Italians of his own day; indeed, he has even pictured himself coming
in with a fellow artist.

What interested him was to paint a great number of persons who should
show by their faces and their attitudes that they were busy, in an
animated way, over what was worth thinking about. He placed them in a
noble hall, with a domed recess at the end, such as a great architect
of his day might have built. He showed a noble colonnade of pillars,
and he placed in niches statues of the old Greek gods like Apollo and
Minerva, who would be supposed to take an interest in what was going
on.

The picture is so large and has so many figures that it would not be
easy to reproduce it here, and give a good idea of its various parts;
so a portion only is shown, depicting what is commonly known as the
group of Socrates and Alcibiades. Socrates can surely be
distinguished, for he had a singular face and head. Some have thought
the companion was not Alcibiades, but Xenophon.

It does not greatly matter. Each was his companion and pupil, when he
was living. Xenophon wrote a narrative of his master's life and death.
Alcibiades is often mentioned in the dialogues of Plato, who also has
preserved for us the great sayings of Socrates. Two or three men stand
about, listening to a discussion which Socrates is having with his
companion.

[Illustration: SOCRATES AND ALCIBIADES
_Vatican Palace, Rome_]

The chief interest centres in Socrates, who seems to be explaining
his principles, telling them off, one by one, on his fingers. In the
old accounts which we have of this philosopher, he is shown to have
been a man who had thought deeply about the most important things, but
used the plainest, most homely speech when he was trying to make his
meaning clear. His plain face and eccentric figure were a familiar
sight in the market places, where he used to linger, drawing young men
into conversation, by which he tried to show them the better things of
life.

Alcibiades was, as Socrates acknowledged, "the fairest and tallest of
the citizens;" he was also "among the noblest of them," and the nephew
of the powerful Athenian, Pericles. Moreover, he was rich, though this
was a smaller matter. All these things, however, had lifted Alcibiades
up; and with the vanity of youth, he was ambitious for a great
oratorical career, without having in reality any sufficient
preparation. It is at this juncture that he falls in with Socrates,
who begins to question him