The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

42 THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
mention that his own position of honor and influence would likewise
gain from such an achievement. That would be motive enough for
Alcibiades to press his case, but an even stronger motive seems to have
impelled him. Thucydides explains his actions with this observation:
"for he happened himself to be at odds with Agis. " 60 That simple and
chaste remark almost certainly refers to a great scandal at Sparta that
became notorious in antiquity. In a quarrel over the succession to the
Spartan throne early in the fourth century, Agesilaus accused his rival
of being illegitimate, offering as evidence a reference to an occasion
when an earthquake drove an unnamed adulterer from the chamber
of Timaea, Agis' wife, into public view. Plutarch provides the name
of the adulterer: Alcibiades. 61 It is reasonable to identify this earthquake
with the one mentioned by Thucydides in late February of 412.
By July the news would certainly have reached Agis and caused his
displeasure with Alcibiades. It was only a matter of time now before
Agis would move against him. Alcibiades' best hopes lay in bringing
off so great an achievement as to make him invulnerable even to the
hostility of the Spartan king. Failing that, his only salvation lay in
escape to the last possible refuge, the Persian Empire. The expedition
to Ionia offered both possibilities. From the Spartan point of view,
Alcibiades' proposal was doubly attractive. With little risk or expense
to Sparta, Alcibiades might achieve what he promised. If not, the
Spartans would be rid of an increasingly troublesome visitor. 62
is contest, from which comes the secondary sense of a prize for winning a contest, and
by extension it comes to mean an achievement or exploit. If Alcibiades used these
words, they reveal either his own aristocratic, self-centered attitude toward the goals
of war; his belief that they would appeal to such an attitude in the Spartan Endius; or
both. If the words were invented by Thucydides, they may reveal his understanding
of Alcibiades' character.
60
8.!2.2.
61
Xen. 3·3·1-2; Plut. Ale. 23.7; Ages. 3.1-2. One ofPlutarch's sources was Duris of
Samos, a writer of the late fourth and early third century, who claimed descent from
Alcibiades. Another may have been Theopompus of Chios, who was born about 378
B.C. (Andrewes, HCT V, 26.) Both the bastardy of Leotychidas, Timaea's son, and
the paternity of Alcibiades have been challenged by M. Luria (Klio XXI [1927], 404-
419). His arguments are answered by J. Hatzfeld (REA XXV [1933], 387-395; and
Alcibiade, 217-2 19). Andrewes (HCT V, 26) points out the chronological difficulties in
believing Leotychidas to be the son of Alcibiades, concluding that "none of this is quite
impossible, but cumulatively it is not very probable." That is a reasonable conclusion,
but even if the fact of Alcibiades' paternity is denied, we need not doubt the adultery
or the reality of the rumors that existed and were widely believed in Sparta. They
would be enough to account for Thucydides' description of Alcibiades as Agis' "personal
enemy," EXIlpoo; (8.4p).
62 Hatzfeld, Alcibiade, 220.