em feel that I am alive."

The information against him was framed in this form:--"Thessalus lays
information that Alcibiades has committed a crime against the goddesses
Ceres and Proserpine, by representing in derision the holy mysteries,
and showing them to his companions in his own house."

He was condemned as contumacious upon his not appearing, his property
confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and priestesses
should solemnly curse him.

Alcibiades, lying under these heavy decrees and sentences, when he fled
from Thurii, passed over into Peloponnesus, and remained some time at
Argos. But being there in fear of his enemies and seeing himself utterly
hopeless of return to his native country, he sent to Sparta, desiring
safe conduct, and assuring them that he would make them amends by his
future services for all the mischief he had done them while he was their
enemy. The Spartans giving him the security he desired, he went eagerly,
was well received, and, at his very first coming, succeeded in
inducing them, without any further caution or delay, to send aid to
the Syracusans; and so roused and excited them, that they forthwith
despatched Gylippus into Sicily, to crush the forces which the Athenians
had in Sicily. A second point was, to renew the war upon the Athenians
at home. But the third thing, and the most important of all, was to
make them fortify Decelea, which above everything reduced and wasted the
resources of the Athenians.

The renown which he earned by these public services was equaled by the
admiration he attracted to his private life; he captivated and won
over everybody by his conformity to Spartan habits. People who saw him
wearing his hair close cut, bathing in cold water, eating coarse meal,
and dining on black broth, doubted, or rather could not believe, that he
ever had a cook in his house, or had ever seen a perfumer, or had worn a
mantle of Milesian purple. For he had, as it was observed, this peculiar
talent for gaining men's affections, that he could at once comply with
and really enter into their habits and ways of life, and change faster
than the chameleon. One color, indeed, they say the chameleon cannot
assume; it cannot make itself appear white; but Alcibiades, whether with
good men or with bad, could adapt himself to his company, and equally
wear the appearance of virtue or vice. At Sparta, he was devoted to
athletic exercises, was frugal and reserved; in Ionia, luxurious