Alcibiades

Alcibiades was then recalled to face trial for the second time, and was ordered to be executed. Alcibiades, along with many other accused, set sail with the Salaminia back to Athens. Alcibiades and his companions went as far as Thurii, left their ship and disappeared (Thuc 6.51.6). Alcibiades then became an outlaw of Athens, fled to the Peloponnesus, and was then condemned to death. This deception changed the course of the war dramatically. His fleeing from Athens indirectly led to the destruction of the expeditionary forces of the Athenians, and a great Syracusan victory. Thucydides then explains the great loss suffered by Athens. “They were beaten at all points and altogether; all that they suffered was great; they were destroyed […] with total destruction, their fleet, their army-everything was destroyed” (Thuc 7.87.6). Because of this defeat caused by Alcibiades, Athens suffered. He betrayed Athens and became an ally of Sparta, where he served as an adviser and worked many campaigns against…

In line with custom Alcibiades desired to receive the guidance of Socrates through pederasty. Yet, his attempt was in vain because Socrates did not engage in such promiscuity “I swear to you by all the gods and goddesses together, my night with Socrates went no further than if I had spent it with my own father or older brother” (181B). Alcibiades expresses his disbelief that Socrates would deny his beauty saying “he turned me down! He spurned my beauty, of which I was so proud”(219C).…

gods. Socrates was not loyal to the Polis. As one does say, “the thought of Socrates not worshipping the gods is thought-provoking” (Nardo 12) He is saying that it is a very large part of life to be close to and have a good relationship with the gods, but to not even be loyal to the polis shocks his thought on Socrates in general. The worst part about Socrates faith was that he had been dissed and not spoken of because of it. During the Peloponnesian War, Socrates, “...committed one of the…

assembly to incorrectly wage war was a spokesman from their ally, Egesta, who promised them sixty talents of silver to help send an expedition; however, as Thucydides writes, their offer was “attractive but not true, especially the claim about the money—that they had a great store of it ready in their temples and in their public treasury.” In addition, Alcibiades, an overly ambitious general who would later betray Athens, also easily persuaded the assembly to wage war; in his speech, Alcibiades…

Sicilian Expedition. New evidence (Chambers, 25-31) recalibrates the date of the Treaty of Egesta to 418 BCE, shortly before the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BCE. Such a treaty would have strongly compelled the Athenians to aid the Egesteans when the 416 BCE Egestean embassy appealled for military assistance against Selinus. Thucydides does mention the obscure alliance between the Phoenicians and the Sicels (Thucydides, 6.2.32), and the important alliance between Selinus and Syracuse (Thucydides,…

422/421 BC (Chittick 82-83). The Melian Dialogue and the final three debates happen about six years after the agreement of the “Peace of Nicias”. Mainly regarding Athens “expedition” into Sicily and the Sicilian reaction to Athens’ arrival. The Melian Dialogue (416 BC): Athenians offer the Melians good treatment if they agree to join their empire without conflict, the Melians refuse and Athenians lay siege and eventually kill all the men and enslave the women and children (Chittick 84). The…

Having troops that are tired and hungry is not going to help them win. But another part that is important for one to understand, is that Nicias thought the expedition was a mistake. Alcibiades, was all for it, so when it came time for motivation speeches to the troops, that was something he was good at. But when it was Nicias, he would have trouble motivating the troops because he didn’t agree with eh plan anyways. So that can play a big part on the men of the army. Not having motivation when…

At once Alcibiades takes the stage to refute Nicias and because of his own self-interests, encourages the Athenians to continue with the expedition. In Oedipus the King there is a lack of such a character, although there is a driving force that encourages Oedipus to continue in his inquiry. This force is the plague, that drives Oedipus to find the cause and thus find his origin. So although no respected character encourages Oedipus to explore his birth, Oedipus is driven by the epidemic (58-77).…

accuse the deplorable Alcibiades of defacing the religiously significant herms throughout the city. To add to his heinous crime against the state, not only did he deface the herms, but he did so immediately before the departure for the Sicilian Expedition. Eye witnesses have stepped forward and shed light upon the traitorous act, claiming Alcibiades and his friends committed the crime. In addition to vandalizing the herms throughout the state, Alcibiades and his group of rebels also made a…

I found that reading Plato’s Alcibiades was difficult. Difficult in many different ways; the language, the multiple meanings of words and phrases, and even the space left for open interpretation of what was said. But, I also found these challenges to be helpful. This text was fun to read because there was an underlying message of the point Plato was trying to make, but there was also room to create my own ideas. An example of the space left for interpretation is in much of Socrates dialogue.…