To sup with Alcibiades; he sails with the expedition for Sicily in a few days; this is his farewell entertainment.
CALLIDEMUS.
So much the better; I should say, so much the worse. That cursed Sicilian expedition! And you were one of the young fools(1) who stood clapping and shouting while he was gulling the rabble, and who drowned poor Nicias’s voice with your uproar. Look to it; a day of reckoning will come. As to Alcibiades himself—
SPEÜSIPPÜS.
What can you say against him? His enemies themselves acknowledge his merit.
(1) See Thucydides, vi. 13.
CALLIDEMUS.
They acknowledge that he is clever, and handsome, and that he was crowned at the Olympic games. And what other merits do his friends claim for him? A. precious assembly you will meet at his house, no doubt.
SPEÜSIPPÜS.
The first men in Athens, probably.