阿尔西比亚德是雅典黄金时代最耀眼的人物之一。他是伯里克利的养子，也是苏格拉底的朋友。他富可敌国，英俊潇洒，魅力非凡，是一位杰出的将领，也是一位冷酷无情的政治家。然而，他也是一位屡次背叛的叛徒，在伯罗奔尼撒战争中，他令人眼花缭乱的背叛行为臭名昭著。《复仇女神》讲述了这位传奇人物的一生，以及他试图征服的那个动荡不安的世界。

大卫·斯图塔德重现了古雅典鼎盛时期的辉煌，并追溯了阿尔西比亚德从童年到政治权力的历程。他的敌人对阿尔西比亚德的奢华生活方式感到愤怒，并伺机陷害他。最终，面对不敬神的死刑指控，阿尔西比亚德逃往了敌人斯巴达。他在那里以军事情报换取安全，直到被怀疑勾引一位斯巴达女王，被迫再次逃亡——这次逃往希腊的宿敌波斯。然而奇迹般地，他设法被召回雅典担任最高统帅，但命运逆转，他逃往色雷斯，在那里以军阀的身份生活。最终在安纳托利亚，他被敌人追捕，赤身裸体，孤身一人死于箭雨之中。

斯图塔德追溯了阿尔西比亚德斯从希腊大陆到叙拉古、萨迪斯和拜占庭的地中海之旅，将阿尔西比亚德斯的冒险经历交织在一起，置于文化辉煌和国际动荡的背景之下。《复仇女神》一书梳理了诸多相互矛盾的证据，为这位两千多年来一直吸引着历史学家、故事讲述者和艺术家的传奇人物的一生，呈现出一个连贯而引人入胜的故事。

作者·大卫·斯图塔德是一位独立学者、戏剧导演，也是伦敦古德诺学院的研究员。他撰写了多部关于古希腊的著作，包括《复仇女神：阿尔西比亚德斯与雅典的陷落》和《凤凰：一位父亲、一位儿子与雅典的崛起》。

赞誉

阿尔西比亚德斯将永远被铭记为历史上最狡猾的政治家之一……《复仇女神》是一部内容丰富、引人入胜的传记，既详尽又令人振奋，既严谨又不失趣味。斯图塔德以如此敏锐和清晰的笔触捕捉到了阿尔西比亚德斯其人及其所处时代的复杂性，值得称赞。

——黛西·邓恩，《新准则》

斯图塔德擅长将背景信息巧妙地融入人物行为的背景之中，并将对希腊和波斯社会习俗的阐述自然地融入叙事之中。《复仇女神》展现了通俗易懂、引人入胜的古代史叙事可以多么精彩。

——卡罗尔·阿塔克，《泰晤士报文学副刊》

斯图塔德这部关于阿尔西比亚德斯的新传记生动活泼、节奏明快、引人入胜，力图将这位桀骜不驯的年轻暴君重新带回读者眼前。

——彼得·托内曼，《文学评论》

一部[精彩的]阿尔西比亚德斯新传记。

——托马斯·W·霍奇金森，《旁观者》杂志

这真是一个精彩的故事，大卫·斯图塔德以罕见的热情和精准讲述了这个故事——他是一位敏锐的探究者，善于辨析相互矛盾的史料，并能从中发现引人入胜的轶事。

——乔纳森·赖特，《天主教先驱报》

斯图塔德的作品尤其值得称道，因为它的深度以及对现有史料的运用。

——塞缪尔·奥滕西奥·弗洛雷斯，《布林莫尔古典评论》

作为一部引人入胜的恶棍传记，《复仇女神》堪称杰作……斯图塔德雄辩地向读者讲述了一个人及其城邦的兴衰，他们都因其行为和态度触怒了神明。

——《选择》杂志

此前无人能像大卫·斯图塔德那样，如此深入地探究阿尔西比亚德斯那些时而惊世骇俗、时而展现政治家风范、时而又总是极具感染力的公众表演背后的真正动机。斯图塔德博士对古代文献的精通以及他引人入胜的叙述方式贯穿全书，令人叹为观止，生动地展现了这位公元前五世纪至今仍极具争议的雅典贵族——阿尔西比亚德——那变幻莫测、魅力四射、热情洋溢且极具说服力的个性。

——保罗·卡特利奇，《民主：一生》作者

大卫·斯图塔德是公认的专家，他擅长将古希腊世界生动地呈现在现代读者面前。在《复仇女神》一书中，他描绘了雅典鼎盛时期和衰落时期的恐怖与辉煌。而阿尔西比亚德正是这一进程的核心人物。斯图塔德学识渊博，却又不失轻松幽默，为我们带来了一部引人入胜的传记，它既是一部精彩的冒险故事，又是一部精炼的历史著作。

——罗宾·沃特菲尔德，《创造者、征服者与公民：古希腊史》作者

斯图塔德为我们呈现了一部生动鲜活、引人入胜的著作，深入剖析了古希腊最迷人也最难以捉摸的人物之一：阿尔西比亚德。斯图塔德以娴熟的技巧驾驭古代文献，描绘出的并非仅仅是一位英雄或恶棍，而是一位才华横溢、缺点并存，却成功吸引了古代世界目光的人物。

——迈克尔·斯科特，《古代世界：东西方史诗》作者

Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War.Nemesistells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer.

David Stuttard recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’ celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital charge of impiety, Alcibiades escaped to the enemy, Sparta. There he traded military intelligence for safety until, suspected of seducing a Spartan queen, he was forced to flee again—this time to Greece’s long-term foes, the Persians. Miraculously, though, he engineered a recall to Athens as Supreme Commander, but—suffering a reversal—he took flight to Thrace, where he lived as a warlord. At last in Anatolia, tracked by his enemies, he died naked and alone in a hail of arrows.

As he follows Alcibiades’ journeys crisscrossing the Mediterranean from mainland Greece to Syracuse, Sardis, and Byzantium, Stuttard weaves together the threads of Alcibiades’ adventures against a backdrop of cultural splendor and international chaos. Navigating often contradictory evidence, Nemesis provides a coherent and spellbinding account of a life that has gripped historians, storytellers, and artists for more than two thousand years.

Author

David Stuttard is an independent scholar, theater director, and Fellow of Goodenough College, London. He has written numerous books about Ancient Greece, includingNemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of AthensandPhoenix: A Father, a Son, and the Rise of Athens.

Praise

Alcibiades will always be remembered as one of the slipperiest statesmen in history…Nemesis is a rich and rewarding biography, as thorough as it is bracing and as measured as it is entertaining. Stuttard is to be praised for capturing the complexity of both the man and the world he lived in with such sensitivity and clarity.

Stuttard is skilled at drawing together background information that adds context to his characters’ actions, seamlessly smuggling exposition of Greek and Persian society and customs into his narrative. Nemesis demonstrates how readable and entertaining popular narrative ancient history can be.

Stuttard’s new life of Alcibiades is a lively, fast-paced and eminently readable attempt to bring the insolent young monster back to life.

[A] robust new biography of Alcibiades.

It’s quite the tale, told with rare gusto and precision by David Stuttard—an astute inquisitor of the conflicting sources with an eye for the telling anecdote.

Stuttard’s work is laudable especially in its depth and its use of available sources.

As an entertaining biography of a scoundrel, Nemesis is superb…Stuttard eloquently tells the reader of the rise and fall of a man and his city, who both angered the gods through their acts and attitudes.

No one before has come anything like as near as David Stuttard to penetrating the inner recesses of the mainsprings of Alcibiades’ often outrageous, sometimes statesmanlike, always commanding public performances. Dr. Stuttard’s mastery of the ancient sources and his narrative exposition are dazzling throughout, bringing to singing life the mercurial, magnetic, passionate, and persuasive personality of this still hugely controversial Athenian aristocrat of the fifth century BC.

David Stuttard is a recognized expert at making the ancient Greek world come alive for modern audiences. In Nemesis, he conveys the horror and the glory of the years of Athens’ greatness and decline. Central to these processes was the flamboyant Alcibiades, and Stuttard, wearing his learning lightly, gives us a hugely entertaining biography that is simultaneously an exciting adventure story and a pithy history of the period.

—Robin Waterfield, author ofCreators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece

—Michael Scott, author ofAncient Worlds: An Epic History of East and West