Alcibiades (22.1-22.2)

Alcibiades had no sooner sailed away than he robbed the Athenians of Messana.[*] There was a party there who were on the point of surrendering the city to the Athenians, but Alcibiades knew them, and gave the clearest information of their design to the friends of Syracuse in the city, and so brought the thing to naught. Arrived at Thurii, he left his trireme and hid himself so as to escape all quest.

When some one recognized him and asked, Can you not trust your country, Alcibiades? In all else, he said, but in the matter of life I wouldn’t trust even my own mother not to mistake a black for a white ballot when she cast her vote. And when he afterwards heard that the city had condemned him to death, I’ll show them, he said, that I’m alive.