Alcibiades in Peloponnesian War, according to Plutarch, Thucydides, and Xenophon

Today we will learn and reflect on the outrageous,
charismatic, and highly influential Athenian Alcibiades,
using Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Greeks, and Thucydides and
Xenophon, as our primary sources.
You cannot understand the historical setting of the Platonic
dialogues without reflecting on the history of the
Peloponnesian Wars, because so many of the leading
figures of this period are referenced in the Platonic
dialogues.

Likewise, you cannot understand either the Platonic
dialogues or the history of the Peloponnesian Wars
unless you reflect on the most influential advisor,
general, and diplomat of the war, Alcibiades.
Alcibiades, lover of Socrates, is a charismatic
carousing character in the influential Platonic
dialogue, the Symposium, a dinner party where the
guests debate the nature of love.

Thucydides quotes the comic Aristophanes who says that regarding Alcibiades, the
Athenians Love Him, Hate Him, and Can’t Do Without Him. During the war, he first
advises the Athenians, then the Spartans, then the Persians, then he advises and
leads the Athenians again, and everyone who takes his advice is successful in the
war, but he manages to irritate so many Greeks and, after the war ends, is eventually
slain by the Persians and Spartans.
Also, just like the Americans living in the 1950’s and 1060’s saw World War II as a
recent event, so the Greeks in the Platonic Dialogues saw the Peloponnesian War as
a recent event, and it colored their perception of the world, and philosophy.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video. Please feel free
to follow along our PowerPoint script posted to SlideShare. Please, we welcome
interesting questions in the comments. Let us learn and reflect together!

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SUMMARIZING PAST EVENTS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS
The Peloponnesian Wars followed the Greco-Persian Wars by
about fifty years, or as Thucydides describes it, the
Pentecontaetia. In the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persian forces
were defeated on both land and sea by the mainland Greeks, and
how the Delian League was formed as a defense against Persian,
and how that evolved into an oppressive Athenian Empire. We
consulted both Plutarch and Thucydides to tell the story of
Pericles up through his death by the plague in the second year of
the Archidamian War, the first phase of the Peloponnesian Wars.

.
479 BC: Xerxes
retreats to Persia

https://youtu.be/QabwtFANCDc
https://youtu.be/uhtGzfxVdzk
https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
Aristides and Cimon were two Athenian generals who were
asked by the Ionic Greek colonies to lead the defensive Delian
League against Persia, that evolved into the Athenian Empire.
The rise of Pericles and the reforms leading to
the Radical Democracy of Athens.
Pericles as general and statesman before and
at the start of the Peloponnesian Wars.

We will view the Peloponnesian Wars after the death
of Pericles through the eyes of the most remarkable
character of these wars, Alcibiades. He was also a
close friend, and Plutarch says lover, of Socrates.
Socrates saved Alcibiades’ life when they were
serving together as Athenian hoplites.

Battle of Potidaea (432 BC): Socrates saving Alcibiades, 1700’s
Battle of Potidaea
(432 BC): Socrates
saving Alcibiades,
1700’s

Socrates in Battle Protecting Alcibiades, by PV Basin, circa 1828 In the Battle of
Potidaea, Plutarch tells
us that “a fierce
engagement took place
in which both men
displayed great bravery,
and when Alcibiades
fell wounded, Socrates
stood over him, kept
the enemy at bay, and
manifestly, in plain
view of everyone,
saved him along with
his arms and armor.”

Plutarch reveals the vices of Alcibiades, “But
along with his statesmanship, eloquence, pride,
and ingenuity went, by contrast, a luxurious
lifestyle of overindulgence in drink and sex,
effeminacy of dress,” “and incredible
extravagance.” Many “notable men of Athens
combined feelings of abhorrence and disgust with
the fear of his haughty and lawless attitude,
which could be tyrannical in its excessiveness.
As for the common people, their feelings toward
him have been well summed up by Aristophanes,”
and this is one of the most famous statements
about Alcibiades, “They miss him, they hate him,
they can’t live without him.” Alcibades with Socrates in bordello, by
Francesco Hayez, 1800’s

Alcibiades was born in Athens to an aristocratic family who
historically served as guest-friends to the Spartans. The
guest-friend relationship was an expression of the Greek
concept of xenia, or diplomacy, which was the theme of
Homer’s Odyssey. His family often hosted Spartan
aristocrats when they visited Athens, either on official or
personal business. Both his parents died when he was
quite young, his father died in combat commanding a
trireme he outfitted for the state, and he was raised in the
household of Pericles, who became one of his guardians.

Plutarch tells us the essence of his
character: “As for Alcibiades’ good
looks,” “they bloomed in his
childhood, in his youth, and when he
had grown up too; however old he
was,” “his attractiveness, charm, and
good looks never left him.” “He was
highly passionate, and his most
powerful motivation was the desire
to compete, and to come first.”
Detail of Alcibiades, by François-André Vincent, 1776

From his youth, Alcibiades was attracted to the
teaching of Socrates.

Alcibades being taught by Socrates, by François-André Vincent, 1776
Plutarch comments,
“the fact that Socrates
was in love with him
strongly suggests that
the boy was endowed
with a natural
aptitude for virtue.
Socrates saw
Alcibiades’ good looks
as the brilliant
external manifestation
of this excellence.”

Alcibades being taught by Socrates, by Marcello Bacciarelli, 1777
Socrates worried about the
Athenians and Greeks
abroad “employed flattery
and favoritism to win over
Alcibiades’ affections. So,
Socrates set out to protect
him from these influences;
Socrates could not stand by
and watch a blossoming
tree wastefully destroy its
own fruit.”

Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual
Pleasure, by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1791, the Louvre Museum
Plutarch suggests that his relationship
with Socrates went beyond that of a
mere teacher: “Although Alcibiades
had been spoiled” and undisciplined
“all his life,” “nevertheless his innate
excellence let him to recognize
Socrates, and he shunned his rich and
eminent lovers in favor of associating
with Socrates. He soon became close
to Socrates, and heard arguments
from a lover who was not hunting
after unmanly pleasure, and was not
begging him for kisses and caresses,
but was trying to expose the
unsoundness of his mind and was
harrying his vain and foolish pride.“

Socrates driving Alcibiades away from vice, by Jules Le Chevrel, 1865
Plutarch continues, “And then
‘Alcibiades crouched down in
fear, like a defeated cock, with
wing aslant, and he believed
that Socrates’ mission really
was a way of carrying out the
gods’ wishes by looking after
young men and keeping them
free from corruption. He began
to despise himself and admire
Socrates; he began to value
Socrates’ kindness and feel
humbled because of his
goodness.”

So, Socrates pursued Alcibiades more as an
irate schoolmaster than as a lover:
“Socrates with his love did tend to subdue
Alcibiades, who had sufficient innate
excellence for Socrates’ arguments to get
through to him, wrench his heart, and start
the tears flowing. But he also sometimes
surrendered to his flatterers and all the
delights they held out, and then he would
give Socrates the slip and be hunted down,
for all the world like a runaway slave,
because Socrates was the only one of his
lovers he respected and feared, while he
had nothing but contempt for the rest.”
Socrates Chiding Alcibiades in Home of a
Courtesan, by Germán Hernández Amores, 1857

As Alcibiades was as charming as he was popular,
he had many friends and hangers-on.

Plutarch tells us that the corrupters of sensual
Alcibiades “set him prematurely on the road of high
endeavor; they convinced him that as soon as he took
up politics, he would not merely eclipse all the other
military commanders and popular leaders but would
gain more power and prestige” “than even Pericles
enjoyed. Just as iron, then, is softened in the fire, but
is hardened again by cold,” “so time and time again
Socrates took him back in a state of complete
promiscuity and presumptuousness, and by force of
argument would pull him together and teach him
humility and restraint, by showing him how great his
flaws were and how far he was from virtue.”

Penelope awaiting Odysseus, by Heva
Coomans, 1900
Did Alcibiades also have a measure of contempt for his
wife? Plutarch also tells us some uncomplimentary
details, his wife, “Hipparete was a well behaved and
affectionate wife,” but Alcibiades’ liaisons with
courtesans offended her, “so she moved out of the
house to go live with her brother. This did not worry
Alcibiades.” “Hipparete had to lodge the petition for
divorce with the archon personally rather than through
proxies. But when she arrived to see to this business as
the law required, Alcibiades came up, grabbed hold of
her, and took her back home with him, and although he
passed right through the city square, no one dared to
oppose him or take her away from him. She stayed with
him, however, until her death, a short while later.”

Plutarch even tells us an
uncomplimentary story about his
dog. “Alcibiades had a remarkably
large and attractive dog with a
particularly fine tail, but he cut it off.
When his close friends admonished
him, warning him that everyone was
saying bad things about him
because of his tailless dog, he
laughed and said, ‘That’s exactly
what I want to happen. I’m perfectly
happy for the Athenians to chatter
about my dog, this will stop them
from saying anything worse about
me.” If this is how he treats his dog,
how does he treat his friends, if he
indeed truly has any?
Cerberus, dog in Greek mytology guarding the
underworld, William Blake, around 1800

But Alcibiades was a masterful politician, and
although he often pursued policies that would win
him glory in battle, he had many qualities of
statesmanship.

Socrates teaching Alcibiades, by
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1816
Plutarch tells us, “Alcibiades was
particularly good at understanding the
essential points of an issue, then finding
the perfect argument, then coining the
perfect words and phrases” for a speech,
“and since a large vocabulary was not one
of his gifts, he often used to hesitate, fall
silent in the middle of a speech, and
interrupt the flow, while searching for an
elusive expression, before picking up the
threads again and proceeding with
caution.”

Alcibiades was the first Greek to enter seven chariot teams in the
Olympic Games, and since his teams “came in first, second, and
forth place meant that he gained more in terms of distinction and
renown than anyone could have ever hoped to achieve.”
Chariot Race, by Jean Léon Gérôme, 1876

We discussed in a prior video how Nicias negotiated
the Peace of Nicias, which halted direct hostilities
between Athens and Sparta for nearly six years,
though it was a fragile peace where low-level
hostilities continued, particularly by the Spartan
allies. Alcibiades was jealous of Nicias, and this
clouded his judgment.

https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
The play by Aristophanes on the Peace of Nicias,
showing popular opinion of the war. We ponder
whether Pericles started the war needlessly.
The Peace of Nicias, and why it was not so
peaceful, ending the Archidamian War,
the first phase of the Peloponnesian Wars.
Comparing and contrasting:
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Churchill’s speech, Battle of Britain
https://youtu.be/szi7-9QQWI0
https://youtu.be/UHRzKH-asoo

Plutarch tells us, “the admiration
Nicias won from Athens’ enemies
irritated Alcibiades just as much as
the respect paid him by his fellow
citizens. For although Alcibiades was
the Lacedaemonian representative in
Athens and had looked after the
interests of the Spartans captured at
Pylos, Nicias was chiefly responsible
for the Lacedaemonians obtaining
peace and recovering the prisoners,
and so the Lacedaemonians felt a
great deal of affection for him.”

Plutarch continues, “Moreover, the
Greeks used to say it was Pericles
who had brought them into conflict
and Nicias who put an end to the
war; in fact, the most common
name for the peace was the Peace
of Nicias. All this made Alcibiades
exceedingly irritated, and he
spitefully began to try to find ways
to undermine the peace treaty.”

The Peace of Nicias would be broken by the ill-
fated Sicilian Expedition. Plutarch explains,
“even during Pericles’ lifetime, the Athenians
had coveted Sicily, and after his death they
tried to gain control over it. From time to time,
they sent what they described as ‘missions to
relieve and reinforce the victims of Syracusan
aggression.’” “The person who fanned this
smoldering desire of the Athenians” to
conquer Syracuse in Sicily to “full flame and
convince them not to set about the task
gradually or by halves, but to send out a large
fleet and overrun the island, was Alcibiades.”
Destruction of the Athenian army at
Syracuse, by John Steeple Davis, 1900

We discussed the Sicilian Expedition in depth previously, so we will only summarize
the events from the perspective of Alcibiades. The Athenians voted to send a
massive fleet of over a hundred triremes and thousands of hoplite infantry to invade
Syracuse, they appointed Nicias as senior general to temper the impetuous
ambitions of the irrepressible general Alcibiades. One night just before the
expedition set sail, someone knocked off the faces and phalluses of the hermae in
Athens, these were talismanic statues on the porches of temples and houses to
ward off evil spirits. This was seen as an evil omen, and many suspected that
Alcibiades was behind this prank.
Why did so many Athenians suspect Alcibiades? Because many devout Athenians
were offended by the raucous drinking and carousing by Alcibiades and his
sycophants; once, as Professor Kenneth Harl of the Teaching Company relates,
Alcibiades had staged a mock version of the religious ceremonies surrounding the
Elysian Mysteries.

Moral lessons, Thucydides History:
Revolt at Mytilene
Revolution at Corcyra
Melian Dialogue
Plutarch and Thucydides on the role of
Alcibiades in the Peloponnesian Wars,
History of the Wars after Syracuse
Disastrous Defeat of Athens at Syracuse,
much of the Athenian fleet were slaughtered,
leading to revolts of allies and her eventual
defeat in the Peloponnesian Wars.
https://youtu.be/yECl8cKCzao
https://youtu.be/SaIqQ35ysl4
CURRENT VIDEO

So that should top our list of Plutarch’s moral and strategic lessons:
• Generals should not mock the Elysian Mysteries, or any other
religious observance.

Many of the rowers and hoplites embarking on this
great adventure were sympathetic to Alcibiades, so
no charges were immediately brought forward. But a
few months afterwards, these votes no longer
counted, so charges were brought now that his
prosecution was certain.

Sicilian Expedition,
the Athenian fleet
before Syracuse,
wood engraving,
19th Century

( Note, next two slides have identical text. )

Plutarch tells us his enemies in Athens
“found Alcibiades guilty in abstentia,
confiscated his property, and also decreed
that he should be publicly cursed by all the
priests and priestesses in the city.”
A trireme was sent to fetch him to face trial
in Athens, but while in port he jumped ship.
Plutarch continues, “Alcibiades immediately
made his way to the Peloponnese.” “He sent
a message to Sparta, asking for asylum, and
promised to render them the same kind of
service and assistance that would outweigh
the harm he had done them before, when
they were on opposite sides.”

Plutarch tells us his enemies in Athens
“found Alcibiades guilty in abstentia,
confiscated his property, and also decreed
that he should be publicly cursed by all the
priests and priestesses in the city.”
A trireme was sent to fetch him to face trial
in Athens, but while in port he jumped ship.
Plutarch continues, “Alcibiades immediately
made his way to the Peloponnese.” “He sent
a message to Sparta, asking for asylum, and
promising to render them the same kind of
service and assistance that would outweigh
the harm he had done them before, when
they were on opposite sides.”

Plutarch tells us that after
Alcibiades had been recalled
from the Sicilian expedition, “the
men’s morale dropped with his
departure. They anticipated a
long, drawn-out, sluggish war
under Nicias’ leadership, now
that the person had stirred things
up had been removed.” Destruction of the Athenian army at
Syracuse, by John Steeple Davis, 1900

And we know what happened at Syracuse. Nicias dawdled, Nicias
was overly cautious, Nicias wasted years in a campaign that
should have lasted months, and all the while his Syracusan
enemies, being trained by the Spartan general Gylippus, grew
stronger and stronger. By the time the skilled general
Demosthenes brought even more reinforcements it was too late,
as Nicias, as senior general, dawdled, both he and Demosthenes
and nearly all the hoplites and rowers were executed, or died in
the mines, none made it back to Athens, and over two hundred
triremes were destroyed.

Retreat of the
Athenians from
Syracuse.

(REPEAT) Now we can add to Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
• Generals should not mock the Elysian Mysteries, or any other religious
observance.
• Never expect that timid generals will ever deliver dramatic victories.
Lincoln would later re-learn this lesson with his timid General George
McClellan in the American Civil War.
• If you want to win a war, you must tolerate the eccentricities of your
most talented generals.
During the Civil War, Lincoln found a fighter who was willing to do
battle with the Confederates in General Grant. When challenged on
whether he drank too much, Lincoln replied that he would recommend
Grant’s brand of whiskey to his other generals, so they would fight also.
• Do not force your most promising general into exile.

Now we can add to Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
• Never expect that timid generals will ever deliver dramatic
victories.
• If you want to win a war, you must tolerate the eccentricities
of your most talented generals.

Alcibiades lived the maxim:
WHEN IN SPARTA, DO AS THE SPARTANS DO
Like many aristocrats, Alcibiades had guest-friends in many
Greek city-states, particularly in Sparta, since his family
was historically a guest-friend for the Spartans. In our prior
video, we described how he had double-crossed some
Spartan delegates visiting Athens on a diplomatic mission.
Although some Spartans must have remembered this
deceit, his Alcibidian charm won over many enemies over
the course of his life.

Ruins of Sparta
from the right
bank of the
Eurotas. Sparta is
in the background
and Mount
Taygetus behind
that.
The ruins of
Athens are much
more impressive.

Plutarch tells us how Alcibiades
became the quintessential Spartan.
“In Sparta, in public as well as in
private, he became a well-known and
much-admired figure. During this
period, he gained influence over the
common people there, and held them
spellbound by adopting a Laconian
style of life. When they saw him with
his hair in need of a close cut, bathing
in cold water, accustomed to course
bread, and supping broth, they
seriously doubted whether this was a
man who had ever had a cook in his
house, or set eyes on a perfumer, or
could endure the touch of Milesian
wool.”
A spartan woman giving a shield to her son, by Jean-Jacques-François
Le Barbier, painted 1826

Plutarch tells us that Alcibiades possessed
a skill “for captivating men, and that was
he could assimilate and adapt himself to
their habits and lifestyles. He could change
more abruptly than a chameleon. The only
difference between him and a chameleon
that was that a chameleon apparently
finds it totally impossible to color himself
white;” while Alcibiades could turn
himself into any color when “in the
company of good men or bad. There was
nothing he could not imitate and no habit
he could not acquire.”
Three Spartan Boys Practising Archery, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, circa 1812

Alcibiades gave the Spartans much valuable advice, from Plutarch:
• First, Alcibiades persuaded the Spartans to send to Syracuse “the
Expeditionary force under Gylippus to crush the Athenian army there.
• Secondly, he advised them to restart at the war against the Athenians.
• Thirdly, he persuaded the Spartans to fortify Decelea,” a Spartan
outpost near Athens, “which played a more crucial part than anything
else in bringing him out the destruction and downfall of Athens.”

In the first phase of the war, before the Peace of
Nicias, the Spartans would ravage the crops and
fields and homes in the Athenian countryside for
about forty days, then return home. With their Attic
fortress in Decelea fortified, the Spartans could ravish
Attica all year round, and they did this for a decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoplite

But Alcibiades is still Alcibiades, he
always shows his sensual side. Plutarch
tells us, “While King Agis was out of
the country on campaign, Alcibiades
seduced his wife Timaea so thoroughly
that not only did she get pregnant with
his child, but she did not deny it.” “As
for Alcibiades, he used to say, in his
willful fashion, that it was not defiance
or lust that had led him to do it, but
rather because he wanted to have his
descendants rule over the
Lacedaemonians.”
Socrates Rescuing Alcibiades, by Pedro Américo, 1861

Professor Harl has an amusing discussion exploring exactly
why Alcibiades did this. Did he expect to get away with this
outrage? Like many men who fool around, you can ask:
What was he thinking? Harl compares him to many of the
rowdy British aristocrats in the late colonial age, but comes
to only possible conclusion: that Alcibiades was just being
Alcibiades, he did this simply because he could do it.
Alcibiades reminds me of the Romeo libertine archetypes
in the Hesse novels, such as Narcissus and Goldmund.

Socrates
Tears
Alcibiades
from the
Embrace of
Sensual
Pleasure,
by Felix
Auvers,
circa 1830

Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1861

Socrates Tears Alcibiades from Embrace of
Sensual Pleasure, Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1791
Plutarch continues, “Now Alcibiades had an
enemy in King Agis, whose hostility was due
not over just his troubles with his wife, but
also to his resentment of his reputation
Alcibiades was acquiring for being
responsible” “for nearly all the successes
they enjoyed, and prompted by their envy,
the most influential and ambitious Spartans
also had enough of Alcibiades.” So now
Alcibiades was not only exiled from Athens,
he was also under a death sentence from
Sparta!

Now we can add to Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
victories.
• If you want to win a war, you must tolerate the eccentricities of
your most talented generals.
• Generals should not sleep with and impregnate the King’s wife.

ATHENS SLOWLY RECOVERS FROM HER DISASTROUS
DEFEAT IN SICILY
We will leave Alcibiades hanging “in flagrante
dilecto” while we discuss how the Athenians fared
after their disastrous defeat in the Sicilian Expedition.
The years immediately after the disastrous Sicilian
Expedition were touch and go for Athens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_flagrante_delicto

Soon after they learned of their defeat,
Thucydides says that the Athenians feared
that “their enemies in Sicily, after their
great victory, would set sail immediately
with their fleet for the Athenian port at
the Piraeus, that their enemies at home
would now most certainly redouble their
efforts and attack them with all their
might by land and sea, and that their allies
would revolt and join in the attack.” “In
particular, the subjects of Athens were
ready to revolt; indeed, they were
incapable of taking a dispassionate view of
things,” and expected that “Athens would
not survive the coming summer.”

The Athenians rallied, they still had over a hundred triremes both
in reserve and on the docks, many battles were fought, often the
Athenians won, sometimes the Spartans won, and the Athenians
gradually regained some of their former power in the Aegean
Sea, while the Spartans were discouraged.
Now that they had declared war, the Spartans had to build up
their fleet. Though now the Persians were open to funding this
shipbuilding effort, this construction took time, and they also had
to train their crews. The Spartan commanders before Lysander
were unimaginative, and often were reluctant to engage in naval
battles with the Athenians, fearing defeat.

Olympias, a modern
reconstruction of an
ancient Athenian
trireme, build in
1987, is a
commissioned ship
in the Greek navy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympias_(trireme)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympias_(trireme)

Socrates finds
his student
Alcibiades at
heterai, by
Henryk
Siemiradzki,
circa 1873

Alcibiades also lived the maxim:
WHEN IN PERSIA, DO AS THE PERSIANS DO
Where to go now? To the court of the Persians, the
destination for many exiled Greek leaders.

Plutarch tells us, “for safety’s sake, Alcibiades entrusted
himself to Tissaphernes, a satrap of the Persian king in
Ionia. “Before long, there was no one Tissaphernes
admired or valued more than Alcibiades. This Persian was
a devious and malicious man, who felt no qualms about
doing wrong, and he was impressed by Alcibiades’
versatility and extraordinary ingenuity.”
Plutarch describes how Alcibiades adapted to the Persian
court. “In Sparta Alcibiades exercised, lived frugally, and
wore a frown on his face; in Ionia he was fastidious,
companionable, and easy living; in Thrace he went in for
hard drinking and hard riding; and when he was with the
Persian satrap Tissaphernes he outdid the Persians, for all
their magnificence, with his pomp and extravagance.”

Previously he had given the Spartans excellent advice
on how to win the war, now his advice to the
Persians was equally valuable.

Plutarch tells us how Alcibiades “set about
maligning and defaming the Spartans to
Tissaphernes. He did not want the Persians
to be too ready to help the Spartans and
thereby destroy the Athenians, but
preferred to let them have a miserly amount
of support, so that they would gradually get
into difficulties and be worn down; in this
way, he argued, both sides would exhaust
each other and fall into the Persian king’s
hands. Tissaphernes was easily convinced by
this and made no secret of his admiration
and approval of Alcibiades.”
Greek hoplite and Persian
warrior depicted fighting, on an
ancient kylix, 5th century BC

ALCIBIADES ANGLES FOR ATHENS TO RECALL HIM
The main Athenian naval base on the island of Samos
was not that far from the court of Tissaphernes.
Alcibiades started putting out feelers to the
Athenians, though he was more popular with the
rowers than he was with the generals.

Let us summarize the career of Alcibiades:
• Athens enthusiastically, at the urging of
Alcibiades, embarks on the Sicilian Expedition,
but then they recall and demote him.
• Alcibiades, in exile in the Peloponnese, advice
the Spartans on how to best manage the war.
• After sleeping with the Spartan King’s wife,
Alcibiades then advises the Persians on how to
best manage the war.
• Alcibiades then angles his comeback as a
victorious Athenian general, completely
reversing the tides of war, until Athenian anger
compels him to go into exile once again, and
afterwards, Athens loses the war.
Alcibiades, by Agostino Veneziano, 1500’s

What a remarkable career! Alcibiades is on all sides, and
on the Athenian side twice! You might ask yourself, What is
going on here? Why did the Athenians welcome him back?
Wasn’t Alcibiades guilty of treason?
I have not encountered any mention of the concept of
treason in any of the ancient Greek sources. In part, this
may be due to the cultural evolution of the guest-friend
relationships, where aristocrats can freely travel between
Greek city-states even when they are at war with each
other.

After he is exiled,
the former
Athenian leader
Themistocles
finds refuge with
King Admetus,
and retires as a
Persian baron, by
Franz Caucig,
1801

To learn more, we will consult Xenophon’s description
of the role Alcibiades played in the Peloponnesian
Wars: “Alcibiades had been banished” during the
Sicilian Expedition “not because he deserved it, but
because of the intrigues of people who were inferior to
him in power, who lacked his abilities to speak, and
whose only political principle was their own self-
interest.”
So, Alcibiades did not act in his own self-interest?
Anyway, Xenophon describes the injustice of his trial
after he chose exile, then says this about his time spent
assisting Sparta: “In his exile he had been the helpless
slave of necessity and, being every day in danger of
losing his life, had no other course but to make himself
agreeable to those who he hated most.”
Alcibiades and Timon, by Richard Westall, 1805

Thucydides was also an exile in Sparta after he lost his
Athenian command, but he did not assist the Spartan war
effort, but instead began a second career as a historian.
But this justification by Xenophon of the actions of
Alcibiades was no doubt shared by many Athenians.
Coming back to Samos, the Athenians were worried about
the hundred and fifty Phoenician triremes that they were
expecting to sail into the Aegean Sea from Phoenicia. The
sources are unclear whether these triremes even existed,
but many Athenians worried about them.

Plutarch tells us, “Alcibiades was
aware of these fears, and he sent a
secret message to the Athenian
leaders on Samos on how” he could
possibly bring Tissaphernes over to
their side. He claimed his motive
was to save Athens, but one of the
military commanders, Phrynicus,
“suspected, quite rightly, that
Alcibiades said just as much or little
use for an oligarchic government as
he did for the democratic one, that
he was only looking for some way to
return to Athens,” preferably as a
conquering general.
Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates,
by Marcello Bacciarelli, 1777

Alcibiades was not the only Athenian who is talking to Tissaphernes, and there were
some crossing and double-crossing and double-double-crossing, but in this type of
affair, Alcibiades usually gets the upper hand, and he did in this case, and the
Athenian commander who was double-dealing was stabbed to death in the city
square with a dagger.
The comeback of Alcibiades also dovetailed with the machinations of aristocrats
conspiring to set up a government of four hundred aristocrats, and they assured the
Assembly to coax them into voting themselves out of power, that this would be
eventually replaced by a government of the five thousand, after the wartime
emergency was over. Alcibiades saw through their plans, outmaneuvered them,
insisting that the government of five thousand be immediately instituted, and in
response, many of the scheming aristocrats fled for refuge with the Spartans,
showing their true colors. This complicated episode is documented by Thucydides.

Aspasia conversing with
Pericles, Alcibiades,
Isocrates, Socrates,
Plato and Xenophon,
Euripides and
Sophocles, Phidias and
Parrhasius. Nicolas-
André Monsiau, 1800’s

Plutarch comments on the sound strategic
sense of Alcibiades in this situation. “If
anybody else had been unexpectedly
appointed head of this Athenian fleet at
Samos by popular favor, what would he have
done? He would immediately have thought it
his job to please, and nothing to oppose, the
people who just saved them from the life of a
wandering fugitive and appointed him to lead
and command a mighty fleet and army, with
powerful resources. But not Alcibiades.
Instead, as befitted a great leader, he resisted
their angry impulses and stopped them from
making a great mistake.”

If Alcibiades had sailed to Athens,
civil war could have erupted; it could
have “pitched Athenians against
Athenians and made the city itself a
theater of war. It was thanks to
Alcibiades, more than anything else,
that this did not happen. He not only
gave convincing reasons for not
setting sail in his speeches to the
assembled troops, but he also
lobbied them individually, pleading
with them to curb their enthusiasm.” Cimon takes command of the Greek Fleet, illustration
from 'Hutchinson's History of the Nations', 1915

Alcibiades also promised that the Persian triremes
would either join the Athenian side or at least do not
go over to the Spartans. He was likely overstating his
influence with the Persians under Tissaphernes.

Plutarch comments on how accurately
he assessed the political situation.
“The Athenians wanted Alcibiades to
return from exile and urged him to do
so, but he had no desire to come back
empty-handed, without having
achieved anything, with this
restoration achieved thanks merely to
pity and popularity; instead, he wanted
to come back in a blaze of glory.”

The Battle of Salamis, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1868)
To gain favor, he needed military victories. Plutarch relates the story of
his first victory, “Alcibiades heard that the entire Lacedaemonian fleet”
“had pulled back into the Hellespont with the Athenians in pursuit, so
he quickly set out to help his fellow commanders.”

“As luck would have it, he managed to arrive with his eighteen triremes
at the precise moment when both sides had committed their entire
naval forces to a battle off Abydos, and had been engaged in a fierce
struggle all day, with one side winning here, the other side there.”

Plutarch continues, “Alcibiades heads straight for the left for
the Peloponnesians who had gained the upper hand and were
forcing the Athenians into retreat. He scattered them and
drove them ashore but continued after them until he rammed
and disabled their ships. The Athenians captured thirty enemy
ships, recovered their own, and erected a victory trophy.”

Alcibiades learned that the Spartan
commander Mindarus had combined with
the Persian satrap Pharnabazus in the
Hellespont, and where their forces were
located. “Alcibiades delivered a stirring
speech to the Athenians, telling them that
they would now not only have to fight on
sea and on land, but even besiege the
enemy in his fortresses, because there was
no money to pay them unless they won
every battle they undertook, whatever
kind of warfare it involved.”

This was a troubling sign, both sides were running out of
money, and both sides were increasingly relying on booty
stolen from cities they conquered to finance their war
effort.
A dark fierce thunderstorm provided cover for the
Athenian fleet to draw near to the Spartans undetected. In
the morning, Alcibiades enticed the Spartans to take the
bait and attack his small force of triremes, then the
Spartans were overwhelmed by the bulk of the fleet that
had been hiding nearby.

Sea storm with
shipwrecks, by
Joseph Vernet,
1770

As Plutarch tells the story, the
Athenians inflicted heavy losses,
“gained possession of a large
number of bodies of the enemy,
along with their arms and armor,
captured their entire fleet,” and
also capturing the nearby hostile
city allied with Sparta. Alcibiades
then forced Byzantium back into
the Athenian Empire and
negotiated and bullied many other
allies back into the alliance.

Plutarch tells us, “the Athenians not only
secured the Hellespont,” protecting their
grain supply, “but had also driven the
Lacedaemonians entirely off the sea.”
Plutarch tells us about the Laconic
dispatch to Sparta: “Ships lost. Mindarus
dead. Men starving. No idea what to do.”
The Spartans immediately sent supplies
and reinforcements, for Spartans never
give up.
Spartan cosplay during the
DragonCon Parade in Atlanta in 2007

Plutarch tells us, “By now, Alcibiades had a
strong desire to see his homeland, and an
even stronger desire to be seen by his
fellow citizens, since he had won so many
victories over their enemies, and so he put
to sea. His own Attic triremes were decked
from stern to stern with shields and other
spoils of war, and had about two hundred
captured triremes in tow, as well as a cargo
of an even larger number of figureheads
from another two hundred ships he had
defeated and destroyed.”

Alcibiades was initially nervous as on his arrival, but
he was greeted by ecstatic Athenian crowds. Plutarch
tells us that they “crowded round him, calling out to
him, greeting him, accompanying him on his way, and
crowning him with garlands if they could get close to
him, while those who could not, watched him from a
distance, and the older men pointed him out to the
younger ones. But the city also found the occasion a
bittersweet mixture of tears and smiles, as people
remembered and compared their present good
fortune with their former misfortunes and reflected
that they would not have failed in Sicily, nor would
any of their hopes been dashed, if only they had left
Alcibiades in charge” of the Sicilian Expedition.
The multitude saluting the return of
Alcibiades with loud acclamations.

Alcibiades addressed the crowds wisely, he “spoke
with sorrow in anguish of his sufferings, but he hardly
blamed the Athenian people for them at all, and
then only moderately; instead, he attributed the
whole business to his own bad luck and a spiteful
deity. He spent most of the time talking about his
fellow citizens’ hopes for the future and boosting their
morale. After his speech, he was crowned with
garlands of gold, and was elected to the post of
military commander with full powers on land and sea.
They also voted to restore his property,” and had the
priestly curses against him revoked. Some of the
“lower, poorer classes conceived a passionate
longing for him to rule over them as a tyrant; some
people even brought the issue up in their speeches.”

-
Alcibiades was chiefly responsible for a five-year run of
victories for Athens, totally reversing the tides of war in
Athens’ favor. But the momentum would swing to Sparta’s
favor with the appointment of Lysander as the Spartan
commander, and he was building a relationship with the
generous Persian prince Cyrus. The Spartan allied fleet
was rebuilt, with Pharnabazus contributing lumber, and
the Syracusans and Corinthians contributing shipwrights
to help build the Spartan fleet.

-
Encounter between Cyrus the
Younger (left), Achaemenid,
satrap of Asia Minor, and
Spartan general Lysander (right)
in Sardis. The encounter was
related by Xenophon, by
Francesco Antonio Grue, 1600's

Plutarch notes that his remarkable
success sowed the seeds for future
failure. “Alcibiades seems to be a clear
case of someone destroyed by his own
reputation. His successes had made his
daring and resourcefulness so well
known that any failure prompted people
to wonder whether he had really tried.
They never doubted his ability; if he had
really tried, they thought, nothing
would be impossible for him.”

The Athenians were indeed unforgiving when
his forces lost a battle due to his carelessness.
While Alcibiades was off on a fund-raising trip
to pay his troops, he left in the hands of
Antiochus, which Plutarch describes as “a man
of undistinguished birth who was a skilled
helmsman, but basically not a very intelligent
man.” Alcibiades gave him orders that under
no circumstances should he engage the
enemy, but Lysander’s forces taunted him,
and there was no Greek alive who could not
be tempted to enter into battle, and though
casualties were light, Lysander captured many
triremes, and won a great victory.
Alcibiades Death, Yakov Fyodorovich Kapkov, 1842

The enemies of Alcibiades pounced on this
misfortune. Plutarch tells us that “Thrasybulus
accused Alcibiades of abandoning his
command so he could cruise around collecting
money without a care in the world, and
indulge in drinking sessions and liaisons with
courtesans, while the enemy fleet lay at
anchor nearby.” Thrasybulus sailed to Athens
to denounce him. Plutarch continues, “The
Athenians found these accusations convincing
and elected other military commanders as a
way of showing the anger and rancor they felt
towards him. When Alcibiades heard about it
this, he became afraid, and left the camp on
Samos once and for all,” eventually making his
way to his castle on the Hellespont.
Thrasybulus receiving an olive crown for his successful
campaign against the Thirty Tyrants, from Andrea
Alciato's Emblemata.

So now we can update Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
victories.
• Do not force your most successful general into exile twice.

In a subsequent battle, the newly elected Athenian generals actually won
a battle against the Spartan triremes, but in the confusion
communications broke down, and the generals not only did not save the
many Athenian rowers clinging to the wreckage after the battle, but a
storm arose, and the storm not only drowned the unfortunate rowers,
but it swept their bodies out to sea, so the generals were not able to
recover the bodies of these Athenians so they could have a proper burial,
which we learned in the funeral of Patroclus in the Iliad was a sacred duty
of all Greeks. In a hasty and illegal trial, the Athenians executed several
generals for this sacrilege, even though they had actually won a great
victory.

(REPEAT) So now we can update Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
• Generals should not mock the Elysian Mysteries, or any other religious
observance.
• Never expect that timid generals will ever deliver dramatic victories.
• If you want to win a war, you must tolerate the eccentricities of your most
talented generals.
• Do not force your most successful general into exile.
• Governments should be very reluctant to execute their successful generals in
the middle of a war.
Also, there should be a cooling-off period before executions.
• Radical democracies are not very good at waging long drawn-out complex
wars.

So now we can update Plutarch’s list of moral and strategic lessons:
victories.
• Governments should be very reluctant to execute their
successful generals in the middle of a war.
• Radical democracies are not very good at waging long drawn-
out complex wars.

The Athenians elected new commanders, but the fleet was in disarray because they
didn’t respect the abilities of Lysander, the Spartan commander. These new
inexperienced generals were even more timid than Nicias, and unbelievably, even
more incompetent than Nicias, because they knew that if they made any mistake at
all, that they not only could be exiled; they could also be executed.
These inexperienced generals were guilty of the most heinous transgression of a
warrior, they were careless. Instead of seeking a safe harbor for their ships, they
beached their ships on the beach, allowed their crews to scatter, and did not post a
guard; that meant their forces were completely helpless and clueless about the
movements of the nearby Spartan fleet. All Athenians would pay dearly for this
carelessness for many years to come.

Alcibiades was nearby, and Plutarch tells us,
“he could not just ignore this behavior and
not do something about it. He rode over on
his horse,” at great personal risk, “and tried
to explain that to the Athenian commanders
that their anchorage was no good, there
was no proper harbor there and no
settlements,” they couldn’t get supplies,
“and suggested that they not let their crews
disperse and roam around wherever they
wanted when they were on land while
there’s a sizable enemy fleet anchored
nearby, which was trained to move silently
into action without needing orders from
Death of Alcibiades, by Michele De Napoli, 1839

Cimon takes command of the Greek Fleet, illustration from
'Hutchinson's History of the Nations', 1915
“The Athenian
commanders ignored
this advice of
Alcibiades, and also
his suggestions that
they move their
anchorage.” “In fact,
one of the
commanders even
rudely told him to
leave, he said, ‘Others
are in command now,
and not you.’”

Plutarch laments, “events soon proved that
Alcibiades’ assessment of the Athenians’
mistakes was perfectly correct. Soon the
Spartan commander Lysander launched an
unexpected attack, only eight triremes
escaped, while the rest, which numbered
about two hundred triremes, were captured
and towed away. Three thousand men from
the ships were taken alive by Lysander and
then massacred, and before long he took
Athens as well, put the Athenian fleet to the
torch, and demolished the long walls.”
Lysander outside the walls of Athens; 19th
century lithograph

In Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, the Spartan
commander Lysander finishes off Athens in a
paragraph. But Plutarch also wrote a Life of Lysander
that includes more detail of this history, which we
will reflect on in our last video and blog on the
Peloponnesian Wars. But the wars really do not end
until a century later, when Alexander the Great
conquers all of Greece and Asia.

Lysander outside the walls of Athens

But our friend ALCIBIADES suffers an IGNOBLE END.
By now, the son of the Queen of Sparta and Alcibiades had grown up to
be a young man, so many Spartans were reminded daily of the
indiscretion of Alcibiades, and the shame he brought down on the royal
house. They were probably still somewhat upset about this past
indiscretion of Alcibiades.
What happened to Alcibiades? He decided to try his luck by offering his
services as an advisor to the court of Artaxerxes of Persia, maybe he
would appoint him as a Persian baron so he could live out his days like
Themistocles. So headed to the court of Pharnabazus first, spending time
at his court. But Lysander received an order from Sparta to eliminate
Alcibiades, which he transmitted to Pharnabazus.

Hippocrates refusing the gifts of Artaxerxes, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1792

-
Alcibiades with the Courtesans, by Félix Auvray, 1833
Plutarch records his last
days. “Alcibiades was
living in a village in
Phrygia with Timandra
the courtesan,” and he
dreamed dreams with
omens of his upcoming
end. The men sent “to
kill him did not dare to
enter the house, but
surrounded it and set it
on fire.”

-
The Death of Alcibiades, by Philippe Chéry, 1791
As Alcibiades fled the
fire, “the foreign
assassins scattered.”
None dared “to fight
him hand to hand;
they kept their
distance and hurled
javelins and fired
arrows at him instead.
So, this is how
Alcibiades met his
death,” and he was
buried by Timandra.

Perhaps had Athens allowed him to win the war for
them, we would remember him as Alcibiades the
Great, maybe eventually an alliance of Athens and
Carthage would have defeated Rome several
centuries later, but instead Alcibiades died an ignoble
death outside the house of a common courtesan.

Socrates Tears
Alcibiades from the
Embrace of Sensual
Pleasure, by Jean-
Baptiste Regnault,
circa 1791

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
Our primary source for this video is Plutarch’s Life of
Alcibiades. Since he used Thucydides and Xenophon
as his main sources, the quotes by Plutarch are
similar to those in Thucydides and Xenophon.
Thucydides history is interrupted in this period, to be
picked up by Xenophon. We will discuss this
transition in our next lecture on the Life of Lysander.

Since all our videos on the Peloponnesian Wars use
many of the same sources, we have a video on Book
Reviews of ancient Greek history.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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Alcibiades in Peloponnesian War, according to Plutarch, Thucydides, and Xenophon

Alcibiades in Peloponnesian War, according to Plutarch, Thucydides, and Xenophon

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Alcibiades in Peloponnesian War, according to Plutarch, Thucydides, and Xenophon