The Life of Alcibiades - (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology) by Jacqueline de Romilly (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- This biography of Alcibiades, the charismatic Athenian statesman and general (c. 450-404 BC) who achieved both renown and infamy during the Peloponnesian War, is both an extraordinary adventure story and a cautionary tale that reveals the dangers that political opportunism and demagoguery pose to democracy.
- About the Author: Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings is a freelance translator of texts in French, working since 1992.
- 228 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Military
- Series Name: Cornell Studies in Classical Philology
Description
About the Book
"A translation of a biography of the Athenian general Alcibiades by Jacqueline de Romilly, a French scholar and member of the French Academy"--Book Synopsis
This biography of Alcibiades, the charismatic Athenian statesman and general (c. 450-404 BC) who achieved both renown and infamy during the Peloponnesian War, is both an extraordinary adventure story and a cautionary tale that reveals the dangers that political opportunism and demagoguery pose to democracy. As Jacqueline de Romilly brilliantly documents, Alcibiades's life is one of wanderings and vicissitudes, promises and disappointments, brilliant successes and ruinous defeats. Born into a wealthy and powerful family in Athens, Alcibiades was a student of Socrates and disciple of Pericles, and he seemed destined to dominate the political life of his city--and his tumultuous age.
Romilly shows, however, that he was too ambitious. Haunted by financial and sexual intrigues and political plots, Alcibiades was exiled from Athens, sentenced to death, recalled to his homeland, only to be exiled again. He defected from Athens to Sparta and from Sparta to Persia and then from Persia back to Athens, buffeted by scandal after scandal, most of them of his own making. A gifted demagogue and, according to his contemporaries, more handsome than the hero Achilles, Alcibiades is also a strikingly modern figure, whose seductive celebrity and dangerous ambition anticipated current crises of leadership.
Review Quotes
While thoroughly rooted in serious scholarship - de Romilly gives us an excellent analysis of the sources - The Life of Alcibiades is written for the lay reader, yet her insights and analysis will prove of interest even for the well-versed student of the period.
-- "The NYMAS Review"With this translation, Rawlings makes available to Anglophones a biography of Alcibiades by esteemed Franco-Greek scholar Jacqueline de Romilly... The Life of Alcibiades is a remarkable adventure story of political intrigue, warfare, and betrayal carried out by an egomaniacal leader... The Life of Alcibiades offers warnings for contemporary readers about the dangers of blind ambition and unchecked power on the part of charismatic leaders.
-- "Choice"About the Author
Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings is a freelance translator of texts in French, working since 1992. She has degrees from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of Iowa. Since 1995, she has translated independently, or with others, a number of books and articles, primarily in the field of Greek and Roman literature and history.
Jacqueline de Romilly (1913-2010) was a distinguished scholar of Greek history and culture. In 1973, she became Chair of Greek at the College de France, the first woman nominated to this prestigious institution. In 1988, she was elected to the Académie Française as the second woman member, after Marguerite Yourcenar. Romilly was an A.D. White Professor at large at Cornell from 1974 to 1980.
