Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
he procured their release and sent them back to the Lacedaemonians, only
to get favor with them; that he would not make use of his credit with
them, to prevent their entering into this confederacy with the Boeotians
and Corinthians, and yet, on the other side, that he sought to stand in
the way of those Greeks who were inclined to make an alliance and
friendship with Athens, if the Lacedaemonians did not like it.
It happened, at the very time when Nicias was by these arts brought into
disgrace with the people, that ambassadors arrived from Lacedaemon, who,
at their first coming, said what seemed very satisfactory, declaring
that they had full powers to arrange all matters in dispute upon fair
and equal terms. The council received their propositions, and the
people was to assemble on the morrow to give them audience. Alcibiades
grew very apprehensive of this, and contrived to gain a secret
conference with the ambassadors. When they were met, he said: "What is
it you intend, you men of Sparta? Can you be ignorant that the council
always act with moderation and respect towards ambassadors, but that the
people are full of ambition and great designs? So that, if you let them
know what full powers your commission gives you, they will urge and
press you to unreasonable conditions. Quit therefore, this indiscreet
simplicity, if you expect to obtain equal terms from the Athenians, and
would not have things extorted from you contrary to your inclinations,
and begin to treat with the people upon some reasonable articles, not
avowing yourselves plenipotentiaries; and I will be ready to assist you,
out of good-will to the Lacedaemonians." When he had said thus, he gave
them his oath for the performance of what he promised, and by this way
drew them from Nicias to rely entirely upon himself, and left them full
of admiration of the discernment and sagacity they had seen in him. The
next day, when the people were assembled and the ambassadors introduced,
Alcibiades, with great apparent courtesy, demanded of them, With what
powers they were come? They made answer that they were not come as
plenipotentiaries.
Instantly upon that, Alcibiades, with a loud voice, as though he had
received and not done the wrong, began to call them dishonest
prevaricators, and to urge that such men could not possibly come with a
purpose to say or do anything that was sincere. The council was
incensed, the people were in a rage, and Nicias, who knew nothing of the
deceit and the imposture, was in the greatest confusion, equally
surprised and ashamed at such a change in the men. So thus the
Lacedaemonian ambassadors were utterly rejected, and Alcibiades was
declared general, who presently united the Argives, the Eleans, and the
people of Mantinea, into a confederacy with the Athenians.
No man commended the method by which Alcibiades effected all this, yet
it was a great political feat thus to divide and shake almost all
Peloponnesus, and to combine so many men in arms against the
Lacedaemonians in one day before Mantinea; and, moreover, to remove the
war and the danger so far from the frontier of the Athenians, that even
success would profit the enemy but little, should they be conquerors,
whereas, if they were defeated, Sparta itself was hardly safe.
After this battle at Mantinea, the select thousand of the army of the
Argives attempted to overthrow the government of the people in Argos,
and make themselves masters of the city; and the Lacedaemonians came to
their aid and abolished the democracy. But the people took arms again,
and gained the advantage, and Alcibiades came in to their aid and
completed the victory, and persuaded them to build long walls, and by
that means to join their city to the sea, and so to bring it wholly
within the reach of the Athenian power. To this purpose, he procured
them builders and masons from Athens, and displayed the greatest zeal
for their service, and gained no less honor and power to himself than to
the commonwealth of Athens. He also persuaded the people of Patrae to
join their city to the sea, by building long walls; and when some one
told them, by way of warning, that the Athenians would swallow them up
at last Alcibiades made answer, "Possibly it may be so, but it will be
by little and little, and beginning at the feet, whereas the
Lacedaemonians will begin at the head and devour you all at once." Nor
did he neglect either to advise the Athenians to look to their interests
by land, and often put the young men in mind of the oath which they had
made at Agraulos, to the effect that they would account wheat and
barley, and vines and olives, to be the limits of Attica; by which they
were taught to claim a title to all land that was cultivated and
productive.
But with all these words and deeds, and with all this sagacity and
eloquence, he intermingled exorbitant luxury and wantonness in his
eating and drinking and dissolute living; wore long purple robes like a
woman, which dragged after him as he went through the market-place;
caused the planks of his galley to be cut away, that so he might lie the
softer, his bed not being placed on the boards, but hanging upon girths.
His shield, again, which was richly gilded, had not the usual ensigns of
the Athenians, but a Cupid, holding a thunderbolt in his hand, was
painted upon it. The sight of all this made the people of good repute
in the city feel disgust and abhorrence, and apprehension also, at his
free-living, and his contempt of law, as things monstrous in themselves,
and indicating designs of usurpation. Aristophanes has well expressed
the people's feeling towards him:--
"They love, and hate, and cannot do without him."
And still more strongly, under a figurative expression,
"Best rear no lion in your state, 'tis true;
But treat him like a lion if you do."
The truth is, his liberalities, his public shows, and other munificence
to the people, which were such as nothing could exceed, the glory of his
ancestors, the force of his eloquence, the grace of his person, his
strength of body, joined with his great courage and knowledge in
military affairs, prevailed upon the Athenians to endure patiently his
excesses, to indulge many things to him, and, according to their habit,
to give the softest names to his faults, attributing them to youth and
good nature. As, for example, he kept Agatharcus, the painter, a
prisoner till he had painted his whole house, but then dismissed him
with a reward. He publicly struck Taureas, who exhibited certain shows
in opposition to him and contended with him for the prize. He selected
for himself one of the captive Melian women, and had a son by her, whom
he took care to educate. This the Athenians styled great humanity; and
yet he was the principal cause of the slaughter of all the inhabitants
of the isle of Melos who were of age to bear arms, having spoken in
favor of that decree. When Aristophon, the painter, had drawn Nemea
sitting and holding Alcibiades in her arms, the multitude seemed pleased
with the piece, and thronged to see it, but older people disliked and
disrelished it, and looked on these things as enormities, and movements
towards tyranny. So that it was not said amiss by Archestratus, that
Greece could not support a second Alcibiades. Once, when Alcibiades
succeeded well in an oration which he made, and the whole assembly
attended upon him to do him honor, Timon the misanthrope did not pass
slightly by him, nor avoid him, as he did others, but purposely met him,
and, taking him by the hand, said, "Go on boldly, my son, and increase
in credit with the people, for thou wilt one day bring them calamities
enough." Some that were present laughed at the saying, and some reviled
Timon; but there were others upon whom it made a deep impression; so
various was the judgment which was made of him, and so irregular his own
character.
The Athenians, even in the lifetime of Pericles, had already cast a
longing eye upon Sicily; but did not attempt any thing till after his
death. Then, under pretense of aiding their confederates, they sent
succors upon all occasions to those who were oppressed by the
Syracusans, preparing the way for sending over a greater force. But
Alcibiades was the person who inflamed this desire of theirs to the
height, and prevailed with them no longer to proceed secretly, and by
little and little, in their design, but to sail out with a great fleet,
and undertake at once to make themselves masters of the island. He
possessed the people with great hopes, and he himself entertained yet
greater; and the conquest of Sicily, which was the utmost bound of their
ambition, was but the mere outset of his expectation. Nicias endeavored
to divert the people from the expedition, by representing to them that
the taking of Syracuse would be a work of great difficulty; but
Alcibiades dreamed of nothing less than the conquest of Carthage and
Libya, and by the accession of these conceiving himself at once made
master of Italy and of Peloponnesus, seemed to look upon Sicily as
little more than a magazine for the war. The young men were soon
elevated with these hopes, and listened gladly to those of riper years,
who talked wonders of the countries they were going to; so that you
might see great numbers sitting in the wrestling grounds and public
places, drawing on the ground the figure of the island and the situation
of Libya and Carthage. Socrates the philosopher and Meton the
astrologer are said, however, never to have hoped for any good to the
commonwealth from this war; the one, it is to be supposed, presaging
what would ensue, by the intervention of his attendant Genius; and the
other, either upon rational consideration of the project, or by use of
the art of divination, conceived fears for its issue, and, feigning
madness, caught up a burning torch, and seemed as if he would have set
his own house on fire. Others report, that he did not take upon him to
act the madman, but secretly in the night set his house on fire, and the
next morning besought the people, that for his comfort, after such a
calamity, they would spare his son from the expedition. By which
artifice, he deceived his fellow-citizens, and obtained of them what he
desired.
Together with Alcibiades, Nicias, much against his will, was appointed
general: and he endeavored to avoid the command, not the less on
account of his colleague. But the Athenians thought the war would
proceed more prosperously, if they did not send Alcibiades free from
all restraint, but tempered his heat with the caution of Nicias. This
they chose the rather to do, because Lamachus, the third general, though
he was of mature years, yet in several battles had appeared no less hot
and rash than Alcibiades himself. When they began to deliberate of the
number of forces, and of the manner of making the necessary provisions,
Nicias made another attempt to oppose the design, and to prevent the
war; but Alcibiades contradicted him, and carried his point with the
people. And one Demostratus, an orator, proposing to give the generals
absolute power over the preparations and the whole management of the
war, it was presently decreed so. When all things were fitted for the
voyage, many unlucky omens appeared. At that very time the feast of
Adonis happened, in which the women were used to expose, in all parts of
the city, images resembling dead men carried out to their burial, and to
represent funeral solemnities by lamentations and mournful songs. The
mutilation, however, of the images of Mercury, most of which, in one
night, had their faces all disfigured, terrified many persons who were
wont to despise most things of that nature. It was given out that it
was done by the Corinthians, for the sake of the Syracusans, who were