Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/506

Rh 468 A L C A L C ALCIBIADES was born at Athens about 450 B.C. Through, his father, Cleinias, he traced his descent from Eurysaces, the son of Ajax, and through his mother, Deinomache, from Megacles, the head of the Alcmseonidse. He was thus related to Pericles, who, after the death of Clsiuias at the battle of Coronea (447 B.C.), became his guardian. A youth early deprived of his father s control, possessed of great personal beauty, and the heir to great wealth a youth consequently universally honoured, courted, and caressed was not in a position to acquire a knowledge of the virtue of self-restraint in any shape or form. Spoilt accordingly by flatteries and blandishments, the boy showed himself self-willed, capricious, and pas sionate, and indulged in the wildest freaks and most insolent, tyrannical behaviour. Nor did the instructors of his early manhood supply the corrective which his boy hood lacked. The collection of moral, political, and reli gious beliefs which the earlier Greeks, from custom, con venience, or the promptings of common sense, had accepted as a standard by which to regulate their own conduct and judge that of others, had been exposed by the sophists to the keenest scrutiny and the widest scepticism. Negative criticism, accompanied with showy novel paradoxes, are always attractive to a young man of intellectual vigour ; and thus Alcibiades learnt from Protagoras, Prodicus, and others, to laugh at the common opinions about justice, temper ance, holiness, patriotism, &c. The long, patient, laborious thought, the self-sufficing and comparatively ascetic life of his master Socrates, he was able to admire, but not to imitate or practise. On the contrary, his ostentatious vanity, his amours, his debaucheries, and his impious revels, became notorious throughout Athens. But great as were Alcibiades s moral vices, his intellectual abilities were still more conspicuous. He proved his courage at the battle of Potidea (432 B.C.), where, wounded, he was rescued by Socrates ; at the battle of Delium (424 B.C.), where he protected his former deliverer ; and on many subsequent occasions. Though he was not a very fluent speaker, he always kept to the point. His energy was im mense, his ambition unbounded but selfish, and provided he could gratify this passion, he never scrupled at the means or the price. He could read the character of others, and adapt himself to it with a versatility, adroitness, and flexibility which if any even of his shifty fellow-countrymen equalled they never surpassed. Nor were his personal qualities his only recommendation to popular favour. His ancestors and relatives had been for generations the recognised leaders of the people; he had many admirers and followers among the clubs of young nobles ; he had numerous de pendants who partook of his wealth ; and he gratified the populace by the lavish expenditure with which he per formed his various liturgical duties. On his first entering prominently into public life, he succeeded by a clever but unscrupulous trick in duping the Spartan ambassadors, and persuading the Athenians to conclude an alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea (420 B.C.) Next year he was appointed general, and for three years busily traversed the Peloponnesus, endeavouring to advance the objects of the alliance. But to be the first man in Athens was far too limited an object to satisfy the ambition of Alcibiades : all Greece must be dazzled by his greatness. As the first step towards the accomplishment of this scheme he fixed upon the conquest of Sicily, which would necessarily be followed by that of the Peloponnesus and probably by that of Car thage. With this view, he warmly advocated the adoption of measures for the relief of Segesta. The Sicilian expedi tion being resolved on with great enthusiasm, he, Nicias, and Lamachus, were appointed generals. But shortly before the day appointed for the armaments setting sail there took a mysterious crime, which was destined to alter the whole complexion of Alcibiades s future, and with it that of the Athenian state. In the course of one night (May, 415 B.C.) all the busts of Hermes in Athens were sacrilegi ously mutilated. The enemies of Alcibiades (many of them probably the actual perpetrators) endeavoured to connect him with the sacrilege ; and his well-known impieties gave plausibility to a charge which could never have had any real foundation. Recalled to stand his trial almost as soon as he reached Sicily, he escaped, and made his way to Sparta, where he revealed all the plans of the Athenians, and induced the Spartans to send Gylippus to Sicily and an army to fortify Decelea. He then passed over to Asia Minor, and prevailed upon many of the Ionic allies of Athens to revolt. But in a few months he had lost the confidence of the Spartans ; and at the instigation. of Agis II., whose personal hostility he had excited, an order was sent from Lacedaemon for his execution. Re ceiving timely information of this order, he crossed over to Tissaphernes (412 B.C.), and quickly worming him self into the satrap s confidence, he persuaded him to cease giving active assistance to Sparta, so that the two Grecian parties, after wearing themselves out by their mutual struggles, might both be easily expelled from Asia. But Alcibiades was now bent on returning to Athens, and he used his supposed influence with Tissaphernes to effect his purpose. In his negotiation with Peisander, though he failed in his immediate object, he succeeded in produc ing the impression that, whatever side he joined, he could make Tissaphernes help. Under this impression, he was recalled by Thrasybulus and the armament at Samos, and appointed one of the generals. His appointment was followed by the victories at Cynossema, Abydos, and Cyzicus, and by the recovery of Chalcedon and Byzantium. On his return to Athens after these successes he was welcomed with every demonstration of joy (407 B.C.) ; all the proceedings against him were cancelled, and he was appointed general with full powers. His ill success, how ever, at Andros, and the defeat of his lieutenant at Notium, led the Athenians to dismiss him from his command. He thereupon retired to the Thracian Chersonesus ; but after the battle of ^Egospotami, and the establishment of the Spartan supremacy throughout Greece, he crossed the Hellespont, and took refuge with Pharnabazus in Phrygia. There an attack was made upon him, but by whom or for what cause historians are not agreed ; his residence was set on fire, and on rushing out on his cowardly assassins, dagger in hand, he was killed by a shower of arrows, 404 B.C. By his wife Hipparete, Alcibiades left one son, who was named after himself. ALCINOUS, a Platonic philosopher of uncertain date, author of a work entitled ETTITO/A^ TWV nA.arwvos Soy/j.aT&amp;lt;av, which has been translated into English by Stanley in his History of Philosophy. The best edition of the Greek original is that by Fischer, Lips. 1783, 8vo. ALCINOUS, a mythical king of the Phrcacians, in the island of Scheria, was son of Nausithous, and grandson of Neptiine and Periboea. He has been immortalised in the Odyssey, the description of his reception and entertainment of Ulysses, who when cast by a storm on the shore of the island was relieved by the king s daughter, Nausicaa, form ing the main subject of books vi. to xiii. of that poem. The subjects of Alcinous loved pleasure and good cheer, yet were skilful seamen ; and he himself is described as a good prince. ALCIPHIION, the most eminent of the Greek epistolary writers, was probably a contemporary of Lucian. His letters, of which 116 have been published, are written in. the purest Attic dialect, and are considered models of style. The imaginary authors of them are country people, fisherwomen, courtesans, and parasites, who express their