Alcibides in The Peloponnesian War and the Philosophy of the Republic

In Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War, there are numerous individuals who seek to improve their personal power or honor through dubious means. Perhaps none of these characters is as complex, or raises as many questions about power, honor, patriotism, and justice, as Alcibiades. Much can be learned by carefully evaluating the Athenian statesman's voyages around the Hellenic world, where he uses his personal knowledge, influence and guile to improve his standing among the people he is with, while also showing his might and prestige to the other city-states. In The Republic, Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus often discuss topics quite applicable in examining a character who exhibits traits such as Alcibiades. Throughout their lengthy discussion such subjects as the value of justice, the government, structure, and leaders of an ideal city, and the tyrannical-minded person are all studied in great depth. The actions of the Athenian statesman, general, and traitor Alcibiades, as detailed in Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War, can serve as a real-life example of a tyrannical-minded individual who counters many of the ideas on what qualities a leader should hold that are laid forth in Plato's The Republic.

Alcibiades' role in the war begins more or less in Argos, where he attempts to convince the Argive alliance to end its relationship with Sparta and send envoys to Athens to form an anti-Sparta alliance, which would signify an end to the long-term treaty between the two powers. Thucydides asserts that the statesman's rationale for being a leader of the anti-Spartan movement, at least in part, was due to feeling personally cheated by them. He was "offended with the Spartans for having negotiated the treaty through Nicias and Laches, and having overlooked him on account of his youth, and also for not having shown him the respect due to the ancient connection of his family" (Thucydides 5.43-5.44). After persuading Argos to do as he wished, he returns to Athens, where he basically tricks the Spartans and makes them look bad in front of the assembly, and although he fails to create an alliance immediately, his plan ultimately succeeds when the ambassadors' voyage to Sparta is uneventful, and Athens enters into an alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea (5.45-5.46).

After a few more encounters with the Spartans while serving as an ambassador to Argos, Alcibiades' next major appearance in The Peloponnesian War comes when he is appointed by the Athenian assembly, along with Nicias and Lamechus, to lead the expedition to Sicily (6.8). Nicias does not wish to go to Sicily, nor does he find it a worthwhile venture for his country, and thus speaks against the campaign, during which he verbally attacks Alcibiades and his personal motives (6.9-6.15). Alcibiades then rises to defend himself, assert his ability to lead, and claim that Athens' best interest are in going to Sicily (6.16-6.18). Eventually, the Athenians rally and decide to go on with the expedition, although before they set sail, the Hermae of the city are destroyed in an apparent act of heresy, and Alcibiades is charged after an inquiry as having a part (6.27-6.28). After hearing of the accusations, Alcibiades asks to be tried at once, but his political enemies succeed in holding off a trial until after the army leaves, fearing popular and military support (6.29). Later, more evidence against him is mounted by his foes in Athens, and the populace is convinced that the affair was an attack on the institutions of government and culture in an attempt to establish tyranny, and therefore Alcibiades is summoned to return. However, he flees to Italy and the Athenians sentence him to death (6.61).

Not more than a year later does he make an appearance in Sparta, first explaining his actions, then using his acquaintance with Athenian goals and government to advise the Spartans in military matters, suggesting they help the Syracusans and fortify Decelea (6.89-6.93). Despite the fact that his recommendations played a large part in the Athenian defeat at Sicily, Alcibiades is deemed "unworthy of confidence" within a few years, and condemned to die by the Spartans (8.45). Consequently, he instantly becomes an advisor to the Persians, where Tissaphernes adopts his military policy of letting the Hellenic powers battle each other (8.46). However, again Thucydides theorizes that Alcibiades is only in Persia for a personal gain: to return to a position of honor in Athens, and a group at Samos soon petitions Athens for the conversion to oligarchy and the recalling of Alcibiades, so as to gain the favor of the Persians among the Athenians (8.47-8.49). Eventually, near the end of Thucydides' incomplete text, Alcibiades' wish is realized, and he is reinstated after Athenian troops vote him general (8.82).

Thus, in less than ten years he manages to somehow side with each of the major players of the war, almost always having a personal goal in his mind above a societal or national goal. Even in this condensed summary of his role in The Peloponnesian War can one see that many of Alcibiades choices are in conflict with the views expressed by Plato in The Republic, and that the contrast between the two can function well to illustrate the validity of many of the ideas, including some of the more radical ones, put forth in the dialogue. That is, what can be learned from Plato's text can be augmented by viewing Alcibiades with the Platonic understanding of power, justice, etc. in mind.

One of the central motifs of The Republic involves defining what true justice is, while also simultaneously explaining why it is always good for a person to choose to be just. One key part of Plato's definition of justice is that justice within a city happens when each sector of the city fulfills its own role without conflict (Plato 435b). Likewise, injustice within an individual results when the three parts of the soul are in conflict with each other (443d-444b). Utilizing this harmonic definition of justice, one could say Alcibiades acted unjustly, or caused injustice, because he sought to increase his personal power in a democracy. Because a democracy like the one in Athens relies on every citizen having an equal voice, a person who does not respect that and actively tries to change the institutions is not functioning within his duty and therefore not acting justly. In his initial speech at Sparta, Alcibiades admits, "As for democracy...there is nothing new to be said of a patent absurdity" (Thucydides 6.89). Later, he makes no secret of his attempts to convert Athens to an oligarchy, so it is safe to assume that he held solid, enduring, deep-rooted, anti-democratic views. Furthermore, the soul-oriented part of the definition could be used to claim that Alcibiades acted the way he did because the spirit and desire parts of his soul were in turmoil with the reason sector.

Possibly part of the reason that this "civil war" between his inner elements went on was because of his relatively young age. When discussing why spirit is an independent entity from the other two, Socrates declares, "You can see it in young children. Right from the time they are born, they are full of spirit, though most of them, if you ask me, only achieve some degree of rationality late in life. And some never at all" (Plato 441b). Alcibiades young age is brought up first after he holds bitter feelings against the Spartans and again when Nicias appeals to the Athens to resist going to Sicily. Nicias can see that Alcibiades' personal desire and spirit are distorting what is logically sound strategy for Athens. He says, "And if there be any man here, overjoyed at being chosen to command, who urges you to make the expedition, merely for ends of his own - especially if he is still too young to command - who seeks to be admired...do not allow such a one to maintain his private splendor at his country's risk" (Thucydides 6.12). Immediately after this evaluation of Alcibiades, Nicias appeals to the older generations to act rationally (6.13). In the ideal city designed in The Republic, age is the first requirement Socrates and Glaucon agree on when deciding how to choose rulers among the guardian class (Plato 412c). The often raw and spirited actions of Alcibiades, and the subsequent results, provide strong evidence to support the idea of Plato and others that age should be a requirement in leadership.

Another idea central to the discussion of what properties a city of perfection would hold is the concept that the happiness of the entire population is a greater priority than the well-being of a few (420b-e). Furthermore, during the discussion on the selection of leaders, Socrates asserts, "We must select from the guardians the kind of men who on examination strike us most strongly, their whole lives through, as being utterly determined to do what is in the city's interests, and as refusing to act in any way against its interests" (412d-e). In Thucydides' history of the war, Alcibiades repeatedly values his own welfare over the good of the city or the polis. His first workings at Argos were out of shear spite for Sparta. His justification for favoring a Sicilian expedition was a fear that Athens would lose its empirical power, and possibly even its sovereignty if it did not continue expanding, which is rather irrational when it is considered that in the same speech he admits that "The Peloponnesians have never had so little hope against us as at present" (Thucydides 6.17-6.18).

Later, while advising the Spartans, he claims that he is acting out of love of Athens and a strong desire to regain citizenship, as opposed to "outlaw's enthusiasm," because that is what a true patriot would do (6.92). If Alcibiades truly wanted to act in the best interests of Athens, he would have always acted in the best interests of the Athenian people, which, according to what he spoke of against Nicias at Athens, was expansion of their empire through a military campaign to Sicily. He also would have returned to Athens when summoned and faced the allegations against him, showing respect for Athenian law, and by default, the Athenian people. Even without doing that, he could have showed his devotion to the Athenian cause by sabotaging the Sicilians or Spartans and showing he would go any ends for his city.

Instead, he chooses to act solely in his own interests and thwarts their efforts by consulting with the Spartans out of animosity for the faction of people in Athens who ostracized him. These actions, along with Plato's idea of why loyalty to the city above all else is essential, provide more insight as to who is fit to hold power, and why, when someone like Alcibiades is granted power, the city ultimately suffers as the Athenians did, losing miserably in Sicily, and never fully recovering.
The Republic also expresses some fairly radical notions while Plato, through the fictionalized version of Socrates, is building the paragon city and describing various traits it would need to hold. One of these seemingly extreme ideas is that the guardians should have minimal personal property and possessions, living communally in open public housing. This was to prevent the rulers of the city from turning into "savage masters," like many kings and oligarchs of the day whose decisions were dictated as to amass more wealth (Plato 416a-417b). Another one of the major tenets of guardian life is the elimination of the family unit, raising children together in a "nursing-pen" (457a-460d).

Alcibiades, on the other hand, was raised in a prestigious, wealthy family setting, and much of his opinions and attitudes, such as the feeling that Sparta owes him because of his familial connections, stems from that, and it is presumably thus a guiding force in his decision-making. Although the prevention of such patrition-like behavior is not the primary rationale given by Socrates, characters like Alcibiades shed light onto how real-life problems can develop when those in authority who have noble backgrounds allow their prestige and wealth to even partially dictate their choices. Plato's solution is to eliminate both, or at least reduce them as much as possible, in the class which holds power.

While many of Alcibiades' actions allow him to serve well as a counter-example to the just rulers on the ideal city, there are several apt parallels that can be drawn between the Athenian and the tyrannical individual that Socrates details in Book Nine of The Republic. Part of the initial description given says the tyrannical man gives into desires and Lust, that people of this mindset "run amok, and start looking for anyone with anything which can be taken from them by deception or force" (573c-e). The initial catalyst of Alcibiades' death sentence was being part of a "drunken frolic" that destroyed the Hermae and mocked Athenian culture (Thucydides 6.28). Additionally, he used deception during the Argos affair, as well as during his passionate, aggressive speech in favor of the Sicilian campaign. Socrates asks Adeimantus, "Won't he [the budding tyrant]...take over from his father and mother and usurp what is theirs, awarding himself a share in his father's property now that he has spent what is his own?" (Plato 574a). Viewing this from a metaphorical perspective, Alcibiades disapproved of democracy, something which he "inherited" from the elder generation of the city and openly sought a change to oligarchy, where he would "award himself a share" of the power. In their argument, Glaucon and Socrates go on to say that the tyrannical soul, and any peoples it should preside over, would be impoverished, fearful, and unhappy. Throughout his involvement in the war, Alcibiades feared Athenian justice, and went from place to place, all the while surely unhappy because he really desired to be a ruler in Athens. At the end of their discussion of tyrannical-minded people, Socrates finally convinces Glaucon that the tyrant, being most unjust person, is the most unhappy and the worst to rule over people, meaning that it is indeed in one's own best interests to act justly, to be "king over himself" instead of "tyrant over himself" (580c).

A composition that seeks to evaluate what can be gained by viewing Alcibiades with the concepts of a Socratic text like The Republic in mind would possibly be incomplete without at least briefly mentioning that Alcibiades and Socrates were quite familiar in real life. In a footnote to the Cambridge text of the classical work, Editor G. R. F. Ferrari explains, during a passage where Socrates describes an individual that resembles Alcibiades, that the relationship between the two in the Socratic canon could be described as "intimately involved" (198). In real life, Alcibiades was unquestionably a student whom Socrates was fond of, and later was saved by the philosopher during a battle (Linder). Therefore, it is well within reason to assume that Plato considered the characteristics and actions of Alcibiades as he wrote various parts of The Republic.

Regardless of whether or not Plato was actively writing with the tyrannical-minded Athenian in mind, the choices Alcibiades makes throughout The Peloponnesian War exhibit a failure to act justly, a prioritizing of personal ends, prestige, and wealth, and a youthful, zealous, irrational disposition. Accordingly, he functions as a Platonic archetype as a person who should not be allowed to rule. Subsequently, it is important to consider how much damage such as individual can do. As Thucydides points out in his history, the aggressive attitude and the overall handling of the Sicilian affair were most detrimental to Athens in ultimately losing a war that raged on for over 25 years (2.65). Also, to show that happiness is fleeting for the tyrant-minded person who achieves it through unjust means, Alcibiades' second stay in Athens was a rather short one. In 406 BC, no more than five years after returning, he is again exiled (Linder). In evaluating his actions and the consequential results while considering the ideas of leadership, justice, and happiness laid forth by Plato, much can be learned about who should lead, and how those who are selected should rule. Essentially, Alcibiades' attitudes, beliefs, and reactions to the circumstances around him breathe life into the Platonic theories, concepts, and reasoning found in The Republic.