The Life of Alcibiades Read online

  The Life of Alcibiades

  A volume in the series

  Cornell Studies in Classical Philology

  Edited by Frederick M. Ahl, Charles Brittain, Kevin Clinton,

  David P. Mankin, Sturt W. Manning, Alan J. Nussbaum,

  Hayden Pelliccia, Pietro Pucci, Hunter R. Rawlings III,

  Eric Rebillard, Jeffrey S. Rusten, Barry S. Strauss

  A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu .

  The Life of Alcibiades

  Dangerous Ambition and

  the Betrayal of Athens

  Jacqueline de Romilly

  Translated by

  Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings

  Cornell University Press

  Ithaca and London

  Original French edition, Alcibiade, ou, Les dangers de l'ambition .

  Copyright © Éditions de Fallois, 1995.

  English-language translation and translator’s preface copyright © 2019

  by Cornell University

  All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or

  parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in

  writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University

  Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit

  our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

  First published 2019 by Cornell University Press

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Romilly, Jacqueline de, author. | Rawlings, Elizabeth, translator.

  Title: The life of Alcibiades : dangerous ambition and the betrayal

  of Athens / Jacqueline de Romilly ; translated by Elizabeth Trapnell

  Rawlings.

  Other titles: Alcibiade. English

  Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2019. | Series: Cornell

  studies in classical philology | Includes bibliographical references and

  indexes.

  Identifi ers: LCCN 2018059296 (print) | LCCN 2018060257 (ebook) |

  ISBN

  9781501739965 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501739972 (epub/mobi) |

  ISBN 9781501719752 | ISBN 9781501719752 (cloth)

  Subjects: LCSH: Alcibiades. | Statesmen—Greece—Athens—Biography. |

  Generals—Greece—Athens—Biography. | Greece—Foreign relations—

  To 146 B.C. | Greece—History—Peloponnesian War, 431–404 B.C.

  Classifi cation: LCC DF230.A4 (ebook) | LCC DF230.A4 R6613 2019

  (print) | DDC 938.05/092 [B]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018059296

  Cover illustration: François-André Vincent, Alcibiade recevant les leçons

  de Socrate, 1777.

  For Bernard de Fallois, as a token of gratitude and friendship

  Contents

  Translator’s Preface ix

  Author’s Preface xi

  Chronology xix

  1. Richly Endowed

  1

  2. Insults and Scandals

  15

  First Interlude: Alcibiades between Two Lifestyles

  31

  3. Political Debut: The Argive Alliance

  35

  4. The Grand Design

  52

  5. The Scandals

  70

  6. Exile: Defending Treason

  89

  7. In Asia Minor

  104

  8. With the Athenians on Samos

  123

  viii Contents

  Second Interlude: Alcibiades between Two Historians

  137

  9. A Triumphal Return

  141

  10. Slightly More Than One Hundred Days

  154

  11. A Final Appearance

  166

  12. Repercussions

  178

  Conclusion 191

  Index 201

  Translator’s Preface

  Jacqueline de Romilly’s lifelong contributions to ancient Greek literature

  and history made her a major fi gure in French culture. In 1973 she became

  chair of Greek at the Collège de France, the fi rst woman nominated to this

  distinguished institution. In 1988, she was elected to the Académie Fran-

  çaise as its second female member. In her later years she became famous

  in France for her ardent advocacy of classical education for all. Romilly

  (1913–2010) was well known on both sides of the Atlantic as an intellec-

  tual and cultural critic and served as A. D. White Professor-at-Large at

  Cornell University from 1974 to1980.

  I was drawn to Romilly’s work in 2010, when I undertook the trans-

  lation of her seminal book Histoire et raison chez Thucydide , fi rst pub-

  lished in Paris in 1956. That study altered the course of scholarship

  on Thucydides’s history of the Peloponnesian War by revealing the au-

  thor’s rhetorical and literary artfulness, the means by which he refi ned

  and shaped the “facts” of history. The title chosen for my translation,

  The Mind of Thucydides (Cornell University Press, 2012), aptly captures

  Romilly’s purpose and achievement.

  x Translator’s

  Preface

  Alcibiades is a quite different kind of work, a biography of the mete-

  oric career of the egomaniacal fi gure who dominated Greek politics and

  the Peloponnesian War from 416 to 404 BCE. It is a product of Romilly’s

  superb scholarship and of her lifelong effort to acquaint the public with

  the pertinence of the ancient world to contemporary political and cultural

  life. To appeal to a wider audience, Romilly composed this book, which

  was published in Paris in 1995, in an informal style that would arrest

  attention and enable her readers to see Alcibiades’s charismatic personal-

  ity in full. She wanted her contemporaries to appreciate the dangers his

  singular character posed to Athens, Sparta, and Persia, all of which fell

  under his spell and granted him authoritative roles in their policymaking.

  Although this is a work of history, it often reads like a novel.

  But Romilly evinces her usual acumen and care in the research she con-

  ducted for this book. She plumbs and critiques the sources for Alcibiades’s

  life, including Thucydides, Plato, Andocides, Lysias, Xenophon, Isocrates,

  Plutarch, Athenaeus, and Diodorus. On the one hand, she reproduces

  from the later biographers numerous anecdotes from Alcibiades’s youth

  in order to paint his character, while acknowledging their historical unreli-

  ability; on the other hand, she critically evaluates the contemporary and

  more authentic portraits drawn by Thucydides and Plato, and accords

  them respect, but not complete credibility. Numerous footnotes disclose

  her sources to the reader, thus making her biography an unusual blend of

  erudition and accessibility.

  Romilly’s treatment of Alcibiades’s youthful insolence and arrogant

  disregard for social norms, and of his later athletic, fi nancial, and religious

  scandals, was informed by her perception of events in her native France

  in the mid-1990s. Several times she refers to contemporary scandals in

  French politics that mirror Alcibiades’s outrages in fi fth-century Greece.

  Her central lesson is that a charismatic, amoral, and narcissistic leader

/>   imposes enormous risks on a democratic state. Few commentators are as

  well qualifi ed as Romilly to warn of the public dangers inherent in such

  reckless individuals. To say that twenty-fi rst-century readers of this biog-

  raphy are likely to fi nd in it parallels to today’s political environment is to

  understate the case.

  Author’s Preface

  The life of Alcibiades is one of astonishing journeys and adventures. As a

  young man, he was adopted by Pericles and beloved by Socrates. He was

  at the center of all political activity at the end of the fi fth century BCE.

  Driven by ambition and endowed with uncommon abilities, he dominated

  politics fi rst in Athens, then in Sparta, then in the Persian satrapies. He

  experienced highs and lows worthy of a Greek tragedy. From a position

  of power over all of Athens, he was suddenly forced to fl ee from the city

  that had condemned him to death. He returned as a savior, honored and

  acclaimed, only to be exiled once again, and ultimately assassinated, by

  order of the state, in a village in upper Phrygia. Following him every-

  where, from city to city, from Sicily to Lydia, from one campaign to an-

  other, was the persistent whiff of scandal.

  Moreover, a colorful adventurer, he did not live in ordinary times. The

  Peloponnesian War, in which he played a leading role, was one of the

  most important turning points in Greek history. It had begun at a moment

  when Athens was at the very peak of power and infl uence. It ended in

  xii Author’s

  Preface

  utter defeat. Athens lost both its empire and fl eet, thus ending a century

  of tragic greatness and glory. Alcibiades had presided over all the impor-

  tant decisions, on both sides. He therefore bore, undeniably, responsibility

  for the disastrous results. And he died in the same year as Athens’ de-

  feat. It is as if, from every angle, his personal experience was interwoven

  with the crucial moments in Athenian history. It is for this reason, then,

  that he held the attention of and inspired contemplation by the greatest

  minds of his time. The names of Pericles and Socrates appear above in the

  opening lines for good reason: Pericles gave his name to the century, and

  Socrates was the founder of Western philosophy. Moreover, Alcibiades fi g-

  ures in the work of the greatest historian of the time, Thucydides, as well

  as works of Plato and Xenophon, the historical works and the memoirs

  on Socrates. Other authors contain allusions or references to Alcibiades,

  including Aristophanes and Euripides. Even after his death, the orators

  Isocrates and Lysias argued about the role and character of Alcibiades.

  There was, in fact, an Alcibiades problem. An orphan and the ward of

  Pericles, he seems to have pursued a political path contrary to that of his

  teacher. Over twenty-fi ve years, that change could be seen to correspond

  to the ruin of Athens. Was there a connection? And if so, what was it?

  Was it simply a generational issue of personality and temperament? Or

  was there a broader decline in civic purpose and morality in political af-

  fairs? And did this decline refl ect, or cause, a crisis in the democracy and

  its workings? If the latter hypothesis is correct, as was thought at the time,

  then it is of paramount interest to us and to all those who hold dear the

  idea of democracy.

  We might say that the life of Alcibiades brought out two political prob-

  lems that were apparent as early as the fi fth century and are still current

  in today’s world.

  First, his life embodied Athenian imperialism, in its most extreme and

  dominant form and in the lack of prudence that led to its ruin. Any refl ec-

  tion on the mentality of conquest benefi ts from considering his example,

  which the analyses of Thucydides clarify.

  In addition, Alcibiades embodied, and carried to its extreme, the very

  picture of personal ambition overtaking the public interest. In this he il-

  lustrated Thucydides’s analysis showing how the successors of Pericles,

  failing to succeed on their merits as he had done, were led to fl atter the

  people and resort to personal schemes, harmful to the public interest.

  Author’s

  Preface xiii

  Thus, anyone thinking about the problems of democracy in general will

  profi t by looking at the improbable adventures of Alcibiades in light of the

  assessment of Thucydides or the fourth-century philosophers.

  Alcibiades is a unique case, and well beyond the ordinary. But he is also

  an exemplar for every age, a living example. For this reason, we fi nd so

  many details in common with our own time. In the life of Alcibiades, we

  recognize the ambition and the power struggles; the athletic victories that

  contributed to the popularity of leaders, and that led to fi nancial miscon-

  duct. We recognize the “affairs” by which all celebrities are compromised.

  And we recognize popular reversals of one kind or another. At times, we

  almost have the impression that the famous text in which Thucydides

  contrasts Pericles with his successors could apply equally to a contrast

  between General de Gaulle and his successors.

  It is important to guard against such comparisons, for they are always

  false. One senses, however, that the case of Alcibiades assumes greater

  value in the degree to which it relates to crises hitting very close to home.

  That is why I was moved to write this book.

  Alcibiades—I feel I have always known him. One cannot study fi fth-

  century Athens, as I have all my life, without encountering him at every

  turn. One cannot return year after year to Thucydides and Athenian impe-

  rialism without growing attached to the man who was a major character

  in Thucydides’s history and who personifi ed the most ambitious aspect of

  Athenian imperialism. In addition, I was a student of Jean Hatzfeld at the

  École des Hautes Études at the time when he devoted himself, year after

  year, to elucidating, for the benefi t of a few advanced students, each of the

  great issues of the period. That is true erudition. For two or three years, I

  chose to devote myself, at the École Normale Supérieure de Sèvres, to ex-

  plication of the texts on Alcibiades. It was always Alcibiades. But I would

  never have started writing this book had I not been struck one day, to my

  surprise, by the overwhelming sense of contemporary relevance attached

  to these texts. I began writing at that moment.

  These unusual circumstances explain the tone I have adopted in this book.

  First, this is not a fi ctional biography. All words spoken by the char-

  acters are taken from the texts. There are no dialogues, reconstructed

  encounters, or inner thoughts attributed to anyone. My work is that of

  a Hellenist, trained to respect the sources, and it is therefore based on

  xiv Author’s

  Preface

  rigorous scholarship. In citing, and saying whom I cite, I intend to inject

  an element of authenticity. Besides, I admire these texts, and I love citing

  them, not only as a sort of validation, but for the pleasure of doing so,

  and also in order to have them admired, appreciated for their subtlety and
<
br />   depth. I have allowed Plutarch, Thucydides, and Plato to speak for them-

  selves. One may be surprised at times by the foreignness of their style, but

  these texts bear the mark of authenticity; and we can know the real Alcibi-

  ades only through these texts.

  In general, I have indicated the problems resulting from disparities

  among these texts and from the uncertainty they create for scholars. That

  is all part of the search for the truth. And it seems to me that sometimes

  the research itself is an adventure, one that adds to our fascination with

  the political adventure—that of Alcibiades.

  So, one asks, is this another “Greek” book, intended for Hellenists?

  Not at all.

  Most Hellenists know all about Alcibiades. I have written this book for

  those who don’t know anything about him, or only very little. And I have

  tried not to disappoint them.

  I have been selective; I have edited and condensed.

  Moreover, I have eliminated all details of interest only to scholars;

  these can be readily found in the works of experts. I have also eliminated

  a lot of proper names. I know, from experience with Russian novels, how

  distracting unfamiliar names can be. And they present an aspect of tech-

  nicality to untrained eyes that can be discouraging. As often as possible I

  have said “an adversary,” or “the Lacedaemonian general,” or “a friend

  of Alcibiades,” rather than naming the individual. I know their names of

  course. They are known to many Hellenists. Again, for anyone who wants

  to know, these can be found and fi lled in. And I hope the reader will ben-

  efi t from these omissions.

  Conversely, I have sought, whenever referring to institutions or po-

  litical situations, to give some word of explanation about them: this may

  involve a position, like that of general, or a particular custom, like ostra-

  cism, or something else, the name of which may be familiar but not the

  precise meaning.

  Although the author of this book may be a professor, she has the ben-

  efi t of introducing a unique individual, through whom the texts, and the

  culture to which he belonged, become all the more vivid.

  Author’s

  Preface xv

  It is normal for the author of a biography to cite the sources from which