Alcibiades: A Life

Alcibiades was born in the ancient Greek city of Athens around 450 BC. Athens was just one of nearly a thousand Greek city-states. We call them city-states because each city had its own government. It was rare for cities to be linked together under the same government. This can be hard for us to imagine, because it's not what we're used to. Take Ohio for example: you have Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo - all are major cities, but they all operate under the Ohio government. If we were fashioned like ancient Greece, then Cincinnati would be its own city-state with its own government, Dayton would be its own city-state with its own government, and maybe we like the people in Dayton and maybe we don't! Some years maybe we'll be nice with them, and trade with them, but other years we might go to war with them. That's what it was like in ancient Greece during the time of Alcibiades.

The city-state of Athens had just entered into what has been called the 'Athenian Golden Age,' a period of about half a century in which the economy grew, arts and culture flourished, philosophy reached new heights, and in which Athenian democracy was strengthened. Athens hadn't always been so high-and-mighty; just thirty years before Alcibiades' birth, Athens was almost overrun and razed by the Persians! Thankfully the Greeks were able to kick out the Persians, and in their victory, several Greek cities entered into an alliance called the Delian League (the alliance was officially established on the sacred island of Delos, from which we get Delian). Athens was the head of this league, and the purpose of the league was to form a defensive alliance against Persia. If Persia wanted a bite out of Athens - and she did! - then she would need to deal with all of Athens' friends, too. Athens, as head of the league, provided most of the ships and material needed to patrol the Aegean Sea and to use in case of an attack; the other member states - they eventually reached over 100 members! - provided cash to the league's treasury. Athens, as head of the league, had control over the treasury, and lots of that money went to elevating Athens.

One of the main architects of this so-called Golden Age was a statesman named Pericles. He was able to draw from the Delian League's treasury, and he did so with abandon, guiding the city through unprecedented cultural, intellectual, and artistic flourishing. It was he who commissioned the building of famous Greek temples, including the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena. Pericles led the way to Athens becoming the educational and cultural center of the Greek world; he fostered philosophy (you've certainly heard of Socrates and Aristotle!) and drama (plays by Sophocles and Euripides are still cherished today). He strengthened Athenian democracy by introducing pay for public service (like jury duty) and reducing the power of aristocratic lawmakers who had a tendency to lord it over the poorer citizens. Under Pericles' leadership - with significant assistance from the Delian League's treasury - Athens moved from just another city-state to the head of an Athenian Empire that dominated the Aegean. It was Pericles who orchestrated much of this - or at least created the environment in which a Golden Age could thrive - so he was called 'the first citizen of Athens' by the later Greek historian Thucydides. When we picture classical Greece, it's likely the picture we envision is that of Athens in its Golden Age).

Athens during its Golden Age

But where does Alcibiades fit into this? Alcibiades was born into a prestigious, noble family, but he was orphaned as a boy. He then moved in with a relative of his, none other than the Pericles we've just leaned about. Pericles was pretty busy running around the city to provide much fatherly guidance, leaving Alcibiades largely unsupervised. It's no surprise, then, that he developed a reputation for extravagance, self-centeredness, and wild behavior. It takes the loving discipline of a parent to smooth out our hard edges and to train us how to be an asset rather than a liability to society; Alcibiades didn't have this, and his character flaws would plague his life as an adult.

As a young man, Alcibiades befriended the philosopher Socrates, who noted that this wild ruffian was also quite intelligent and quick-witted. The two of them became fast companions, even fighting in battle together. When Alcibiades was just twenty years old, war erupted in Greece again: this time Greece wasn't fighting against the Persians but against each other! The Delian League had grown powerful, and many Greek city-states who didn't join the league wanted to curb that power. Another league was formed, called the Peloponnesian League, and this one was led by the Greek city-state of Sparta. The two leagues went to war with each other, and they fought for 27 years! This isn't the place to dig deep into the Peloponnesian War, but suffice it to say, it was a war marked less by classic land engagements and more by raids, counter-raids, sieges and counter-sieges, skirmishes, and naval encounters. Due to the guerrilla nature of the campaigns, there are few set-piece battles; indeed, the Peloponnesian War has been referred to as 'the Vietnam of the Greek Age' for this very reason. The Peloponnesian War eventually ended with the fall of Athens: her city walls torn down, her empire dissolved, and her democracy replaced with an oligarchy in which the rich call all the shots. But even though Sparta won, she was just as winded; in fact, all of Greece was exhausted and burnt out. Only decades later, the Greek city-states, still recovering from the internal war, fell easy prey to a hybrid outsider named Philip II of Macedon. His son, Alexander, is a story for another day.

But back to Alcibiades. He and the philosopher Socrates became good friends, despite Socrates being twice Alcibiades' age. Just a year before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades received his first taste of combat outside the Greek city of Potidaea. Potidaea sat on the Chalcidice peninsula in northern Greece; it was originally founded as a Corinthian colony, but it had become part of the Delian League. Potidaea paid tribute to Athens, but it still received annual magistrates from Corinth; this created an awkward situation, as the Corinthians were allies of Sparta. As tensions between Athens and Sparta ratcheted up, Athens became increasingly worried about Potidaea's mixed loyalties. Athens issued a decree that Potidaea demolish parts of its defensive outer walls, hand over hostages, and expel the Corinthian magistrates. The Potidaeans balked at this demand and, with support from Corinth and some nearby towns, severed their ties to the Delian League. At the same time, Corinth dispatched volunteer soldiers and a military commander to garrison the city. Athens responded by sending a fleet and troops to suppress the revolt.

Onboard those ships were Alcibiades and Socrates. In the summer of 432 BC, about 3000 hoplites disembarked onto the Chalcidian peninsula to face off against a combined enemy force of Potidaeans, Corinthian volunteers, and local allies. The two sides drew up for battle outside the city walls and threw themselves at each other. The rival phalanxes clashed; while the Corinthian left wing was initially successful at pushing back the Athenians, the Athenians compensated by winning the field elsewhere. During the battle, Socrates reputedly heroically rescued a wounded Alcibiades, carrying him to safety behind the front lines. The Potidaeans broke and sought refuge behind the city walls. By the end of the clash, the Athenians lost 150 men (including their general) while the Potidaeans and their ilk lost twice that.

With the rebels ensconced behind the city walls, Athens blockaded the city by both land and sea. The siege would last about two and a half years; in the process it drained money and manpower from the Delian League, and at one point Athenian relief forces brought the plague to the besieging troops. The city capitulated in 429 BC. Athens executed all men of military age, enslaved the city's women and children, and later resettled the city with Athenian colonists. Corinth was outraged by the affair, and they used this travesty to further woo Sparta towards war with Athens. Indeed, complaints about the siege of Potidaea and Athenian aggression come up repeatedly in Spartan debates of the time, and these issues directly contributed to their declaration of war in 431 BC.

Alcibiades, no doubt thankful that Socrates saved his life, returned the favor eight years later at the 424 BC Battle of Delium. At this time, the Peloponnesian League was allied with the Boeotian League. The Boeotian League was led by the city-state of Thebes. The Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates (the latter was the nephew of Pericles and thus distantly related to Alcibiades) came up with a plan: weaken Thebes by seizing territory in Boeotia and fomenting democratic revolts across Theban-controlled lands. To accomplish this, Demosthenes would attack Boeotia's southern coast by sea; Hippocrates would take and fortify Delium, a temple site on the coast near the Attic border. Delium would become a springboard from which Boeotian rebels could be supported.

The Spartans learned of the Athenian strategy and alerted the Boeotians. The coastal town of Siphae, Demosthenes' target, was reinforced, and Demosthenes was repulsed. Hippocrates was thus left alone, and he started out with some success in capturing Delium. He was just beginning to reinforce its fortifications when a Boeotian army led by General Pagondas of Thebes approached the temple town in November or December of 424. Both sides matched each others' numbers, bringing about 18,000 men each to the field. The Athenian army consisted of seven thousand hoplites, ten thousand light troops, and a thousand cavalry; the Boeotian army consisted of the same, except they had an additional five hundred peltasts. The armies clashed outside Delium. The Athenian wing initially pushed back the Boeotian left, but Pagondas had a trick up his sleeve: he held back a cavalry reserve and committed it at a decisive moment against the Athenian left. The shock cavalry charge - one of the earliest recorded deliberate uses of cavalry reserve in battle - panicked the Athenians; the army collapsed and was routed. During the retreat, Socrates kept his cool, steadying others and refusing to break formation. Alcibiades, on horseback, allegedly protected him multiple times during their retreat. Some soldiers fled into Attica; others towards the sea; and others sought refuge in Delium. The Athenians lost over a thousand slain, including Hippocrates, while the Boeotians lost just half that. The Athenians who had sought safety in Delium found themselves surrounded by a besieging army determined to wrest back their temple town. Delium fell to the besiegers seventeen days after the Battle of Delium (the Boeotians reportedly used a flame-thrower to burn the wooden fortification).

Socrates hoped that Alcibiades would develop into a virtuous politician - if there is such a thing! - but Alcibiades spurned this route for one that was more appealing: become the kind of golden-tongued, two-faced politician that Athenians loved. For the Greeks, the ultimate goal for any person was called eudaimonia, which means 'a fully-flourishing life.' It was Aristotle, a student of Plato (who was himself a student of Socrates), who put meat to this idea. The idea behind eudaimonia is that we are all searching for the best kind of life, and this life is found in living virtuously and fulfilling one's sacred duties to the gods, to one's family, and to one's city. It isn't to be found in the pursuit of pleasure but in a purposeful, duty-bound, virtuous life. This was the guiding light behind Socrates' Socratic method: he saw it as the best way to shape a whole person (body, mind, character, morals, and soul). The goal was to produce a well-rounded, virtuous individual who could participate fully in the city-state, think critically, appreciate beauty, stay physically fit, and live a good, ethical life.

Alcibiades entered the Athenian political scene in his late 20s, and he made a name for himself: he was a gifted orator and showman. Alcibiades was gifted, but he had a disability: he had a speech impediment called rhotacism, in which he pronounced his 'R' sounds as 'W' sounds. In other words, he sounded like Elmer Fudd: 'Come here you wascally wabbit!' His political enemies often called attention to it, and ancient playwrights mentioned it a lot. Alcibiades didn't seem bothered by his 'lisping charm' (as the historian Thucydides put it); in fact, it looks like he wore it as a badge of honor and made no effort to hide it! He had his goals in life, and he wouldn't let something as silly as a disability get in his way. He entered seven chariots at the 416 BC Olympic Games, winning three different medals. Around 420 BC, at the age of thirty, he was made an Athenian general; he pushed for enhanced aggression against Sparta on the island of Sicily. He wanted to conquer Syracuse, the premier city in Sicily, and expand Athenian power. He was appointed co-commander of the expedition, and he was scheduled to sail with the fleet. Just before they departed, scandal erupted: all across Athens, sacred statues of the Greek god Hermes had been mutilated, and Alcibiades was accused of sacrilege. Alcibiades knew that if he was summoned to Athens to stand trial, the democratic processes would condemn him and he'd be killed. While Socrates was the sort who would gladly kill himself for the benefit of the state, Alcibiades didn't have such virtue: he turned on the Athenians and escaped to his enemy, Sparta.

In Sparta, Alcibiades switched sides, becoming a military strategist for the Peloponnesian League. He seduced the wife of the Spartan king and fathered a child with her. This wore out his welcome, so he fled again, this time to the court of the Persian governor in Asia Minor. He lavished in Persian luxuries while advising the Persians on how best to settle the score with their Greek rivals. While he was doing this, the Athenians were doing awful in Sicily - Sparta learned from Alcibiades how to target Athenian weaknesses - and dealing with government coups. Alcibiades saw an opening to return to Athens. He knew he needed to get in good with the citizens there, and to this end he aided Athenian forces loyal to democracy, winning several important battles. The Athenians begged him to return, and in 407 BC, at the age of 43, Alcibiades returned to Athens as a hero and was given supreme command of the war effort against the Peloponnesian League. He seemed unstoppable, but when the Athenians were defeated at the naval battle of Notium, he was blamed for it (even though he wasn't present), and he had to flee again, this time to a castle in Thrace far to the north. Shortly after this, the Spartans destroyed the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami, sealing Athens' fate. Alcibiades, hearing the news, returned to Persian territory in Asia Minor to escape any angry Athenian assassins hungry for his blood. Just a year into his Persian stay, the Persians decided they didn't want him, either: Persian assassins set fire to his home. Alcibiades ran out of his home wielding swords and ready to fight, and fight he did, though he died in the process at the age of 46.

Alcibiades was beloved by ancient historians and philosophers. They found in Alcibiades a chilling theme: you can have immense talent, but that talent can be undone by your own flaws.