Alcibiades

And if we are to trust Theophrastus, the most versatile and learned of the philosophers, Alcibiades was of all men the most capable of discovering and understanding what was required in a given case. But since he strove to find not only the proper thing to say, but also the proper words and phrases in which to say it; and since in this last regard he was not a man of large resources he would often stumble in the midst of his speech, come to a stop, and pause a while, a particular phrase eluding him. Then he would resume, and proceed with all the caution in the world.

His breeds of horses were famous the world over, and so was the number of his racing-chariots. No one else ever entered seven of these at the Olympic games—neither commoner nor king—but he alone. And his coming off first, second, and fourth victor (as Thucydides says;[*](In a speech of Alcibiades, Thuc. 6.16.2.) third, according to Euripides), transcends in the splendor of its renown all that ambition can aspire to in this field.

The ode of Euripides[*](An Epinikion, or hymn of victory, like the extant odes of Pindar.) to which I refer runs thus:—

1. Thee will I sing, O child of Cleinias;
2. A fair thing is victory, but fairest is what no other Hellene has achieved,
3. To run first, and second, and third in the contest of racing-chariots,
4. And to come off unwearied, and, wreathed with the olive of Zeus,
5. To furnish theme for herald’s proclamation.