From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTyrannos is a tyrant and tyrannis the rule or dominion sought.
- In Alcibiades IIThe imagined god progressively enlarges the offer: Athens, all the Greeks, all Europe.
- In this editionNote 8 identifies the parallel with Alcibiades I 105a–105c and records Sauppe’s and Dobree’s supplements at 141b.
- A place to readThe god’s expanding offer exposes Alcibiades’ delight in power and public recognition.
Meaning
Tyrannos is a tyrant and tyrannis the rule or dominion sought. Epithymein names desire; ambition is an editorial grouping for the appetite for power and distinction displayed in the examples. Socrates does not report an actual conspiracy by Alcibiades.
Use in the book
The imagined god progressively enlarges the offer: Athens, all the Greeks, all Europe. The same-day proclamation that Alcibiades son of Cleinias is tyrant adds recognition by others to possession of power. Alcibiades endorses the expectation of delight and assumes anyone else would feel the same. He therefore gives the example its force as an attractive apparent good, not a temptation he has already learned to resist.
Socrates changes the measure of the offer. Alcibiades would not exchange his soul or life for even the dominion of all Greeks and barbarians, since he could not use what he gained. Nor would he want it if he were going to use it badly and harmfully. These concessions insert the condition of the user and the result of use into an evaluation initially governed by scale.
Archelaus and his beloved then dramatize the instability of possessing the coveted office. Erotic desire for a person is matched by desire for tyranny; murder wins it, but three or four days later another plot ends its possessor’s life. The example shows how achievement can expose a person to the very ruin desire ignored. Generalship and parenthood broaden the lesson beyond exceptional autocratic power.
At 148a the divine offer returns after the argument about knowledge. Alcibiades no longer answers with immediate joy; he cannot say offhand how to hit the right mark. This is a change in confidence rather than a demonstrated permanent renunciation of ambition. The final joke about his greatness of soul keeps the unresolved attraction to grand requests in view.
Places to read
- 141a–141bThe god’s expanding offer exposes Alcibiades’ delight in power and public recognition.
- 141c–141e2Life, beneficial use and Archelaus’ fate test the value of tyranny.
- 142c–142d2The many remain eager to request such possessions despite the examples.
- 148a–148b2The offer returns to a more hesitant Alcibiades.
- 150cGreatness of soul may still prevent him from accepting a modest prayer.
Translation in this edition
Note 8 identifies the parallel with Alcibiades I 105a–105c and records Sauppe’s and Dobree’s supplements at 141b. Historical suspicions of Alcibiades’ tyranny belong to the edition’s contextual account, not an allegation made here by a narrator. The example of Archelaus is also chronologically incompatible with the living Pericles of 144a.