Socrates' Favorite Pupil

Socrates taught in his workshop, porticoes, and the Academy garden. His students included Plato, Xenophon, and Alcibiades. Alcibiades was an orphan ward of Pericles—handsome, intelligent, and spoiled. As a child, he threw himself in front of a wagon rather than stop his game. With Socrates he was earnest and simple, but away from him his rich friends flattered him constantly. He gave costly banquets, drove fast horses, and wore armor inlaid with gold showing Cupid throwing thunderbolts. In battle, surrounded and wounded, Socrates rescued him, carrying him to safety and binding his wounds. Alcibiades was grateful and proudly claimed Socrates as a friend.