Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/60

42 > HISTORY OF GREECE Lacedaemonian government, from strong antipathy to them on political grounds. But Alkibiades himself, in commencing politi- cal life, departed from this family tradition, and presented him- self as a partisan of oligarchical and philo-Laconian sentiment, doubtless far more consonant to his natural temper than the dem- ocratical. He thus started in the same general party with Nikias and Thessalus son of Kimon, who afterwards became his bitter opponents ; and it was in part probably to put himself on a par with them, that he took the marked step of trying to revive the ancient family tie of hospitality with Sparta, which his grand- father had broken off. 1 To promote this object, he displayed peculiar solicitude 1 Dr the good treatment of the Spartan captives, during their detention at Athens. Many of them being of high family at Sparta, ho nat- urally calculated upon their gratitude, as well as upon the favor- able sympathies of their countrymen, whenever they should be restored. He advocated both the peace and the alliance with Sparta, and the restoration of her captives ; and indeed not only advocated these measures, but tendered his services, and was eager to be employed, as the agent of Sparta for carrying them through at Athens. From these selfish hopes in regard to Sparta, and especially from the expectation of acquiring, through the agency of the restored captives, the title of Proxenus of Sparta, Alkibiades thus became a partisan of the blind and gratuitous philo-Laconian concessions of Nikias. But the captives on their return were either unable, or unwilling, to carry the point which he wished ; while the authorities at Sparta rejected all his ad- vances, not without a contemptuous sneer at the idea of confiding important political interests to the care of a youth chiefly known for ostentation, profligacy, and insolence. That the Spartans should thus judge, is noway astonishing, considering their ex treme reverence both for old age and for strict discipline. They naturally preferred Nikias and Laches, whose prudence would commend, if it did not originally suggest, their mistrust of tha 1 Thucyd. v, 43, vi, 90 ; Isokrates, De Bigis, Or. xvi, p. 352, sect. 27-30. riut- ich (Alkibiad. c. 1-1} carelessly represents Alkibiades as being actu illy p xcnus of Sparta at Athena.
 * v> w jclnimant. Nor had Alkibiades yet shown the mighty move*