"
For while King Agis was away in the wars, Alkibiades seduced his wife
Timaea, so that she became pregnant by him, and did not even deny the
fact. When her child was born it was called Leotychides in public, but
in her own house she whispered to her friends and attendants that his
name was Alkibiades, so greatly was she enamoured of him. He himself
used to say in jest that he had not acted thus out of wanton passion,
but in order that his race might one day rule in Lacedaemon. King Agis
heard of all this from many informants, but was most convinced of its
truth by a computation of the time before the birth of the child.
Terrified at an earthquake, he had once quitted his wife's chamber, and
for ten months afterwards had never conversed with her. As it was at the
end of this period that Leotychides was born, he declared that the child
was not his; and for this reason he never succeeded to the throne.
XXIV. After the Athenian disaster in Sicily, ambassadors came to Sparta
from Chios, Lesbos, and Kyzikus. The claims of the Lesbians were
favoured by the Boeotians, and those of the people of Kyzikus by
Pharnabazus; but, at the recommendation of Alkibiades, the
Lacedaemonians decided to give the preference to the Chians. He himself
sailed to that island, caused nearly the whole of the cities of Ionia to
revolt from Athens, and injured the Athenian cause much by constantly
assisting the Lacedaemonian generals.
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