The Life Of Alcibiades The Idol Of Athens

Author : E. F. Benson
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781733537124

Get Book

The Life of Alcibiades: The Idol of Athens by E. F. Benson Pdf

Alcibiades (ca. 450 BC-ca. 404 BC) was the charismatic and controversial Athenian general and politician who promoted the Peloponnesian war against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia. His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed the stuff of fascinating biography. Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was a prolific and much-loved English novelist, biographer and short story writer. He was educated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. Benson is most famous for a series of comic novels he published during the 1920s and 1930s--""Mapp and Lucia"". Benson was awarded an OBE and was made an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Revised, with Introduction, by Dr Craig Paterson. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Author : Edward Frederic Benson
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2010-11-17
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1456303333

Get Book

The Life of Alcibiades by Edward Frederic Benson Pdf

"Promoted the Peloponnesian war against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia. His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed the stuff of fascinating biography. Alcibiades's extraordinary beauty, great wealth, ostentatious vanity, male and female amours, debaucheries, and impious revels earned him notoriety not only in Athens but throughout the Hellenic world. In subsequent ages his name was used as a near by-word for all kinds of excess. But, as Benson argues, reappraising Alcibiades's reputation, great as were his vices, his virtues were even greater..."--Publisher description.

Author : Jacqueline de Romilly
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2019-10-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781501739972

Get Book

The Life of Alcibiades by Jacqueline de Romilly Pdf

This biography of Alcibiades, the charismatic Athenian statesman and general (c. 450–404 BC) who achieved both renown and infamy during the Peloponnesian War, is both an extraordinary adventure story and a cautionary tale that reveals the dangers that political opportunism and demagoguery pose to democracy. As Jacqueline de Romilly brilliantly documents, Alcibiades's life is one of wanderings and vicissitudes, promises and disappointments, brilliant successes and ruinous defeats. Born into a wealthy and powerful family in Athens, Alcibiades was a student of Socrates and disciple of Pericles, and he seemed destined to dominate the political life of his city—and his tumultuous age. Romilly shows, however, that he was too ambitious. Haunted by financial and sexual intrigues and political plots, Alcibiades was exiled from Athens, sentenced to death, recalled to his homeland, only to be exiled again. He defected from Athens to Sparta and from Sparta to Persia and then from Persia back to Athens, buffeted by scandal after scandal, most of them of his own making. A gifted demagogue and, according to his contemporaries, more handsome than the hero Achilles, Alcibiades is also a strikingly modern figure, whose seductive celebrity and dangerous ambition anticipated current crises of leadership.

Author : E. F. Benson
Publisher : White Press
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2014-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1473315581

Get Book

The Life of Alcibiades by E. F. Benson Pdf

Author : David Stuttard
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2018-04-16
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780674919662

Get Book

Nemesis by David Stuttard Pdf

Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War. Nemesis tells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer. David Stuttard recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’ celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital charge of impiety, Alcibiades escaped to the enemy, Sparta. There he traded military intelligence for safety until, suspected of seducing a Spartan queen, he was forced to flee again—this time to Greece’s long-term foes, the Persians. Miraculously, though, he engineered a recall to Athens as Supreme Commander, but—suffering a reversal—he took flight to Thrace, where he lived as a warlord. At last in Anatolia, tracked by his enemies, he died naked and alone in a hail of arrows. As he follows Alcibiades’ journeys crisscrossing the Mediterranean from mainland Greece to Syracuse, Sardis, and Byzantium, Stuttard weaves together the threads of Alcibiades’ adventures against a backdrop of cultural splendor and international chaos. Navigating often contradictory evidence, Nemesis provides a coherent and spellbinding account of a life that has gripped historians, storytellers, and artists for more than two thousand years.

Author : David Gribble
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1999-03-26
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780191541469

Get Book

Alcibiades and Athens by David Gribble Pdf

It is not the aim of this book to add to the extensive literature on Alcibiades' life and career. Instead the author focuses on the explosive mix of fear and fascination excited by Alcibiades in his contemporaries and in particular in key literary texts: Thucydides, the mysterious pseudo-Andocides 4, the encomium of Isocrates 16, the final scene of Plato's Symposium. The book is about the acute tension between the classical city and the individual of superlative power, status, and ambition. It looks at the way Alcibiades is approximated to archetypes of the individual 'outside' the city: the tyrant, the athletic victor, the ostracism victim, the scapegoat, the barbarian. Whereas modern discussions of ancient Athens and Athenian civic texts stress collective ideology, this study focuses on the opposing strand in tension with this dominant ideology: the fascination with the powerful individual. The book is thus at once a contribution to the study of civic ideology, and also to that of the individual and of the role of the individual in classical texts - rhetoric, the historiography of Thucydides, the Platonic dialogue. The book also considers the development of the post-classical depiction of Alcibiades, concluding with a study of Plutarch's reaction both to this tradition and to the classical texts.

Author : P. J. Rhodes
Publisher : Pen & Sword Military
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2021-10-30
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 139901384X

Get Book

Alcibiades by P. J. Rhodes Pdf

Alcibiades is one of the most famous (or infamous) characters of Classical Greece. A young Athenian aristocrat, he came to prominence during the Peloponnesian War (429-404 BC) between Sparta and Athens. Flamboyant, charismatic (and wealthy), this close associate of Socrates persuaded the Athenians to attempt to stand up to the Spartans on land as part of an alliance he was instrumental in bringing together. Although this led to defeat at the Battle of Mantinea in 418 BC, his prestige remained high. He was also a prime mover in Athens' next big strategic gambit, the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC, for which he was elected as one of the leaders. Shortly after arrival in Sicily, however, he was recalled to face charges of sacrilege allegedly committed during his pre-expedition revelling. Jumping ship on the return journey, he defected to the Spartans. Alcibiades soon ingratiated himself with the Spartans, encouraging them to aid the Sicilians (ultimately resulting in the utter destruction of the Athenian expedition)and to keep year-round pressure on the Athenians. He then seems to have overstepped the bounds of hospitality by sleeping with the Spartan queen and was soon on the run again. He then played a devious and dangerous game of shifting loyalties between Sparta, Athens and Persia. He had a hand in engineering the overthrow of democracy at Athens in favour of an oligarchy, which allowed him to return from exile, though he then opposed the increasingly-extreme excesses of that regime. For a time he looked to have restored Athens' fortunes in the war, but went into exile again after being held responsible for the defeat of one of his subordinates in a naval battle. This time he took refuge with the Persians, but as they were now allied to the Spartans, the cuckolded King Agis of Sparta was able to arrange his assassination by Persian agents. There has been no full length biography of this colorful and important character for twenty years. Professor Rhodes brings the authority of an internationally recognised expert in the field, ensuring that this will be a truly significant addition to the literature on Classical Greece.

Author : Jack Meyer
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2009-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781426918339

Get Book

Alcibiades by Jack Meyer Pdf

Is he just a troublemaker with an attitude? Or will this spunky youth grow up to do something great? The populace of Athens holds varied opinions about Alcibiades, a handsome boy who exhibits a devious and audacious personality. Based on historical record, author Jack Meyer reconstructs the life of Alcibiades, a man who uniquely impacted classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War. An orphan, Alcibiades grew up in the household of Pericles, was Socrates' favorite student, and was immensely handsome and rich. This narrative tells the story of the stunning career of this brilliant tactical military commander, persuasive orator, and consummate traitor who switched sides three times during the war. The city's own favorite son, this product of the Golden Age, was a man as morally corrupt as he was convincingly eloquent. The reconstruction of Alcibiades' story breeds both fiction and farce, and this story of the Greek experience serves as an analogue for a critique of today's American foreign policy.

Author : P. J. Rhodes
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2011-07-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781848849822

Get Book

Alcibiades by P. J. Rhodes Pdf

The renowned classicist presents an authoritative biography of one of the most infamous and colorful characters of Ancient Greece. A charismatic Athenian and close associate of Socrates, Alcibiades came to prominence during the Peloponnesian War when he helped form an alliance against Sparta. Although his gambit led to defeat, his prestige remained high, and he was elected to lead the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC. Shortly after arrival in Sicily, however, Alcibiades was recalled to face charges of sacrilege allegedly committed during his pre-expedition reveling. Jumping ship on the return journey, he defected to the Spartans. Alcibiades quickly ingratiated himself with the Spartans, helping them to victory against his former countrymen. But he soon overstepped the bounds of hospitality by sleeping with the Spartan queen. On the run again, he began to play a dangerous game of shifting loyalties. He had a hand in engineering the overthrow of democracy at Athens in favor of an oligarchy, which allowed him to return from exile, though he then opposed the extreme excesses of that regime. For a time, Alcibiades restored Athens' fortunes in the war, but was soon forced into exile once again. This time he took refuge with the Persians, but as they were now allied to the Spartans, the cuckolded King Agis was able to arrange his assassination by Persian agents.

Author : Walter M. Ellis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2014-04-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317746836

Get Book

Alcibiades (Routledge Revivals) by Walter M. Ellis Pdf

In Alcibiades, first published in 1989, one of the most colourful and controversial figures of fifth-century Athens is presented in a sympathetic light. The author sets out to demonstrate how, in his manipulation of the Spartan representatives in 420 BC, in his successful formation of an Athenian-Argive alliance, and in his plan for the conquest of Syracuse, Alcibiades developed a style of leadership that was characterised by audacity, ingenuity and skilful diplomacy. Further, his outstanding generalship during the Hellespontine War prompts speculation on how the Sicilian expedition might have ended had he also been in command. In many respects the story of Alcibiades is the history of Athens in the twilight of its power; Alcibiades succeeds in constructing a continuous narrative of his political career without duplicating more conventional accounts, always focussing on his involvement in the course of the Peloponnesian War and his troubled relationship with his Athenian compatriots.

Author : Plutarch
Publisher : Random House
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2024-02-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781802067293

Get Book

The Rise And Fall of Athens by Plutarch Pdf

Plutarch traces the fortunes of Athens through nine lives - from Theseus, its founder, to Lysander, its Spartan conqueror - in this seminal work What makes a leader? For Plutarch the answer lay not in great victories, but in moral strengths. In these nine biographies, taken from his Parallel Lives, Plutarch illustrates the rise and fall of Athens through nine lives, from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, through Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias and Alcibiades, to the razing of its walls by Lysander. Plutarch ultimately held the weaknesses of its leaders responsible for the city's fall. His work is invaluable for its imaginative reconstruction of the past, and profound insights into human life and achievement. This edition of Ian Scott-Kilvert's seminal translation, fully revised with a new introduction and notes by John Marincola, now also contains Plutarch's attack on the first historian, 'On the Malice of Herodotus'.

Author : Sanford Holst
Publisher : Santorini Books
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2016-11-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1945199024

Get Book

Ancient Athens by Sanford Holst Pdf

The lives of these five fascinating people were woven so deeply into the fabric of ancient Athens that their compelling stories reveal rich details of how the Golden Age of Greece came into being. Brought to life with 66 beautiful illustrations. Written by the author best known for "Phoenician Secrets."

Author : Phillip S. Meilinger
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813178929

Get Book

Thoughts on War by Phillip S. Meilinger Pdf

“A remarkable work that challenges the received wisdom of Clausewitz’s On War . . . [a] paradigm as to how to wage combat in our modern global environment.” —John A. English, author of Monty and the Canadian Army War is changing. Unlike when modern military doctrine was forged, the United States no longer mobilizes massive land forces for direct political gain. Instead, the US fights small, overseas wars by global mandate to overthrow dictators, destroy terrorist groups, and broker regional peace. These conflicts hardly resemble the total wars fought and expected by foundational military theorists such as Carl von Clausewitz, yet their paradigms are ingrained in modern thinking. The twenty-first-century’s new geopolitical situation demands new principles for warfare—deemphasizing decisive land victory in favor of airpower, intelligence systems, and indigenous ground forces. In Thoughts on War, Phillip S.Meilinger confronts the shortcomings of US military dogma in search of a new strategic doctrine. Inter-service rivalries and conventional theories failed the US in lengthy Korea, Vietnam, and Middle East conflicts. Jettisoning traditional perspectives and their focus on decisive battles, Meilinger revisits historical campaigns looking for answers to more persistent challenges—how to coordinate forces, manipulate time, and fight on two fronts. This provocative collection of new and expanded essays offers a fresh, if controversial, perspective on time-honored military values, one which encourages a critical revision of US military strategy. “Meilinger presents a new strategic and operational paradigm for how to fight and win tomorrow’s wars with reduced risk and cost. This book will appeal not only to military professionals, but to scholars and civilian policymakers as well.” —Colonel John Andreas Olsen, Royal Norwegian Air Force, author of Airpower Pioneers

Author : R. N. K. Robinson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 758 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2021-04-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0648794733

Get Book

Alcibiades by R. N. K. Robinson Pdf

The story of Alcibiades commences with Alcibiades as teenager being brought up on the Pericles Estate under the guardianship of Pericles' brother, Ariphron, his teacher Zopyrus and mentor Socrates. It tells of his rise to prominence in Athens as an influential orator, statesman and hoplite in the Athenian military. Having survived the plague and at the age of thirty, Alcibiades is made a general and proposes an expedition to Sicily to expand the Empire to maintain Athens' security and to preserve the democracy in the face of the Spartans. Over one hundred triremes are prepared for war with Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus as co generals. On the eve of their departure, charges, which were later deemed false, were brought against Alcibiades resulting in him being recalled to Athens to face trial leaving Nicias in charge of the expedition, which had disastrous consequences for Athens.It tells of Alcibiades' time in Sparta advising King Pleistoanax where had he a son to a Queen of Sparta and his time in the palace of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes advising him on all Greek matters.Alcibiades is recalled as a general with Athens' major Aegean fleet on the island of Samos and after securing Athens' security triumphantly returns to Athens and is made head of the military in the war with Sparta.Alcibiades did not lose any battles in which he was the Commander.

Author : G. Rousseau
Publisher : Springer
Page : 371 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2007-12-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780230590526

Get Book

Children and Sexuality by G. Rousseau Pdf

Children and Sexuality probes the hidden relations between children and sexuality in case studies from the Greeks to the Great War. The lives reconstructed here extend from Greek Alcibiades to Lewis Carroll and Baden-Powell, each recounted with scrupulous vigilance to detail and nuance.