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Cornelius Nepos · Alcibiades §6.1-6.5

Triumphant Return of Alcibiades and His Rehabilitation

Passage 6 of 11 · Latin

Summary

Alcibiades returns to the port of Piraeus, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from the citizens who attribute all past misfortunes to his exile. After a moving speech before the assembly, his property is restored and the religious curses against him are officially revoked.

§6.1His cum obviam universa civitas in Piraeum descendisset, tanta fuit omnium exspectatio visendi Alcibiadis, ut ad eius triremem vulgus conflueret, proinde ac si solus advenisset.
When the entire city had gone down to Piraeus to meet them, so great was everyone's expectation of seeing Alcibiades that the crowd flocked to his trireme, just as if he had arrived alone.
§6.2sic enim populo erat persuasum, et adversas superiores et praesentes secundas res accidisse eius opera.
For the people were so convinced that both past adversities and present successes had occurred through his agency.
itaque et exercitum in Sicilia amissum et Lacedaemoniorum victorias culpae suae tribuebant, quod talem virum e civitate expulissent.
Therefore, they attributed both the army lost in Sicily and the victories of the Lacedaemonians to their own fault, because they had expelled such a man from the state.
neque id sine causa arbitrari videbantur. nam postquam exercitui praeesse coeperat, neque terra neque mari hostes pares esse potuerant.
And they did not seem to think so without reason; for after he had begun to be in command of the army, the enemies had been able to be equal neither by land nor by sea.
§6.3hic ut e navi egressus est, quamquam Theramenes et Thrasybulus eisdem rebus praefuerant simulque venerant in Piraeum, tamen unum omnes illum prosequebantur, et, id quod numquam antea usu venerat nisi Olympiae victoribus, coronis laureis taeniisque vulgo donabatur.
When he stepped out of the ship, although Theramenes and Thrasybulus had been in charge of the same operations and had arrived in Piraeus at the same time, nevertheless everyone followed him alone, and, a thing which had never before occurred except to victors at Olympia, he was publicly presented with laurel crowns and ribbons.
ille lacrimans talem benivolentiam civium suorum accipiebat, reminiscens pristini temporis acerbitatem.
Weeping, he accepted such goodwill from his fellow citizens, recalling the bitterness of the former time.
§6.4postquam in astu venit, contione advocata sic verba fecit, ut nemo tam ferus fuerit, quin eius casui illacrimarit inimicumque iis se ostenderit, quorum opera patria pulsus fuerat, proinde ac si alius populus, non ille ipse qui tum flebat, eum sacrilegii damnasset.
After he came into the city, an assembly having been called, he spoke in such a way that no one was so unfeeling but that he wept for his misfortune and showed himself an enemy to those by whose agency he had been driven from his country, just as if another people, and not that very one which was then weeping, had condemned him for sacrilege.
§6.5restituta ergo huic sunt publice bona, eidemque illi Eumolpidae sacerdotes rursus resacrare sunt coacti, qui eum devoverant, pilaeque illae, in quibus devotio fuerat scripta, in mare praecipitatae.
Therefore, his property was publicly restored to him, and those same Eumolpidae priests who had cursed him were forced to consecrate him again, and those pillars on which the curse had been written were cast into the sea.

Notes

  1. §6.1His — Dative plural. It is the dative required by the phrase `obviam descendisset` (had gone down to meet). This pronoun refers to the returning commanders (Alcibiades, Theramenes, and Thrasybulus) mentioned at the end of the previous chapter.
  2. §6.2populo erat persuasum — Impersonal passive construction. The intransitive verb `persuadeo`, which governs the dative, is used impersonally in the passive (third-person singular neuter), retaining the dative `populo`. The following accusative and infinitive clause `adversas... accidisse` serves as the subject.
  3. §6.3usu venerat — The pluperfect of the idiomatic expression `usu venire`, meaning "to happen" or "to occur" (literally, "to come into use/practice"). The ablative of the noun `usus` combined with the verb `venire` functions as an intransitive verbal phrase.
  4. §6.4quin eius casui illacrimarit — The conjunction `quin` follows a negative expression of degree or result (`nemo tam ferus fuerit`), introducing a consecutive clause ("no one was so fierce that he did not weep..."). `illacrimarit` is a syncopated form of the perfect subjunctive `illacrimaverit`, emphasizing the historical fact of the result.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiades §6.1-6.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo007.humanitext-lat2:6.1-6.5

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