tional equality, which reigned among the citizens of Athens, there still remained great social inequalities between one man and another, handed down from the times preceding the democracy: inequalities which the democratical institutions limited in their practical mischiefs, but never either effaced or discredited-and which were recognized as modifying elements in the current, unconscious vein of sentiment and criticism, by those whom they injured as well as by those whom they favoured. In the speech which Thucydidês' ascribes to Alkibiadês. before the Athenian public assembly, we find the insolence of wealth and high social position not only admitted as a fact, but vindicated as a just morality;

1 Plutarch, Alkibiad. c. 4; Cornel. Nepos, Alkibiad. c. 2; Plato, Protagoras, c. 1.

I do not know how far the memorable narrative ascribed to Alkibiadês in the Symposium of Plato (c. 33, 34, p. 216, 217) can be regarded as matter of actual fact and history, so far as Sokratês is concerned; but it is abundant proof in regard to the general relations of Alkibiadês with others compare Xenophon, Memorab. i. 2, 29, 30; iv. 1-2.

Several of the dialogues of Plato present to us striking pictures of the palæstra, with the boys, the young men, the gymnastic teachers, engaged in their exercises or resting from them—and the philosophers and spectators who came there for amusement and conversation. See particularly the opening chapters of the Lysis and the Charmidês-also the Rivales, where the scene is laid in the house of a ypaμpatiotηs or schoolmaster. In the Lysis, Sokratês professes to set his own conversation with these interesting youths as an antidote to the corrupting flatteries of most of those who sought to gain their goodwill. OUTW χρὴ, ὦ Ιππόθαλες, τοῖς παιδικοῖς διαλέγεσθαι, ταπεινοῦντα καὶ συστέλλοντα, ἀλλὰ μὴ, ὥσπερ σύ, χαυνοῦντα καὶ διαθρύπτοντα (Lysis, c. 7, p. 210).

See, in illustration of what is here said about Alkibiadês as a youth, Euripid. Supplic. 906 (about Parthenopaus), and the beautiful lines in the Atys of Catullus, 60-69.

There cannot be a doubt that the characters of all the Greek youth of any pretensions were considerably affected by this society and conversation of their boyish years; though the subject is one upon which the full evidence cannot well be produced and discussed.

and the history of his life, as well as many other facts in Athenian society, show that if not approved, it was at least tolerated in practice to a serious extent, in spite of the restraints of the democracy.

Amidst such unprincipled exorbitances of behaviour, Alkibiadês stood distinguished for personal bravery. He served as a hoplite in the army under Phormion at the siege of Potidea in 432 B.C. Though then hardly twenty years of age, he was among the most forward soldiers in the battle, received a severe wound, and was in great danger; owing his life only to the exertions of Sokratês, who served in the ranks along with him. Eight years afterwards, Alkibiadês also served with credit in the cavalry at the battle of Delium, and had the opportunity of requiting his obligation to Sokrates by protecting him against the Boeotian pursuers. As a rich young man, also, choregy and trierarchy became incumbent upon him: expensive duties, which (as we might expect) he discharged not merely with sufficiency, but with ostentation. In fact expenditure of this sort, though compulsory up to a certain point upon all rich men, was so fully repaid, to all those who had the least ambition, in the shape of popularity and influence, that most of them spontaneously went beyond the requisite minimum for the purpose of showing themselves off. The first appearance of Alkibiadês in public life is said to have been as a donor, for some special purpose, in the Ekklesia, when various citizens were handing in their contributions: and the loud applause which his subscription provoked was at that time so novel and exciting to him, that he suffered a tame quail

Alkibiadês -Sokratês -the Sophists.

which he carried in his bosom to escape. This incident excited mirth and sympathy among the citizens present the bird was caught and restored to him by Antiochus, who from that time forward acquired his favour, and in after days became his pilot and confidential lieutenant1.

To a young man like Alkibiadês, thirsting for power and pre-eminence, a certain measure of rhetorical facility and persuasive power was indispensable. With a view to this acquisition, he frequented the society of various sophistical and rhetorical teachers 2-Prodikus, Protagoras, and others; but most of all, that of Sokratês. His intimacy with Sokratês has become celebrated on many grounds, and is commemorated both by Plato and Xenophon, though unfortunately with less instruction than we could desire. We may readily believe Xenophon, when he tells us that Alkibiadês (like the oligarchical Kritias, of whom we shall have much to say hereafter) was attracted to Sokratês by his unrivalled skill of dialectical conversation-his suggestive influence over the minds of his hearers, in eliciting new thoughts and combinations-his mastery of apposite and homely illustrations-his power of seeing far beforehand the end of a long crossexamination-his ironical affectation of ignorance, whereby the humiliation of opponents was rendered only the more complete, when they were convicted of inconsistency and contradiction out of their own The exhibitions of such ingenuity were in themselves highly interesting, and stimulating to

answers.

'Plutarch, Alkibiadês, c. 10.

2 See the description in the Protagoras of Plato, c. 8, p. 317.

the mental activity of listeners, while the faculty itself was one of peculiar value to those who proposed to take the lead in public debate; with which view both these ambitious young men tried to catch the knack from Sokratês1, and to copy his formidable string of interrogations. Both of them doubtless involuntarily respected the poor self-sufficing, honest, temperate, and brave citizen, in whom this eminent talent resided; especially Alkibiadês, who not only owed his life to the generous valour of Sokratês at Potidea, but had also learnt in that service to admire the iron physical frame of the philosopher in his armour, enduring hunger, cold, and hardship. But we are not to suppose that either of them came to Sokratês with the purpose of hear1 See Xenophon, Memorab. i. 2, 12-24, 39-47.

Κριτίας μὲν καὶ ̓Αλκιβιάδης, οὐκ ἀρέσκοντος αὐτοῖς Σωκράτους, ὠμιλησάτην, ὃν χρόνον ὠμιλείτην αὐτῷ, ἀλλ ̓ εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὡρμηκότε προετ στάναι τῆς πόλεως. Ετι γὰρ Σωκράτει ξυνόντες οὐκ ἄλλοις τισι μᾶλλον ἐπεχείρουν διαλέγεσθαι ἢ τοῖς μάλιστα πράττουσι τὰ πολιτικά... Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν τάχιστα τῶν πολιτευομένων ὑπέλαβον κρείττονες εἶναι, Σωκράτει μὲν οὐκ ἔτι προσῄεσαν, οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἄλλως ἤρεσκεν· εἴτε προσέλθοιεν, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἡμάρτανον ἐλεγχόμενοι ἤχθοντο· τὰ δὲ τῆς πόλεως ἔπραττον, ὧνTeρ evekev kai Ewrρáteι πрoσĥλdov. Compare Plato, Apolog. Sokrat. c. 10. p. 23; c. 22. p. 33.

Xenophon represents Alkibiadês and Kritias as frequenting the society of Sokratês, for the same reason and with the same objects as Plato affirms that young men generally went to the Sophists: see Plato, Sophist. c. 20. p. 232 D.

"Nam et Socrati (observes Quintilian, Inst. Or. ii. 16) objiciunt comici, docere eum, quomodo pejorem causam meliorem reddat; et contra Tisiam et Gorgiam similia dicit polliceri Plato."

The representation given by Plato of the great influence acquired by Sokrates over Alkibiadês, and of the deference and submission of the latter, is plainly not to be taken as historical, even if we had not the more simple and trustworthy picture of Xenophon. Isokratês goes so far as to say that Sokratês was never known by any one as teacher of Alkibiadês; which is an exaggeration in the other direction (Isokratês, Busiris, Or. xi. sect. 6. p. 222).

Plato, Symposium, c. 35-36. p. 220, &c.

VOL. VII.

E

ing and obeying his precepts on matters of duty, or receiving from him a new plan of life. They came partly to gratify an intellectual appetite, partly to acquire a stock of words and ideas, with facility of argumentative handling, suitable for their afterpurpose as public speakers. Subjects moral, political, and intellectual, served as the theme sometimes of discourse, sometimes of discussion, in the society of all these sophists-Prodikus, and Protagoras not less than Sokratês; for in the Athenian sense of the word, Sokratês was a sophist as well as the others and to the rich youths of Athens, like Alkibiadês and Kritias, such society was highly useful'. It imparted a nobler aim to their ambition, including mental accomplishments as well as political success it enlarged the range of their understandings, and opened to them as ample a vein of literature and criticism as the age afforded: it accustomed them to canvass human conduct, with the causes and obstructions of human well-being, both public and private:-it even suggested to them indirectly lessons of duty and prudence from which

:

1 See the representation given in the Protagoras of Plato, of the temper in which the young and wealthy Hippokratês goes to seek instruction from Protagoras-and of the objects which Protagoras proposes to himself in imparting the instruction (Plato, Protagoras, c. 2. p. 310 D.; c. 8. p. 316 C.; c. 9. p. 318, &c.: compare also Plato, Meno. p. 91, and Gorgias, c. 4. p. 449 E.-asserting the connection, in the mind of Gorgias, between teaching to speak and teaching to think λέγειν καὶ φρονείν, &c.).

It would not be reasonable to repeat, as true and just, all the polemical charges against those who are called the Sophists, even as we find them in Plato-without scrutiny and consideration. But modern writers on Grecian affairs run down the Sophists even more than Plato did, and take no notice of the admissions in their favour which he, though their opponent, is perpetually making.

This is a very extensive subject, to which I hope to revert.