Introduction
After Pericles died, the Peloponnesian War with Sparta (431-404 BC) was carried on by other leaders in the radical democracy of Athens, including his nephew Alcibiades, and Nicias. Fighting a war and pleasing a people that brooked no failure in their heroes was not an easy matter.
WHILE Nicias was negotiating a delicate truce with Sparta, Alcibiades, a rival in the Athens Assembly, secretly met the Spartan envoys.
He urged them to temper their demands, promising to be their inside man. In the Assembly, however, he double-crossed them, mocking their modest terms, and casting himself as the strong leader Athens craved.
Sensing greatness for their city, the Athenians enthusiastically backed Alcibiades’s audacious plan for an assault on powerful Sicily in 415, in which Nicias was compelled to join.
After the fleet had sailed, however, rumours began that Alcibiades had been behind the vandalism of statues sacred to Hermes. He was summoned home to stand trial for sacrilege, but absconded from the Athenian fleet and defected to Sparta.
His insights into Athenian vulnerabilities and strategy (he was especially severe on Nicias’s reckless Sicilian campaign) were very helpful to his new masters, but in time he fell from favour - possibly after an affair with the King’s wife - and escaped east to Asia Minor.
Précis
Alcibiades’s ambition to be the leader of 5th-century Athens began when he tricked the Spartans into making him the most popular man in the city. When he was charged with a serious crime by the Athenians, he took his revenge by defecting to Sparta, but an affair with the Queen of Sparta forced him to flee to Asia Minor. (59 / 60 words)
Alcibiades’s ambition to be the leader of 5th-century Athens began when he tricked the Spartans into making him the most popular man in the city. When he was charged with a serious crime by the Athenians, he took his revenge by defecting to Sparta, but an affair with the Queen of Sparta forced him to flee to Asia Minor.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, if, must, not, otherwise, ought, unless, who.
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Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Who pushed Athens into the Sicilian campaign of 415 BC?
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Sparta sent envoys to Athens. Alcibiades tricked them. His trick helped his political career.