The Athenian General Alcibiades, a former student of Socrates, determines that he should reopen the road to the Temple of Eleusis and guard the sacred procession. The Spartans, however, still occupy the road, blocking the way from Athens to the temple of Eleusis… This endeavor to reopen the route will not be without risk for Alcibiades; the Spartan soldiers of King Agis are quartered there and are still under orders to execute Alcibiades on sight… [During his time in Sparta, Alcibiades had impregnated King Agis’s wife, Queen Timaea. King Agis has a very personal reason to unleash his Spartan army on Alcibiades.]
On the morning of the sacred procession from Athens to Eleusis (which is about 14-mile walk), Alcibiades stations sentries on the heights and sends out an advance guard. Alcibiades, aboard his impressive steed, leads his soldiers to join the crowd of eager initiates, priests, and other officials gathered by the Eleusinion, a small satellite sanctuary located on the slopes of the Athenian Acropolis. (You can visit the ruins of the sanctuary to this day.) The high priest Theodorus delivers an invocation to the throng. Callias stands by his side along with the other priests of Eleusis. He warily eyes Alcibiades. Callias and Alcibiades are “half” brothers and the hate each other. Alcibiades had once plotted to murder Callias to get his wealthy estate, and likely killed Callias’ sister. Callias had responded by charging Alcibiades with a religious crime and convicting him to death in absentia. Alcibiades fled Athens and advised the Spartans to attack Athens by first capturing Callias’ silver mines. These two have history.
The initiates recite the prayers. Alcibiades has his soldiers form a protective wall around them. Callias instinctively bristles. Alcibiades makes a gesture, and the procession officially begins, moving out slowly and solemnly along the Panathenaic Way, with the initiates chanting the customary verses. The rhythm of the songs and the coordinated footfalls of the march are almost hypnotic. As they travel, Alcibiades keeps a close eye on the surroundings; Callias keeps a close eye on him. So devout is the bearing of Alcibiades that he seems more like a high priest than a general. We do not know if the priests were impressed or threatened by the spectacle of Alcibiades as a sincere devotee. Surely some did not believe it at all: the man is a chameleon.
The procession passes out of the city gates and through the cemetery, which is thematic given that they are making a symbolic journey to the realm of the dead. They slowly climb Mount Aegaleo and look down on the fertile Thriasio plain. The road they are to follow across the plain appears as a thin ribbon, passing by, there in the distance, a Spartan fortification. Slowly the procession marches on, down into the plain, and approaches the Spartan stronghold. Alcibiades prepares for a field battle and moves his men into position. He has unspoken hopes that the Spartans will bring the fight so he can slay them in full view of the Athenian procession. A military victory with civilian witnesses would be a rare political opportunity. The procession slows down. All eyes are on the Spartan fort. The Athenian soldiers draw their spears and swords and cautiously edge forward. Alcibiades proudly, even defiantly, picks up the pace. The time has come; he rides his horse right up to the Spartan walls.
But the Spartans do not engage. They remain safely tucked away inside, ominously silent. The Spartans are disciplined. Alcibiades respects them for it.
Puzzled, Alcibiades leads the procession onward. The initiates are relieved that they were not subject to an armed conflict and hail praises to Alcibiades. But Alcibiades, glancing back, is concerned. Maybe the Spartans are waiting to attack them on the return trip. Maybe they were just watching to see how he arranged his troops, so they could devise a more effective attack when he comes back through. He leaves scouts to keep a distant eye on the Spartans. How would the Spartans react to the formation that he showed them? What would be their counter? How can he counter their counter?
The procession makes it to the temple of Eleusis, and the initiates begin the process of ritual bathing and spiritual purification as they prepare for the rites. Alcibiades and his officers huddle to the side and discuss defensive alignments for the return trip. When night comes, the initiates drink the sacred elixir of the goddesses and file into the temple. Alcibiades and his army stand guard outside. The rites proceed in their usual manner. In the morning, the exhausted but uplifted initiates spill out of the temple.
They have earned an eternal afterlife in heaven, but how soon will they meet it?
Alcibiades gathers the initiates and organizes them for the return trip to Athens. The soldiers encircle the procession once again, and Alcibiades leads them forward. The Spartans will certainly bring resistance this time. Alcibiades is ready. When they draw within sight of the Spartans, Alcibiades deploys his troops. His soldiers are alert, focused, and ready for action.
The Spartan fortification is again eerily quiet.
The Athenians press on.
The advance guard passes through without resistance. The encircled initiates, led by Alcibiades, pass through, then the rear guard. The Spartans do not show themselves. Alcibiades looks back and wonders what Sparta is up to. Did Callias somehow negotiate a deal using his station as proxenus to Sparta? Alcibiades looks at Callias, but Callias does not return his gaze. He considers the possibility that Callias has robbed him of a chance at victory.
Regardless, the initiates sing that Alcibiades has defeated the Spartans without even drawing his sword. The Spartans have been twice humbled by the mere threat of Alcibiades. The road to Eleusis is open, and Alcibiades is a hero. The army is exalted in spirit and feels itself invincible under his command. The people are so captivated by his leadership that they are filled with an amazing passion for him to be their tyrant. (A tyrant is, of course, a person with sole political power, which, when matched with his sole military power as autocrat, would make Alcibiades more like a king than a general.)…
What Alcibiades thinks about the idea of being named tyrant is unknown, but it frightens many of Athens’s most influential citizens. Perhaps Callias most of all: imagine the sort of dread that would be triggered by the thought of a psychopath being given the power of a tyrant, particularly since this would-be tyrant has already profaned your religion, stolen your money, punched your father, possibly murdered your sister, and certainly plotted your own assassination. Anyone, but especially Callias, must have grave concerns about what Alcibiades would do with unchecked power. Callias had grown up with Alcibiades, they were “half” brother after all, and he knew him better than anyone else, knew his nature and his malevolence.
There is no word on Socrates’s feelings about the chatter of Alcibiades being named tyrant, but Socrates’s perspective on tyrants in general is well recorded by Plato. To Socrates, the flaw of democracy is its vulnerability to tyrants. The populace—the mob, as he calls them—are gullible and can easily fall under the spell of a charismatic leader. Alcibiades certainly fits the bill. In Socrates’s estimation, the tyrant first appears as a protector. The people have something they fear, either inside or outside of the state, either real or imagined, from which the tyrant claims he can guard them. He will make them the “victors.” The people flock to him of their own accord, for he pays them in lies, lies they want to hear, lies they want to believe. They are “superior”; they are “true patriots.” His favorite tools are false accusations and unleashing his mob against the “threat.” In time, the tyrant erases any and all opposition, “with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizens.” He and his supporters are empowered by the purge, “and the more detestable his actions . . . the greater devotion he requires from his followers.” These words are as true in the modern world as they were in ancient Athens.
Many countries today still struggle with this structural defect of democracy: the majority of the populace in a democracy may elect a tyrant, who will invariably disassemble the democracy that elected him—a democracy can make a tyrant, but a tyrant can unmake a democracy. The weak portion of the populace yearns to be strong, so they attach themselves to a strong man; such is the allure of the bully, the appeal of the despot, the attraction of the tyrant. Ancient Athens is where democracy first began and first fell, and so can teach us lessons that are, unfortunately, still applicable. But for Socrates, the would-be tyrant is Alcibiades, who is, at least partially, one of Socrates’s own making. Alcibiades had once before caused Athens to take down its democracy based on his outrageous lie and install an oligarchy that sparked a civil war. And he wasn’t even in Athens at the time. Now he’s in Athens and well positioned to take down Athens’s democracy once again…
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Excerpted from The Shadows of Socrates: The Heresy War, and Treachery Behind the Trial of Socrates, by Matt Gatton. Copyright 2024. Published by Pegasus Books. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
