r entering public life; his noble birth, his
riches, the personal courage he had shown in divers battles, and the
multitude of his friends and dependents, threw open, so to say, folding
doors for his admittance. But he did not consent to let his power with
the people rest on any thing, rather than on his own gift of eloquence.
That he was a master in the art of speaking, the comic poets bear
him witness; and the most eloquent of public speakers, in his oration
against Midias, allows that Alcibiades, among other perfections, was a
most accomplished orator.

His expenses in horses kept for the public games, and in the number of
his chariots, were matters of great observation; never did any one
but he, either private person king, send seven chariots to the Olympic
games. And to have carried away at once the first, the second, and the
fourth prize, as Thucydides says, or the third, as Euripides relates it,
outdoes every distinction that was ever thought of in that kind.

The emulation displayed by the deputations of various states, in
the presents which they made to him, rendered this success yet
more illustrious. The Ephesians erected a tent for him, adorned
magnificently; the city of Chios furnished him with provender for his
horses and with great numbers of beasts for sacrifice; and the Lesbians
sent him wine and other provisions for the many entertainments which he
made.

As soon as he began to intermeddle in the government, which was when he
was very young, he quickly lessened the credit of all who aspired to
the confidence of the people, except Phaeax and Nicias, who alone could
contest with him. Nicias was arrived at a mature age, and was esteemed
their first general. Phaeax was but a rising statesman like Alcibiades;
he was descended from noble ancestors, but was his inferior in many
other things, but principally in eloquence.

Alcibiades was not less disturbed at the distinction which Nicias gained
among the enemies of Athens, than at the honors which the Athenians
themselves paid to him. It was commonly said in Greece, that the war in
the Peloponnesus was begun by Pericles, and that Nicias made an end of
it, and the peace was generally called the peace of Nicias. Alcibiades
was extremely annoyed at this, and being full of envy, set himself to
break the league. First, therefore observing that the Argives as well
out of fear as hatred to the Lacedaemonians, sought for protection
against them, he gave them a secr