Alcibiades
A born and raised Athenian, he lived from about 450 to 404 BC.
His father was Cleinias, and he was killed in battle when Alcibiades was quite young.
Alcibiades went to live with his uncle, who happened to be none other than the greatest democratic statesman in Athens, Pericles.
Alcibiades was remarkably handsome.
He was rich.
His family was one of the most distinguished in Greece.
He also had a staggeringly quick rise to power in Athens.
In the course of the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and her allies, and while he was still quite young, Alcibiades managed to get himself elected as one of Athens’ generals.
Not only that, he managed to persuade the Athenian democracy to undertake a very ambitious plan to conquer Sicily.
Thucydides tells us that Alcibiades lived his private life in a very extravagant way. For example, he single-handedly entered seven horses in the Olympic chariot races, placing first, second, and fourth.
Socrates admired the beauty of Alcibiades, who himself was completely taken with the philosopher and was apparently ready to submit to any advances from the older man.
Nonetheless, an attempt by Alcibiades to seduce Socrates, a reversal of the expected pursuit of the younger by the older, failed miserably (Plato, Symposium 219 b-d).
Socrates was determined to keep his relationship with Alcibiades (and any other young man), entirely on an intellectual level, according to the sources that are available to us.
Socrates Reproaching Alcibiades
19th.century
Anton Petter
Austrian 1781-1858. See Less
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