Alcibiades and the Lost Empire

Stephen Usher describes how Athens might have kept her empire, had she been able to harness the talents of her splendid citizen Alcibiades.

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904): Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia, 1861.The chief historian of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, considered that it lasted continuously from 431 to 404 AD. In the face of the salient fact of the Peace of Nicias, signed by most of the combatants in the spring of 421, this may seem a puzzling view. But both events and personalities prove it correct.

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