Alcibiades was an Athenian statesman who lived from 450-404 B.C. He was an orator and a general who strategized for Sparta, Athens, and Persia during the Peloponnesian War after moving from one to the other.
A nephew of Pericles and a favorite student of Socrates, he was consistently a disturbing figure and fled Athens to their arch enermy Sparta after he had fallen out of favor. He later came back to Athens and fought against Sparta. Falling out of favor and fleeing once again, he was killed in exile.
The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989