Alcibiades

Family: Athenian · Role: politician · First appears: Book 5 · Chapter 16 · Part 4

Alcibiades, son of Clinias, was distinguished by his ancestry and, while still young, became a force in Athenian politics. In Athens, he worked to bring the Argives, Mantineans, and Eleans into alliance, helping secure their hundred-year treaty with the Athenians. He also persuaded the Lacedaemonian envoys to conceal their full powers, and later urged the Athenians to declare that the Lacedaemonians had broken their oaths. That summer he aided the Argives at Epidaurus and encouraged the Patrians to extend their walls, though others prevented his planned fort from being built.

In the following summer, the Athenians appointed him, Nicias, and Lamachus to command the expedition to Sicily. Alcibiades advocated the expedition in opposition to Nicias, and at the Olympic games entered seven chariots, winning first, second, and fourth prizes. At Mantinea, he united powerful Peloponnesian states against Sparta. Back in Athens, he faced charges connected with the mutilation of images and mockery of the mysteries; he offered to stand trial before sailing, but the Athenians decreed that he should go and be tried on his return. In Sicily he sought an alliance with Messina, which refused to receive him within its walls.

Later, Alcibiades helped persuade the Lacedaemonians to support the Chians and Tissaphernes. Sailing with Chalcideus, he helped bring about revolts from Athens at Chios, Erythrae, Clazomenae, and Miletus, and fought alongside the Milesians and Tissaphernes. After Astyochus received an order to kill him, Alcibiades withdrew to Tissaphernes and worked against the Peloponnesian cause, advising him to cut the Peloponnesians’ pay. He also accused Phrynichus to the authorities at Samos and sought the abolition of the democracy as a condition for restoring ties with Tissaphernes.

The Athenians at Samos eventually voted for Alcibiades’ recall and amnesty; Thrasybulus brought him there, and the army elected him general and placed its affairs in his hands. Alcibiades stopped an intended expedition against fellow Athenians and called for the Four Hundred to be deposed and the Council of Five Hundred restored. Later, he reported that he had prevented the Phoenician fleet from joining the Peloponnesians and had made Tissaphernes more friendly to Athens. He then fortified Cos and placed a governor there.