Alcibiades and Athens: A Study in Literary Presentation

Alcibiades (c. 450-404 BC)—general, statesman, adopted son of Pericles, lover of Socrates, profaner of the Mysteries— was called by some the saviour of Athens and by others its greatest enemy. This book is a study of the explosive mixture of fear and fascination he excited in his contemporaries and in classical texts. It examines the acute tension between the classical city and the individual of superlative power, status, and ambition.