Alcibiades

It was Cleanthes who said that any one beloved of him must be downed, as wrestlers say, by the ears alone, though offering to rival lovers many other holds which he himself would scorn to take,—meaning the various lusts of the body. And Alcibiades was certainly prone to be led away into pleasure. That

lawless self-indulgence

However, it was rather his love of distinction and love of fame to which his corrupters appealed, and thereby plunged him all too soon into ways of pre-sumptuous scheming, persuading him that he had only to enter public life, and he would straightway cast into total eclipse the ordinary generals and public leaders, and not only that, he would even surpass Pericles in power and reputation among the Hellenes.

Accordingly, just as iron, which has been softened in the fire, is hardened again by cold water, and has its particles compacted together, so Alcibiades, whenever Socrates found him filled with vanity and wantonness, was reduced to shape by the Master’s discourse, and rendered humble and cautious. He learned how great were his deficiencies and how incomplete his excellence.

Once, as he was getting on past boyhood, he accosted a school-teacher, and asked him for a book of Homer. The teacher replied that he had nothing of Homer’s, whereupon Alcibiades fetched him a blow with his fist, and went his way. Another teacher said he had a Homer which he had corrected himself. What! said Alcibiades, are you teaching boys to read when you are competent to edit Homer? You should be training young men.