Latest / Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History / The Trial of the Generals Arginusae Athens Darkest Verdict
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Athens' democracy — the assembly on the Pnyx, ostracism, the whole system. But today I want to look at one of its darkest moments. A moment when the democracy literally voted to kill its own generals — illegally — and then almost immediately regretted it. Luna: Is this the Arginusae trial? I've heard the name, but I don't know the details. Lucas: Exactly right. The trial of the generals after the Battle of Arginusae in 406 BCE. It's a story that tells you everything about Athenian democracy at war — the passion, the paranoia, the procedural breakdowns. And it features Socrates, by the way, in a really striking cameo. Luna: Wait — Socrates was involved in a trial before his own? Lucas: He was. He happened to be serving as one of the prytaneis — that's the rotating committee of fifty councillors that presided over the assembly that day. And he ended up being the single person who refused to put an illegal question to a vote. But let's set the stage first. Lucas: It's 406 BCE. The Peloponnesian War has been going on for 25 years. Athens is reeling from the Sicilian disaster in 413, but it's still fighting. The Spartan navy, under a competent admiral named Callicratidas, has blockaded the Athenian fleet at Mytilene. Athens scrapes together every available ship — even melting down gold statues from the Acropolis to pay for it — and sends a relief force of about 150 triremes. Luna: That's an enormous fleet for Athens at that point. Lucas: It was. And they meet the Spartans near the Arginusae islands, off the coast of Lesbos. The Athenians win a decisive victory. Callicratidas is killed. The Spartans lose over 70 ships. It's the biggest Athenian naval victory of the whole war. But then everything goes wrong. Lucas: After the battle, the Athenian commanders have a problem. There are survivors in the water — men clinging to wreckage. And there are also the disabled Athenian ships that need towing. But a storm comes up, and the commanders decide they can't do both. Some of them prioritize towing the damaged ships to safety. Others try to rescue survivors but are hampered by the weather. In the end, perhaps as many as 5,000 Athenian sailors drown or die of exposure. Luna: So the generals left men to die. That sounds like a dereliction of duty. Lucas: That's exactly how many Athenians saw it. When the fleet returns to Athens, there's public outrage. The assembly convenes, and the generals are summoned to explain themselves. Among the generals are eight men, including Thrasyllus, Pericles the Younger — Pericles' son by Aspasia — and several others. They initially give their report and the assembly seems satisfied. But then their political enemies move in. Lucas: The leading accuser is a man named Theramenes — and he's a fascinating, slippery figure. He had been one of the commanders at Arginusae, but as a trierarch, not a general. When the storm hit, he was in charge of a squadron tasked with rescue. He claimed he tried, but his crew was exhausted. After the battle, fearing blame, he and another trierarch named Thrasybulus — yes, the same Thrasybulus who later overthrew the Thirty Tyrants — they went to Athens ahead of the fleet and stirred up popular anger against the generals. Luna: So Theramenes basically threw the generals under the chariot to save himself. Lucas: Exactly. And it worked. When the generals finally appeared in the assembly, Theramenes and his allies accused them of abandoning the dead and the dying. The generals argued that they had ordered the rescue, but the storm prevented it. They also pointed the finger at Theramenes and Thrasybulus for failing to carry out the order. It became a vicious blame game. Lucas: Now, here's where the procedure goes off the rails. The assembly first votes to have the generals arrested and put on trial. But before that trial can happen, a festival called the Apaturia intervenes — it's a family festival where relatives of the dead mourn them. And during this festival, the public mood becomes even more inflamed. Stories circulate of empty chairs at the feast, of families destroyed. Luna: So the emotional temperature was at a boiling point. Lucas: Exactly. When the assembly reconvenes, a man named Callixenus proposes a motion that the assembly vote immediately on the guilt of the generals — all of them together, in a single vote, without individual defense speeches. This is completely illegal under Athenian law. The Athenian legal system required each defendant to be tried separately, and to have a chance to speak in his own defense. Lucas: Some members of the assembly object, citing this illegality. And that's when the mob threatens them. Xenophon writes that there were shouts that anyone who opposed the motion should be put on trial himself. The presiding committee — the prytaneis — is intimidated. All except one. Luna: That was Socrates. Lucas: It was. Socrates was the epistates — the president pro tem for that day. He refused to put the illegal motion to a vote, despite the threats. Xenophon quotes him as saying he would 'do nothing contrary to the laws.' The crowd howled, but Socrates held out. Eventually, the prytaneis were replaced by a new committee that did put the question, and the motion passed. Luna: So the assembly voted to execute all the generals at once. Lucas: They voted guilty. But then another procedural twist: a man named Euryptolemus, a relative of Pericles, files a legal challenge — a graphē paranomōn — against Callixenus' motion, arguing it's unconstitutional. This technically suspends the vote. But the crowd is having none of it. They demand the vote proceed. And under pressure, the assembly overturns the legal challenge and reaffirms its decision. Lucas: The six generals who were in Athens — two had fled — were condemned to death and executed by being forced to drink hemlock. Among them was Pericles the Younger, the son of the great Pericles and Aspasia. The entire Athenian command structure was wiped out in a single day. Luna: And then the remorse set in. Lucas: Almost immediately. Once the executions were carried out, the Athenians realized what they had done. They regretted it bitterly. They prosecuted Callixenus and his allies for deceiving the people. Callixenus escaped before trial, but later returned to Athens during the rule of the Thirty Tyrants and died of starvation. Theramenes — who had instigated the whole thing — he went on to become one of the Thirty Tyrants himself, and was later executed by Critias, his former ally. Luna: So the whole thing was a catastrophe. Did it affect the war? Lucas: Hugely. With its best commanders dead, Athens had to rely on inexperienced men. At the final naval battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE, the Athenian fleet was caught napping and destroyed. The war ended the next year with Athens surrendering and the Long Walls torn down. Many historians see the Arginusae trial as a turning point — a moment when Athenian democracy consumed its own best leaders. Luna: And Socrates' stand — did it come up in his own trial? Lucas: It did, actually. In Plato's 'Apology', Socrates refers to his refusal to participate in the illegal trial of the generals as evidence that he always obeyed the law, even against the will of the people. He contrasts it with his later refusal to arrest Leon of Salamis under the Thirty Tyrants. For Socrates, this was a defining moment of integrity. Lucas: Our main sources for the trial are Xenophon's 'Hellenica' and Diodorus Siculus, who drew on the fourth-century historian Ephorus. They differ in some details — Diodorus says the generals were tried as a group, while Xenophon emphasizes the procedural violations. But both agree on the central fact: the Athenian democracy, in a fit of panic and anger, executed its own successful commanders. Luna: It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of mob rule — even in a democracy. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's a reminder that the Athenian democracy, for all its brilliance, was also capable of terrible injustice. The Arginusae trial isn't as famous as the trial of Socrates, but in some ways it's even more chilling because it shows how easily the system could be hijacked by demagogues and popular fury. It's a story that resonates today more than ever.