cured him a multitude of friends and admirers. Socrates was one of the former, and gained con- siderable influence over him; but was unable to restrain his love of luxury and dissipation, which found ample means of gratification in the wealth that accrued to him by his union with Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus. His pub- lic displays, especially at the Olympic Games, in 420 B.C., were incredibly expensive. He bore arms for the first time in the expedition against Potidæa (432 B.C.), where he was wounded, and where his life was saved by Socrates, a debt which he liquidated eight years after at the bat- tle of Delium by saving, in his turn, the life of the philosopher; but he seems to have taken no considerable part in political matters till after the death of the demagogue Cleon, when Nicias brought about a treaty of peace for fifty years between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, 421 B.C. Alcibiades, jealous of the esteem in which Nicias was held, set himself at the head of the war party, and persuaded the Athenians to ally themselves with the people of Argos, Elis, and Mantinea, and did all in his power to stir up afresh their old antipathy to Sparta. It was at his suggestion that they engaged in the celebrated en- terprise against Syracuse, to the command of which he was elected, with Nicias and Lamaohus. But while preparations were being made, it happened during one night that all the statues of Hermes in Athens were mutilated. The ene- mies of Alcibiades threw the blame of this mis- chief upon him, but postponed the impeachment till he had set sail, when they stirred up the peo- ple against him to such a degree that he was re- called in the autumn of 415 B.C. in order to stand his trial.
On his way home. Alcibiades landed at Thurii, fled, and betook himself to Sparta, where, by conforming to the strict manners of the peo- ple, he soon became a favorite. He induced the Lacedæmonians to send assistance to the Syra- cusans, persuaded them to occupy permanently a post at Decelea in Attica, to form an alliance with the King of Persia, and after the unfor- tunate issue of the Athenian expedition in Sicily, to support the people of Chios in their endeavors to throw off the yoke of Athens. He went thither himself, and raised all Ionia in revolt against that city. But Agis and the other leading men in Sparta, jealous of the success of Alcibiades, ordered their generals in Asia to have him as- sassinated. Alcibiades discovered this plot and fled to Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap, who had orders to act in concert with the Lacedæmonians. He now resumed his old manners, adopted the luxurious habits of Asia, and made himself in- dispensable to Tissaphernes. He represented to the latter that it was contrary to the interests of Persia entirely to disable the Athenians. He then sent word to the commanders of the Athenian forces at Samos that lie would procure for them the friendship of the satrap if they would control the extravagance of the people and commit the government to an oligarchy. This offer was accept- ed, and in 411 B.C. Pisander was sent to Athens, where he had the supreme power vested in a coun- cil of four hundred persons. When it appeared, however, that this council had no intention of re- calling Alcibiades, the army at Samos chose him as their commander, desiring him to lead them on instantly to Athens and overthrow the ty- rants. But Alcibiades did not wish to return to his native country till he had rendered it some
service, and he accordingly attacked and defeated the Lacedæmonians by both sea and land. Tissaphernes now ordered him to be arrested at Sardis on his return, the satrap not wishing the King to imagine that he had been accessory to his doings. But Alcibiades found means to escape, placed himself again at the head of the army, beat the Lacedæmonians and Persians at Cyzicus, took Cyzicus, Chalcedon, and Byzantium, restored to the Athenians the dominion of the sea, and then returned to his country (407 B.C.), to which he had been formally invited. He was received with general enthusiasm, as the Athenians attributed to his banishment all the misfortunes that had befallen them.
The triumph of Alcibiades, however, was not destined to last. He was again sent to Asia with one hundred ships; but, not being supplied with money for the soldiers' pay, he was obliged to seek assistance at Caria, where he transferred the command in the meantime to Antiochus, who, being lured into an ambuscade by Lysander, lost his life and part of the ships. The enemies of Alcibiades took advantage of this to accuse him and appoint another commander. Alcibiades went into voluntary exile at Pactye in Thrace, one of the strongholds which he had built out of his earlier spoils. But being threatened here with the power of Lacedæmonia, he removed to Bithynia, with the intention of repairing to Artaxerxes, to gain him over to the interests of his country. At the request of the Thirty Tyrants of Athens, and with the concurrence of the Spartans, Pharnabazus, a satrap of Artaxerxes, received orders to put Alcibiades to death. He was living at this time in a castle in Phrygia; Pharnabazus caused it to be set on fire during the night. As his victim was endeavoring to escape from the flames, he was pierced with a volley of arrows. Thus perished Alcibiades (404 B.C.), about the forty-fifth year of his age. He was singularly endowed by nature, being possessed of the most fascinating eloquence and having in a rare degree the ability to win and to govern men. Yet in all his transactions he allowed himself to be directed by external circumstances, without having any fixed principles of conduct. On the other hand, he possessed that boldness which arises from conscious superiority, and he shrank from no difficulty, because he was never doubtful concerning the means by which an end might be attained. Consult: The Lives, by Plutarch and Nepos; Grote, History of Greece (New York, 1853-56); Hertzberg, Alkibiades, der Staatsmann und Feldherr, (Halle, 1853); Houssaye, Histoire d'Alcibiade, 2 volumes (Paris, 1873).
ALCI'DA: Greene's Metamorphoses. A pamphlet by Robert Greene, of which the first known edition dates from 1617, though it was licensed in 1588 and probably published soon after. It contains stories illustrating the ills that result from feminine vanities.
ALCID'AMAS (Gk. Ἀλκιδάμας, Alkidamas) A Greek rhetorician, pupil of Gorgias and the last of the Sophistical school. He was a native of Elæa, in Asia Minor, but between 432 and 411 B.C. gave instruction in eloquence at Athens. The only extant declamations attributed to him are: Ὀδυσσεύς, in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery to the Grecian cause during the siege of Troy; and Περὶ Σοφιστῶν, against the Sophists. The latter oration, which is said to have been directed chiefly against Isocrates, the
