to
you and said: Alcibiades, will you live as you are, or die in an instant
if you are forbidden to make any further acquisition?--I verily believe
that you would choose death. And I will tell you the hope in which you
are at present living: Before many days have elapsed, you think that you
will come before the Athenian assembly, and will prove to them that
you are more worthy of honour than Pericles, or any other man that ever
lived, and having proved this, you will have the greatest power in the
state. When you have gained the greatest power among us, you will go
on to other Hellenic states, and not only to Hellenes, but to all the
barbarians who inhabit the same continent with us. And if the God were
then to say to you again: Here in Europe is to be your seat of empire,
and you must not cross over into Asia or meddle with Asiatic affairs, I
do not believe that you would choose to live upon these terms; but the
world, as I may say, must be filled with your power and name--no man
less than Cyrus and Xerxes is of any account with you. Such I know to be
your hopes--I am not guessing only--and very likely you, who know that
I am speaking the truth, will reply, Well, Socrates, but what have
my hopes to do with the explanation which you promised of your
unwillingness to leave me? And that is what I am now going to tell you,
sweet son of Cleinias and Dinomache. The explanation is, that all these
designs of yours cannot be accomplished by you without my help; so great
is the power which I believe myself to have over you and your concerns;
and this I conceive to be the reason why the God has hitherto forbidden
me to converse with you, and I have been long expecting his permission.
For, as you hope to prove your own great value to the state, and having
proved it, to attain at once to absolute power, so do I indulge a hope
that I shall be the supreme power over you, if I am able to prove my own
great value to you, and to show you that neither guardian, nor kinsman,
nor any one is able to deliver into your hands the power which you
desire, but I only, God being my helper. When you were young (compare
Symp.) and your hopes were not yet matured, I should have wasted my
time, and therefore, as I conceive, the God forbade me to converse with
you; but now, having his permission, I will speak, for now you will
listen to me.

ALCIBIADES: Your silence, Socrates, was always a surprise to me. I never
could understand why you followed me ab