Alcibiades

Alcibiades was a brilliant but rather unprincipled Athenian politician and military commander whose selfish political schemings in several ways caused deep political divisions in Athens which were the main causes of Athens' defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War.
Born into a wealthy Athenian family in 450 BC, Alcibiades was very young when his father, a commander in the Athenian army, was killed. As he matured, Alcibiades became strikingly handsome and developed a keen mind and good wit, but also became extravagant, irresponsible, and self-centered as well. This might have been caused because his guardian, Pericles, who happened to have been a distant relation of his, was far too preoccupied with his political leadership to provide the necessary guidance that the young boy needed. He however, was attracted to the teaching of Socrates, who in turn also liked his beauty and intellectual promise. But his immense ambitions soon enticed him away from the philosophical life and in later ...