Neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, nor Xenophon mentions these
circumstances, nor was it likely that he should present himself before
the Athenians in such a swaggering fashion, when he was returning home
from exile, after having suffered such a variety of misfortunes. The
truth is, he sailed to Athens with considerable misgivings, and on his
arrival would not leave his ship until from her deck he saw Euryptolemus
his cousin, with many of his friends and relatives, assembled to welcome
him.
When he landed, the people seemed to have no eyes for the other
generals, but all rushed towards him, and escorted him on his way,
cheering him, embracing him, and crowning him with flowers. Those who
could not get near him gazed upon him from a distance, and the older men
pointed him out to the younger ones. Yet the joy of the citizens was
mingled with tears in the midst of their rejoicings, when they thought
of their past disasters, for they reflected that they would not have
failed in Sicily, or met with any of their other terrible
disappointments, if they had not parted with Alkibiades when in the full
tide of prosperity. He had found Athens barely able to hold her own at
sea, by land mistress of little more than the ground on which the city
stood, and torn by internal strife; from which miserable and forlorn
condition he had restored her so completely, that she was again not only
omnipotent at sea, but also victorious everywhere on land.
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