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I.
THIRTY TYRANTS (404-403)
A. After Aegospotami, Lysander est. Decarchies throughout Aegean; oligarchic puppet states of Sparta; Athens
would need a larger governing board => The Thirty, a group of pro-Spartan oligarchs
B. Initial Actions of the Thirty
1. abolish organs of dem. govt. under guise of returning to “ancestral constitution”;
a) Participation in legal functions — which had previously been open to all Athenians — was restricted to a
select group of 500 persons (Boule antidemocrats).
b) The Assembly was abolished;
c) pay for service abolished;
d) suspended Heliaea.
2. request Spartan garrison of 700 + commander; surrounded by 300 whip-bearers;
3. est. informers to watch Piraeus = hotbed of democratic activism
C. Leaders = Theramenes and Critias, pupil of Socrates (uncle of Plato)
Critias = brilliant intellectual, atheist, passionate antidemocrat; brutal; amoral; banished member of the 400
D. At outset, seemed an enlightened move: Plato was joyful; Aristotle” in Ath. Pol 35.3-4
“At the outset, therefore, they were engaged in ... removing the blackmailers and the persons who
consorted undesirably with the people to curry favor and were evil-doers and scoundrels; and the state
was delighted at these measures, thinking they were acting with the best intentions... when they got a
firmer hold on the state, they kept their hands off none of the citizens, but put to death those of
outstanding wealth or birth or reputation... desiring to plunder their estates, and by the end of a brief
interval of time they had made away with not less than fifteen hundred.” = at least 2-3% of population.
E. The Thirty began a purge of citizens who had collaborated with the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War.
1. Hundreds were condemned to execution by drinking hemlock, while thousands more were exiled from Athens.
2. One of the most famous men who escaped from Athens during this reign of terror was the wealthy Lysias, the
same Lysias mentioned in Plato's Republic.
3. In Plato's Apology, Socrates recounts an incident in which the Thirty once ordered him (and four other men) to
bring before them a certain man for execution. While the other four men obeyed, Socrates refused, not
wanting to partake in the guilt of the executioners. By disobeying, Socrates knew he was placing his own
life in jeopardy, and claimed it was only the disbanding of the oligarchy soon afterward that saved his life.
F. As executions and exiles accelerate; Theramenes moves to set up The 3000,
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
H.
would still enjoy trial in Boule;
but backfired in that it implied open season on all other Athenians.
Only 3,000 Athenians were granted the right to carry weapons or receive a jury trial; others flee into exile.
The open hostilities between these 3,000 citizens and Critias and Theramenes eventually caused failure of 30.
Execution of Theramenes: summoned for “trial”; oligarchs arrived with daggers; Theramenes plead case of
moderate govt. almost to success; then Critias struck name from 30, Theramenes dragged to prison from
altar, and forced to drink Hemlock
The exile movement coalesce in Thebes, make move in Jan 403
1. Thrasybulus led 70 men to seize Phyle (stronghold on mount Parnes)
Cornelius Nepos: “This most noble action, then, is entirely Thrasybulus's; for when the Thirty Tyrants, appointed by
the Lacedaemonians, kept Athens oppressed in a state of slavery, and had partly banished from their
country, and partly put to death, a great number of the citizens whom fortune had spared in the war,
and had divided their confiscated property among themselves, he was not only the first, but the only
man at the commencement, to declare war against them.”
2. # grew => moved to Piraeus (Munychia); Spartan garrison and forces loyal to Thirty attack; Thrasybulus
outnumbered at least 5:1 but benefit from defensive position and tension between oligarchic leaders; in
ensuing battle, Critias killed
3. The remainder of the 30 flee to Eleusis; the remaining pro-Spartan oligarchs attempt to reorganize but they are
unable to dislodge Thrasybulus.
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4. Spartan aid arrives under the conservative Pausanias (Agis & Pausanias seek to cut off increasingly brutal and
a)
despotic Lysander; cf. Pausanias after PersianWar); P. narrowly defeats Thrasybulus in street fighting but at
significant cost; Sparta decides that garrisoning Athens is impractical and forces settlement
G.
After the Thirty had been overthrown in a coup that killed Critias, Lysias accused
Eratosthenes of the wrongful death of Lysias' brother Polemarchus.
Democracy restored; oligarchs can withdraw to Eleusis (still operating as pro-Spartan ‘peace’ center);
LIMITED AMNESTY: only 30 and chief officers would be held accountable
5. => Oligarchy dissolves; Thrasybulus marches unopposed to Acropolis and sacrifices for salvation of Athens; but
Thrasybulus’ proposals to reinstate pay for political service and extending citizenship to metics who fought
against Thirty are rejected
I.
Appraisal of Thrasybulus
1. Thrasybulus played in crafting Athenian strategy in all these battles, and specifically to the decisive action he took at Cyzicus, which saved
Alcibiades's force from being swamped, and turned a potential Athenian defeat into a stunning victory
2. R.J. Buck has suggested that Thrasybulus suffered from an "anti-democratic tradition of ancient historiography," which led many writers to
minimize the accomplishments of one of democracy's strongest advocates
3. Throughout his career, Thrasybulus defended democracy at Athens against its opponents. He was one of the few prominent citizens who the
Samians trusted to defend their democracy, and who the fleet selected to lead it through the troubled time of conflict with the 400. Later,
in his opposition to the Thirty Tyrants, Thrasybulus risked his life when few others would, and his actions were responsible for the
quick restoration of democracy. In the words of Cornelius Nepos: “This most noble action, then, is entirely Thrasybulus's; for when the Thirty Tyrants, appointed by the Lacedaemonians, kept
Athens oppressed in a state of slavery, and had partly banished from their country, and partly put to death, a great number of
the citizens whom fortune had spared in the war, and had divided their confiscated property among themselves, he was not only
the first, but the only man at the commencement, to declare war against them.”
4. John Fine points to the clemency shown by Thrasybulus and other democrats in the wake of their victory over the Thirty as a key
contribution towards reestablishing stable government in Athens. While many city-states throughout the Greek world broke down into
vicious cycles of civil war and reprisal, Athens remained united and democratic, without interruption, until near the end of the third
century, and democracy, albeit interrupted several times by conquest or revolution, continued there until Roman times, several centuries
later
5. His only real shortcoming was perhaps a failure to recognize the extent of Athenian losses and the changed international situation after the
war meant that reconsitutiing the Empire as it existed under Pericles was an impossibility. We will discuss these changed circumstances
in our final class
Alcibiades (c. 450-404/3)
Last prominent member of the Alcmaeonidae (on mother’s side), which fell from prominence after the PelWar
Character: Chameleon-like, he displayed character without ever possessing one.
During the Peloponnesian War, he was one of Athens’s greatest assets; he was also her most horrible liability. It was
Alcibiades who helped destroy the so-called Peace of Nicias and masterminded the disastrous Sicilian Expedition. He
undertook the risky expedition solely for his own greater glory; its failure would eventually cost Athens her empire.
He seems the perfect contemporary hero: rich, handsome, brilliant, amoral; he had it all.
Plutarch notes that when it came to “temperance, continence, and probity,” Alcibiades must be judged “the least
scrupulous and most entirely careless of human beings.” But he forgives him a lot, not least because “he was often of
service to Athens, both as a soldier and a commander.”
Andocides said of him that "instead of holding that he ought himself to conform with the laws of the state, he expects you
to conform with his own way of life"
Thucydides: "his habits gave offense to every one, and caused them to commit affairs to other hands, and thus before long
to ruin the city"
Diodorus argues that he was "in spirit brilliant and intent upon great enterprises"
Nepos: “it is agreed by all who have written his biography that he was never excelled either in faults or in virtues.”
Kagan believes that while Alcibiades was a commander of considerable ability, he was no military genius, and his
confidence and ambitions went far beyond his skills. He thus was capable of important errors and serious miscalculations.
Kagan argues that at Notium, Alcibiades committed a serious error in leaving the fleet in the hands of an inexperienced
officer, and that most of the credit for the brilliant victory at Cyzicus must be assigned to Thrasybulus
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