ough he was laughed
at for the pains he took to show off his beauty, and for carrying out to
battle a shield inlaid with gold and ivory, representing Cupid hurling
Jupiter's thunderbolts. His will was so determined, that, when he was a
little boy at play in the street, and saw a waggon coming which would
have spoiled his arrangements, he laid himself down before the wheels to
stop it. He learnt easily, and, when he was with Socrates, would talk as
well and wisely as any philosopher of them all; and Socrates really seems
to have loved the bright, beautiful youth even more than his two graver
and worthier pupils, Plato and Xenophon, perhaps because in one of
Alkibiades' first battles, at Delium, he had been very badly wounded, and
Socrates had carried him safely out of the battle on his broad shoulders.
Socrates was very strong, but one of the ugliest of men, and the
Athenians were amused at the contrast between master and pupil.

[Picture: The Academic Grove]

But nobody could help loving Alkibiades in these early years, and he was
a sort of spoiled child of the people. He won three crowns in the
chariot races at the Olympic games, and feasted and made presents to his
fellow-citizens afterwards, and he was always doing some strange thing in
order to make a sensation. The first day that he was old enough to be
admitted to the public assembly, while he was being greeted there, he let
loose a tame quail, which he carried about under his cloak, and no
business could be done till it had been caught. Another time he came
very late, with a garland on his head, and desired to have the sitting
put off because he had a feast at his house; and the grave archons
actually granted his request. But the strangest thing he did was to cut
off the tail of his beautiful dog, that, as he said, the Athenians might
have something to talk about. In truth he made everything give way to
his freaks and self-will; and he was a harsh and unkind husband, and
insolent to his father-in-law; and, as time went on, he offended a great
many persons by his pride and rudeness and selfishness, so that his
brilliancy did little good.

There were Greek colonies in Sicily, but these were mostly in the
interest of Sparta. There had been some fighting there in the earlier
years of the war, and Alkibiades was very anxious to lead another
expedition thither. Nikias thought this imprudent, and argued much
against it; but the effect of