He did not, he said, betray the city
to the enemy, but relieved it from the miseries of war, imitating
therein the noblest Lacedaemonians, whose only idea of what was noble
and just was what would serve their own country. The Lacedaemonians, on
hearing this speech, were ashamed to press the charge, and acquitted
him.

XXXII. Now, at length, Alkibiades began to wish to see his native
country again, and still more to be seen and admired by his countrymen
after his splendid series of victories. He proceeded home with the
Athenian fleet, which was magnificently adorned with shields and
trophies, and had many prizes in tow, and the flags of many more which
he had captured and destroyed--all of them together amounting to not
less than two hundred. But we cannot believe the additions which Douris
the Samian, who says that he is a descendant of Alkibiades, makes to
this story, to the effect that Chrysogonus, the victor at the Pythian
games, played on the flute to mark the time for the rowers, while
Kallipides the tragedian, attired in his buskins, purple robe, and other
theatrical properties, gave them orders, and that the admiral's ship
came into harbour with purple sails, as if returning from a party of
pleasure. Neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, nor Xenophon mentions these
circumstances, nor was it likely that he should present himself before
the Athenians in such a swaggering fashion, when he was returning home
from exile, after having suffered such a variety of misfortunes. The
truth is, he sailed to Athens with considerable misgivings, and on his
arrival would not leave his ship until from her deck he saw Euryptolemus
his cousin, with many of his friends and relatives, assembled to welcome
him.

When he landed, the people seemed to have no eyes for the other
generals, but all rushed towards him, and escorted him on his way,
cheering him, embracing him, and crowning him with flowers. Those who
could not get near him gazed upon him from a distance, and the older men
pointed him out to the younger ones. Yet the joy of the citizens was
mingled with tears in the midst of their rejoicings, when they thought
of their past disasters, for they reflected that they would not have
failed in Sicily, or met with any of their other terrible
disappointments, if they had not parted with Alkibiades when in the full
tide of prosperity. He had found Athens barely able to hold her own at
sea, by land mistress of little more than the ground o