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.

Alcibiades remained with the Persians just long enough to win the hearts of the people of Athens by his victories over Sparta. In 407, he returned to a rapturous welcome, but after one defeat the Athenian public forgot their hero, and Alcibiades died in exile, far from the city he had schemed to govern for so long.

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