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Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (ancient Greek:
(c. 450 BC-404 BC) was an Athenian general and
politician.
==Life==
He was born in Athens, the son of Cleinias and
Deinomache, who belonged to the family of the
Alcmaeonidae.
He was a near relative of Pericles, who, after the
death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea (447
BC)|Battle of Coronea (447 BC), became his
guardian.
Thus early deprived of his father's control,
possessed of great personal beauty and the heir to
great wealth, which was increased by his marriage,
he showed himself self-willed, capricious and
passionate, and indulged in the most insolent
behaviour.
Nor did the instructors of his early manhood
supply the corrective which his boyhood lacked.
From Protagoras, Prodicus, and others he learnt to
laugh at the common ideas of justice, temperance,
holiness and patriotism.
The laborious thought, the ascetic life of his
master Socrates, he was able to admire, but not to
imitate or practise.
On the contrary, his ostentatious vanity, his
amours, his debaucheries and his impious revels
became notorious.
But great as were his vices, his abilities were
even greater.

He took part in the Battle of Potidaea (432 BC),
where his life was saved by Socrates, a service
which he repaid at the Battle of Delium (424 BC).
Alcibiades had great admiration of Socrates, and
once said:
"His nature is so beautiful, golden, divine, and
wonderful within that everything he commands
surely must be obeyed, even like the voice of
good."
As the reward for his bravery, the wealthy
Hipponicus bestowed upon him the hand of his
daughter.

From this time he took a prominent part in
Athenian politics during the Peloponnesian War.
Originally friendly to Sparta, he subsequently
became the leader of the war party in opposition
to Nicias, and after the peace of 421 BC he
succeeded by an unscrupulous trick in duping the
Spartan ambassadors, and persuading the Athenians
to conclude an alliance (420 BC) with Argos, Elis,
and Mantineia.
On the failure of Nicias in Thrace (418 BC-417 BC)
he became the chief advocate of the Sicilian
expedition, seeing an opportunity for the
realization of his ambitious projects, which
included the conquest of Sicily, to be followed by
that of Peloponnesus and possibly of Carthage
(though this seems to have been an afterthought).
The expedition was decided upon with great
enthusiasm, and Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus
were appointed joint commanders.
But, on the day before the expedition sailed,
there occurred the mysterious mutilation of the
Herma|hermai, and Alcibiades was accused not only
of being the originator of the crime, but also of
having profaned the Eleusinian Mysteries.
His request for an immediate investigation being
refused, he was obliged to set sail with the
charge still hanging over him.

Almost as soon as he reached Sicily he was
recalled to stand his trial, but he escaped on the
journey home and made his way to Sparta.
Learning that he had been condemned to death in
his absence and his property confiscated, he
openly joined the Spartans, and persuaded them to
send Gylippus to assist the Syracuse,
Italy|Syracusans and to fortify Decelea in Attica,
Greece|Attica.
He then passed over to Asia Minor, prevailed upon
many of the Ionic allies of Athens to revolt, and
concluded an alliance with the Persian satrap
Tissaphernes.
But in a few months he had lost the confidence of
the Spartans, and at the instigation of Agis II,
whose personal hostility he had excited (it was
rumoured that Agis' newborn child was actually
conceived by Alcibiades), an order was sent for
his execution.

Receiving timely information of this order he
crossed over to Tissaphernes (412 BC), and
persuaded him to adopt the negative policy of
leaving Athens and Sparta to wear themselves out
by their mutual struggles.
Alcibiades was now bent on returning to Athens,
and he used his supposed influence with
Tissaphernes to effect his purpose.
He entered into negotiations with the oligarch
Peisander, but when these led to no result he
attached himself to the fleet at Samos which
remained loyal to the democracy, and was
subsequently recalled by Thrasybulus, although he
did not at once return to Athens.
Being appointed commander in the neighbourhood of
the Hellespont, he defeated the Spartan fleet at
Abydos, Hellespont|Abydos (411 BC) and Cyzicus
(410 BC), and recovered Chalcedon and Byzantium.

On his return to Athens after these successes he
was welcomed with unexpected enthusiasm (407 BC);
all the proceedings against him were cancelled,
and he was appointed general with full 
powers.
His ill success, however, at Andros, and the
defeat at Notium (407 BC) of his lieutenant
Antiochus, led the Athenians to dismiss him from
his command.
He thereupon retired to the Thracian Chersonesus.

After the Battle of Aegospotami, and the final
defeat of Athens, he crossed the Hellespont and
took refuge with Pharnabazus in Phrygia, with the
object of securing the aid of Artaxerxes against
Sparta. But the Spartans induced Pharnabazus to
put him out of the way; as he was about to set out
for the Persian court his residence was set on
fire, and on rushing out on his assassins, dagger
in hand, he was killed by a shower of arrows (404
BC).
==Sources about the life of Alcibiades==
* Aristophanes mentions Alcibiades several times
in his satirical plays, for instance making fun of
his manner of speech.
* Alcibiades figures in several Socratic
dialogues:
** Symposium (Plato)|Plato's Symposium where he
appears to be in love with Socrates.
** There are two dialogues from antiquity titled
"Alcibiades", ascribed to Plato, both of them
however probably spurious, that feature Socrates
in conversation with Alcibiades: First Alcibiades
(or Alcibiades I) and Second Alcibiades (or
Alcibiades II): see Alcibiades (dialogues)
* Plutarch gives a biography of Alcibiades, and
compares his life with that of Coriolanus, see
Parallel Lives.
==See also==
*Trial of Socrates
*Erik Satie used some words of Symposium
(Plato)|Plato's Symposium, purportedly spoken by
Alcibiades, in the first part of his Socrate
==External links==
* Project Gutenberg:
** 11 comedies by Aristophanes et al.:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8688 Part I and
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8689 Part II
** Socratic dialogues, translated by Benjamin
Jowett: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1676
Alcibiades I and
http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1677 Alcibiades II
** Plutarch's Parallel Lives (Aubrey Stewart and
George Long translation):
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/3/14033/14033-
h/14033-h.htm#LIFE_OF_ALKIBIADES Alcibiades' life
and
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/3/14033/14033-
h/14033-h.htm#COMPARISON_OF_ALKIBIADES_AND_CORIOLA
NUS Comparison to life of Coriolanus
* MIT classics:
** Plutarch's Parallel Lives (John Dryden
translation):
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/alcibiad.html
Alcibiades' life and
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/compared.html
Comparison to life of Coriolanus
==Notes==
1 - Official full name of Alcibiades. The
meaning in English is "Alcibiades son of Cleinias,
of the deme Scambonidai".
1911