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Now this friendship with the people, which was, as I have shown, so ancient, genuine, and based upon services of the greatest importance, my father inherited from his ancestors. My father himself was left an orphan (for his fatherCleinias. died in battle at CoroneaA town in Boeotia where the Athenians were defeated by the Boeotians in 466 B.C.) and became the ward of Pericles, whom all would acknowledge to have been the most moderate, the most just, and the wisest of the citizens. For I count this also among his blessings that, being of such origin, he was fostered, reared, and educated under the guardianship of a man of such character.
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When he was admitted to citizenship, he showed himself not inferior to those whom I have mentioned, nor did he think it fitting that he should lead a life of ease, pluming himself upon the brave deeds of his ancestors; on the contrary, from the beginning he was so fired with ambition that he thought that even their great deeds should be held in remembrance through his own. And first of all, when PhormioA famous Athenian general. led a thousand of the flower of Athenian soldiers to Thrace,Expedition to recover the city of Potidaea in 439 B.C. Thucydides (Thuc. 1.64.2) speaks of 1600 hoplites. Cf. Plat. Sym. 220 for the award of valor given to Alcibiades. my father served with this expedition, and so distinguished himself in the perilous actions of the campaign that he was crowned and received a full suit of armour from his general.
