From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Sparta and Lacedaemon
Λακεδαιμονίοις (Lakedaimoniois); Λακεδαίμονι (Lakedaimoni)
Lacedaemon and the Lacedaemonians are the Greek names rendered in context as Sparta and the Spartans, one of the two principal external standards for Alcibiades’ intended leadership.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLacedaemon and the Lacedaemonians are the Greek names rendered in context as Sparta and the Spartans, one of the two principal external standards for Alcibiades’ intended leadership.
- In Alcibiades ISocrates says Athens repeatedly fights the Spartans and the Great King, so the kings of those peoples, not merely Athenian politicians, should define Alcibiades’ contest.
- In this editionThe edition notes a tension between this portrait of gold and silver in private hands and external traditions of Spartan prohibitions.
- A place to readSpartans are among those killed in the example of Tanagra.
Meaning
Lacedaemon and the Lacedaemonians are the Greek names rendered in context as Sparta and the Spartans, one of the two principal external standards for Alcibiades’ intended leadership.
Use in the book
Socrates says Athens repeatedly fights the Spartans and the Great King, so the kings of those peoples, not merely Athenian politicians, should define Alcibiades’ contest. The subsequent picture combines royal ancestry, attention to succession, a catalogue of virtues, land and dependent labour, private precious-metal holdings and royal receipts. It is a competitive encomium framed to dislodge complacency, not a balanced description of Spartan institutions. Its assertions about wealth are particularly emphatic and should remain attributed to Socrates. Sparta also marks a scale within the scale: immensely wealthy beside other Greeks, it becomes negligible beside Persia.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The edition notes a tension between this portrait of gold and silver in private hands and external traditions of Spartan prohibitions. The lexicon records the contrast rather than reconciling it by inventing an unstated historical explanation.
Λακεδαιμόνιος
Attested: Λακεδαιμονίοις (lakedaimoniois; 120a). Lacedaemonian or Spartan, one of the peoples furnishing Alcibiades’ actual rivals. Lexical identification: lemma: Λακεδαιμόνιος. See Sparta and Lacedaemon.
Λακεδαίμων
Attested: Λακεδαίμονι (lakedaimoni; 122e). Lacedaemon or Sparta, the place into which money is said to flow. Lexical identification: lemma: Λακεδαίμων. See Sparta and Lacedaemon.
Source note
The supplied edition, note 43 on 122e, notes the tension with Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 7.5–6 and Plutarch, Lycurgus 9. It does not settle the tension by revising Socrates’ claim.
From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Sparta
Λακεδαιμόνιοι (Lakedaimonioi); τὰ καλὰ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς (ta kala epi tois agathois); εὐφημίαν (euphēmian)
The Spartans are named as Lakedaimonioi.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe Spartans are named as Lakedaimonioi.
- In Alcibiades IISocrates says the Spartans have either emulated the unnamed poet or independently examined the matter in the same way.
- In this editionNote 32 cites the same formula in Plutarch, Instituta Laconica 27, Moralia 239a.
- A place to readSpartan public and private prayers parallel the unnamed poet’s restraint.
Meaning
The Spartans are named as Lakedaimonioi. Their prayer asks the gods for fine things on top of good ones and nothing more. They serve as the central civic example of restrained asking, while the Athenians’ hostile account of their ritual practices supplies a contrasting valuation.
Use in the book
Socrates says the Spartans have either emulated the unnamed poet or independently examined the matter in the same way. He does not claim to know a definite line of literary influence. Their public and private prayer thus illustrates a practical convergence: requests are limited by goodness rather than filled with particular objects presumed good.
Their good fortune supports the example but is immediately qualified. If not everything has gone well, that is not because of the prayer; the gods may give the requested things or their opposites. The formula is therefore recommended for the quality of what it asks, not as a guaranteed technology of military or civic success.
The Athenians portray Spartan sacrifice as negligent and its victims as maimed despite sufficient wealth. Ammon’s preference for their auspicious speech turns that accusation around. Socrates understands the oracle as praising the prayer. The account should distinguish the Athenians’ complaint, the oracle’s terse preference and Socrates’ interpretation rather than combining them into a neutral ethnography.
The final obstacle is Alcibiades’ unwillingness, as Socrates predicts it, to use so modest a prayer. His greatness of soul is the flattering name for an intellectual defect already analysed. Sparta consequently remains an available model whose imitation would require more than memorizing its words: it would challenge the young man’s conception of fitting aspiration.
Places to read
- 148b–148cSpartan public and private prayers parallel the unnamed poet’s restraint.
- 148c–148dTheir fortune is praised without making prayer a guarantee of results.
- 148e–149b2The Athenian accusation is overturned by Ammon’s preference.
- 149b–149cSocrates interprets auspicious speech as the content of their prayer.
- 150cAlcibiades’ grand aspirations may prevent its adoption.
Translation in this edition
Note 32 cites the same formula in Plutarch, Instituta Laconica 27, Moralia 239a. Burnet’s not at 148c is supplied from a correction in a Florentine manuscript. This particular parallel does not remove note 34’s warning that the Athenian consultation of Ammon is otherwise unattested.
Source note
At 148c the negative printed in angle brackets comes from a correction in a Florentine manuscript, as the edition's note 32 explains. Its source is therefore different from the conjectural additions at 141b and the Euripidean supplement at 151b. The English translates adopted supplements without reproducing the brackets.