IX.  He had a dog of remarkable size and beauty, for which he had paid seventy minae.  It had a very fine tail, which he cut off.  When his friends blamed him, and said that every one was sorry for the dog and angry with him for what he had done, he laughed and said, “Then I have succeeded; for I wish the Athenians to gossip about this, for fear they should say something worse about me.”

X. It is said that his first public act was on the occasion of a voluntary subscription for the State.  He did not intend doing anything of the sort, but as he was passing he heard a great noise, and finding that voluntary subscriptions were being made, went and subscribed.  The people cheered and applauded him, at which he was so much delighted as to forget a quail which he had in his cloak.  When it escaped and ran about bewildered, the Athenians applauded all the more, and many rose and chased it.  It was caught by the pilot Antiochus, who restored it, and became one of Alkibiades’s greatest friends.  Starting with great advantages from his noble birth, his wealth, his recognised bravery in battle, and his many friends and relatives, he relied upon nothing so much as on his eloquence for making himself popular and influential.  His rhetorical powers are borne witness to by the comic dramatists; and the greatest of orators, Demosthenes, in his speech against Meidias, speaks of Alkibiades as being most eloquent, besides his other charms.  If we are to believe Theophrastus, who has inquired more diligently into these various tales than any one else, Alkibiades excelled all men of his time in readiness of invention and resource.  However, as he wished not merely to speak to the purpose, but also to clothe his thoughts in the most appropriate language, he did not always succeed in combining the two, and often hesitated and stopped, seeking for the right word, and not continuing his speech until it occurred to him.

XI.  He was renowned for his stud, and for the number of his racing chariots.  No other person, king or commoner, ever entered seven four-horse chariots for the race at Olympia except Alkibiades.  His winning the first, second, and fourth prizes with these, as Thucydides tells us, though Euripides says that he won the third also, excels in glory any other successes by other persons in these races.  The poem of Euripides runs as follows: 

    “Son of Kleinias, thee I sing,
    In truth it is a noble thing,
    First, second, and third place
    To win in chariot race,
    To hear the herald thrice thy name proclaim,
    And thrice to bear away the olive crown of fame.”