Alcibiades, an Athenian statesman and general, son of Clinias and Dinomache, born in Athens in 450 B. C, died in Bithynia in 404. He boasted his descent from the Telamonian Ajax, and through him from Jupiter himself. His grandfather had been among those who attempted the banishment of the Pisistratidae, and had received the prize of valor at the battle of Artemisium; and his father fell in the battle of Chseronea (497). Alcibiades was educated in the house of Pericles, his maternal relative, and from a child excelled in all studies and in all physical exercises. As he advanced to manhood, his birth, person, abilities, and wealth, joined to the consideration in which he was held by Pericles, procured for him a crowd of friends and flatterers; and he became as distinguished for the audacity of his dissipations as for the brilliancy of his station and abilities. Socrates, who appreciated his capacities, gained great influence over him, and from this time his whole life seemed a wavering between virtue and vice. He gave the first proofs of his valor in the battle of Potida3a (432), where he was wounded while fighting side by side with Socrates, whose protection alone saved his life.

He returned this service to his teacher in the battle of Delium (424), where his efforts saved Socrates from the sword of the conquering Boeotians. He always carried in war a shield inlaid with gold and ivory, and bearing the device of Jupiter hurling a thunderbolt. He distinguished himself in the public festivals of the Greeks, and at the Olympic games he was not content with furnishing one chariot, like the other wealthy young men, but equipped and sent seven, with which he bore off the first three prizes. He took little part in public affairs till the death of the demagogue Cleon, in 422, when he became the head of the new war party in opposition to Nicias. Nicias had just concluded a peace of 50 years between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, and Alcibiades, jealous of the power of Nicias, set himself to break the peace and to form a union of the Greek states against Sparta. His counsels caused the great expedition to Sicily (415), of which he was appointed commander together with Nicias and Lama-chus, and which he thought would be a step toward the conquest of Magna Gra3cia, Carthage, and Peloponnesus. While the preparations for this expedition were going on, all the busts of Hermes in Athens were during one night mysteriously mutilated.

The cause and the authors of this sacrilege were unknown, but the popular fears connected it in some unaccountable way with an attempt to overthrow the Athenian constitution. That Alcibiades had anything to do with the offence there was no evidence, and if he was guilty of it, it was probably one of the unpremeditated results of a nocturnal debauch. Nevertheless, suspicion was thrown upon him, and immediately produced great popular indignation. The Sicilian fleet being nearly ready to sail under his command, he demanded an investigation before his departure from Athens. This his enemies refused to give him, thinking to increase the popular odium against him in his absence. The expedition had hardly reached Sicily when the anger of the people became so excessive that his ruin was fully determined upon. But as he had already gained shining advantages in Sicily, and had become the favorite of the soldiers, it was deemed hazardous to pass public sentence upon him while he was at the head of an army. He was therefore recalled. On his voyage homeward he escaped at Thurii and fled, first to Argos, and then to Sparta. Meantime sentence of death was passed upon him at Athens, and his property was confiscated.

In Sparta he adapted himself skilfully to the severe manners of the country, became a favorite of the populace, and, being now the avowed enemy of his own country, he persuaded the Lacedaemonians to send help to Sicily against the Athenians. He then effected an alliance between the Spartans and the king of Persia, for the purpose of supporting the Chians in revolt against Athens. He passed over into Asia Minor, and roused all Ionia into rebellion. Soon, however, his successes and great influence excited the jealousy of the principal Spartans, and Alcibiades took refuge with Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap. He who had won the admiration of the Spartans by adopting all their simplicity, and practising all their austerity, now merited the applauses of the orientals by vying with them in Asiatic luxury. An exile both from Athens and Sparta, he began now to look with longing toward his native country. He persuaded Tissaphernes to desert the cause of the Spartans, and to show willingness even to assist the Athenians, for which service he was recalled from banishment in 411. Though he did not return immediately to Athens, he yet used his influence to make the government aristocrati-cal, and received command of the Athenian fleet at Samos, with the determination not"to see again his native land till he had rendered services commensurate with the evils which he had caused it.

Defeating the Lacedaemonians both by land and sea, he was suddenly arrested by Tissaphernes, who wished to avoid suspicion of having authorized the enterprise. But finding means to escape, Alcibiades again put himself at the head of the army, defeated the Lacedasmonians and Persians at Cyzicus, captured that town, Ohalcedon, and Byzantium, restored to the Athenians their supremacy by sea, and after these brilliant achievements returned to Athens in 407, where he was received with general enthusiasm. His triumph was complete when he celebrated with unusual splendor the Eleusinian mysteries. Being appointed commander-in-chief of all the land and sea forces, he sailed with a fleet to Asia Minor, to reduce some of the Ionian islands and cities. The pay and provisions for his soldiers not arriving, and his position becoming dangerous, he was obliged to leave his army in command of Antiochus, while he himself sought supplies in Caria. During his absence, the Spartan commander Lysander had the art to draw Antiochus into an engagement, in which the Athenians were defeated and a part of their vessels destroyed. Alcibiades now again lost favor.

He went into voluntary banishment, to a castle which he had built in Pactye, Thrace. When the Athenian fleet was in 405 lying at Aegospo-tamos, Alcibiades informed the generals of, the perilous position which they had selected, and forewarned them of the fatal result of the battle soon after fought there, which caused the fall of Athens in the following year, and its subjection to the thirty tyrants. The Spartans, who now ruled at Athens, renewed the decree of banishment against him, and Alcibiades fled toward the court of Artaxerxes II. to win over that monarch to the cause of his fallen country. He was on his way thither, in the dominions of the satrap Pharnabazus, when one night his house was surrounded by armed men, and set on fire. He rushed out, sword in hand, but fell pierced with arrows. The Spartans, feeling their supremacy insecure while Alcibiades lived, had probably thus plotted with Pharnabazus for his destruction.