Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens

Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of Athens’ Golden Age. A friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor. David Stuttard tells a spellbinding story of Alcibiades’ life and the turbulent world he set out to conquer.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Maps Family Tree Introduction. Pinning Down Proteus Prologue. A Family Divided 1. Rearing the Lion Cub 2. Coming of Age 3. Unbowed in Battle 4. Stirring the Hornets’ Nest 5. Courting the Hydra 6. Between Scylla and Charybdis 7. Sleeping with the Enemy 8. In a Paradise Garden 9. Trading Places 10. Ruling the Waves 11. Dog Days 12. Nemesis Epilogue. The Shadow of the Dead Notes Timeline Acknowledgements Index

About the Author :
Stuttard David : David Stuttard is an independent scholar and theater director.

Review :
Michael Scott, author of Ancient Worlds: An Epic History of East and West: Stuttard has offered us a colorful, lively, engaging analysis of one of ancient Greece's most fascinating and slippery characters: Alcibiades. With deft skill, Stuttard navigates the ancient sources to offer the portrait not simply of a hero, or a villain, but of a man with equal talents and failings who managed to captivate the attention of the ancient world.Robin Waterfield, author of Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece: David Stuttard is a recognized expert at making the ancient Greek world come alive for modern audiences. In Nemesis, he conveys the horror and the glory of the years of Athens' greatness and decline. Central to these processes was the flamboyant Alcibiades, and Stuttard, wearing his learning lightly, gives us a hugely entertaining biography that is simultaneously an exciting adventure story and a pithy history of the period. Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life: No one before has come anything like as near as David Stuttard to penetrating the inner recesses of the mainsprings of Alcibiades' often outrageous, sometimes statesmanlike, always commanding public performances. Dr. Stuttard's mastery of the ancient sources and his narrative exposition are dazzling throughout, bringing to singing life the mercurial, magnetic, passionate, and persuasive personality of this still hugely controversial Athenian aristocrat of the fifth century BC. Jonathan Wright: It's quite the tale, told with rare gusto and precision by David Stuttard--an astute inquisitor of the conflicting sources with an eye for the telling anecdote. Thomas W. Hodgkinson: [A] robust new biography of Alcibiades. Peter Thonemann: Stuttard's new life of Alcibiades is a lively, fast-paced and eminently readable attempt to bring the insolent young monster back to life. Daisy Dunn: Alcibiades will always be remembered as one of the slipperiest statesmen in history...Nemesis is a rich and rewarding biography, as thorough as it is bracing and as measured as it is entertaining. Stuttard is to be praised for capturing the complexity of both the man and the world he lived in with such sensitivity and clarity.