Alcibiades, Agis and Spartan Policy

Athenaeus quotes from Satyrus a passage in which is described the remarkable facility shown by Alcibiades in adapting his way of life to his environment (FHGIII, 160 = Athen. XII, 534b): I. The Archaeological Report, λέγεται, φησίν, ὅτι ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ μὲν ὢν ‹Ἰώνων› ἐφαίνετο τρυφερώτερος, ἐν Θήβαις δὲ σωμασκῶν καὶ γυμναξόμενος τῶν Θηβαίων αὐτῶν μᾶλλον Βοιώτιος, ἐν Θετταλίᾳ δὲ ἱπποτροφῶν καὶ ἡνιοχῶν τῶν Ἀλευαδῶν ἱππικώτερος, ἐν Σπάρτῃ δὲ καρτερίαν καὶ ἀφέλειαν ἐπιτηδεύων ἐνίκα τοὺς Λάκωνας, ὑπερῆρεν δὲ καὶ τὴν τῶν Θρᾳκῶν ἀκρατοποσίαν. This chameleonlike quality of Alcibiades is also stressed by other writers, who, however, in cataloguing the localities in which he displayed his adaptability, differ somewhat from one another and from Satyrus. Plutarch (Alcib.23, 5) mentions Sparta, Ionia, Thrace, the court of Tissaphernes; in another passage (Mor.52e) Athens, Sparta, Thrace, the court of Tissaphernes; Nepos (Alcib.11, 2) gives Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Thrace, the Persian Empire; Aelian (V.H.IV, 15) gives Sparta, Boeotia, Thessaly, the court of Pharnabazus. Now Athenaeus, in the passage where he quotes the above fragment of Satyrus, is evidently following a collection of anecdotes about Alcibiades (XII, 534–5, where he cites several other authors), and very probably Plutarch, Nepos, and Aelian derive their material from similar compilations, which were extensively used by writers of the Roman period; but, sinceflorilegiaon Alcibiades must have been numerous, it is not to be assumed that all are copying from the sameflorilegium.