Alkibiades, a tale of the Great Athenian War

by Charles Hamilton Bromby

The country and suburban interests were all against the war. War meant loss and even ruin to the farmers and workers in the mines, to all who depended on their lands outside the city, and to many of the middle class within. So there was a strong party pledged to peace. He was really persuaded, too, just now, that peace with Sparta, if she could be made to keep her promises, was better for the future welfare of the state, surrounded by her many enemies.

On the other hand, to join the oligarchs was to desert the traditions of his ancestors. From the reformer Kleisthenes, who had expelled the tyrants—the far-sighted founder of the Athenian democracy—to Perikles, his family had been the leaders, the benefactors, of the people. The policy of the old conservators seemed tame to him. Changes must come. Better to lead the van than drag along amongst the rear. Progressive instincts of the people may be directed: they cannot be confined for ever. The excitement of the popular assembly was in accord with his impulsive nature. By force of intellect to rule the people in the Ekklesia, as the deliberative Parliament was called, as their recognised leader, to sway them by his words, to persuade them by his greater wisdom—was not that worth the sacrifice of ease and high conservative respectability? War, too, gave his ambitious soul more scope than peace.

Had Kleon lived, it may be doubted to which side the balance would have turned. Had he lived but for a short time longer, it may be that Alkibiades would have placed all his weight against the war, have sided with the oligarchic faction, have in time become their leader, have lived and died a rich and comfortable conservative. He might have been spared his great temptations, his faults and sufferings, and might have missed the tide which bore him on to victory, and enabled him to make a name to be remembered amongst the greatest of mankind for ever.

But Kleon died just at the nick of time, and Alkibiades resolved, with all the ardour of his energetic soul, to cast his lot upon the side of progress and the people.

He had already become famous for his lavish hospitality. His triremes, when the state wanted ships, were the largest, strongest, most completely manned, and liberally provided. The chorus which he presented to the city, when he undertook the duty of choregos for his tribe, was the finest, best instructed and most splendidly got up, that had appeared upon the Athenian stage. He had maintained the singers, both men and boys, at his own house during their time of training, and no objection had been made to his addition of some of the famous musicians from other Grecian cities.

The play given on that occasion was that most touching tale of Herakles and Deianira. He arranged the choric songs himself, and gained immense applause for that one especially, where the chorus laments the tragic fate of the strong man of Greece and of his wife. Though the wits laughed and pretended to see in Deianira, because of her jealousy, and her fears lest she should not be able to retain the sole affection of her hero, a resemblance to Hippareté, the people were enraptured.

As the chorus burst out, ‘But the Kyprian goddess, silently busy, has plainly appeared the doer of these things,’ the applause was unanimous. Even the old-fashioned musicians who condemned the new style in which the cadences of the songs were sung, the larger instrumental accompaniment, and, above all things, the additional string which his friend Timotheos had added to the kithara, were for the moment carried away by the beauty of the music, and forgot to grumble.

His bounty to the poor, too, was boundless. Even the lawlessness of which his enemies complained had generally some kindness, or at least some mere exuberance of spirits, at the bottom of it. No instance could anyone remember where his eccentricities had done harm to anyone. These eccentricities were forgotten, forgiven, for his generosity.

Passing one day when a state distribution of small coins was being made to all the indigent and workless, he ordered the dole to be doubled at his charges. The people, unable to restrain their gratitude at this new evidence of his compassion, led him home in triumph.

And thus at the opening of his political life, though there were envious rivals, he was the most popular of the citizens. The people love to have a man of great and ancient family to lead them. So even before he could take part in the debates of the Assembly he was recognised as the leader of the people’s party in the place of Kleon.