probably not wholly unaware of the futility of such a provision, but expecting credit for it with the multitude their soverein, persevered in the requisition; and the Lacedæmonians, not thinking the matter important enough to warrant the rejection of a proposal otherwise meeting their anxious wishes, at length assented; declaring however that they could not trust the ambassadors of a democracy, so far as to consider the peace as concluded, until it should be ratified by a public act of the Argian people. This was obtained, and the peace thus completely made. 1. 5. c. 42. Meanwhile commissioners had been sent from Lacedæmon into Boeotia, to receive the Athenian Thucyd. prisoners from the hands of the Boeotians, together with the fort of Panactum. When they arrived, the fort was already destroyed; and, in excuse for this, it was pretended that, according to an antient compact, between the Boeotians and Athenians, the territory of Panactum was to be the exclusive property of neither people, and cultivated by neither, but to remain a pasture for the common use of both. The prisoners were however delivered to the Lacedæmonians, who repaired with them to Athens; and, in restoring them, declared also the rasing of the fortifications of Panactum, and the retreat of the garrison, which they affected to consider as equivalent to a restitution of the place. But the Athenians, already informed of the treaty concluded by Lacedæmon with Boeotia, so repugnant to repeated professions made to Athens, were disposed to see the matter differently. Reproaches for these, and for many less important breaches or neglects of the treaty, were freely vented; the restoration of Pylus was refused; and the Lacedæmonian commissioners were obliged to return, without effecting any of the purposes of their mission. XVII. 1.5. c. 43. Plat. Alci biad. 1. & Alcib. SECTION III. . Alcibiades. A third Peloponnesian Confederacy; and Athens the leading Power. CHAP. WHILE Such was the mutual dissatisfaction between Lacedæmon and Athens, there was in the latter, as Thucyd. well as in the former state, a party desirous of renewing the war; and at the head of that party a new character was coming forward, singularly formed to set the world in a flame. Alcibiades son of Cleinias was yet a youth, or at least in any other city, says Thucydides, would have been esteemed too young to be admitted to a leading public situation; but high birth, great connections, and extraordinary talents, gave him premature consequence. His family boastPlut. vit. ed their descent, as we learn from the words which Plato puts into the mouth of Alcibiades himself, from Eurysaces son of the Telamonian Ajax, and debigis, through him from Jupiter. His great-grandfather, p. 152. & named also Alcibiades, had been among the associates of Cleisthenes in expelling the Peisistratids, 4. of this and restoring the commonwealth. His grandfather Cleinias had gained the honorable reward of the Aristeia, for his conduct in the first action with the fleet of Xerxes, off Artemisium, in a trireme which he had fitted at his own expence; and his father, called also Cleinias, fell in the service of his country, in the unfortunate battle of Coroneia, against the Baotians. His mother, Deinomachë, was daughter of Megacles, head of the Alcmæonids, the first family of Athens; and by her he was nearly related to Pericles, who, on the death of his Isocrat. p. 154. t. 3. Ch. 8. s. Hist. Plat. Al cib. 1. p. 112. t. 2. 2 Thus, I think with our translator Smith, the passage is to be understood; but Duker's note may be consulted. III. Alcib. 1. Plat. Xen. Mem. 2. 3. 24. Socra. 1. 1. Plut. vit. Alcib. father, became his guardian. Unfortunately his SECT. connection with that great man did not bring those advantages of education, which might have been Plat. expected from a guardian, who so united the philo- p. 122. sopher with the statesman, and, amid all the cares of his high situation, gave so much attention to science. Left therefore to himself, a very large patrimonial estate afforded Alcibiades means for that dissipation in pleasure, to which passions, constitutionally strong, impelled, and various circumstances contributed in an unusual degree to invite. The graces of his person are mentioned, by cotemporary writers, as very extraordinary. In the seclusion, in which the Athenian ladies lived, they could be little c. liable to the seduction of wit and ingaging behavior; but they were thence perhaps only the more alive to the impression of personal beauty, when sacrifices and processions afforded the scanty opportunity of mixing with the world, so far as to see, tho not to converse with, men. Alcibiades, as we are assured by Xenophon, was the object of passion and intrigue for many of the principal ladies of Athens. The splendor of his fortune, and the power of those with whom he was connected, at the same time drew about him a crowd of flatterers of the other sex: Athenian citizens, allies, subjects, and strangers, vied in paying court to him; and there was danger that the intoxicating powers of adulation might have destroyed, in the bud, all hope of any valuable fruit from the singular talents of his mind. 3 Διὰ μὲν κάλλος ὑπὸ πολλῶν καὶ σεμνῶν γυναικῶν θηρώμενος. Xen. Mem. Socr. l. 1. c. 2. s. 24. The coarseness of this expression, of an elegant writer among a refined people, has been owing to the want of intercourse between the sexes, which alone can give manners their best polish. CHAP. In this period of his life occurred the extraordinary addition to the rest of his extraordinary fortune, to become acquainted with the philosopher Socrates. That wonderful man, who had then for some time made it his business, as it was his pleasure, gratuitously to instruct the youth of Athens in those two points, which preceding professors of science had most neglected, the duty of men to men, and, as far as uninlightened reason could discover, the duty of men to God, justly considered Alcibiades as one who deserved his peculiar care; since he was certainly one whose virtues or vices might go very far to decide the future fortune of his country. Alcibiades was not of a temper to rest satisfied with ignorance. Ambition, but still more the love of distinction than the love of power, was the ruling Plat. Al passion of his mind. To obtain instruction there fore, which might promote the gratification of that ruling passion, he submitted his other passions to the control of the philosopher. Consciousness of superior abilities, and ambition inflamed by flattery, had inspired Alcibiades with the purpose of putting himself forward as a public speaker, before he had attained his twentieth year: but, tho he spurned at the remonstrances of his other friends, the authority and advice of Socrates diverted him from that extravagance. A singular friendship grew between them. They were companions in peace and in war. Socrates, who was indowed by nature with a constitution of body scarcely less remarkable for its firmness than that of his mind for its powers, served a campain in Thrace with Alcibiades, then in earliest manhood. The soldier-sage, yielding to none in courage in the day of battle, was the admiration of all for his patience, in want, fatigue, and the cold of that severe climate. Alcibiades was his III. 2. of this Alcib. Conviv. p. 220. most zealous emulator; but in action it was parti- SECT. cularly his aim to outdo him. In a battle near Potidæa, apparently that in which the generals, Ch. 15. . Xenophon son of Euripides, and his two collegues, Hist. were killed, he was severely wounded, and would Plut. vit. have lost his life, but for the protection given him Plat. by Socrates, who fought by his side. The daring exertion of Alcibiades, which had led him into the t. 3. danger, was deemed by the principal officers of the army, perhaps a little partial, says Plutarch, to his high rank and high connections, to deserve the Aristeia. The generous youth, just to the superior merit of his master, declared they were much rather due to Socrates: but the philosopher, adding the authority of his voice to that of the officers, the reward was given as it was first decreed. Alcibiades returned the benefit, in the unfortunate battle of Ch. 16. s. Delium, where he saved Socrates, as we have al- Hist. ready seen, from the swords of the pursuing Bootians. But the passions of Alcibiades were too strong for constant perseverance in submission to the advice of his incomparable friend. His predominant passion, the desire of preeminence in everything, was not to be subdued. No sooner had he acquired possession of his estate, than the splendor of his style of living became such, as in Athens had been utterly unknown. Much as things differed from those in our time and country, we may form some idea of his extravagant magnificence from one circumstance, related by the authentic pen of Thucydides. It had before been esteemed a splendid exertion, for the greatest individual citizen, to send one chariot to contend in the races at the Olympian festival; it was reckoned creditable for a commonwealth to send one at the public expence. Alci 3. of this |