Alcibiades, son of Clinias and Deinomache, was born at Athens about 450 B.C. He lost his father in the battle of Coronea (447), so was brought up in the house of his kinsman Pericles. In youth he gave evidence of his future greatness, excelling in both mental and bodily exercises. His goodly person, his distinguished parentage, and the high position of Pericles, procured him a multitude of friends and admirers. Socrates was one of the former, and gained considerable influence over him, but was unable to restrain his love of luxury and dissipation, which found ample means of gratification in the wealth that accrued to him by his union with Hipparete. His public displays, especially at the Olympic games, were costly beyond belief. He first bore arms in the expedition against Potidæa (432 B.C.), where his life was saved by Socrates—a debt which eight years later he repaid at Delium, by saving, in his turn, the life of the philosopher. He seems to have taken no part in political matters till after the death of the demagogue Cleon, when Nicias brought about a fifty years' treaty of peace between Athens and Lacedæmon. Alcibiades, jealous of the esteem in which Nicias was held, persuaded the Athenians to ally themselves with the people of Argos, Elis, and Mantinea (420), and did all in his power to stir up afresh their ancient enmity to Sparta. It was at his suggestion that, in 415, they engaged in the Sicilian expedition, to the command of which he was elected, along with Nicias and Lamachus. But while preparations were making, one night all the statues of Hermes in Athens were mutilated. Alcibiades' enemies threw on him the blame of this sacrilege, but postponed the impeachment till he had set sail, when they stirred up the people against him to such a degree, that he was recalled, in order to stand his trial. On the voyage home, he landed in Italy, and thence crossed to Lacedæmon, where, by conforming to the strict Spartan manners, he soon became a favourite. He induced the Lacedæmonians to send assistance to Syracuse, to form an alliance with Persia, and to support the people of Chios in their effort to throw off the Athenian yoke. He went thither himself, and raised all Ionia in revolt. But
Agis and other leading Spartans, jealous of Alcibiades' success, ordered their generals in Asia to have him assassinated. Discovering the plot, he fled to Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap, who had orders to act in concert with the Spartans. He now resumed his old manners, adopted the luxurious habits of Asia, and made himself indispensable to Tissaphernes, representing to him that it was contrary to Persia's interests entirely to disable the Athenians. He then sent word to the Athenian commanders at Samos that he would procure for them the friendship of the satrap if they would establish an oligarchy at Athens. The offer was accepted, and the supreme power vested in a council of Four Hundred. When it appeared, however, that this council had no intention of recalling Alcibiades, the army at Samos chose him for a general, desiring him to lead them to Athens. But Alcibiades did not wish to return to his native country till he had rendered it some service; and during the next four years he defeated the Lacedæmonians at Cynossema, Abydos, and Cyzicus; recovered Chalcedon and Byzantium, and restored to the Athenians the dominion of the sea. He then returned home (407), on a formal invitation, and was received with general enthusiasm. His triumph, however, was brief. He was sent back to Asia with a hundred ships; but his own ill-success against Andros, and the defeat of his lieutenant at Notium, enabled his enemies to get him superseded (406). He went into exile in the Thracian Chersonesus, and two years later crossed over to Phrygia, with the intention of repairing to the court of Artaxerxes. Historians differ as to why, and by whom the deed was done; but one night, in 404, his house was fired by a band of armed men; and, rushing out sword in hand, he fell pierced with a shower of arrows. Nature had gifted him with winning eloquence (though he stuttered in his speech, and could not articulate the letter r), and his in a rare degree was the power to fascinate and govern men. In all his actions, he allowed himself to be guided by circumstances, because he had no fixed principles of conduct. But he possessed the boldness that arises from conscious superiority; he shrank from no difficulty, because he was never doubtful of the means for attaining an end.