While yet a lad he served in the campaign of Potidaea, where he shared the tent of Sokrates, and took his place next him in the ranks.  In an obstinate engagement they both showed great courage, and when Alkibiades was wounded and fell to the ground, Sokrates stood in front of him, defending him, and so saved his life and arms from the enemy.  Properly, therefore, the prize for valour belonged to Sokrates; but when the generals appeared anxious to bestow it upon Alkibiades because of his great reputation, Sokrates, who wished to encourage his love for glory, was the first to give his testimony in his favour, and to call upon them to crown him as victor and to give him the suit of armour which was the prize.  And also at the battle of Delium, when the Athenians were routed, Alkibiades, who was on horseback, when he saw Sokrates retreating on foot with a few others, would not ride on, but stayed by him and defended him, though the enemy were pressing them and cutting off many of them.  These things, however, happened afterwards.

VIII.  He once struck Hipponikus, the father of Kallias, a man of great wealth and noble birth, a blow with his fist, not being moved to it by anger, or any dispute, but having agreed previously with his friends to do so for a joke.  When every one in the city cried out at his indecent and arrogant conduct, Alkibiades next morning at daybreak came to the house of Hipponikus, knocked, and came to him.  Here he threw off his cloak, and offered him his body, bidding him flog him and punish him for what he had done.  Hipponikus, however, pardoned him, and they became friends, so much so that Hipponikus chose him for the husband of his daughter Hipparete.  Some writers say that not Hipponikus but Kallias his son gave Hipparete to Alkibiades to wife, with a dowry of ten talents, and that when her first child was born Alkibiades demanded and received ten more talents, as if he had made a previous agreement to that effect.  Upon this Kallias, fearing that Alkibiades might plot against his life, gave public notice in the assembly that if he died childless, he would leave his house and all his property to the State.

Hipparete was a quiet and loving wife, but was so constantly insulted by her husband’s amours with foreign and Athenian courtesans, that she at length left his house and went to her brother’s.  Alkibiades took no heed of this, but continued in his debauchery.

It was necessary for her to deliver her petition for separation to the magistrate with her own hand, and when she came to do so, Alkibiades laid hold of her, and took her home with him through the market-place, no one daring to oppose him and take her from him.  She lived with him until her death, which took place not long after Alkibiades sailed for Ephesus.  In this instance his violence does not seem to have been altogether lawless or without excuse, for the object of the law in making a wife appear in person in public seems to be that she may have an opportunity of meeting her husband and making up her quarrel with him.