ke them feel that I _live_!"

He did so. To him Athens was indebted for the ruin of its costly
expedition. He fled to Sparta and advised the Spartans to send to
Syracuse the able general to whom the Athenians owed their fatal defeat.
He also advised his new friends to seize and fortify a town in Attica.
By this they cut off all the land supply of food from Athens, and did
much to force the final submission of that city.

Alcibiades now put on a new guise. He affected to be enraptured with
Spartan manners, cropped his hair, lived on black broth, exercised
diligently, and by his fluent tongue made himself a favorite in that
austere city. But at length, by an idle boast, he roused Spartan enmity,
and had to fly again. Now he sought Asia Minor, became a friend of
Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap, adopted the excesses of Persian
luxury, and sought to break the alliance between Persia and Sparta,
which he had before sustained.

Next, moved by a desire to see his old home, he offered the leading
citizens of Athens to induce Tissaphernes to come to their aid, on the
condition that he might be permitted to return. But he declared that he
would not come while the democracy was in power, and it was by his
influence that the tyrannical Committee of Four Hundred was formed.
Afterwards, falling out with these tyrants, Alcibiades turned democrat
again, was made admiral of the fleet, and wrought the ruin of the
oligarchy which he had raised to power.

And now this brilliant and fickle son of Athens worked as actively and
ably for his native city as he had before sought her ruin. Under his
command the fleet gained several important victories, and conquered
Byzantium and other cities. The ruinous defeat at AEgospotami would not
have occurred had the admiral of the fleet listened to his timely
warning. After the fall of Athens, and during the tyranny of the Thirty,
he retired to Asia Minor, where he was honorably received by the satrap
Pharnabazus. And here the end came to his versatile career. One night
the house in which he slept was surrounded by a body of armed men and
set on fire. He rushed out, sword in hand, but a shower of darts and
arrows quickly robbed him of life. Through whose enmity he died is not
known. Thus perished, at less than fifty years of age, one of the most
brilliant and able of all the Athenians,--one who, had he lived, would
doubtless have added fresh and striking chapters to the history of his
native land, th