| This dissertation addresses the challenges that politicians pose to political philosophy by way of examining portrayals of the Athenian politician Alcibiades. He is a significant figure in ancient Greek political thought as his private behavior was notorious as well as his assistance to Sparta and Persia in the Peloponnesian War. Most scholars are concerned with the portrayals of Alcibiades as a moral and political failure in the texts of Thucydides, Plato, Aristophanes and Xenophon. By contrast, my focus is primarily the potential and demonstrated skill that Alcibiades is portrayed as having. I interpret these ancient authors to be generally critical of Alcibiades but still attuned to his strengths: military leadership and political persuasion. Plato is the most critical of Alcibiades' skills and lifestyle but he nevertheless recognizes the value of an effective ruler in a democracy. Thucydides is the most favorably disposed to Alcibiades as he recognizes that good leadership has little to do with many of the private peccadilloes of the ruler. Threading together the tracts on Alcibiades provides an excellent opportunity to consider: the use of political rhetoric in democratic politics, the scope of executive authority, the conflict between empire and democracy, and how the perception of personal virtue in a leader affects a ruler's ability to govern. To demonstrate Alcibiades' wide-ranging contribution to these issues, I also address some perceptions of him by modern and contemporary thinkers from Shakespeare to Nietzsche and Montaigne. Finally, I consider what the ancient and modern portrayals of Alcibiades teach us about the issues of glory, imperialism and the democratic will in contemporary politics. |
