His friends, his relations, were of the most powerful amongst the citizens. The chief man in Athens was the guardian to whose care his father had entrusted him. Scion of a line of frugal folk, whose wealth had long accumulated, he had enormous riches, and owned a vast and fertile territory. Thus he reached the golden age when every sense is keenest, when almost every experience brings a new delight, and each pulsation is a pleasure—an age we afterwards look back upon with fond regret, not quite unmixed with pride, and which we sadly recognise we shall never see again. Small wonder, then, if Alkibiades threw himself without restraint into a whirl of pleasure. Vague longings of his boyhood were, if not forgotten, driven out of sight. The earnest hope of something higher lay buried underneath the intense enjoyment of the present. He had seen little of the strange philosopher since they met, apparently by chance, on a sunny afternoon by the Ilissos. Sokrates was not a Puritan. He could make allowances. But he saw too plainly what the effect would be of constant excess and dissipation upon a mind like that of Alkibiades. He held aloof. He said his daimôn, that ever-present monitor, which told him what to do, and what to leave alone, prevented him. Alkibiades had many friends. Besides the sons of Perikles and other relatives of his own age with whom he associated, there were an abundance of parasites in Athens to pander to his wishes. He had his studies, too. These for the most part were in the military schools. Through his wealth he was bound, by the law of Athens, to serve as a knight in the cavalry of the Athenian army, so much of his time was taken up in learning the art of war and military tactics. If his ambition to excel in oratory, when he should be old enough to take his place upon the bema, in the great Assembly of the people, led him sometimes to the house of Protagoras, and to other Sophists, it was rather to learn the tricks of a quibbling debate than to gain a knowledge of that philosophy the Sophists pretended they were able to impart. But all such pleasant things must have an end. The serene sky became overcast. Sparta, fearing for her independence, and encouraged by the Delphic oracle, determined to put her ‘whole strength into a war’ with Athens. Korinth was intriguing with the other states against her. Towns and islands where oligarchies ruled hated the democratic city, and joined in a confederacy against her. The year 432 B.C. is ever to be remembered as the beginning of the long and tedious war. Potidaia, a Korinthian colony, on the Chalkidian coast, and subject to Athens, was encouraged by both Sparta and Korinth to rise against her suzerain.