Alcibiades Essay (Gini) 6/28/17

My own attempt:

Alcibiades Essay (Gini) 6/28/17 (Thuc 6.16 ff)

Alcibiades ends his argument for being the leader of the Sicilian expedition by reflecting on the Athenian national charatcer: “In short, my conviction is that a city not inactive by nature could not choose a quicker way to ruin itself than by suddenly adopting such a policy, and that the safest rule of life is to take one's character and institutions for better and for worse, and to live up to them as closely as one can." (6.18) This tone very much reflects Archidamus, the Spartan king, in Book 1, where he sets the Athenian character against the Spartan. For Alcibiades, Athens is of its very nature reckless and impulsive -- that’s how they won their empire to begin with. Athens is a state in constant motion (kinetic) and never idle and set against itself in civil war (static). Nicias for him represents tradition, the wisdom of age, and conservatism; while Alcibiades values these characteristics as a balance to his own energy, they cannot by themselves motivate the state (they cannot be the ‘engine’ of change. Indeed, Athens must be in constant motion (“we have reached a position in which we must not be content with retaining but must scheme to extend it, for, if we cease to rule others, we are in danger of being ruled ourselves”) because for Alcibiades, the end of growth is death. There is no equilibrium in empire. The subject peoples are always ready to attack the metropolis. The Athenians cannot become the Spartans - slow to act and conservative - because it is not in their character (“nor can you look at inaction from the same point of view as others, unless you are prepared to change your habits and make them like theirs.”)

So Alcibiades has shown one quality of leadership - he knows intimately  the ‘national character’ of his city, Athens. He also claims to know, or at least to be able to manipulate, the enemy - Sparta (“having united the most powerful states of Peloponnese, without great danger or expense to you, I compelled the Lacedaemonians to stake their all upon the issue of a single day at Mantinea). Alcibiades acts without regard to his reputation (he doesn’t mind being hated: “ persons of this kind and all others that have attained to any distinction, although they may be unpopular in their lifetime in their relations with their fellow-men and especially with their equals” - but instead of being loved he wants to be the subject of awe: “any splendour that I may have exhibited at home in providing choruses or otherwise, is naturally envied by my fellow citizens, but in the eyes of foreigners has an air of strength.” His wealth makes it possible to show his city in its best light. The poor can do little to help their city o the international stage (“he who is badly off has his misfortunes all to himself”). Thus when Alcibiades uses his wealth, it is both an honor to himself and his family, a validation of his recklessness, and at the same time a public service. He might have had a hat saying “Make Athens Great Again.”

Alcibiades gives perhaps the best proof of the unsustainability of the "polis tyrannos" - the city-as-tyrant. The city has no choice but to grow, and must do so by war. Any kind of creation of equilibrium will shift political power to the subject states. We see the Athenians reacting instinctively on this principle when dealing with the insurrection in Mitylene, and we see them lecturing the Melians clinically on the same principle in the Melian Dialogue.