[58]
Consider first the exploits of Alcibiades.1 Although he was exiled from Athens2 and observed that the others who had before labored under this misfortune had been cowed3 because of the greatness of the city, yet he did not show the same submissive spirit as they; on the contrary, convinced that he must attempt to bring about his return by force, he deliberately chose to make war upon her.4
1 For the career of the brilliant, unscrupulous Alcibiades see Grote, Hist. vi. pp. 301 ff., vii. 49 ff., and Plut. Alc.
2 He was exiled on the charge of having profaned the Eleusinian Mysteries.
3 For example, Themistocles.
4 By stirring up and aiding, through his great personal influence and his sagacity, all the enemies of Athens in the Peloponnesian War.