Plutarch's life of the brilliant, treacherous Athenian aristocrat who switched sides between Athens, Sparta, and Persia during the Peloponnesian War.
Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades traces the career of one of classical Athens' most gifted and most dangerous citizens: ward of Pericles, student and beloved of Socrates, a man of legendary beauty, wealth, and charm who nonetheless earned Athens' distrust even as he earned its admiration. Plutarch opens with his lineage, his upbringing under Pericles' guardianship, and a string of anecdotes illustrating the fierce competitiveness and love of being first that Plutarch says defined him from boyhood, before turning to his relationship with Socrates, whose affection Plutarch credits with much of Alcibiades' early reputation.
The narrative then follows Alcibiades through his rise as a popular leader who championed the Sicilian Expedition, his abrupt recall to Athens to face charges of profaning the Mysteries, his flight and defection to Sparta, his seduction of the Spartan king's wife, his second defection to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, his dramatic recall by the Athenian fleet at Samos, his string of naval victories that briefly restored Athenian fortunes, his triumphant return to Athens escorting the sacred procession to Eleusis on foot as a gesture of piety, and his final fall from favor after the defeat at Notium, ending in exile and assassination in Phrygia.
The Life matters historically as Plutarch's central case study in the moral hazards of extraordinary natural gifts unmoored from steady character: Alcibiades embodies the instability of late-fifth-century Athenian democracy and the personal drama behind the Peloponnesian War's turning points, and Plutarch pairs him with the Roman general Coriolanus as a study in how brilliant men are undone by their own natures and by the fickle favor of the crowds and courts they depend on.
“By nature he had many strong passions, but the strongest of all were his love of rivalry and his love of being first, as is clear from the anecdotes remembered of him as a boy.”
— Alcibiades
“It is well said that no small part of his reputation he owed to Socrates' goodwill and affection toward him, since of Nicias, Demosthenes, Lamachus, Phormio, Thrasybulus, and Theramenes, distinguished men of his own time, not even the mother of any one of them is remembered by name, whereas of Alcibiades we know even the nurse, a Laconian by birth named Amycla, and the tutor, Zopyrus”
— Alcibiades
“the feeling of the people toward him is not badly expressed by Aristophanes: "They long for him, and hate him too, and want to have him"”
— Alcibiades
“It seemed to Alcibiades a fine thing, both for piety toward the gods and for reputation among men, to restore to the sacred rites their ancestral form, by escorting the procession on foot and guarding it as it passed by the enemy”
— Alcibiades
“Knowing this, Alcibiades sent secretly to the men of influence among the Athenians at Samos, holding out hope that he would win Tissaphernes over as a friend to them”
— Alcibiades
Alcibiades was an Athenian aristocrat, general, and politician of the fifth century BCE, raised under the guardianship of Pericles and closely associated with Socrates. Plutarch presents him as extraordinarily gifted in beauty, wealth, and political talent, but undone by his own restless ambition and the suspicion it bred.
Facing charges of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries while commanding the Sicilian Expedition, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens for trial; rather than return and face near-certain condemnation, he fled and went over to Sparta, Athens' enemy in the Peloponnesian War.
Plutarch says Alcibiades owed much of his reputation to Socrates' goodwill and affection, describing their relationship as one where even the details of Alcibiades' childhood, like his nurse and tutor, were remembered because of that association.
Plutarch reports differing accounts: most say Pharnabazus and Lysander, wary of him, arranged his death in Phrygia by having his refuge set on fire and having him killed; another tradition Plutarch records instead blames the brothers of a woman Alcibiades had seduced.
After defecting to Sparta and falling out of favor there, Alcibiades sought refuge and influence with Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap, using his access to try to broker his own return to Athenian favor by promising Persian support to Athenian officers at Samos.
Alcibiades was one of the three generals chosen to lead the Athenian expedition against Sicily and was its most ardent advocate, but he was recalled to face trial almost immediately after arriving, before the campaign's disastrous outcome played out without him.
Plutarch pairs the two as men of extraordinary natural gifts and fierce pride whose inability to master their own passions, and their fraught relationships with the common people, led both to defect to their homelands' enemies and ultimately to ruin.
Plutarch notes that even his lisp became charming in his speech, and that comic poets like Aristophanes and Archippus mocked it, illustrating how thoroughly Alcibiades' personal quirks were absorbed into his larger-than-life public image.
Aemilius Paulus · Agesilaus · Agis · Alexander · Antony · Aratus · Aristides · Artaxerxes · Caesar · Caius Gracchus · Caius Marius · Camillus