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Elegy and Iambus. with an English Translation by. J. M. Edmonds. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 1.

Alcibiades: Poems

“Alcibiades:—Son of Cleinias … an Athenian, philosopher and orator (that is , politician), pupil first of Sophilus, later of Socrates, of whom some say he was the bosom-friend.. He became general of the Athenians, and in his grief at losing the generalship on account of the mutilation of the Hermae, withdrew to Tissaphernes the Persian and caused war between him and Athens, afterwards becoming reconciled with his country…”

Suidas Lexicon


“The Sicilian Expedition found a warm supporter in Alcibiades son of Cleinias, who desired both to oppose Nicias not only because he differed from him politically but because he had slandered him, and, which was dearer to him still, to have the command and thus be instrumental, as he hoped, in conquering Sicily and Carthage, and benefit personally by his success both in wealth and reputation. Being highly thought of by his fellow-countrymen, he had a greater ambition than his income justified with respect both to the rearing of race-horses and to other expensive pursuits. And this it was which more than anything else eventually caused the downfall of Athens. For alarmed by the great unconventionality of his private life, as well as by the surpassing genius he displayed in every detail of whatever came to hand, the common people, believing him to be desirous of the supreme power, became his enemies; and thus though he was eminently successful publicly in the prosecution of the war, they each and all were incensed at his private conduct, and by intrusting their future to other hands, quickly brought ruin on their country.”

Thucydides Histories


“It was while these events took place1 that Pharnabazus the satrap of King Darius took and slew the Athenian Alcibiades to ingratiate himself with the Spartans.”

Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library

Elegiac

On Eupolis

The poets satirised citizens by name down to the time of Eupolis; but the custom was abolished by the soldier and politician Alcibiades, who, having been satirised by Eupolis, threw the poet into the sea when he was campaigning with him in Sicily, saying:

Douse me, you, among the altars,2 and I'll give you a more unpleasant and more fatal dousing in the waves of the sea.3

Scholiast on Aristides


1 404 B.C.

2 i.e. the orchestra of the theatre

3 cf. Cic. Att. 6. 1. 18 ‘Everybody said that Eupolis the poet of the Old Comedy was thrown into the sea by Alcibiades on the voyage to Sicily; Eratosthenes disproves it by adducing the plays he brought out afterwards’; but the ducking may not have been fatal

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