Alcibiades

Play

Timon of Athens

Summary

Alcibiades is an Athenian general whose own banishment by the Athenian senate — for pleading too boldly for a friend condemned to death — runs as a structural parallel to Timon's self-exile. Where Timon responds to ingratitude with absolute withdrawal and universal hatred, Alcibiades responds with pragmatic military action: he raises an army and marches on Athens. His arc gives the play its one thread of worldly resolution, and in the final scene he accepts Athens's surrender on negotiated terms, suggesting a more workable, if less philosophically pure, response to institutional injustice than Timon's. He visits Timon in his cave and is the last person Timon gives gold to, arming his revenge.

Notable Quotations

"I have kept back their foes, / While they have told their money, and let out / Their coin upon large interest." *(3.5 — to the senate)*

"Till I have thanked you: when dinner's done, / Show me this piece." *(1.1)*

Cross-references

• Timon of Athens — the play
• Tragedies
• character_timon — the fellow exile whose gold arms his campaign
• character_apemantus — the cynic observer of Athenian politics