CLAS/HIST3001 The Thirty Tyrants and Spartan Imperialism

● Athenian defeat at Aigospotamoi in 405 leads to inevitable defeat at Athens

What to Do With Athens (C240)? ● Sparta's Peloponnesian allies wish its destruction ● Sparta takes this as opportunity to become leader of Greek world, half of which followed Athens ● Athens agrees to become member of Peloponnesian League ● Loses all ships but 12 ● Takes down Long Walls and walls around Peiraieus ● “Lysandros then sailed into the Peiraieus and the exiles returned, and they tore down the walls with great enthusiasm to the music of flute-girls”

Effects of Thirty Tyrants ● Continued Athens on Path of (moderated) Democracy for Another Century ● Continued Animosity between Athenians and Sparta ● Created a Period of Recriminations and Self- Doubt

The Effect of the Thirty Tyrants on One Young Athenian ● In the days of my youth my experience was the same as that of many others. I thought that as soon as I should become my own master I would immediately enter into public life. But it so happened, I found, that the following changes occurred in the political situation. [The Thirty took over Athens...] ● Now of these some were actually connections and acquaintances of mine ; and indeed they invited me at once to join their administration, thinking it would be congenial.

● The feelings I then experienced, owing to my youth, were in no way surprising: for I imagined that they would administer the State by leading it out of an unjust way of life into a just way, and consequently I gave my mind to them very diligently, to see what they would do. And indeed I saw how these men within a short time caused men to look back on the former government as a golden age; and above all how they treated my aged friend Socrates, whom I would hardly scruple to call the most just of men then living, when they tried to send him, along with others, after one of the citizens,

● to fetch him by force [325a] that he might be put to death--their object being that Socrates, whether he wished or no, might be made to share in their political actions; he, however, refused to obey and risked the uttermost penalties rather than be a partaker in their unholy deeds. So when I beheld all these actions and others of a similar grave kind, I was indignant, and I withdrew myself from the evil practices then going on. ● Plato Letter 7 324c-d

Oligarchic Opportunism ● Cleophon, leading democrat, executed on trumped-up charges ● Agreement with Sparta that Athens is to look over old laws in order to form new constitution ● this could be all things to all people: reform process already underway, or oligarchy? ● commission of thirty set up to perform this act ● Lysander goes, and evacuates Decelaea ● Can oligarchic forces agree on a government? ● Can this exist without threat of Spartan force?

No ● Thirty men voted to “draft the ancestral nomoi” ● They never form this or established a government ● Began reign of terror in their own right, “Thirty Tyrants” ● People agreed to liquidation of malicious prosecutors ● But terror spreads: ● List of 3,000 who are to share government, only people free from summary execution ● Each member kills a resident alien, metoikos ● This used to pay the Spartan garrison that was necessary to quell opposition

Divisions Among the Oligarchs ● Kritias leads the hard-liners ● Former exile ● Theramenes opposes the continuation of the thirty ● “It would be impossible for the oligarchy to survive unless 'a reasonable number of others' were brought in to share the control of affairs.” ● Theramenes is removed from the list of 3,000 and executed ● Final gesture is a toast to “that fine fellow, Kritias”

Democratic Counter-Revolution ● Thebes supports the exile Thrasyboulos ● City fighting leads to victory of 'men from Phyle' and 'men from Piraeus' against 'men of the city' ● C245: what is the nature of the peace terms?

A Time of Reforms ● Athens adopts Ionic Greek alphabet ● Codification of nomoi ● Rejection of radical proposals of any stripe

Execution of Socrates ● Vengeance of the democratic polis on man who had shaped Alcibiades and Kritias ● Charge of asebia, impiety ● Originally seen as 'gadfly', amusing head-in- clouds ● Part of middle-of-road spirit of the day