Alcibiades

...quite informative...a clear and multifaceted portrait of Alcibiades that should be informative and useful for newcomer and veteran reader alike. The book has a distinct academic edge and clearly does it best to strive for scientific objectivity, but it never goes so far as to become a dry read... -- Ancient Warfare ...this treatment of Alcibiades by P. J. Rhodes, one of the most outstanding Greek historians of our time, is successful in bringing one of the most interesting and controversial characters to a wider audience in an intelligent manner that should also prove valuable as a classroom text... with a masterful control of literary and epigraphic sources, he places Alcibiades in his proper context as an ultimately disastrous figure who was, however, profoundly successful in convincing his contemporaries--and posterity as a result--of his importance. This book is particularly useful not only to the general reader, but as a classroom text for upper-level courses. I should add that it also provides an outstanding summary of fifth-century political and military history; the necessarily close coverage of the period from 412-406 BC, which is fraught with controversy, is especially good. -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review