Source edition
Cornelius Nepos. Cornelii Nepotis Vitae. Fleckeisen, Alfred; Halm, Karl, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1886.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a biographical narrative depicting the turbulent life of Alcibiades, the Athenian politician and general, focusing on his extreme duality of virtues and vices as well as his extraordinary talents. The narrative begins with his outstanding qualities, his youth under the guardianship of Pericles, and his special bond with Socrates. Accused of sacrilege during the Sicilian Expedition, he flees to Sparta and later to Persia, using his brilliant intellect to pressure Athens. Although he eventually makes a triumphant return to Athens as a victorious general, he soon loses public favor once more and is forced into exile in Thrace and Persia. His life ends tragically with his assassination orchestrated by political rivals, but the work concludes by praising his unparalleled ability to adapt to diverse cultures and excel wherever he went.