuse and Selinus, and excite the native Sicels to revolt, and then
attack Syracuse. He was allowed to accompany the Salaminia in his own galley,
but managed to escape at Thurii, from which place he crossed over to Cyllene,
and thence proceeded to Sparta at the invitation of the Spartan government. He
now appeared as the avowed enemy of his country; disclosed to the Spartans the
plans of the Athenians, and recommended them to send Gylipus to Syracute, and
to fortify Decelcia (Thuc. vi. 88, vii. 13, 27, 28). Before he left Sicily he
had managed to defeat a plan which had been laid for the acquisition of Messana.
At Athens sentence of death was passed upon him, his property confiscated, and
a curse pronounced upon him by the ministers of religion. At Sparta he rendered
himself popular by the facility with which he adopted the Spartan manners. Through
his instrumentality many of the Asiatic allies of Athens were induced to revolt,
and an alliance was brought about with Tissaphernes (Thuc. viii. 6); but the machinations
of his enemy Agis (Agis II) induced him to abandon the Spartans and take refuge
with Tissaphernes (B. C. 412), whose favour he soon gained by his unrivalled talents
for social intercourse. The estrangement of Tissaphernes from his Spartan allies
ensued. Alcibiades, the enemy of Sparta, wished to return to Athens. He accordingly
entered into correspondence with the most influential persons in the Athenian
fleet at Samos, offering to bring over Tissaphernes to an alliance with Athens,
but making it a condition, that oligarchy should be established there. This coinciding
with the wishes of those with whom he was negotiating, those political movements
were set on foot by Peisander, which ended (B. C. 411) in the establishmennt of
the Four Hundred. The oligarchs, however, finding he could not perform his promises
with respect to Tissaphernes, and conscious that lie had at heart no real liking
for an oligarchy, would not recall him. But the soldiers in the armament at Samos,
headed by Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. declared their resolution to restore democracy,
and passed a vote, by which Alcibiades was pardoned and recalled, and appointed
one of their generals. He conferred an important benefit on his country, by restraining
the soldiers from returning at once to Athens and so commencing a civil war; and
in the course of the sale year the oligarchy was overthrown without their assistance.
Alcibiades and the other exiles were recalled, but for the next four years lie
remained abroad, and under his command the Athenians gained the victories of Cynossema,
Abydos (4). and Cyzicus, and got possession of Chalcedon and
Byzantium. In B. C. 407, he returned to Athens, where he was received with great
enthusiasm. The records of the proceedings against him were sunk in the sea, his
property was restored, the priests were ordered to recant their curses, and he
was appointed commander-in-chief of all the land and sea forces (Diod. xiii. 69;
Plut. Alc. 33; Xen. Hell. i. 4.13--20). He signalised his return by conducting
the mystic procession to Eleusis, which had been interrupted since the occupation
of Deceleia. But his unsuccessful expedition against Andros and the defeat at
Notium, occasioned during his absence by the imprudence of his lieutenant, Antiochus,
who brought on an engagement against his orders, furnished his enemies with a
handle against him, and he was superseded in his command. (B. C. 406.)
Thinking that Athens would scarcely be a safe place for him, Alcibiades
went into voluntary exile to his fortified domain at Bisanthe in the Thracian
Chersonesus. He collected a band of mercenaries, and made war on the neighbouring
Thracian tribes, by which means he considerably enriched himself, and afforded
protection to the neighbouring Greek cities. Before the fatal battle of Aegos-Potami
(B. C. 405), he gave an ineffectual warning to the Athenian generals. After the
establishment of the tyranny of the Thirty (B. C. 404), he was condemned to banishment.
Upon this he took refuge with Pharnabazus, and was about to proceed to the court
of Artaxerxes, when one night his house was surrounded by a band of armed men,
and set on fire. He rushed out sword in hand, but fell, pierced with arrows. (B.
C. 404.) According to Diodorus and Ephorus (Diod. xiv. 11) the assassins were
emissaries of Pharnabazus, who had been led to this step either by his own jealousy
of Alcibiades, or by the instigation of the Spartans. It is more probable that
they were either employed by the Spartans, or (according to one account in Plutarch)
by the brothers of a lady whom Alcibiades had seduced. His corpe was taken up
and buried by his mistress Timandra. Athenacus (xiii. p. 574) mentions a monument
erected to his memory at Melissa, the place of his leath, and a statue of him
erected thereon by the emperor Hadrian, who also instituted certain yearly sacrifices
in his honour. He left a son by his wife Hipparete, named Alcibiades, who never
distinguished himself. It was for him that Isocrates wrote the speech Peri tou
Zeugous. Two of Lysias's speeches (xiv. and xv.) are directed against him. The
fortune which he left behind him turned out to be smaller than his patrimony (Plut.
Alcib. and Nicias; Thucyd. lib. v.--viii.; Xenophon, Hellen. lib. i. ii.; Andoc.
in Alcib. and de Myster.; Isocr. De Bigis; Nepos, Alcib.; Diod. xii. 78--84, xiii.
2--5, 37--41, 45, 46, 49--51, 64--73; Athen. i, iv, v, ix, xi, xii, xiii)
Commentary:
1. Demosthenes (Mid. p. 561) says, that the mother of Alcibiades was the daughter
of Hippoincus and that his father was connected with the Alcmaeonidae. The latter
statement may possibly be true. But it is difficult to explain the former, unless
we suppose Demosthenes to have confounded the great Alcibiades with his son.
2. Agariste, the mother of Pericles and Ariphon, was the daughter of Hippocrates,
whose brother Cleisthenes was the grandfather of Deinomache (Herod. vi. 131; Isocr.
De Big. 10).
3. He received a portion of 10 talents with his wife, which was to be doubled
on the birth of a son. His marriage took place before the battle of Delium (B.
C. 424), in which Hipponicus was slain (Andoc. Alcib.).
4. Shortly after the victory at Abydos, Alcibiades paid a visit to Tissaphernes,
who had arrived in the neighlbourhood of the Hellespont, but was arrested by him
and sent to Sardis. After a month's imnprisolment, however, he succeeded in making
his escape. (Xen. Hellen. i. 1.9)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alcibiades. After the death of Pericles, the Athenians abandoned his strategy and embarked upon Cleon's less passive policy, attacking Sparta at home. After ten years of war, the Spartans were forced to admit that they were unable to defeat Athens. After 421, Athens started an increasingly aggressive policy. In 420, a nephew of Pericles, Alcibiades (c.450-404/403), convinced the Athenians that they had to join a new anti-Spartan alliance, and five years later, he commanded an armada to conquer Sicily. However, Alcibiades was recalled because it was believed that he was involved in a religious scandal (415). He understood that his life was in danger, and went into exile in Sparta, where he convinced the authorities to start the war against Athens anew. The moment was well-chosen, because in 413 the Athenians had supported Amorges, a rebel in the Persian empire. Almost immediately, the Persians sided with Sparta. This was to be Athens' undoing. It could overcome the loss of the Sicilian expedition force, but could not fight against Sparta and Persia at the same time. Ironically, Alcibiades was able to return to Athens after he had made a false promise to forge an alliance between Persia and Athens, but he had to leave his home town when it became clear that he could not keep his word. Alcibiades went into exile again, this time staying at the court of the Persian satrap Pharnabazus. Athens was forced to surrender in 404; Alcibiades was killed almost immediately after. A few years later, the Athenians avenged themselves upon his teacher, the philosopher Socrates, who was forced to drink poison ivy.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
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