" As he did not
appear, they condemned him, forfeited his goods, and even caused all the
priests and priestesses to curse him publicly. It is said that Theano,
the daughter of Menon, the priestess of the temple of Agraulos, was the
only one who refused to carry out this decree, alleging that it was to
pray and not to curse that she had become a priestess.
XXIII. While these terrible decrees and sentences were being passed
against Alkibiades, he was living at Argos; for as soon as he left
Thurii, he fled to the Peloponnesus, where, terrified at the violence of
his enemies, he determined to abandon his country, and sent to Sparta
demanding a safe asylum, on the strength of a promise that he would do
the Spartans more good than he had in time past done them harm. The
Spartans agreed to his request, and invited him to come. On his arrival,
he at once effected one important matter, by stirring up the dilatory
Spartans to send Gylippus at once to Syracuse with reinforcements for
that city, to destroy the Athenian army in Sicily. Next, he brought them
to declare war against the Athenians themselves; while his third and
most terrible blow to Athens was his causing the Lacedaemonians to seize
and fortify Dekeleia, which did more to ruin Athens than any other
measure throughout the war. With his great public reputation, Alkibiades
was no less popular in private life, and he deluded the people by
pretending to adopt the Laconian habits.
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