Alcibiades was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently fell from prominence.
Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates, by François-André Vincent (1776)
Jean-Baptiste Regnault: Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure (1791) (Louvre)
Battle of Potidaea (432 BC): Athenians against Corinthians (detail). Scene of Socrates saving Alcibiades. 18th-century engraving.
Jean-Léon Gérôme: Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia (1861)
The Alcmaeonidae or Alcmaeonids were a wealthy and powerful noble family of ancient Athens, a branch of the Neleides who claimed descent from the mythological Alcmaeon, the great-grandson of Nestor.
Bust of Pericles in the British Museum, dated 1911. One of the most famous Alcmaeonidae, Pericles was an Athenian general, orator, and statesman.
Bust of Cleisthenes in the Ohio Statehouse, dated 2012. Another prominent Alcmaeonidae, Cleisthenes is credited as being "the father of Athenian democracy."
View of the Acropolis of Athens from Philopappos Hill