His words
overcame him so much, as to draw tears from his eyes, and to
disturb his very soul. Yet sometimes he would abandon himself to
flatteries, when they proposed to him varieties of pleasure, and
would desert Socrates; who, then, would pursue him, as if he had
been a fugitive slave. He despised every one else, and had no
reverence or awe for any but him. But as iron which is softened by
the fire grows hard with the cold, and all its parts are closed
again; so, as often as Socrates observed Alcibiades to be misled
by luxury or pride he reduced and corrected him by his addresses,
and made him humble and modest, by showing him in how many things
he was deficient, and how very far from perfection in virtue.
When he was past his childhood, he went once to a grammar-school,
and asked the master for one of Homer's books; and when he made
answer that he had nothing of Homer's, Alcibiades gave him a blow
with his fist, and went away. Another schoolmaster telling him
that he had a copy of Homer corrected by himself; "Why?" said
Alcibiades, "do you employ your time in teaching children to read?
You, who are able to amend Homer, may well undertake to instruct
men."
When he was very young, he was a soldier in the expedition against
Potidaea, where Socrates lodged in the same tent with him, and
stood next to him in battle.
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