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Alcibiades, Agis and Spartan Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

H. D. Westlake
H. D. Westlake
Affiliation:
King's College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
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Extract

Athenaeus quotes from Satyrus a passage in which is described the remarkable facility shown by Alcibiades in adapting his way of life to his environment (FHG III, 160 = Athen. XII, 534b): I. The Archaeological Report, λέγεται, φησίν, ὅτι ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ μὲν ὢν ‹Ἰώνων› ἐφαίνετο τρυφερώτερος, ἐν Θήβαις δὲ σωμασκῶν καὶ γυμναξόμενος τῶν Θηβαίων αὐτῶν μᾶλλον Βοιώτιος, ἐν Θετταλίᾳ δὲ ἱπποτροφῶν καὶ ἡνιοχῶν τῶν Ἀλευαδῶν ἱππικώτερος, ἐν Σπάρτῃ δὲ καρτερίαν καὶ ἀφέλειαν ἐπιτηδεύων ἐνίκα τοὺς Λάκωνας, ὑπερῆρεν δὲ καὶ τὴν τῶν Θρᾳκῶν ἀκρατοποσίαν. This chameleonlike quality of Alcibiades is also stressed by other writers, who, however, in cataloguing the localities in which he displayed his adaptability, differ somewhat from one another and from Satyrus. Plutarch (Alcib. 23, 5) mentions Sparta, Ionia, Thrace, the court of Tissaphernes; in another passage (Mor. 52e) Athens, Sparta, Thrace, the court of Tissaphernes; Nepos (Alcib. 11, 2) gives Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Thrace, the Persian Empire; Aelian (V.H. IV, 15) gives Sparta, Boeotia, Thessaly, the court of Pharnabazus. Now Athenaeus, in the passage where he quotes the above fragment of Satyrus, is evidently following a collection of anecdotes about Alcibiades (XII, 534–5, where he cites several other authors), and very probably Plutarch, Nepos, and Aelian derive their material from similar compilations, which were extensively used by writers of the Roman period; but, since florilegia on Alcibiades must have been numerous, it is not to be assumed that all are copying from the same florilegium.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , 1938 , pp. 31 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1938

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References

1 Earlier editors emended the text to include Thessaly, but this emendation has rightly been abandoned in the latest Teuber text of Lindskog and Ziegler. Certainly the balance of the sentence is improved by the insertion of 〈ἐν θετταλοῑς〉, and these words may well have stood in the original which Plutarch has followed; but, as I shall suggest below, he has deliberately omitted mention of Thessaly. This omission, though destroying the balance of the sentence, does not seriously damage the sense, for interest in horses was scarcely less characteristic of the Thracians than of the Thessalians.

2 Satyrus must have been familiar with the works of Theopompus, for much of the material in his life of Philip, particularly the domestic details (FHG III, 161), would be drawn from the Philippica.

3 Fr. 286, Oxford = Nepos, Alcib. 11. He would naturally include a character-study of Alcibiades in the Hellenica when recording his death. Alternatively, the passage may possibly be derived from the digression on Athenian demagogues in Book X of the Philippica. Timaeus is also, mentioned by Nepos in the same sentence, but he had less reason to be interested in the later stages of Alcibiades' career.

3a The reference to his life at Athens may originate from a passage in Thucydides (VI, 15).

3b Theopompus describes the inhabitants of districts or cities in a similar way; cf. fr. 51, 153 (Thessaly), and 65 (Byzantium and Chalcedon). On his ‘exaggeratedly antithetical manner,’ see Wormell, , Yale Class. Stud. v, 66Google Scholar.

4 If, as will be suggested below, these visits belong to 413, Theopompus would not mention them in their chronological setting, but refer incidentally to them in his character-study. Thus Plutarch's main authority, perhaps a Hellenistic biographer relying on Thucydides and Theopompus, would know nothing of them.

5 Hiller von Gaertringen, RE VI A col. 121, rightly believes that his Thessalian visit belongs to his exile, but the passage which he cites from Diogenes Laertius (II, 5, 9 = 11, 8 5) as evidence of relations between Alcibiades and certain Thessalian nobles surely cannot bear this interpretation. The sojourn in Thrace belongs, of course, to the last years of his life.

6 Isocrates and Plutarch (cf. above) state that he was at Argos before he went to Sparta, but this is most improbable, for a democracy hostile to his friends was at this time in power at Argos (Thuc. VI, 61, 3), and this democracy was the ally of Athens and the enemy of Sparta (ibid. 95 and 105). There is probably some confusion with visits to Argos at the beginning of his career (V, 55, 4 and 84, 1), or with the movements of Themistocles when he too was an exile (I, 135, 3; Plut. Them. 23, 1).

7 Niese, RE I, col. 818; Beloch, , Gr. Gesch. I, 2, 188Google Scholar. It is still accepted by Ferguson, , CAH V, 314Google Scholar, Glotz, , Histoire grecque II, 717Google Scholar, and Ehrenberg, RE VI A, col. 1075.

8 Luria, , Klio xxi (1927), 404–12Google Scholar. From a story told by Plutarch (Mor. 227a) it would appear that Agis was on the best of terms with his wife when he returned from Decelea.

9 Many specimens are found in works as early as Lysias XIV and [Andocides] IV.

10 Diod. XIII, 9, 2. The account of Diodorus (Ephorus) is not wholly dependent on Thucydides, and there is no reason to discredit this statement. Plutarch (Alcib. 23, 7) would date the seduction of Timaea during the absence of Agis on a campaign which must be that of Decelea; but, even if the story had any foundation, this dating is inconsistent with another statement of Plutarch (Ages. 3, 1), namely, that the seduction took place very soon after the arrival of Alcibiades at Sparta.

11 These must be small tribes on the southern borders of Thessaly such as the Aenianians.

11a In 410 a Spartan harmost was in charge of the colony (Xen., Hell. I, 2. 18Google Scholar).

12 There is evidence of Athenian operations there in 418, 417, 416, 414, and even 412.

13 Beloch, op. cit. III, 2, 55.

14 Some party in Thessaly still favoured Sparta early in 411, when Dercyllidas was able to lead a small army by the land-route to the Hellespont (Thuc. VIII, 61, 1). On the other hand, in 400 the Aleuadae supported Archelaus and opposed the proposal to welcome Spartan intervention at Larisa (Westlake, , Thessaly in the Fourth Century B.C., p. 55Google Scholar).

15 IG i2, 105, 24–31. Whatever the date of this inscription may be (Meritt, , Athenian Financial Documents, 109–15Google Scholar, and Class. Stud, presented to E. Capps 246–52; De Sanctis, , Riv. Fil. 1935, 206–7)Google Scholar, it certainly suggests that Archelaus supplied the Athenians with timber from the beginning of his reign.

15a The Boeotians were partly responsible for persuading Agis to transfer his attention from Euboea to Lesbos, and even promised ships (VIII, 5, 2). Although support of Lesbos was their traditional policy (III, 2, 3 and 13, 1), they may at the same time have felt that the extension of Spartan influence over central Greece under his direction was likely to damage their interests.

16 Thucydides (ibid. 5, 4) stresses the fact that the envoys negotiated with the Spartan government and not with Agis. Since Alcibiades was friendly with the authorities at Miletus before the revolt of that city (ibid. 17, 2), it is possible that he was in communication with Ionia in the winter of 413–12 and that these envoys came to Sparta at his suggestion.

17 Since this paper was written, a fragment of an unnamed comic poet has come to my notice in which Alcibiades is accused of adultery (Athen. XIII, 574d, ). The story that Alcibiades was Timaea's lover perhaps owes its origin to these lines; for an ingenious writer, such as Duris, reading this passage and remembering the dispute over the legitimacy of Leotychidas, might well be tempted to combine two scandals which were in fact wholly unconnected. It is also possible that the comic poet is referring figuratively to the transference of Alcibiades' political affections from Sparta to Persia, and that some historian, as often happened when comedy was used as an authority, made the mistake of too literal interpretation.