Six years elapsed after the conclusion of the Peace of Nicias, before
war was again openly declared; but it was a peace only in name, and was
broken by many acts of hostility on both sides. During this period the
principal states of Greece were involved in a network of political
intrigue, treaty following treaty, and alliance succeeding to alliance,
for the most part with no result. To this statement, there is, however,
one important exception. A year after the signing of the second treaty
between Athens and Sparta, a coalition was formed, including Athens,
Elis, and Mantinea, under the leadership of Argos; and in mentioning
this event we have to usher on to the stage one of the most
extraordinary characters in history. This was Alcibiades, a young
Athenian noble, endowed with every advantage of mind, person, and
fortune, whose fatal gifts, and lawless ambition, made him the evil
genius of his country. His high birth, his wealth, his wit, and his
wonderful beauty, attracted to him a host of flatterers, who fed his
vanity with soft adulation, and led him to believe that nothing was too
great for such powers as his. Like most of the brilliant young men of
his day, he attached himself for a time to the philosopher Socrates,
for whom he seems to have felt a warm admiration. But his connexion
with that great teacher and thinker, though it served to sharpen his
understanding, could not eradicate the effects of evil habit and
example. His wilful, selfish, and despotic temper soon broke loose from
that salutary restraint, and henceforth we find him pursuing a course
of action which brought ruin on his people, and on himself a traitor's
death and a dishonoured name.
Much irritation had been caused among the Athenians by the shifting and
treacherous conduct of the Spartans, who had failed to redeem their
sworn pledges, and had excited great suspicion at Athens by repeated
intrigues with Argos, and with their own offended allies of the
Peloponnesian League. Alcibiades had a private grudge against the
Spartans, to whom he had made overtures of friendship and service at
the time when the treaty was under discussion, only to be set aside as
a profligate and frivolous youth, unfit to meddle with serious matters
of state. He now placed himself at the head of the party hostile to
Sparta, and it was not long before he had an opportunity of revenging
the insult to his pride. He used all his influence to promote an
alliance with Argos, the ancient enemy and rival of Sparta in
Peloponnesus; and when envoys arrived from Sparta to remonstrate
against this proceeding, and reassure the Athenians as to their
intentions, he contrived by a masterpiece of low cunning to cover them
with shame and contempt. When the envoys were introduced to the senate
they declared that they had come with full powers to settle all
differences, and Alcibiades feared that if they made the same statement
to the general assembly of the citizens, they might induce the
Athenians to renounce their alliance with Argos. So, after the senate
had risen, he took the envoys aside, and with an air of great candour
and friendliness warned them that they must conceal the extent of their
powers when they appeared before the popular assembly. "You do not
understand," he said, "how to deal with the mob of Athens; if you show
your hand, they will force you into extravagant concessions. Leave the
matter to me, and everything will turn out as you wish."
The simple Spartans fell into the snare. They were not at all startled
by the proposal that they should eat their own words, for in dishonesty
they were not behind Alcibiades himself, though they were no match for
him in cunning. Being brought before the people, and asked whether they
had come with full powers, they answered bluntly "No!" Great was the
amazement at this flat contradiction of the avowal which they had made
before the senate, and Alcibiades, giving voice to the general
indignation, overwhelmed the astonished envoys with a torrent of
invective and abuse. The Spartans were dumb-foundered by his perfidy,
and looked helplessly at Nicias, the staunch friend and supporter of
Sparta, whom they had forsaken for this shameless young reprobate.
Nicias, who of course knew nothing of the trick, was utterly confounded
by the double-dealing of the envoys, and could do nothing to relieve
their embarrassment. The result was that the envoys were abruptly
dismissed, and after a fruitless mission of Nicias to Sparta, which
only served to lower his own reputation, the Athenians entered heart
and soul into the Argive alliance.