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Alcibiades (c. 450 BC-404 BC), an Athenian general and politician, was born at Athens. He was the son of Cleinias and Deinomache, who belonged to the family of the Alcmaeonidae. He was a near relative of Pericles, who, after the death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea (447 BC), became his guardian. Thus early deprived of his father's control, possessed of great personal beauty and the heir to great wealth, which was increased by his marriage, he showed himself self-willed, capricious and passionate, and indulged in the most insolent behaviour. Nor did the instructors of his early manhood supply the corrective which his boyhood lacked. From Protagoras, Prodicus, and others he learnt to laugh at the common ideas of justice, temperance, holiness and patriotism. The laborious thought, the ascetic life of his master Socrates, he was able to admire, but not to imitate or practise. On the contrary, his ostentatious vanity, his amours, his debaucheries and his impious revels became notorious. But great as were his vices, his abilities were even greater.
He took part in the Battle of Potidaea (432 BC), where his life was saved by Socrates, a service which he repaid at the Battle of Delium (424 BC). Alcibiades had great admiration of Socrates, and once said: "His nature is so beautiful, golden, divine, and wonderful within that everything he commands surely must be obeyed, even like the voice of good." As the reward for his bravery, the wealthy Hipponicus bestowed upon him the hand of his daughter.
From this time he took a prominent part in Athenian politics during the Peloponnesian War. Originally friendly to Sparta, he subsequently became the leader of the war party in opposition to Nicias, and after the peace of 421 BC he succeeded by an unscrupulous trick in duping the Spartan ambassadors, and persuading the Athenians to conclude an alliance (420 BC) with Argos, Elis, and Mantineia. On the failure of Nicias in Thrace (418 BC-417 BC) he became the chief advocate of the Sicilian expedition, seeing an opportunity for the realization of his ambitious projects, which included the conquest of Sicily, to be followed by that of Peloponnesus and possibly of Carthage (though this seems to have been an afterthought). The expedition was decided upon with great enthusiasm, and Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus were appointed joint commanders. But, on the day before the expedition sailed, there occurred the mysterious mutilation of the hermai, and Alcibiades was accused not only of being the originator of the crime, but also of having profaned the Eleusinian Mysteries. His request for an immediate investigation being refused, he was obliged to set sail with the charge still hanging over him.
Almost as soon as he reached Sicily he was recalled to stand his trial, but he escaped on the journey home and made his way to Sparta. Learning that he had been condemned to death in his absence and his property confiscated, he openly joined the Spartans, and persuaded them to send Gylippus to assist the Syracusans and to fortify Decelea in Attica. He then passed over to Asia Minor, prevailed upon many of the Ionic allies of Athens to revolt, and concluded an alliance with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. But in a few months he had lost the confidence of the Spartans, and at the instigation of Agis II, whose personal hostility he had excited (it was rumoured that Agis' newborn child was actually conceived by Alcibiades), an order was sent for his execution.
Receiving timely information of this order he crossed over to Tissaphernes (412 BC), and persuaded him to adopt the negative policy of leaving Athens and Sparta to wear themselves out by their mutual struggles. Alcibiades was now bent on returning to Athens, and he used his supposed influence with Tissaphernes to effect his purpose. He entered into negotiations with the oligarch Peisander, but when these led to no result he attached himself to the fleet at Samos which remained loyal to the democracy, and was subsequently recalled by Thrasybulus, although he did not at once return to Athens. Being appointed commander in the neighbourhood of the Hellespont, he defeated the Spartan fleet at Abydos (411 BC) and Cyzicus (410 BC), and recovered Chalcedon and Byzantium.
On his return to Athens after these successes he was welcomed with unexpected enthusiasm (407 BC); all the proceedings against him were cancelled, and he was appointed general with full powers. His ill success, however, at Andros, and the defeat at Notium (407 BC) of his lieutenant Antiochus, led the Athenians to dismiss him from his command. He thereupon retired to the Thracian Chersonesus.
After the Battle of Aegospotami, and the final defeat of Athens, he crossed the Hellespont and took refuge with Pharnabazus in Phrygia, with the object of securing the aid of Artaxerxes against Sparta. But the Spartans induced Pharnabazus to put him out of the way; as he was about to set out for the Persian court his residence was set on fire, and on rushing out on his assassins, dagger in hand, he was killed by a shower of arrows (404 BC).
There can be no doubt that his advice to Sparta in connexion with Syracuse and the fortification of Decelea was the real cause of his country's downfall, though it is only fair to him to add that had he been allowed to continue in command of the Sicilian expedition he would undoubtedly have overruled the fatal policy of Nicias and prevented the catastrophe of 413 BC. His belated attempt to repair his fatal treachery only exposed the essential selfishness of his character. Though he must have known that his influence over the Persian satraps was slender in the extreme, he used it with the most flagrant dishonesty as a bait first to Sparta, then to the Athenian oligarchs, and finally to the democracy. Superficial and opportunist to the last, he owed the successes of his meteoric career purely to personal magnetism and an almost incredible capacity for deception.
From Columbia Encyclopedia: Athenian statesman and general. Of the family of Alcmaeonidae, he was a ward of Pericles and was for many years a devoted attendant of Socrates. He turned to politics after the Peace of Nicias (421 B.C.), and during the Peloponnesian War he was the leader in agitating against Sparta. He was so successful that Athens joined an alliance against Sparta. When Sparta attacked (418 B.C.) Argos, Alcibiades led an Athenian force to help the Argives, but Athens and the allies were beaten at Mantinea. He was (415 B.C.) the chief promoter of the Sicilian campaign and was one of the three leaders (with Nicias and Lamachus) of the Athenian forces. When the forces reached Sicily, he proposed an attempt to win allies rather than attacking the hostile cities of Selinus and Syracuse at once. Nicias carried out this policy to ultimate disaster. Alcibiades had meanwhile been summoned home to stand trial for the mutilation of the statues of Hermes, a crime of which he was almost certainly innocent. Instead he fled to Sparta, where he gave advice to King Agis I, who was successful against Athens. Alcibiades later fell into trouble with the Spartan king, and c.413 he fled to the protection of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and then sought to return to Athens. After the oligarchy of the Four Hundred fell (411), he was recalled at the request of Thrasybulus. Athens had a short era of greatness as Alcibiades directed brilliantly the Athenian fleet in the Aegean and in 410 won a victory over the Peloponnesian fleet off Cyzicus, and later recovered (408) Byzantium. However, Lysander, a new Spartan commander, defeated the Athenian fleet at Notium in c.406 B.C., so Alcibiades was exiled. He went to a castle he owned on the western shore of the Hellespont. There in 405 B.C. he attempted to warn the Athenian fleet at Aegospotamos against a surprise attack by the Spartans, but his advice was ignored. In 404 at the behest of Lysander, the Persian satrap Pharnabazus had Alcibiades murdered
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http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/char/alcibiad.htm
Adapted from Kelley L. Ross
Background on the Charges Against Socrates
Apology 23a."...a reputation for wisdom, for in each case the bystanders thought that I myself possessed the wisdom that I proved that my interlocutor did not have."
Socrates was publicly taking things that people said and showing that they were incoherent, while at the same time he did not claim to have the right answers to any of the issues that came up.
Since, as we know, everyone has an opinion, it was natural for people to think that Socrates must have opinions also, and must think that he had answers to the kinds of questions he asked. If he didn't give his answers in public, it was also natural that people might think he "taught" his answers privately, since that is what the Sophists and others actually did. Socrates probably had never tried to disabuse people of this impression before, and it is one of the misunderstandings about him that he deals with in his defense. But it is not the only one.
As Socrates always ask questions and never give answers, there are other interpretations possible. Socrates made people look ridiculous. This is amusing and evidently drew crowds. This might suggest that maybe Socrates didn't care what the answers to his questions were. He just enjoyed getting a laugh out of making others look foolish. Maybe he was actually ridiculing people's beliefs about the issues he dealt with -- the just and the unjust, right and wrong, good and evil, etc. -- and didn't really believe anything about those issues himself. In short, people could see Socrates as a nihilist (Latin nihil = nothing). This was a much more serious misunderstanding of Socrates; for, although he was certainly not a nihilist himself, there were young men who followed him who actually were nihilists.
Socrates will mention these young men shortly (23c), but he doesn't do a very good job of explaining why people are angry about them. They are the principal reason why Socrates is in trouble. They did bad things, and what they did damaged Socrates' reputation. He was thought to be their teacher. As Socrates later makes fairly clear (33b), his business was not to teach anyone anything. He did his questioning in public, and if anyone wanted to watch what he did, it was not his business to drive them away. Some young men, like Plato himself, had some notion of what Socrates was about, and that it was not just a game. Others, however, could take from Socrates what amused them and forget the rest. Then they would commit crimes, and people would ask, "How did he get to be like that?" Socrates must have "taught" him to commit those crimes.
The most spectacular example of one of these young men was the celebrated Alcibiades (c.450-404).
Alcibiades was about twenty years younger than Socrates. His father died in
battle when Alcibiades was about 4, and he was brought up by Pericles, the
eminent political leader of Athens. The ALCIBIADES dialog is set in 432
BC when Alcibiades was 18, the same year that Socrates saved his life during
the battle at Potidaea. Later in 424 at Delium, Alcibiades stayed to protect
Socrates during the retreat.
In spite of Socrates' attempts to guide him, the ambitious Alcibiades had a
tumultuous career in politics, diplomacy, and war. His courage in battle and
his speeches in the assembly enabled him to become a general when he was
thirty. An alliance he recommended was defeated by Sparta at Mantineia in 418,
but he managed to escape being ostracized by political maneuvering.
His victories in the chariot races at the Olympics in 416 restored him to
prominence, and he instigated a military expedition against Sicily. Just
before sailing, the statues of Hermes were vandalized. Alcibiades was blamed
and also condemned to death for profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. However,
when he was recalled from Sicily, he escaped and joined the Spartans (Lacedaimonians),
seduced the wife of Spartan king Agis II, stirred up revolt among Ionian
allies of Athens, and tried to get financial support for Athens from Persia.
In 411 the Athenian fleet loyal to the democracy put him in command, and he
won big victories against Sparta; in 407 he returned to Athens and was given
supreme authority over the war. His influence declined though, and when the
war went badly he took refuge in Phrygia with the Persian governor, who
murdered him in 404 for the Spartans.
Plato wrote an entire dialogue featuring him (the Alcibiades), which begins with Socrates homoerotically admiring the first blush of beard on his face. In the Symposium, however, Plato has Alcibiades stumbling into the party, drunk, telling a story of how he had gotten Socrates to sleep over once, trying to seduce him, only to have Socrates pay him no more sexual attention "than an elder brother" (212d-219d). Alcibiades would have come of age in about 429 but first came to political notice in about 420. At that point the war with Sparta appeared to be over. The "Ten Years" or "Archidamian" War, 431-421, had ended in the aftermath of the Athenians trapping and capturing a force of Spartans on the island of Sphacteria, near the Homeric city of Pylos, in 425. This was sensational, since the Spartans were always expected to fight to the death, as they had against the Persians at Thermopylae. The Peace however, was compromised by continued fighting, often because of plans by Alcibiades himself to organize opposition to Sparta. The supreme opportunity came in 416, when Greek cities in Sicily appealed to Athens for help against Syracuse, the largest Greek city there, which was also an ally of Sparta. Alcibiades got himself elected general to lead an expedition against Syracuse, which would materially damage the Spartan cause and win the thanks of the other Sicilian Greeks (often called "Siciliots"). The older leader Nicias was also elected general to look after Alcibiades, since he had a certain wild reputation...
In 415, the night before the expedition was supposed to leave for Sicily, someone went around and mutilated statues of the god Hermes that stood all over Athens. Hermęs was the protector of, among other things, traffic, markets, and roads. His image was used in such locations, often at intersections, and to mark boundaries. Thus, there were a lot of these images. An individual statue is now called a "Herm"; and in the plural, the Latin form is used, "Hermae." The incident is called the "multilation of the Hermae."
The Hermae now seem like very strange objects, archaic and peculiar. They
were usually just a square stone pillar, with the head of Hermes at the top,
and otherwise unadorned 
except
for the erect genitals of Hermes at the appropriate location on the
front of the pillar. Today, of course, this would be regarded as funny or
obscene. Not the kind of thing we see in public anymore. Indeed, after
Christianity swept away this kind of stuff, it was forgotten that such things
existed in the Classical world. It was brought back to modern attention when
serious excavation began in 1748 at Pompeii, the Roman city buried by ash
during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. To the embarrassment of the
Catholic Bourbon King of the Two Sicilies, obscene objects, and not just the
Hermae, began to be found. The auspicious genitals of Hermes had even been
carved on people's doorjambs. Much of this material was tucked away in a
special warehouse, the "Secret Museum," to which only serious,
respectable adult males were allowed entry. Elsewhere in the world, however,
the idea of divine genitals being sacred and lucky still survives. Although
suppressed for a while out of embarrassment of Western disapproval, such
sights are beginning to revive somewhat in Japan, where colossal wooden
phalluses can now be seen in religious processions. They are even being
promoted as tourist attractions, drawing quite a few more foreign tourists
than most other Japanese religious events. In pre-modern Japan, boundary
stones in the shape of genitals, both male and female, were common.
The Athenians did not think that the mutilation of the Hermae was funny, or a virtuous suppression of obscenity; they thought it was a shocking and terrifying sacrilege. Hermes was there to protect the city, and if he was offended, then he could withdraw his protection.
Nevertheless, no one knew quite what to do about it at the moment. So the expedition left for Sicily. As the days passed, however, suspicion grew that Alcibiades and his friends were just the kind of guys, without much respect for traditional religion, to have done this. It is not hard to imagine what happened. Young men, about to leave for war, get drunk, and in the wee hours decide to go looking for trouble . Someone gets the bright idea to mess with the familiar statues of Hermes, which they may already think are rather more funny than holy.
The next day, they would just as soon forget about it, but it's too late. A warrant was sworn out for Alcibiades and a ship sent to Syracuse. On the way back, however, Alcibiades jumped ship. Flight to avoid prosecution. Desertion. Evidence of guilt in a charge of sacrilege. But then Alcibiades went even further. He went over to the Spartans. He advised them now to defeat the Athenian expedition in Sicily. The Athenian army and fleet were annihilated. Alcibiades was condemned to death in absentia and his property confiscated. When Sparta then reopened the main war with Athens, the "Decelean" or "Ionian" War of 413-404, Alcibiades advised the construction of a fleet to contest the sea with Athens and accompanied the ships to Ionia, which was the scene of much of the subsequent fighting.
Thus, Alcibiades can be credited with sacrilege, desertion, flight to avoid prosecution, and, last but not least, treason. So people would ask, "How did he get to be like that?" And they might remember, "He used to hang out with Socrates. Indeed, they were very friendly, perhaps even lovers." So Socrates, a philosopher, who, as we all know, go around teaching their doctrines, must be responsible. If Alcibiades can be substantially blamed for the loss of the war against Sparta, then Socrates can ultimately be blamed also. So let's get him.
Alcibiades later played the Athenians,
Spartans, and Persians off of each other. He got the Persians involved,
ultimately to the benefit of Sparta, but he also helped the Athenians defeat a
Spartan fleet in 410. This enabled him to return to Athens, with all forgiven,
for a while. Things soured again with a defeat in 407, and Alcibiades again
went into exile. Ironically, his place of exile in 405 was right by where the
final battle, Aegospotami, was fought between Athens and Sparta. This
historic location is the long peninsula along the straits, the ancient
Hellespont and modern Dardanelles, that lead from the Aegean Sea into the Sea
of Marmara, and so ultimately to Istanbul, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea.
The entire peninsula now takes its name from the Greek city of Kallipolis
("Beautiful City"). Part of Turkey today, the Turkish name is "Gelibolu,"
but elsewhere it is known by its name in Italian, Gallipoli. Such a
place has a common Italian name because of the presence in the area of
Italians, mainly from Venice, Pisa, and Genoa, during the Middle Ages. 
The
name is best known, however, from the British landing there in 1915, during
World War I. Winston Churchill, first Lord of the Admiralty at the time, hoped
to seize the Straits and knock Turkey out of the war. It was a good idea but a
miserable failure in execution, not unlike the Athenian Sicilian expedition. A
1981 movie Gallipoli, by Peter Weir, starring the later super-star Mel
Gibson, details the Australian participation in the campaign.
In 405 both the Athenian and Spartan fleets came into the Straits. For some days they simply maneuvered around each other. In the evening, the fleets separated and the ships were drawn up on the beach for the evening. The ships, of course, were rowed -- galleys -- with shallow draft, though with some hundreds of men as a crew. Although 100 some feet long, such ships could be pulled up on the beach by their own crews. Watching this, Alcibiades walked down to the Athenian camp and warned them that the Spartans might attack as the Athenians were getting out of their ships. The Athenians famously told him to take a hike. The next day, sure enough, the Spartans followed the Athenian fleet and attacked as the men were getting out. The Athenian fleet was destroyed. The Spartans sailed directly to Athens, put the city under seige, and starved it into surrender in 404. The war was over.
Alcibiades, like the boy who cried "wolf," was simply no longer someone to believe, even when he was giving good advice. He fled to the Persians and was assassinated, in 404, with the agreement of both Athenians and Spartans.
September 23, 2004
COMMENTARY LA Times
... Unless It's All Greek to Him
By Barbara Garson, Barbara Garson is the author of the 1960s antiwar play
"Macbird" and, most recently, "Money Makes the World Go
Round" (Penguin, 2002).
During a lull in the war between Athens and Sparta, the Athenians decided
to invade and occupy Sicily. Thucydides tells us in "The
Peloponnesian War" that "they were, for the most part, ignorant
of the size of the island and the numbers of its inhabitants … and they
did not realize that they were taking on a war of almost the same
magnitude as their war against the Peloponnesians."
According to Thucydides, the digression into Sicily in 416 BC — a
sideshow that involved lying exiles, hopeful contractors, politicized
intelligence, a doctrine of preemption — ultimately cost Athens
everything, including its democracy.
Nicias, the most experienced Athenian general, had not wanted to be chosen
for the command. "His view was that the city was making a mistake
and, on a slight pretext which looked reasonable, was in fact aiming at
conquering the whole of Sicily — a considerable undertaking
indeed," wrote Thucydides.
Nicias warned that it was the wrong war against the wrong enemy and that
the Athenians were ignoring their real enemies — the Spartans — while
creating new enemies elsewhere. "It is senseless to go against people
who, even if conquered, could not be controlled," he argued.
Occupying Sicily would require many soldiers, Nicias insisted, because it
meant establishing a new government among enemies. "Those who do this
[must] either become masters of the country on the very first day they
land in it, or be prepared to recognize that, if they fail to do so, they
will find hostility on every side."
The case for war, meanwhile, was made by the young general Alcibiades, who
was hoping for a quick victory in Sicily so he could move on to conquer
Carthage. Alcibiades, who'd led a dissolute youth (and who happened to own
a horse ranch, raising Olympic racers) was a battle-tested soldier, a
brilliant diplomat and a good speaker. (So much for superficial
similarities.)
Alcibiades intended to rely on dazzling technology — the Athenian armada
— instead of traditional foot soldiers. He told the Assembly he wasn't
worried about Sicilian resistance because the island's cities were filled
with people of so many different groups. "Such a crowd as this is
scarcely likely either to pay attention to one consistent policy or to
join together in concerted action…. The chances are that they will make
separate agreements with us as soon as we come forward with attractive
suggestions."
Another argument for the war was that it would pay for itself. A committee
of Sicilian exiles and Athenian experts told the Assembly that there was
enough wealth in Sicily to pay the costs of the war and occupation.
"The report was encouraging but untrue," wrote Thucydides.
Though war was constant in ancient Greece, it was still usually justified
by a threat, an insult or an incident. But the excursion against Sicily
was different, and Alcibiades announced a new, or at least normally
unstated, doctrine.
"One does not only defend oneself against a superior power when one
is attacked: One takes measures in advance to prevent the attack
materializing," he said.
When and where should this preemption doctrine be applied? Alcibiades gave
an answer of a sort. "It is not possible for us to calculate, like
housekeepers [perhaps a better translation would be "girlie
men"], exactly how much empire we want to have. The fact is that we
have reached a state where we are forced to plan new conquests and forced
to hold on to what we have got because there is danger that we ourselves
may fall under the power of others unless others are in our power."
Alcibiades' argument carried the day, but before the invasion, the
Athenian fleet sailed around seeking allies among the Hellenic colonies
near Sicily. Despite the expedition's "great preponderance of
strength over those against whom it set out," only a couple of cities
joined the coalition.
At home, few spoke out against the Sicilian operation. "There was a
passion for the enterprise which affected everyone alike," Thucydides
reports. "The result of this excessive enthusiasm of the majority was
that the few who actually were opposed to the expedition were afraid of
being thought unpatriotic if they voted against it, and therefore kept
quiet."
In the face of aggressive posturing, Nicias appealed to the Assembly
members to show true courage.
"If any of you is sitting next to one of [Alcibiades']
supporters," Nicias said, "do not allow yourself to be
browbeaten or to be frightened of being called a coward if you do not vote
for war…. Our country is on the verge of the greatest danger she has
ever known. Think of her, hold up your hands against this proposal and
vote in favor of leaving the Sicilians alone."
We don't know how many Athenians had secret reservations, but few hands
went up against the war.
In the end, the Athenians lost everything in Sicily. Their army was
defeated and their navy destroyed. Alcibiades was recalled early on;
Nicias was formally executed while thousands of Athenian prisoners were
left in an open pit, where most died.
The Sicilians didn't follow up by invading Attica; they just wanted Athens
out. But with the leader of the democracies crippled, allies left the
Athenian League. Then the real enemy, Sparta, ever patient and cautious,
closed in over the next few years. But not before Athens descended, on its
own, into a morass of oligarchic coups and self- imposed tyranny.
* * * * * * * *