Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.27)

tip of the finger. He shows, therefore, that Alcibiades, as has been said, has not learned political matters in either way. For he did not have leisure with teachers; he only learned letters, music, and wrestling. Furthermore, there appears to be no time in which, having thought he was ignorant, he approached a teacher. For being a mere child and young, playing with dice, he would say to others, swearing, that he was wronged, as if he accurately knew what is just. And he does not appear to have sought it out either. Thus, from these things, he is ignorant of the end of the political, that it is justice, that it is the beneficial, and furthermore, that it is the beautiful. This is the elenctic part. The protreptic part is that in which he encourages him to defeat his rivals with wisdom. For it is a tradition for Athenians to win by wisdom. And the enemies of the Athenians are the Lacedaemonians and the Persians, as the Peloponnesian and Persian wars show. And the maieutic part is that in which Socrates, through appropriate questions, causes Alcibiades to declare that man is a soul. So that he might be his own teacher. For it is a dogma here that the one answering is the one speaking. For such is Socrates, acting as a midwife to souls...