“Is the Athenian really outside?” he asked.
“He kneels outside in order to beg the traitor Alcibiades to be their lord. But listen, you are a democrat, are you not?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then you must change your point of view, for now an oligarchy governs Athens.”
“Yes, ah! yes, yes—but I am an aristocrat, the most aristocratic in the State.”
“Spinning-top! Seek for a whip!”
Alcibiades stood still. “I think, I must speak with the Athenian after all.”
“Do that! Speak the Athenian language to him! He does not understand Persian.”
Alcibiades returned to Athens; the death-sentence against him was annulled; and as a commander who had won a battle, he was able to have a triumphal procession from Piraeus to the city. But popular favour was fickle, and, becoming suspected of aspiring to be king, he fled again, this time to the Persian satrap Pharnabazes. Since he could not live without intrigues, he was soon entangled in one, unmasked, and condemned, without his knowing it, to death.