Biography Of Alcibiades: Hero Or Zero?

Anthony Williams Williams 1

Professor Douglas Fulkerson

History Europe to Mid-17th Cen

14 June 2014

Alcibiades: Hero or Zero? After pouring over numerous reading materials about Alcibiades, I was surprised at the number of times his legacy seemed to contradict itself. On one hand, he was viewed by many as a brilliant advisor, politician, and military commander; courageous in battle, and then on the other hand, he was viewed as underhanded, wicked and corrupt. He clearly had a way with people and was able to win them over easily with his charm and notable good looks. However, on the flip side, once he gained their trust and admiration, his true selfish character often exposed itself, and as a result, throughout
We understand from historical accounts that Alcibiades’ father was the Commander of the Athenian Army, and was killed when Alcibiades was approximately four years old.
His mother came from a long line of aristocrats. After the death of his father, Alcibiades was brought up by Pericles and Pericles’s brother, Ariphron, distant relatives. Due to the nature of this relationship, historians speculate that Pericles really didn’t have the time in the midst of his own political leadership to shape, groom and guide Alcibiades into being a well-rounded man. So, Alcibiades grew up to be strikingly handsome (many say that he was the most handsome man of his era!), and extremely intelligent.
But, he was also very extravagant, selfish in nature, and irresponsible with power. Williams 2
As a man, he fought courageously in battles. During one of the battles that he fought in, he befriended Socrates, a classical Greek Philosopher, who to this day still has a profound influence on Western Philosophy. The two served together-both of them saving each other’s lives in the midst of battle at different times. It is cited that
Ultimately,
Alcibiades played a role in Socrates being charged with corrupting the youth of Athens, which resulted in his death sentence of drinking a cup of poison Hemlock.

Over the years, Alcibiades provoked hostility between the Athenians, the Spartans, and the Persians. He conveniently claimed allegiance to whichever side would have him and was accepted by each side for his valuable talents and unconventional ways of winning over cities. With that said, even though he was born in Athens, he was quick to divulge secret strategies to the Spartans when the Athenians sent him away because of the careless and poor choices that he had made. When things went awry for him with the Spartans, he tried to rally the Persians to attack the Spartans.

In our society, characteristics of honor, loyalty and virtue speak volumes. We do not see a pattern of these tendencies with Alcibiades. We see a person who was gifted with not only physical beauty, but a great intellectual mind who did not strive to use those gifts for the betterment of society, but only for his own personal gain. I feel confident in saying that he was a zero, and definitely not a