Alcibiades
In 404 BCE, the greatest genius and most tragic failure in the military history of Greece was assassinated. Alcibiades lived during the most chaotic period of the Peloponnesian war. He came to power after Cleon and Brasidas fell in the Battle of Amphipolis—after which there was a chance for peace—but Alcibiades favored hostilities. He ruled Athens, expanded the empire. Tried to start war again at Mantania in 418 BCE. Sparta won and Greece relapsed into an angry truce. Alcibiades remained in power, but his imperialistic imagination ruined the work of Pericles (e.g. expanding the empire to Sicily and the war against Syracuse). He got tangled in a legal mess and had to flee by 415 BCE. Betrayed the empire by joining Sparta, had a kid with a Spartan queen and fled Sparta. Years later, after two revolutions and a struggle for survival, Athens called Alcibiades back to power and he landed in 407 BCE after coming back from the Hellespont in a famous campaign in which he killed a bunch of Spartans. Ruled for a time, but did sketchy legal things again and fled. Unofficially, he tried to help Athens one last time in the battle in the sea of Marmora, but the Athenian generals didn’t listen to him and lost to Lysander (Spartan general). Fled to Phrygia and got assassinated.
Source: Durant, Will, 1885-1981, The Life of Greece: A history of Greek government, industry, manners, morals, religion, philosophy, science, literature and art from the earliest times to the Roman conquest. Simon and Schuster, 1939.
Alcibiades being taught by Socrates (1776) by by François-Xavier Fabre
Public domain
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Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!