In 415 b.c. the Athenians mounted a full-scale invasion of Sicily in a bold and imaginative effort to force a successful conclusion to the war against Sparta that had commenced more than fifteen years earlier. Not long after the landing in Sicily, Alcibiades, a moving spirit of the invasion scheme and one of the three generals in command, was summoned home to face charges of plotting to overthrow the democratic regime. He went into exile instead, was sentenced to death in absentia, and quickly made his way to Sparta. There he participated publicly in strategic discussions regarding the conduct of the war, excusing his turncoat behaviour in these words (according to Thucydides 6.92.4):

The shabby, self-serving argument of a traitor? Certainly Alcibiades is one of the first names mentioned today whenever a politician or journalist wishes to display a bit of learning on the subject of treason, and historians, too, are usually satisfied with that quick dismissal.