(A) Alcibiades, the son of Clinias, made the most spirited case for the [Sicilian] expedition, partly because he wanted to cross Nicias (with whom he had other political differences), and because Nicias had made a slanderous reference to him [in his speech to the Assembly opposing the expedition]. Mainly, however, [2] he desired to take command [of the expedition], hoping that it would be because of himself that Sicily and Carthage would be conquered&endash;successes which would at the same time bring him personally both wealth and fame. [3] For because he was highly esteemed by the citizens (astôn), he had desires that were too vast for his actual estate to support, both for horse-breeding and for other luxuries as well. [4] Later on, in fact, this had not a little to do with the downfall of the city of Athens. For [5] the common people (hoi polloi) were [6] frightened by the magnitude of the paranomia he exhibited with regard to his own person (sôma: lit. body) in his mode of life, and [7] by the ambition he showed in absolutely everything he undertook. So they believed that he wanted to become tyrant, and became his enemies. And even though [8] his public management of the war was excellent, [9] each of them was so offended by his private habits that [10] they entrusted their affairs to other hands, and before long ruined the city. (6.15.2-5)

Here (1) and (2) explain why Alcibiades opposed Nicias: (1) he was politically opposed to him, and annoyed by his slanderous remarks, and (2) he was ambitious for the honor and desirous of the wealth that defeating Sicily would bring. (3) explains why Alcibiades needed that money: the position of worth he enjoyed among the citizens led him to expenditures he couldn’t afford. (4) explains what the consequences of (2) and (3) were: the common people were frightened (6) by the paranomia that Alcibiades exhibited in his private life and (7) by the ambition he exhibited in his public life into believing that he wanted to become tyrant, so that even though (8) in public life his conduct of the war was excellent, (9) the offensiveness of his private habits led them (10) to put public affairs into other hands. Three contrasts are crucial in the passage: that between the (urban) citizens mentioned in (3) and the common people mentioned in (5); that between public and private in (6)-(9); and, finally that between paranomia and its (implicit) opposite&endash;what is in accord with nomos.

(B) Really, Athenians, I have a better claim to this command than anyone else. (I am compelled to begin with this issue since Nicias raised it.) At the same time, I believe myself to be worthy of it. For what has made me notorious has also won fame for my ancestors and for myself, and has benefited my country besides. For the other Greeks thought our city to be even more powerful than it really was because of the magnificence with which I represented it at the Olympic games, when before they had hoped they’d beaten us down in the war. I entered seven chariots there (more than any private individual had entered before); I won first, second, and fourth place; and in everything I displayed the magnificence worthy of a winner. Custom (nomos) regards such displays as honorable, but they earn a reputation for power as well. As for my expenses in the city for dramatic festivals and my other splendid largesse, it is only natural that my fellow-citizens envy it; but, as in the previous case, foreigners see it as strength. And this so-called ambition is really quite useful, when a man helps both himself and his city at private expense. At any rate, there’s no injustice in being above equality if you think well of yourself. For a person who is doing badly does not make anyone else a partner in his fortune either. If a man will not even greet us when we are down on our luck, then, when things go well for us, he should be equally content if we look down on him&endash;or else, if he insists on equality, he should give the same in return. I know that all of those people who are as brilliantly successful as I am will cause pangs of envy as long as they live (especially to their peers, but also to everyone they meet); after their deaths, however, they will leave a legacy of people who claim a kinship with them that never existed, and a country that boasts of them not as strangers or sinners, but as their very own citizens who have done fine things. That is what I aim at, that is what has made me notorious in my private affairs. Now consider whether I handle public affairs any the worse. Without great risk to you I brought together the greatest powers of the Peloponnesus and made the Lacedemonians stake everything they had on one day’s battle at Mantinea and though they won the battle they have not yet recovered their confidence. Here is the work of that youth and ambition of mine which is supposed to be beyond what is natural: I dealt with the Peloponnesian power by giving good arguments, my enthusiasm won their confidence, and I persuaded them. Don’t be afraid of these qualities now, but make use of our services while I am still in my prime and Nicias is thought to be lucky. (6.16-17)

(C) We have a form of government here that does not try to imitate the practices of our neighboring states. We are more of an example to others, than they to us. In name it is called a democracy, because it is managed in the interest not of a few people, but of the majority. Yet even though there is equality of law here for everyone in private disputes, whenever an individual has earned recognition he is singled out for public service in accordance with his claim to distinction, not by rotation but on the basis of his excellence [virtue]; and no one is held back by poverty or because he is not well-known, as long as he can do good to the city. We are free and generous not only in our public activities as citizens, but also in our everyday lives: there is no suspicion in our dealings with one another, and we are not offended with our neighbor for following his own pleasure. We do not cast on anyone the censorious looks that&endash;though they do no real harm&endash;are nevertheless painful. We live together without taking offense on private matters; and as for public affairs, we respect the law greatly and fear to violate it, since we are obedient to those in office at any time, and also to the laws&endash;especially to those laws that were made to help people who have suffered an injustice, and to the unwritten laws that bring shame on their transgressors by the agreement of all. (2.37)

As for Alibiades’ physical beauty, we need say no more than that it flowered at each season of his growth in turn, and lent him an extraordinary grace and charm, alike as a boy, a youth, and a man. Euripides’ saying that even the autumn of beauty possesses a loveliness of its own is not universally true. But if it applies to few others, it was certainly true of Alcibiades on account of his natural gifts and his physical perfection. Even his lisp is said to have suited his voice well and to have made his talk persuasive and full of charm." (Plutarch, Alcibiades 1).

(D) When I realized that my ploy [of getting Socrates to wrestle with him in the hopes of spurring him on to seduction] had failed, I decided on a frontal attack. I refused to retreat from a battle I myself had begun, and I needed to know just where matters stood. So that what I did was to invite him to dinner, as I were his lover and he my young prey! To tell the truth, it took him quite a while to accept my invitation, but one day he finally arrived. The first time he left right after dinner: I was too shy to try to stop him. But on my next attempt, I started some discussion just as we were finishing our meal and kept him talking late into the night. When he said he should be going, I used the lateness of the hour as an excuse and managed to persuade him to spend the night at my house. He had had his meal on the couch next to mine, so he just made himself comfortable and lay down on it. No one else was there. Now you must admit that my story so far has been perfectly decent; I could have told it in any company. But you’d never have heard me tell the rest of it, as you’re about to do, if it weren’t that, as the saying goes, "there’s truth in wine when the slaves have left"&endash;and when they’re present too… To get back to the story. The lights were out; the slaves had left; the time was right, I thought, to come to the point and tell him freely what I had in mind. So I shook him and whispered: "Socrates, are you asleep?" "No, no, not at all," he replied. "You know what I’ve been thinking?" "Well, no, not really." "I think," I said, "you’re the only worthy lover I have ever had&endash;and yet, look how shy you are with me! Well, here’s how I look at it. It would be really stupid not to give you everything you want: you can have me, my belongings, anything my friends might have. Nothing is more important to me than becoming the best man I can be, and no one can help me more than you to reach that aim. With a man like you, in fact, I’d be much more ashamed of what wise people would say is I did not take you as a lover, than I would of what all the others, in their foolishness, would say if I did."

I didn’t give him a chance to say another word. I stood up immediately and placed my mantle over the light cloak which, though it was the middle of winter, was his only clothing. I slipped underneath the cloak and put my arms around this man&endash;this utterly unnatural, this truly extraordinary man&endash;and spent the whole night next to him. (Plato, Symposium 216d-219e)

(E) Hipparete was a decorous and affectionate wife [to Alcibiades], but she was distressed by the liaisons her husband continually carried on with Athenian and foreign courtesans, and finally she left his house and went to live with her brother. Alcibiades paid no attention to this and continued his debaucheries, so that she was obliged to lodge her petition for divorce with the magistrate not by proxy, but in person. When she appeared in public for this purpose, as the law demanded, Alcibiades came up, seized her and carried her home with him through the market-place, and not a soul dared to oppose him or take her from him. Indeed, she continued to live with him until her death, for she died not long after this, while Alcibiades was on a voyage in Ephesus. I should explain that that this violence of his was not regarded as paranomos or inhuman. Indeed, it would appear that the law (nomos), in laying it down that a wife who wishes to separate from her husband must attend the court in person, is actually designed to give the her husband the opportunity to meet and recover her. (Plutarch, Alcibiades 8)

(F) If any one [of you oligarchic Spartans] thought worse of me for siding with the people (demos), he should recognize that he is not right to be offended. We [Alcibiades’ family, which included Pericles] have always been opposed to tyrants, you see (and whatever is opposed to absolute rule is called popular (d°mow)), and because of this the leadership of the majority party has remained with us. Besides, in a city governed by a democracy we were generally compelled to conform to prevailing conditions. We have tried, nevertheless, to be more moderate in politics than the prevailing license . There have been others in the past&endash;there still are some&endash;who have incited the mob to greater malice and these are the very ones who have driven me out. But as for us, we were leaders of the whole [city] collectively, and we thought it right to join in preserving the same system, just as it was handed down to us, under which the city turned out to be greatest and most free. For those of us with good sense, at least, understood what democracy is&endash;I as well as anyone (that’s why I could lambaste it if I wanted, although there is nothing new to say about what everyone agrees is foolish). Besides, we thought it was not safe to change it while you were bearing down on us as enemies.(6.89.3-6) … And I do not expect any of you to think the less of me because I, who was once thought a lover of my own city, now vigorously attacks her along with her worst enemies… I do love my city, but as a place where I could safely engage in public life, not as the site of injustice to me. I do not think the city I am going against is my own; it is much more a matter of my recovering a city that is not mine. A true lover of his city is not the man who refuses to invade the city he has lost through injustice, but the man who desire so much to be in it that he will attempt to recover it my any means he can. (6.92.2, 4)

(G) Some will say that democracy is neither wise [on behalf of the collective] nor fair [equal].But I answer, first, that demos is the name for the whole [city] collectively, oligarchy of a part. Second, though the rich are indeed the best guardians of the city’s money, the best councilors are those who are wise [on behalf of the collective], and the best judges of what they hear are the common people; and in a democracy all three groups, whether as parts or collectively, have a fair [equal] share. (6.39.1-2)

(H) "[Alcibiades was] willing to return home provided there was an oligarchy rather than the corrupt democracy that had cast him out" (8.47.2). This oligarchy was "a reasonable and moderate blending of the few and the many" (8.97).

(I) Their preparations [for the Sicilian Expedition] were underway, but then, of all the stone Herms in the city of Athens… most had their face mutilated during a single night. No one knew who the perpetrators were, but there was a search for them with large rewards out of public funds… They took the matter seriously; it looked like an omen for the voyage, and furthermore as though it had been done as part of a conspiracy for revolution and the overthrow of the democracy. So information came in from some metics [resident aliens] and some servants about the mutilation of some other statues as acts of drunken sport on the part of some young men, though nothing at all about the Herms, and, in addition to this, that scurrilous celebrations of the [Elusinian] mysteries were being held in private homes; they accused Alcibiades. Taking up the charges were those who especially resented Alcibiades for standing in the way of their assured ascendancy over the demos, and in the belief that by removing him they would rise to the top they exaggerated these charges and raised the cry that both the Mysteries and the mutilation of the herms were connected with the overthrow of the democracy, and that none of this had been done without Alcibiades’ complicity, adducing as evidence the undemocratic paranomia of his mode of [private] life. (6.27-28)

(J) Alcibiades defended himself against the informers then and there and was ready to stand trial before the voyage [to Sicily]… over whether he had done any of these things, and pay the penalty if he had, but to take command [of the expedition] after being acquitted. He appealed to them not to listen to slanders about him in his absence, but to put him to death immediately if he was guilty, pointing out that it was more sensible not to send him on so great an expedition, facing such an accusation, before he was judged. But his enemies… were opposed and put up an active resistance… wanting him to go on trial when recalled under heavier incrimination, which they expected bring about more easily in his absence. (6.29)

(K) After the fleet sailed, the Athenians in fact had not slackened in their investigation of the acts committed regarding both the Mysteries and the herms. But instead of checking up on the characters of the informers, they regarded everything they were told as grounds for suspicion, and on the evidence of complete rogues had arrested and imprisoned some of the best citizens, thinking it better to get to the bottom of things in this way rather than to let any accused person, however good his reputation might be, escape interrogation because of the bad character of the informer. For the demos, understanding through hearsay that the tyranny of Peistratus and his sons had become harsh in its last stage, and furthermore that it had been overthrown not by themselves, but by the Spartans, were in constant fear and saw everything as suspicious. (6.53)