Latest / Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History / The Thirty Tyrants: Athens Under the Boot
Transcript
- Lucas: So after Athens surrendered in 404 BCE, the Peloponnesian War was finally over. But for Athens, peace didn't bring relief—it brought the Thirty Tyrants. Luna: The Thirty Tyrants—that's the oligarchic government the Spartans installed, right? Lucas: Exactly. The Spartans, under Lysander, dismantled the Long Walls and forced Athens to accept a new government. A board of thirty men was appointed to rewrite the laws. But instead of a new constitution, they seized power and ruled by terror. Lucas: Among them were Critias, a former student of Socrates, and Theramenes, who had been involved in an earlier oligarchic coup in 411. Theramenes actually tried to moderate the regime, which got him killed. Luna: Wait, so one of the Thirty was killed by his own colleagues? Lucas: Yes. Theramenes opposed the mass executions and confiscations. Critias, the ringleader, denounced him as a traitor. At a meeting of the Boule, the council, Critias forced Theramenes to drink hemlock. Luna: That's exactly how Socrates died later. Lucas: Exactly the same method. Theramenes died in 404, Socrates in 399. The Thirty didn't stop at political enemies—they killed wealthy residents for their money and even ordinary citizens they distrusted. Xenophon says they executed about 1,500 people in just eight months. Luna: Eight months—that's brutal. How did they get away with it? Lucas: They had a Spartan garrison stationed in the Acropolis, and they disarmed all Athenians except a handpicked group of 3,000 supporters. They also banned anyone they considered a threat from entering the city, forcing many into exile. Lucas: But one exile, Thrasybulus, gathered a small force and seized the fortress of Phyle on the border with Boeotia, then later captured the port of Piraeus. A battle broke out at Munichia, where Critias was killed. The Thirty were overthrown, and a new board of Ten was elected, but they were just as bad. Luna: So the civil war continued even after the Thirty fell? Lucas: Yes. The Ten held out with Spartan help until a Spartan king, Pausanias, negotiated a settlement. In 403, democracy was restored. An amnesty was declared—except for the Thirty themselves and a few others—and Athens began to rebuild. Luna: An amnesty after all that bloodshed—that's remarkable. Did it hold? Lucas: Mostly, yes. The Athenians deliberately chose reconciliation over revenge. It's one of the reasons democracy survived and flourished in the 4th century. The amnesty was a deliberate political act—the Decree of Patrocleides—and it included everyone except those who had held office under the Thirty. Luna: So the democracy came back, but I imagine the trauma lingered. Lucas: Absolutely. The memory of the Thirty haunted Athenian politics for decades. It's one reason the trial of Socrates a few years later was so charged—Socrates had taught Critias and another member, Charmides. Guilt by association. Luna: And Xenophon and Aristotle wrote about this—what do their accounts say? Lucas: Xenophon's Hellenica gives a detailed, firsthand narrative. He was an Athenian who fought in the war and later lived under the Thirty, though he was not in the city at the time. Aristotle, in his Constitution of the Athenians, describes the regime's structure and its abuses. Diodorus Siculus also covers it, drawing from the historian Ephorus. Luna: So we've got multiple sources, even if they don't always agree. Lucas: Right. For example, Xenophon says Theramenes opposed the terror from the start, while Aristotle portrays him as more complicit until he saw the regime failing. But the overall picture is consistent: the Thirty were a violent oligarchy that collapsed under its own cruelty. Luna: And their fall paved the way for a restored democracy that lasted another 80 years until Macedon took over. Lucas: Exactly. In a way, the brief tyranny of the Thirty helped solidify Athenian commitment to democracy. They'd seen the alternative, and they never wanted to go back.