Some people are so interesting that writers can't help but use them for inspiration. Sometimes it is because that person performed so unusual an act, sometimes because the person was so well known or sometimes because the person was so evil. Alcibiades was a very interesting Greek who lived around 450 B.C. to 404 B.C. Plato found him so interesting that he included him in the Synposium. Socratices also felt compelled to mention him several times. Why this interest? Alcibiades had a life that we today would call a soap opera.

When Alcibiades was a little boy his father died, his father was Clinias who was a member of the old aristocracy in Athens. His family lines were traceable back to Ajax, the king of Salamis. Ajax had become an Athenian citizen by giving the island of Salamis to Athens. His mother was Alcmeonidae, she came from the family of Cleishenes the Athenian law giver who had reformed the constitution. He was brought up by Percies and Ariphon who was the brother of Percies. Socrates became one of his best friends and they fought many battles together and each one saved the other's life at one time. Alcibiades had everything anyone could want. He was said to be very good looking and rich. Women threw themselves at him. He was said to be very charming and intelligent. He was becoming a leader and many looked to him for guidance. The problem was he had ideas that would lead to benefiting himself more than the Greek peoples. He decided that Sicily should be attacked and pushed for this, he was partially successful in that he got his invasion and was one of its leaders, but he had to depart for Sicily before many of his friends could join him. Alcibiades was recalled and tried for the mutilation of the Hermae, which were, as near as I can tell, busts of the god Hermae on columns. Because of the social structure of Greece, this was seen as an act to overthrow democracy. Alcibiades didn't stand trial but ran, going to Argos.

Alcibiades next went to Sparta, and advised the Spartans to fortify the town of Decelea in Attica. This town was important in the defense against Athens. Alcibiades then did the unthinkable, he decided to seduce the wife of the king, Agis II. History states that she became pregnant with his baby. There was no surer way to make an enemy. The next thing he did was try and ferment a revolt against Athens by the Spartans but this didn't work out too well since the Spartans were plotting to have him killed. He had to run for his life and where did he go? He went directly to the Persians in the form of the Persian satrap Tissaphemes. While he was there he played politics and somehow got Tissaphemes to reverse his stand and favor the Athenians.

As amazing as this sounds Alcibiades was then forgiven by the Athenians. They actually wanted him back. He became what we would consider as a general today and remained in Samos where the Athenians' fleet was and continued to practice politics. He was so good diplomatically that he managed to get Pharnabazus, another Persian satrap, to support Athens. When he finally returned to Athens he received the commission as Head Commander but as his life would have it, it only lasted for one year before he was in trouble again. This time the trouble may not have been his fault. One of his sub commanders was defeated and it reflected badly on him.

When Athens was defeated in 404 B.C. Alcibiades didn't let that minor detail stop him, he decided to go to the court of the Persians. This time he didn't make it. He was murdered on his way there.

It seems that Alcibiades was always the opportunist, never letting anything cause him a setback. He changed sides as easily as one changes his clothes in the morning. You wonder why anyone would have trusted him? But trust him they did until he tried to show, just before the fall of Athens, that the head Athenian general was not performing his duties properly, no one listened. When Alcibiades was murdered some said it was by the brothers of a Persian woman he had seduced while others said it was the Spartans who just didn't trust him anymore.

The life of Alcibiades seems more like a Shakespearian play then the life of a real person. Even today his story would make a good movie.