Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Downfall of Athens

Here is Alcibiades in all his glory: the most glamorous young man in classical Athens, brilliant orator, general, adventurer, pathologically treacherous, very close to Socrates (whose death is probably down to him), always at the centre of events as Athens slid from master of an empire and beacon of civilisation into unwise colonial adventures, repressive autocracy, defeat and near extinction.

His character is the perfect mirror image of the city itself, and his story is the story of the end of a glorious era, ending in both personal and political disaster.

Nemesis is both a rip-roaring tale and an iconic tragedy.