1This joy of Alcibiades did not last very long. 1For when all honours had been voted to him and the whole state had been handed over, at home and in war, to be managed by the will of one man, and he himself had asked that two colleagues should be given him, Thrasybulus and Adimantus, and this had not been refused, he set out with the fleet for Asia, and because he had fought less successfully than hoped at Cyme, he fell back into disfavour: for they thought there was nothing he could not achieve. 2The result was that they blamed him for everything that went less well, saying that he had acted either carelessly or with ill intent, as happened then: for they charged that he had been bribed by the king and had not wanted to take Cyme.
3So we think that what most harmed him was the excessive opinion of his talent and valour: for he was feared no less than he was loved, lest, elated by good fortune and great resources, he should covet tyranny. 3As a result they stripped him of his command in his absence and put another in his place. 4When he heard this, he refused to return home and took himself to Pactye, and there he fortified three strongholds, Ornoi, Bizanthe and Neontichos; and, gathering a band of men, he was the first man of a Greek state to enter Thrace, thinking it more glorious to enrich himself with plunder from barbarians than from Greeks.
5From this he had grown both in fame and in wealth, and had won himself great friendship with some of the kings of Thrace.