Alcibiades (ca. 450 BC-ca. 404 BC), was the
charismatic and controversial bisexual Athenian general
and politician who promoted the Peloponnesian war
against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's
failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself
with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia.
His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and
his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed
the stuff of fascinating biography. Alcibiades's
extraordinary beauty, great wealth, ostentatious vanity,
male and female amours, debaucheries, and impious revels
earned him notoriety not only in Athens but throughout
the Hellenic world. In subsequent ages his name was used
as a near by-word for all kinds of excess. But, as
Benson argues, reappraising Alcibiades's reputation,
great as were his vices, his virtues were even greater
... Although The Life of Alcibiades was originally
published in 1928, and there have been other newer
detailed works published on Alcibiades since then, no
other work captures the passion and the excitement of
the brilliant but erratic career of Alcibiades as
Benson's biography does. As the reader will discover,
Benson evidently has much sympathy for his subject and
this brings the entire biography to life. He combines
detailed research, especially his use of primary
materials from Thucydides and Plutarch, with writing
flare, not an easy accomplishment. Front cover
photograph: "Alcibiades", Ideal Male Portrait. Marble.
Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC.
Palazzo dei Conservatori, Hall of the Triumphs. Back
cover photograph: E. F. Benson, aged 26.
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