Alcibiades’ Statesmanship and Patriotism in Thucydides’ "History"

• In Event: The Education of Citizens and Statesmen

Abstract

This paper offers a new account of one of the most controversial figures in ancient Greek history: Alcibiades. Specifically, it develops an interpretation of his patriotism and statesmanship by examining Thucydides’ rendition of his two speeches in the "History of the Peloponnesian War." Against most scholars and commentators, as well as the charges of his adversaries in the text, I argue Thucydides reveals that Alcibiades genuinely understood himself to be an Athenian patriot and sought what he saw as the city’s good. However, I contend that Alcibiades' patriotic vision—which centers on a unity between the private and public in glory and greatness—was rooted in a view of Athens that conflicted with the city’s reality and mostly existed in his imagination. Accordingly, I argue that Alcibiades’ actions during the war should be understood as an attempt to close the gap between the “real” Athens and his imagined Athens, and, moreover, that his efforts to do so reflect a “poetic” approach to statesmanship that resembles Pericles’. In so doing, I illuminate the nature of Alcibiades' patriotism, the deeper aims of his political ambition, and Thucydides’ account of the power of and dangers posed by the imagination for politics.

Author

• Jack Bevacqua, University of Notre Dame