Lives by Plutarch - 7 - Alcibiades
Alcibiades
Quote
"He could change more abruptly than a chameleon ... whether Alcibiades found himself in the company of good men or bad, there was nothing he could not imitate and no habit he could not acquire."
Notes
Alcibiades is related to Pericles and he grows up in similar circles. He's also friend (and lover?) to Socrates.
Alcibiades is physically attractive and he speaks with a lisp. He's also passionate, persuasive and competitive with everything he does. He plays hard and he plays to win.
All these qualities make Alcibiades exciting to be with and he has people following him all around. Indeed, even Socrates is in love with him. This, Plutarch writes, shows that Alcibiades had true virtue, since that was the only thing Socrates was interested in. Socrates is still only human, and while Alcibiades does treat Socrates well, he treats his many other lovers like crap.
Socrates is still a positive influence. He pulls Alcibiades back towards virtue where everyone else is appealing to his "ambitious longing for recognition", coaxing him to get into politics. He does have the making of a strong politician. He gives good speeches, has lots of money, and a powerful network of allies.
However, Athenians look suspiciously on people who are personally skilled and powerful. They routinely, and almost ritually, ostracize people they think are too powerful (Plutarch says it's also a "measure to placate envy"). Alcibiades is a candidate for ostracism along with his political rival, Nicias. But the two work together to deflect attention onto some other guy and the people ostracize him instead.
But Alcibiades is still not friends with Nicias. Alcibiades plays to win and he's very competitive. Nicias is leading peace talks with the Spartans to finally bring an end to a brutal war (the Peloponnesian Wars). Alcibiades undermines the peace talks, no matter that it might make the war go on, just so he can take a victory away from Nicias.
Continuing his selfish streak, he helps convince the Athenians that they should go invade Sicily so that he can increase his reputation and fame through war. He sees it as the beginning of a larger invasion of other nations all throughout the Mediterranean.
The people elect Alcibiades a commander for this war alongside Nicias, who hated the idea of this war, and they set out together. However, the Athenians call Alcibiades back after they discover he was part of a major religious scandal where he was mocking the gods. Other people who were part of it are thrown in prison, and Alcibiades decides to run away.
He goes to Sparta and offers them information to help defeat the Athenians in exchange for asylum. Alcibiades is a chameleon (see quote at the beginning), and he adopts the Spartan way of life. But he also sleeps with the king's wife, so he has to run away again.
He goes to the Persians next and sells himself to them (no one can resist his charm). He offers to advise them how they can play the Spartans and the Athenians off one another to defeat them. At the same time, he's writing back home to friends in Athens trying to get back in their good books.
Athens is in disarray (the invasion of Sicily was a complete disaster). A group of oligarchs take over and another group of Alcibiades friends want to get him back so he can help lead a fight against them. Alcibiades in fact persuades them against this since he thinks a civil war would weaken all of Athens, even though this was a big chance for him to take personal power. He does help them take the government back and he thinks maybe now it's safe for him to come back, too.
He does come back and he's very popular again after he leads some big military victories. He's so popular actually than some people want him to become a tyrant and take complete control.
Some Athenians turn against him, though, still suspicious of the powerful. After a big military loss, he has to run away to the Persians again. There's more internal fighting about bringing him back, except the Spartans send an assassin and they kill Alcibiades.
Extras
Quote on philosophy's power to pierce souls:
"For fortune has surrounded and enclosed no one so thoroughly with the so-called good things in life that he cannot be pierced by the shafts of philosophy and reached by the seasoned candour of reasoned arguments."