• Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    A modern Alcibiades!

    Military career

    Allegiance

    Athens (432–415 BC)
    Sparta (415–412 BC)
    Persia (412–411 BC)
    

    Branch

    Athenian military (432–415 BC)
    Spartan army (415–412 BC)
    Achaemenid military (412–411 BC)
    
      • Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        A tragic anti-hero, yes, and thus the most Athenian out of anyone, but every time I go back to the sources I find him worse and worse. I read a fun paper a while back that pointed out that all of his claims to fame were almost winning something. With the exception, I suppose, of the Olympic chariot teams he sponsored, and even there he hedged his bets by entering seven teams.

        Plus he has all sorts of domestic violence anecdotes and stories like “Alcibiades once went into a bookshop and asked for some Homer. The bookseller said he was all out of Homer. At this Alcibiades wittily punched him in the face.”