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Alcibiades: Athenian Playboy, General and Traitor Paperback – August 26, 2021

by Professor P J Rhodes (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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Alcibiades is one of the most famous (or infamous) characters of Classical Greece. A young Athenian aristocrat, he came to prominence during the Peloponnesian War (429-404 BC) between Sparta and Athens. Flamboyant, charismatic (and wealthy), this close associate of Socrates persuaded the Athenians to attempt to stand up to the Spartans on land as part of an alliance he was instrumental in bringing together. Although this led to defeat at the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, his prestige remained high. He was also a prime mover in Athens' next big strategic gambit, the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC, for which he was elected as one of the leaders. Shortly after arrival in Sicily, however, he was recalled to face charges of sacrilege allegedly committed during his pre-expedition revelling. Jumping ship on the return journey, he defected to the Spartans.

Alcibiades soon ingratiated himself with the Spartans, encouraging them to aid the Sicilians (ultimately resulting in the utter destruction of the Athenian expedition)and to keep year-round pressure on the Athenians. He then seems to have overstepped the bounds of hospitality by sleeping with the Spartan queen and was soon on the run again. He then played a devious and dangerous game of shifting loyalties between Sparta, Athens and Persia. He had a hand in engineering the overthrow of democracy at Athens in favour of an oligarchy, which allowed him to return from exile, though he then opposed the increasingly-extreme excesses of that regime. For a time he looked to have restored Athens' fortunes in the war, but went into exile again after being held responsible for the defeat of one of his subordinates in a naval battle. This time he took refuge with the Persians, but as they were now allied to the Spartans, the cuckolded King Agis of Sparta was able to arrange his assassination by Persian agents.

There has been no full length biography of this colorful and important character for twenty years. Professor Rhodes brings the authority of an internationally recognised expert in the field, ensuring that this will be a truly significant addition to the literature on Classical Greece.
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  1. Print length
    160 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pen and Sword Military
  4. Publication date
    August 26, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    9.21 x 0.63 x 6.18 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    139901384X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1399013840
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“…this treatment of Alcibiades by P. J. Rhodes, one of the most outstanding Greek historians of our time, is successful in bringing one of the most interesting and controversial characters to a wider audience in an intelligent manner that should also prove valuable as a classroom text… with a masterful control of literary and epigraphic sources, he places Alcibiades in his proper context as an ultimately disastrous figure who was, however, profoundly successful in convincing his contemporaries—and posterity as a result—of his importance. This book is particularly useful not only to the general reader, but as a classroom text for upper-level courses. I should add that it also provides an outstanding summary of fifth-century political and military history; the necessarily close coverage of the period from 412-406 BC, which is fraught with controversy, is especially good.”
Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“…quite informative…a clear and multifaceted portrait of Alcibiades that should be informative and useful for newcomer and veteran reader alike. The book has a distinct academic edge and clearly does it best to strive for scientific objectivity, but it never goes so far as to become a dry read…”
Ancient Warfare

About the Author

P. J. Rhodes was the resident specialist in Greek history at Durham University's Department of Classics and Ancient History for 40 years. Since his retirement in 2005 he has been Honorary and Emeritus Professor. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, where he was vice-chairman of the Classical Antiquity Section 1999-2002 and chairman 2002-5, and is a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy. He written many previous works on classical history, including translations of Thucydides (books II, III and IV-V.24). He lives in Durham.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen and Sword Military (August 26, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 139901384X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399013840
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.21 x 0.63 x 6.18 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

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P. J. Rhodes

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ramon Ruiz Solano
5.0 out of 5 stars The conversations between Plato and Alcibiades presents the right arguments of the importance of the care of one self to assure
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016
Verified Purchase
On the care of self, is not egocentric, is the right thing to do in many fronts of todays life and since the ancient greeks philosophers. The conversations between Plato and Alcibiades presents the right arguments of the importance of the care of one self to assure the care of those we care about and love in our lives.
One person found this helpful
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Daniel Hansen
4.0 out of 5 stars Well done
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2017
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Good research, great notes. Over all a good factual breakdown of the historic records on an intriguing person. Worth the time if you are interested in the character.
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Dumasclub Man
3.0 out of 5 stars Condensed Erudite Alicibades
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2011
Verified Purchase
"Alcibiades: Athenian Playboy, General and Traitor" by P.J. Rhodes is a condensed and erudite portrayal of a complicated character during a complicated period in Ancient Greece. The book is a noble attempt at a complex biography. On a certain level, that of a scholar of classical Greece, the book succeeds emmensely. But as a readable introduction to Alcibiades, there seems to be far too much information crammed into its meager 106 pages. Greek names are dropped by the author more for show than importance, from playwrights to politicians. There is often unnecessary background information on Ancient Greece and its political structure. As for the book itself, there are three maps included, with a map of the classical Mediterrean world broken by the binding, making the map worthless. I think publishers should seriously consider rethinking their inserting maps that are useful rather than just window dressing. As for a scholarly approach an interesting and evocative book, but unless you have studied Ancient Greece at Oxford for ten years a bit of a tough slog. The author should have focussed less on Ancient Greece and more on the man, Alcibiades. There is a lot of information in this slim volume, but I guess like Alcibiades it is complex and enigmatic.
18 people found this helpful
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JPS
5.0 out of 5 stars Talented rich kid who had it all and lost it all?
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2012
This tends to be the traditional and popular view of Alcibiades, rich aristocrat descended from some of the oldest Athenian families, raised in the household of Pericles and pupil of Socrates, like so many of the sons of the Athenian nobility. PJ Rhodes shows that he was that, but also much more complex than that. In this short biography, PJ Rhodes lays out what we know about Alcibiades, the very controversial Greek aristocrat and politician that some have equated to the decline and fall of Athens and its Empire.

Although scholarly, this short book has the immense merit of showing to what extent the character and real achievements of Alcibiades are difficult to establish. This is partly because he has attracted so much attention, positive and negative in equal in equal shares, both during his lifetime and ever since his death (something that might have delighted him!). It makes a balanced assessment of his personality and of his achievements all the more difficult to achieve and this is what P.J. Rhodes has endeavoured to achieve. In this, I believe he has been very successful.
The author shows throughout the book that there is little doubt that Alcibiades was very talented, in addition to being very handsome. He became a good orator, was extremely charismatic and also probably too clever for his own good. One of the most valuable elements of this book is to show his ambivalence. Each of his qualities seems to have been matched by something much less sympathetic and he appears, above all, to have been supremely self-confident and utterly self-centred ("the selfish spoilt brat", as my mother always used to refer to him). He also seems to have had a tendency to systematically use and deceive people, whether his friends, his lovers, his political allies and, more generally, everyone who developed the rather bad habit of trusting him blindly. We do not know, of course, to what extent the portrait that Rhodes pieces together from the sources reflects the "real" Alcibiades, and we will never know for sure. However, the picture is not exactly a flattering one: he seems to have let down every one who trusted him at one point.

His resilience is remarkable and so is his lack of ethics. Both seem to have been born from and supported by arrogance and self-confidence (the man must have been in turn irresistible and insufferable!). After having betrayed the Athenians, the Spartans and the Persian Satraps, he was still trying to bounce back yet again by appealing to the Persian King of Kings and making himself useful to him when he was murdered. Although there is no absolute certainty as to "who did it" (because there were too many plausible candidates), the author believes it may have been the 30 Tyrants who put pressure on the Spartans who in turn arranged the deed with Pharnabaze. Anyway, as the author makes out very well, all had more than sufficient reasons to want to get rid of him once and for all. Despite his sexual profligacy (he was a notorious womanizer with at least four illegitimate sons, in addition to one legitimate one and also probably had a number of male lovers), it is most likely that his murder was a political assassination and not the result of an angry husband or brother.

The second major task and hurdle that Rhodes had to achieve and overcome was to assess Alcibiades' record and achievements. The author's interpretation, after a careful analysis of the sources and their respective biases, is that he was a tremendous morale booster for the Athenians both just before the Sicilian expedition and between 411 and 407 BC when he sided again with the Athenians and help win a string of victories that made it look like they could finally win the war. His actual record was much more mixed. His attempt to win the war on land against Sparta by siding with Argos ended in defeat. The expedition to Sicily, from which he was removed before it achieved anything, ended in disaster and his military role in the victories towards the end of the war, and that of Cyzicus in particular, seems to have been inflated since he was one of the three commanders. His well-known talent for taking all the credit for whatever was achieved, including the advice he gave to the Spartans against Athens when he was a refugee in Sparta, and his ability to deceive just about anyone, and perhaps even himself to some extent, meant that by the end nobody trusted him. It also led the Athenians to dismiss him as soon as he suffered a set-back and to refuse to listen to his advice before the fateful and disastrous last naval battle.

In this book, Rhodes has managed to portray the complexity and ambiguity of one of the most fascinating characters of Antiquity. Someone who, given his multiple talents, gave the impression that he could achieve so much, and who largely failed to deliver because of his multiple flaws.

For those wanting to learn more about the second half of the Peloponnesian War, I can recommend the four tomes of Donald Kagan, and particularly the last two, "the Peace of Niceas and the Sicilian Expedition" (1981) and "The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987)." Those looking for some lighter reading but nevertheless wanting to understand the turmoil and the trauma caused by this long war, and how it could produce someone like Alcibiades may want Steven Pressfield's "Tides of War".
12 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars A Rogue Nevertheless
Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
A solid scholarly examination of what we can reasonably know about the man based on the evidence and separating best evidence from myth and exaggerations over time. As such, however, a fairly dry account. An historical novel weaving together known facts and Alcibiades' various attributed actions and behaviours would make a great read ( and probably the basis for a great movie).Despite the possible exaggerations over time, I regard Alcibiades as one of history's two greatest rogues and survivors, the other being Talleyrand in 18th and early 19th centuries. ( Of course Talleyrand's exploits have been well documented and dramatized in both print and film already.)
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JPS
5.0 out of 5 stars Talented rich kid who had it all and lost it all?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
This tends to be the traditional and popular view of Alcibiades, rich aristocrat descended from some of the oldest Athenian families, raised in the household of Pericles and pupil of Socrates, like so many of the sons of the Athenian nobility. PJ Rhodes shows that he was that, but also much more complex than that. In this short biography, PJ Rhodes lays out what we know about Alcibiades, the very controversial Greek aristocrat and politician that some have equated to the decline and fall of Athens and its Empire.

Although scholarly, this short book has the immense merit of showing to what extent the character and real achievements of Alcibiades are difficult to establish. This is partly because he has attracted so much attention, positive and negative in equal in equal shares, both during his lifetime and ever since his death (something that might have delighted him!). It makes a balanced assessment of his personality and of his achievements all the more difficult to achieve and this is what P.J. Rhodes has endeavoured to achieve. In this, I believe he has been very successful.
The author shows throughout the book that there is little doubt that Alcibiades was very talented, in addition to being very handsome. He became a good orator, was extremely charismatic and also probably too clever for his own good. One of the most valuable elements of this book is to show his ambivalence. Each of his qualities seems to have been matched by something much less sympathetic and he appears, above all, to have been supremely self-confident and utterly self-centred ("the selfish spoilt brat", as my mother always used to refer to him). He also seems to have had a tendency to systematically use and deceive people, whether his friends, his lovers, his political allies and, more generally, everyone who developed the rather bad habit of trusting him blindly. We do not know, of course, to what extent the portrait that Rhodes pieces together from the sources reflects the "real" Alcibiades, and we will never know for sure. However, the picture is not exactly a flattering one: he seems to have let down every one who trusted him at one point.

His resilience is remarkable and so is his lack of ethics. Both seem to have been born from and supported by arrogance and self-confidence (the man must have been in turn irresistible and insufferable!). After having betrayed the Athenians, the Spartans and the Persian Satraps, he was still trying to bounce back yet again by appealing to the Persian King of Kings and making himself useful to him when he was murdered. Although there is no absolute certainty as to "who did it" (because there were too many plausible candidates), the author believes it may have been the 30 Tyrants who put pressure on the Spartans who in turn arranged the deed with Pharnabaze. Anyway, as the author makes out very well, all had more than sufficient reasons to want to get rid of him once and for all. Despite his sexual profligacy (he was a notorious womanizer with at least four illegitimate sons, in addition to one legitimate one and also probably had a number of male lovers), it is most likely that his murder was a political assassination and not the result of an angry husband or brother.

The second major task and hurdle that Rhodes had to achieve and overcome was to assess Alcibiades' record and achievements. The author's interpretation, after a careful analysis of the sources and their respective biases, is that he was a tremendous morale booster for the Athenians both just before the Sicilian expedition and between 411 and 407 BC when he sided again with the Athenians and help win a string of victories that made it look like they could finally win the war. His actual record was much more mixed. His attempt to win the war on land against Sparta by siding with Argos ended in defeat. The expedition to Sicily, from which he was removed before it achieved anything, ended in disaster and his military role in the victories towards the end of the war, and that of Cyzicus in particular, seems to have been inflated since he was one of the three commanders. His well-known talent for taking all the credit for whatever was achieved, including the advice he gave to the Spartans against Athens when he was a refugee in Sparta, and his ability to deceive just about anyone, and perhaps even himself to some extent, meant that by the end nobody trusted him. It also led the Athenians to dismiss him as soon as he suffered a set-back and to refuse to listen to his advice before the fateful and disastrous last naval battle.

In this book, Rhodes has managed to portray the complexity and ambiguity of one of the most fascinating characters of Antiquity. Someone who, given his multiple talents, gave the impression that he could achieve so much, and who largely failed to deliver because of his multiple flaws.

For those wanting to learn more about the second half of the Peloponnesian War, I can recommend the four tomes of Donald Kagan, and particularly the last two, "the Peace of Niceas and the Sicilian Expedition" (1981) and "The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987)." Those looking for some lighter reading but nevertheless wanting to understand the turmoil and the trauma caused by this long war, and how it could produce someone like Alcibiades may want Steven Pressfield's "Tides of War".
7 people found this helpful
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Ian
3.0 out of 5 stars Alcibiades
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2012
Verified Purchase
A little thin on content and in some places confusing. However it is good that a new book on Alcibiades , such a charismatic figure, has emerged.
2 people found this helpful
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