Kitap 1
4.13
When he sailed in, the common crowd of Piraeus and of the city gathered to his ships, filled with wonder and desiring to see the famous Alcibiades. Some of them said that he was the best of the citizens; that he alone was banished without just cause, but rather because he was plotted against by those who had less power than he and spoke less well and ordered their political doings with a view to their own private gain, whereas he was always407 B.C. advancing the common weal, both by his own means and by the power of the state.
4.14
At the time in question,In 415 B.C., just before the departure of Alcibiades with the Syracusan expedition. they said, he was willing to be brought to trial at once, when the charge had just been made that he had committed sacrilege against the Eleusinian Mysteries; his enemies, however, postponed the trial, which was obviously his right, and then, when he was absent, robbed him of his fatherland;
4.15
thereafter, in his exile, helpless as a slave and in danger of his life every day, he was forced to pay court to those whom he hated mostThe Spartans and the Persians.; and though he saw those who were dearest to him, his fellow-citizens and kinsmen and all Athens, making mistakes, he was debarred by his banishment from the opportunity of helping them.
4.16
It was not the way, they said, of men such as he to desire revolution or a change in government; for under the democracy it had been his fortune to be not only superior to his contemporaries but also not inferior to his elders, while his enemies, on the other hand, were held in precisely the same low estimation after his banishment as before; later, however, when they had gained power, they had slain the best men, and since they alone were left, they were accepted by the citizens merely for the reason that better men were not available.
