224 HISTORICAL TALES.

among the superstitious people. Among those ac-
cused of this sacrilege was Alcibiades. There was
no evidence against him, and he was permitted to
proceed. But after he had reached Sicily he was
sent for to return, on a new charge of sacrilege. He
refused to do so, fearing the schemes of his enemies,
and, when told that the assembly had voted sentence
of death against him, he said, bitterly, “I will make
them feel that I live!”

_ He did so. To him Athens was indebted for the
ruin of its costly expedition. He fled to Sparta and
advised the Spartans to send to Syracuse the able
general to whom the Athenians owed their fatal de-
feat. He also advised his new friends to seize and
fortify a town in Attica. By this they cut off all
the land supply of food from Athens, and did much
to force the final submission of that city.

Alcibiades now put on a new guise. He affected
to be enraptured with Spartan manners, cropped his
hair, lived on black broth, exercised diligently, and
by his fiuent tongue made himself a favorite in that
austere city. But at length, by an idle boast, he
roused Spartan enmity, and had to fly again. Now
he sought Asia Minor, became a friend of Tissapher-
nes, the Persian satrap, adopted the excesses of
Persian luxury, and sought to break the alliance
between Persia and Sparta, which he had before
sustained.

Next, moved by a desire to see his old home, he
offered the leading citizens of Athens to induce Tis-
saphernes to come to their aid, on the condition that
he might be permitted to return. But he declared