Alcibiades

Alcibiades changed sides three times during the Peloponnesian War and was brilliant enough that each side took him back. Born in Athens around 450 BC into the Alcmaeonid family, he was orphaned young and raised in Pericles' household, and was famously handsome, extravagant and undisciplined. Socrates saved his life at Potidaea and he saved Socrates' at Delium. He opposed the Peace of Nicias and pushed Athens into an alliance that ended in defeat at Mantinea in 418 BC, and then promoted the Sicilian expedition of 415 BC, an enormous gamble against a city as large as Athens itself. On the eve of the fleet's departure the Herms across the city were mutilated overnight. Alcibiades was accused of that and of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries, and demanded an immediate trial; his enemies let him sail and recalled him afterwards. He fled to Sparta. There he advised the Spartans to send a general to Syracuse and to fortify Decelea in Attica permanently — two pieces of advice that did Athens more damage than any battle. He then seduced the Spartan king's wife and fled to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. He negotiated his own recall, commanded the Athenian fleet, and won a string of victories in the Hellespont, taking Byzantium and returning to Athens in triumph in 407 BC. A subordinate's defeat at Notium while he was absent ended it, and he withdrew to Thrace. He warned the Athenian commanders before Aegospotami in 405 BC and was ignored. He was murdered in Phrygia in 404 BC, probably at Spartan request.

• Lived: 450 BCE – 404 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: general, ruler