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Summary

‘Alcibiades - Virtue and Passion’ is the biography of the Athenian general Alcibiades, who lived in the fifth century BC (452 BC to 404 BC), in the classical period of Athens and during the Peloponnesian War.
Alcibiades’ teacher was Socrates. Socrates taught that virtue could be acquired by knowledge.
The novel relates the struggle within Alcibiades between his longing for Socrates’ teachings of virtue and Alcibiades' passionate character of ambition and vanity.

Alcibiades was a wealthy aristocrat of Athens. He was a very extravagant character who became a general of Athens. He proved his bravery in many battles and he was an astute politician. He participated in the Olympian Games and won the chariot races there, gaining great honours for his town. He betrayed Athens however, forced to do so because the opposing political parties had condemned him to death, allegedly for profanations of the main religious ceremony of Athens. He fled to Sparta and did much harm there to his home town by advising the Spartiates. At Sparta he became the lover of the queen and had to flee to the Ionian Islands. He betrayed Sparta and entered the service of a Persian satrap. Somewhat later he betrayed this satrap, to be able to return to the Athenian army. He fought many battles then for Athens and conquered many cities. Recalled to Athens, all condemnations annulled, he was named master of the town. Later still, his fleet lost a battle against the Spartan navy. Though not present at that battle, the Athenians blamed him and he had to flee into exile again, living with his mistresses in forts in Thrace. When the Spartan pressure on his forts became too strong and betrayed in his turn by his own son, he left for Phrygia to seek the protection of the King of Persia. He was killed on the road to Persia’s capital.

Book I. Aprhodite's Girdle

Prologue

The Prologue tells how the Hellenes thought about the creation of the world, their gods, their myths, and their religion. This avoids having to repeat in different places of the book who the gods were and why the gods played an important role in the reactions of the people. The Prologue sets the scene in an epic way: it introduces the 30-year war between Athens and Sparta, called the second Peloponnesian War.

Chapter 1

The young Alcibiades (18-19 years) comes with his teacher to Cape Sounion. Socrates sees a garlanded ship sail by. He has a premonition that the ship will at one time announce his death (he had to wait for the return of this religious mission to Delos to drink the poison cup). The relations between student and teacher are introduced. Alcibiades visits the source of his wealth: the silver mines of Laurium. Socrates teaches Alcibiades the existence of the soul and the necessity to exercise one’s soul in good, in virtue, so that it would be re-born. Alcibiades pledges to a life of honour and glory.

Chapter 2

Socrates walks through Athens and its agora to Pericles’ house, where a symposium (a drinking party) will happen in the evening. This introduces the life in the town of Athens. Socrates is witness to a dispute between Pericles and Pericles’ wife Aspasia over Alcibiades’ sexual inclinations. Alcibiades is drawn to homosexuality, the only affection accessible to him since his father died when he was young and he was educated in the environment of the strict Pericles, his warden. There is a scene constructed on Plato’s ‘Symposium’, a discourse on the nature of love, involving Socrates, Pericles, Aspasia and Alcibiades’ nurse. Aspasia decides to send Alcibiades to Cyprus, to the Festival of Aphrodite. Here he will learn true love from the priestesses of the goddess.

Chapter 3

Alcibiades travels to Cyprus, accompanied by the Sophist Protagoras, who teaches him the art of rhetoric. Alcibiades falls in love with Harmonia, a priestess of Aphrodite. Young as he is, he believes this girl to be the only true love he will have in his life. The priests of Aphrodite order to separate the lovers and Harmonia disappears, leaving Cyprus for an unknown destination, out of reach of Alcibiades. Much later Alcibiades heard that these orders were actually given by Protagoras and Pericles. Alcibiades travels in the Ionian cities on the way back to Athens. Alcibiades is much affected by the loss of Harmonia. He idealises this love. In Athens, Aspasia fears the sudden seriousness of Alcibiades’ character. Alcibiades’ uncle Axiochus (who is only a few years older than Alcibiades) takes him to Abydos in the Hellespont, where they wallow in debauchery for a time, until they have to leave the town. Alcibiades learns to know the towns of the Hellespont (Dardanelles) – where he will wage a war much later.

Chapter 4

The Peloponnesian War has started. Alcibiades and Socrates go in the Athenian army to the Chalcidian town of Potidaea to lay siege to it. The town of Therme (ancient Thessaloniki) is stormed, providing the occasion for the first battle scenes in which Alcibiades participates. Alcibiades and Socrates live in the same tent. The siege of Potidaea lasts and lasts. The army storms the walls of Potidaea. The walls are too strong for the Athenian armies however. Socrates talks about the nature of courage and the horrors of the war. Alcibiades sees the corruption of an army at a siege. Further Athenian troops arrive, but they bring the plague with them (the plague rages in Athens). Alcibiades is decorated for bravery. More attacks are made on the city. Potidaea surrenders after several years of siege.

Chapter 5

Alcibiades and Socrates return to Athens. They see the ravages of the plague. Presentation of Athens, its long walls to the port of Piraeus, and the temples of its acropolis. Alcibiades meets Pericles at the acropolis. Pericles predicts that Alcibiades will be master of Athens one time. Alcibiades decides to awaken Athens by his extravagance, to pour his own exuberant energy into the town and thus to revive it.

Chapter 6

Alcibiades shows off his extravagance in Athens, recalled in several anecdotes. He wrestles in the gymnasium with a friend, called Thrasyllus – who will play an important role later on in the book. He starts his political life with speeches given to the Assembly of people. Pericles dies and the Athenian funeral is described in the book. Struck with grief over Pericles, Alcibiades boxes on the ear an elderly man, Hipponicus, who talked against Pericles. Alcibiades succeeds in charming the old man afterwards (he undresses before his eyes and proposes the man to whip him). He marries Hipponicus’ daughter Hipparete. The ritual of the Athenian marriage ceremony is then described in the book.

Chapter 7

Alcibiades leaves (without Socrates) for the island of Lesbos, where he participates in the many battles of the siege of Mytilene. He storms the town of Pyrrha. He learns to know the officer Hipparchos and becomes his friend.

Chapter 8

Alcibiades goes with the Athenian general Laches and with his friend Hipparchos on an expedition to Sicily. They storm several cities there with the Athenian army. They visit the volcanic islands to the north of Sicily. Alcibiades hires a courtesan in Italy, who becomes his mistress, Theodote. He gets wounded in a skirmish but goes with her on a secret mission to Syracuse, to spy on the defences of the town. He passes by the volcano Etna and gets caught in its earthquakes and in an outburst of lava. He learns to know the Syracusan Hermocrates, who will lead resistance in Sicily. When the expedition in Sicily ends, he returns to Athens and settles in the country.

Chapter 9

Alcibiades’ wife, Hipparete, tries to divorce from him but Alcibiades abducts her from the court of justice and brings her home again. Socrates has married Xanthippe. Both men feel the need to leave Athens, so they engage in the army of Hippocrates, which invades Boeotia. The army is defeated at Oropus, near Delium. Socrates and Alcibiades fight heroically in this battle. Alcibiades serves in the cavalry now and he saves Socrates’ life. The Athenians retreat to the temple precinct of Delium, which is attacked by the Boeotians. Socrates talks about the nature of the Athenian democracy. The Boeotians use a giant flame thrower and defeat the Athenian defenders of the town. Alcibiades and Socrates flee from Delium but they can save their lives.

Chapter 10

After Athens’ defeat at Delium, Alcibiades is in a dark mood. He is depressed. Theodote cheers him up in the country. In Athens they attend a comedy play of Aristophanes, ‘The Clouds’, a comedy on Socrates’ teachings. Alcibiades and Socrates join the army of General Cleon, once more in an expedition to Chalcidice. Alcibiades participates in the storming of the town of Torone, which he attacks from the harbour side. Then they lay siege to the town of Amphipolis. The Spartans sally from the city and there is a major battle in which Socrates organises the last resistance. Alcibiades fights with Socrates a very bloody hoplite battle. They are defeated and retreat to Eion, then return to Athens. Socrates blames himself for the many dead.

Chapter 11

There are peace negotiations between Athens and Sparta. Alcibiades asks to take part in the talks, but the Athenian magistrates as well as the Spartan ambassadors refuse him. Alcibiades meets Endius, a future ephor of Sparta and member of a family to which his own family was connected. Alcibiades is angered. He will fight the Peace of Nicias that is concluded. He blames Nicias and Endius for having excluded him from the negotiations. Socrates talks to him about good and bad and takes him to the agora to show him just how popular Alcibiades is in Athens. Alcibiades fights Nicias in the Assembly. He is appointed general. Socrates and Alcibiades talk about the various political parties of Athens. Alcibiades visits the Olympic Games.

Chapter 12

Alcibiades intrigues against the Peace of Nicias by forging an alliance between Athens and Argos. He has successes but also setbacks and his agitations lead to a major war and a famous battle between Sparta and Argos: the Battle of Mantinea. King Agis of Sparta wins that battle. In Athens, a procedure of ostracism is launched by Hyperbolus against Alcibiades, but Alcibiades proposes the same procedure on other men, among whom also Nicias. Alcibiades makes common cause with Nicias so that the ostracism backlashes on Hyperbolus, who becomes the laughing stock of Athens and is exiled. Alcibiades saves as much as he can in Argos. He restored democracy there.

Chapter 13

Alcibiades participates in the Olympian Games. He enters seven chariots drawn each by four horses in the races and wins the first three places. He is crowned champion of the Olympic Games and receives many presents from the Ionian cities. The chariot races and other contests are described in the book. Alcibiades’ friend, Hipparchos, and Alcibiades’ mistress Theodote accompany him. They are spectators at the contests, the ceremonies and the feasting of Olympia. They witness a pankration wrestle contest.

Chapter 14

Alcibiades is back in Athens and since he is a general now, he inspects the military arsenal of Piraeus. He meets Thrasybulus, the owner and captain of a trireme and exercises at sea with him. This provides the occasion to describe the war triremes of Athens in the book, as well as their intricate manoeuvres. Alcibiades walks in the harbour and has a conversation with Nicias. Nicias waited in Piraeus for a slave ship of Melians, since Athens just enslavened all the population of Melos. In one of the boats, Alcibiades remarks Harmonia, who was hidden on Melos after their affair on Cyprus. In a very romantic scene Alcibiades takes Harmonia with him to Athens. They will be lovers again. This is one of the romantic high points of the book. At the same time however, Athens prepares the invasion of Sicily. Alcibiades will be a general in this expedition, together with Nicias. Just before the departure for Sicily the Hermes statues of Athens are defaced and Alcibiades is accused of profanation of the religious ceremony of the Mysteries of Eleusis. Alcibiades wants to defend himself in court, but the political parties fear the reaction of the army so that Alcibiades leaves with the fleet. Alcibiades gives Harmonia in the custody of Axiochus, just a few days after having found her back. Not long after Alcibiades’ arrival in Sicily, the political parties plot against him in Athens and order his return. Alcibiades fears he will not have a fair judgement. He flees to Sparta.

Book II. The Spartan

Chapter 15

Alcibiades is in Sparta. He is very much depressed but he befriends a young Messenian slave, called Eupheas. He participates in the military mess system and learns to know all the present and future Spartan generals and ephors. He is a member of the Assembly of Sparta and urges the Spartans to occupy Athens’ territory again, as well as to send an able Spartiate general to help the Syracusans. Gradually, he discovers the charms of Sparta: its music and its gymnasiums. He walks to the temple precinct of Helen and Menelaos and meets on the way two women: Timaea and Cynisca. He becomes the lover of Timaea, before realising she is King Agis’ wife and Queen of Sparta. He will be the friend but also the lover of Cynisca. He teaches Cynisca the art of chariot driving because she wants to be the first woman ever to win an Olympic Game contest. He meets the Spartiate Lysander, whose troops kill Eupheas. During an earthquake Alcibiades runs in panic naked in the street, in front of Timaea’s house. Sparta knows they are lovers now. Alcibiades fears Agis’ anger, so he plots to leave Sparta for the Ionian Islands. Timaea intrigues to have a child by Alcibiades, which she wants to inherit the throne of Sparta.

Chapter 16

Alcibiades intrigues in the Ionian Islands. Many cities revolt from Athens. Athens reacts however and can, despite a terrible defeat in Sicily, send a large army to Samos, thereby thwarting Alcibiades’ actions in Chios and Miletus. Alcibiades fights a battle at the side of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and becomes his counsellor. He thus escapes King Agis’ and Sparta’s grip. Alcibiades contacts the Athenian generals at Samos. He asks them to bring about a moderate oligarchy in Athens and he promises the help of Tissaphernes. Athens indeed changes its political system, but the new oligarchs refuse to call back Alcibiades. The Athenian army at Samos, now led by Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, the two friends of Alcibiades, bring about a democratic revolution in the fleet. They ask Alcibiades to join the army as general. Alcibiades leaves Tissaphernes’ court.

Chapter 17

Alcibiades is at Samos and he is the effective leader of the Athenian army, directed against the oligarchy in Athens and against Sparta. He continues the war in the Ionian Islands. The war scene is transferred to the Hellespont and there is a major battle between the Spartan and the Athenian fleets at Abydos, which Alcibiades wins. He learns from letters where Harmonia is: she is at Bisanthes in Thrace, protected by Axiochus.

Chapter 18

Alcibiades is in the Hellespont (the current Dardanelles). He travels to Tissaphernes to try to win the support and the funds of the satrap. He gets imprisoned however at Tissaphernes’ Persian capital of Sardis. He escapes from Sardis by the aid of a girl slave, Cyne, which he knew from his days at Miletus. At his return he wins the major sea and land battle of Cyzicus against the Spartans and against Pharnabazus, the satrap of Phrygia. Alcibiades meets Harmonia and Theodote at Bisanthes and lives with them. A prince of Thrace, Seuthes, asks his support for King Medoc of the Thracians. Together they win fierce battles against the Thracian tribes, the Ciconians and the Dii. The battles in Thrace are among the finest battle scenes in the book. Medoc and Seuthes give Alcibiades the terrain and booty to build his own forts in Thrace. Later still, Alcibiades joins the Athenian armies again, to lay siege to and to win the towns of Chalcedon, Selymbria and Byzantium in the Bosporus. He signs a personal treaty of mutual respect with the satrap Pharnabazus. His victories in the Bosporus do not own him his return to Athens, so he curses and defies the goddess Athena. His friends however persuade him to return with them to Athens, as leader of the victorious fleet.

Chapter 19

Alcibiades dreads returning to Athens: he is still condemned to death in his town. He returns with a small fleet to Piraeus however, to join the combined Athenian fleet of the Hellespont and to enter the harbour together. He first sails to the Ionian Islands to collect funds, then orders his ships to Gytheum, Sparta’s harbour. He longed to see Timaea, Cynisca, and his son. He enters Sparta as a spy and meets with his past mistresses. His return to Piraeus, despite his fears, is triumphant. Athens receives him as the saviour of the city. He gets appointed strategos autokrator with all power over the army. The former condemnations on his person are annulled. He is the master of Athens. He sees Socrates again, who presents him his students Plato and Xenophon, representing virtue and passion. Socrates and Alcibiades talk on the choice between virtue and passion that every person has to make. This is the second high pint of the book. Alcibiades rebuffs Socrates and tells him that humanity is more important than theories on virtue. Alcibiades, condemned for the profanation of the mysteries of Eleusis, now enacts them anew (the Mystery ceremonies could not be celebrated anymore because the Spartan King occupied Attica). The ceremonies are described in the book. Alcibiades prepares new expeditions to Ionia.

Chapter 20

Alcibiades is with the Athenian army in Ionia. He leaves his fleet at Notium under the command of a friend and orders the fleet to stay inside the harbour, because the Spartan fleet is near and now under the command of Lysander. Alcibiades’ friend sails out however. Lysander defeats the Athenian fleet. The Athenian people are disappointed and Alcibiades has to flee into exile again. He returns to Harmonia, at Bisanthes. Harmonia has continued the construction of Alcibiades’ fort at Neon Teichos. While he lives with Harmonia, the Athenians win a major sea battle at Arginusae but several Athenian generals are subsequently executed by Athens because they let many sailors drown during a storm. Pericles’ son, as well as Thrasyllus, is thus executed. Somewhat later, another battle is fought close by Alcibiades’ fort, at Aegospotami. Alcibiades warns the Athenian generals and offers to help them with Thracian troops but he is rebuffed. Lysander defeats the Athenian generals decisively and Athens loses all their ships to the Spartan admiral. Lysander and the Spartan kings attack Athens and starve the city out. Athens loses the Peloponnesian War.

Chapter 21

Alcibiades lives in his Thracian forts. His son joins him, exiled by Athens. His son has pro-Spartan ideas however and betrays one of Alcibiades’ forts to the Spartans. Alcibiades is desperate. Axiochus talks to Alcibiades and pleads with him to support Thrasybulus’ cause. Thrasybulus has gone in exile to Thebes; he wants to recuperate Athens from the pro-Spartan oligarchy and to re-install democracy in the town. Axiochus asks Alcibiades to travel to Persia and seek the support of the satraps and of the King of Persia. When Lysander hears of this mission he orders the satrap Pharnabazus to kill Alcibiades. Alcibiades dies in a small town of Phrygia, in the arms of Harmonia.

Epilogue

The Epilogue tells what happened afterwards with the characters of the book (Harmonia, Theodote, Thrasybulus and Lysander). It tells of the death by poison of Socrates and links with the first chapter, for Socrates has to wait in prison for his execution, which can only happen when the ship of the religious mission to Delos has returned to Athens.

Annexes

I added a calendar with the events of the Peloponnesian War, a list of the characters of the book and a glossary of Greek words used in the text.

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Last updated: December 2008

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