did not do so, for he had some private grudge of his own against the farmers of the taxes.  Accordingly the alien went next morning early into the market-place and bid a talent.  The tax farmers now clustered round him angrily, bidding him name some one as security, imagining that he would not be able to find one.  The poor man was now in great trouble and was about to steal away, when Alkibiades, who was at some distance, called out to the presiding magistrates, “Write down my name.  I am his friend, and I will be surety for him.”  On hearing this, the tax farmers were greatly embarrassed, for their habit was to pay the rent of each year with the proceeds of the next, and they saw no way of doing so in this instance.  Consequently they begged the man to desist from bidding, and offered him money.  Alkibiades would not permit him to take less than a talent, and when this was given him he let him go.  This was the way in which he did him a kindness.

[Footnote A:  [Greek:  metoikikhon].]

VI.  The love of Sokrates, though he had many rivals, yet overpowered them all, for his words touched the heart of Alkibiades and moved him to tears.  Sometimes his flatterers would bribe him by the offer of some pleasure, to which he would yield and slip away from Sokrates, but he was then pursued like a fugitive slave by the latter, of whom he stood in awe, though he treated every one else with insolence and contempt.  Kleanthes used to say that Sokrates’s only hold upon him was through his ears, while he scorned to meddle with the rest of his body.  And indeed Alkibiades was very prone to pleasure, as one would gather from what Thucydides says on the subject.  Those too who played on his vanity and love of distinction induced him to embark on vast projects before he was ripe for them, assuring him that as soon as he began to take a leading part in politics, he would not only eclipse all the rest of the generals and orators, but would even surpass Perikles in power and renown.  But just as iron which has been softened in the fire is again hardened by cold, and under its influence contracts its expanded particles, so did Sokrates, when he found Alkibiades puffed up by vain and empty conceit, bring him down to his proper level by his conversation, rendering him humble minded by pointing out to him his many deficiencies.

VII.  After he had finished his education, he went into a school, and asked the master for a volume of Homer.  When the master said that he possessed none of Homer’s writings, he struck him with his fist, and left him.  Another schoolmaster told him that he had a copy of Homer corrected by himself.  “Do you,” asked he, “you who are able to correct Homer, teach boys to read!  One would think that you could instruct men.”

One day he wished to speak to Perikles, and came to his house.  Hearing that he was not at leisure, but was engaged in considering how he was to give in his accounts to the Athenians, Alkibiades, as he went away, said, “It would be better if he considered how to avoid giving in any accounts at all to the Athenians.”