The Thirty at Athens 0801414504, 9780801414503

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The Thirty at Athens PETER KRENTZ

Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON

Cornell University Press gratefully acknou:ledges a grant from thntify some 1 e o ICe o ers The ep . th h b ·J . onymous arcnon was P\'thodorus 4 ~ arc tohn ha'lteus probably Pa.trodt>s., and we:can safe]'y 'as sume at t e other • ,h . arc ons were also named. Of the ·1·t ary commands w I . I . m11 The El, . . , e 1ear on y of the lupparch Lysimachus.6 in thee\e~ seem to I~ave had their usual duties of supervisdpnhsc~n,carrymg out executions (including those of cog c n1esse t 1eves kidn· . l I . . ' appers, an( mgands. without trial) , an d h an d mg over cm1f . t d isc,.·ie propertv to the p(J/etai who . h were m c arge of sal 7 N . , t0 b I . es. ' ot surprisingly, tlwv did not prove e popu ar under the Th· t s .· as a b f . ir Y· • atyrus of Kephisia who O th ho ,mem er e boule in 405 had been one of 'cieoP n s accusers was de , 'b cl l X est and mos ' . scn e )Y~' enophon as the bold. . t shameless of the Eleven (for X h , morahzmg judg t cl . , enop on s men , rea mstead "most faithhil to the oligarchy''). ij

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Ten men were app · t I I supervision of the . o1~ ec to ru e Piraeus, under the th El Thirty. A letter of Plato links them with m:ket:o;et~nd s~i~ that both had responsibilities for the er w1 general administration in their respec. 'Xe~. 2 ·3- l; Lys. 7.9; AthPol . 1'. 4[1. 1•. Brnno Keil, tinensis (Strassburg 1902) 6g ;· Anonymus ArgenPythodorus who was a friend 77•. Pythod]orus. He was probably the of ~ns~oteles, the member of the Thirty (Plato Pann. 127d) but th . • ' e name 1s fiurly co d c. h t ion 1s uncertain. Kirchner mad h ~mon an Hirt er identifica12389) that he be identified wit~ tK~rc~~lchve suggestion (KirchPA no. Four Hundred who drafted the mo . no. 1~4~2, a member of the prosecuted Protagoras (AthPol 2 . t~on for their installation and later 'Patrocles is attested as h 9.1, J?10g. Laert. 9.54). o~ ?as1leus du~ing the rule of the Ten who followed the Thirty (Isoc replaced the Thirty's .. lt .5), s1~ce there is no evidence that the Ten the Thirty. magis rates, e probably held the same post under 'Xen. 2-4-8. 'A. R. W. Harrison The La if A he :Lys. 30.10, 12; Xe~. 2.3 54w o t ns (Oxford 1968-71) 2.17. AthPol 35.1; Xen. 2-4- l~· Plut L cl-OtaGraeca (Berlin 1814) ' · ysan. 15-5; Immanuel Bekker, Anec1.235.

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tive cities. 10 This could mean that they had both executive and judicial powers, as did the Eleven. One of the Ten was Charmides the son of Glaucon, a participant in several Platonic dialogues. His guardian was his cousin Critias. 11 Another of the Ten, ~folpis, is only a name. 12 As for financial officials, inscriptions show that a board of ten treasurers of Athena and the Other Gods carried out its normal functions. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 23.81 is an inventory of the Hecatompedon, listing what the treasurers of 4oy402 received from their predecessors; Inscriptiones Graecae 1 3 .380 is a small fragment of the record of payments made by the treasurers in 404"403. 13 About two of the three men whose names are preserved (Menecrates of Oinoe, Dromoeleides of Prasiai, and Chariades of Agryle) we have no further knowledge. The third, Chariades, had served as a hellenotainias in 406/405 and appears as an epistates in the Erechtheum building record of 4og/408. 14 The Thirty hired 300 whip-bearing (mastigophoroi) attendants.15 Their number suggests that they replaced the 300 Scythian slaves Athens had been using as a sort of police force. The whips were intended to intimidate. An interesting parallel is the story told by Herodotus about the Scythians: experiencing difficulty in putting down a rebellion of slaves 0 ' Epist. 7.324c. "Xen. 2+ 19; Davies, AthPropFam no. 8792 IX. "Androtion, FGrHist 324 F 11. Oskar Armbruster cited Athenaeus 2.44 (Pythermus, FGrHist 8o F 2: "and Pythennus listed Glaucon the drunkard among the tyrants in the Piraeus") to show that Glaucon was also one of the Ten in Piraeus ("Uber die Herrschaft der Dreissig zu Athen 404"3 v. Chr ... [diss. Freiburg im Breisgau 1913] 42 n. 8). But Pythermus was probably referring to the commanders of the Macedonian garrison in the fourth/third centuries, not to the Ten in 404"403. See Konrad Ziegler, "Pythermos," RE 47 (1963) 514. llPeter Krentz, "SEC XXI,80 and the Rule of the Thirty," Hesperia 48 (1979) ~-63. "IC 1 .316 I. 328 and lG 13 .474 l. 2. "AthPol 35. 1.

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The Thirty at Athens

(sons of slaves and Scythian women, to be precise), they routed their opponents by taking up whips mastigai) instead of more conventional weapons. 1" Soon after they came to power, the Thirty brought to trial the generals, taxiarchs, and others who had opposed the peace treaty. 17 As former democratic leaders, these men could be expected to cause trouble in the future. The Thirty presided over a trial in front of the boule, which condemned the accused (except Agoratus) for plotting against the people; they had wanted to refuse the terms brought by Theramenes, although many Athenians were starving and desperate for peace. The trial was an orderlv one-at least the official verdict survived in written form 1~_:_andthe deaths of Dionysodorus, Strombichides, Nicias, Nicomenes, Aristophanes of Cholleidai, Eucrates, Hippias of Thasos, Xenophon of Kourion, and the others apparently did not arouse dissension, since no record of unrest survives. The Thirtv did not confiscate the property of the condemned men, as ·is shown by Lysias' comment that Dionysodorus disposed of his property as he pleased. 19 The Thirty then "declared that the city must be purged of unjust men and the rest of the citizens inclined to virtue and justice. "20 They therefore arrested and, after trial before the boule, executed certain sycophants as well as, Lysias suggests, men who had stolen public funds or taken bribes. The sources agree that these actions were generally well received. 21 After establishing the administrative machinery of the 1

•Hdt. 4. 1-4. "See Lys. 13. "Lys. 13. 50. "Lys. 13.41. 20 Lys. 12.5. On the propaganda of the Thirty during the early davs of their rule, see Luciano Gianfrancesco, "Aspetti propagandistici della politica dei Trenta Tiranni," in Contributi dell' lstituto di storia antica 2 (Milan 1974) 20-35. 21 Xen. 2.3. 12; AthPol 35.3; Diod. 14.4.2; Lys. 25. 19.

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The Thirty in Power /1,n Politeia. and was revised by Ephorus to fit with (or at least not blatantly to contradict) the portion of Xenophon he had followed earlier. 16 Busolt suggested Androtion as the source shared by Ephorus and Aristotle. l1nknown to Busolt was the Oxyrhynchus historian, now agreed to ht• Ephorus· main authority for this period, and therefore the most prominent candidate for the source of Athenaion Politeia 34-,3-40 as well. That Aristotle knew and used P seems to me a plausible and suggestive hypothesis. In 1893 Wilarnowitz observed that the character of Athenaion Politeia 34-3-40 is unlike that of the rest of the treatise; the section forms a cohesive unit with a detailed and convincing narrative. Wilamowitz suggested that here Aristotle really did the job of a historian, that here he did his own research rather than follow another author. 19 But it is more likely that he followed another writer here as he most often did elsewhere. The character of this part of the Athenaion Politeia can be better explained by the theory that Aristotle was following P. Note Aristotle's unusual description of three factions in Athens after the peace of 404; Aristotle normally thought in terms of only two factions, as his list of leaders in Athenai6n Politeia 28 shows (the three parties at the time of Pisistratus are a notable exception). P described three factions in Athens just before the outbreak of the Corinthian War: 00 did he customarily use a tripartite division to describe Athenian politics? Is this a further clue that Aristotle followed P? I suggest, then, the relationship shown in Figure 3. The hypothesis that the Athenaion Politeia's main source was P puts the chronological debate in a different perspective. P is generally agreed to have been "a contemporary 18

1 would see anoth~r change in the narrative of the source being foliowed m 14.32.4, where D1odorus (or Ephorus) added "and with foreign troops they controlled the city" on the basis of Xenophon. '"Aristoteles und Athen 1.121-23. "'See, 6(1(2-3, with Bruce, Historical Commentary 52-54, and Hamilton, Sparta s Bitter Victories 171-73. •

Appendix: Chronology Hellenica Oxyrhynchia

Xeno~

/IP)~

/ho~ Trogus

A~:;:::•

Diodorus

I

Justin Figure 3. Proposed relationship of the main sources

source of high objectivity and good understanding of historical causalitv. "21 Bruce states flatly that he believes the Oxyrhynchus h·istorian "is a more reliable source than Xenophon. "22 At the least, his chronology for the rule of the Thirty deserves equal consideration with that of Xenophon. Can we choose between the two? Aristotle (P) is more satisfactory in one important respect: he provides a good explanation of the need for the Spartan garrison. The Thirty, he says, were threatened by armed rebels in Attica. Reflection suggests that Aristotle's sequence of events makes more sense in the context. Compare the situation of the Thirty to that of the Four Hundred in 411. Theramenes was again a moderate member of the oligarchy, and Thrasybulus again led armed opposition. But instead of "H. R. Breitenbach, "Hellenika Oxyrhynchia," RE suppl. 12 (1970) 423 (my translation). nHistorical Commentary 21. See also the articles mentioned in n. 8. On the other hand, J. K. Anderson ('The Battle of Sardis," CSCA 7 [1975] 27-53) preferred Xenophon; Lotze (LysanPelopKr 31-37, on Aegospotami) refused to choose between Xenophon and P; and Hans R. Breitenbach ("Die Seeschlacht bei Notion (407fo6)," Historia 20 [ 1971] 152-71) maintained that Xenophon and P must be combined.

Appendix: Chronology

leading a successful internal revolt, Theramenes was executed; instead of having the major part of the Athenian war fleet, Thrasybulus had only seventy men when he began his rebellion against the Thirty; instead of trying to lead a war against the Lacedaemonians, the Thirty counted the Spartans among their strongest supporters and firmest friends. The year 404 was not 411. This time the oligarchs had a much better opportunity to establish the government they wanted. Were they satisfied to he only another of Lysander's decarchies, propped up by a garrison with a Spartan harmost? Or were they men with plans for permanent, viable change in Athenian government, who were-as they saw it-compelled to bring in foreign troops to face an armed threat at Phyle? Other evidence (the accounts of the treasurers of Athena, for example) indicates at least that the Thirty's rule was more regular than Xenophon would have us believe. Moreover, if the Athenian oligarchs were trying to imitate the Spartan system, they saw themselves as something other than a decarchv. C. Hignett found Aristotie's account inferior to Xenophon's in internal probability. z.1According to Hignett, the course of events in the Athenaion Politeia is "unintelligible," since the Athenians allowed themselves to be "slaughtered like sheep" and did not help Theramenes, before the garrison arrived and when they were still armed. But there is no need to interpret the Athenaion Politeia as saying the Athenians were "slaughtered like sheep" before the arrival of the garrison; the figure 1,500 given at 35.4 was probably the total number of Athenians killed during the revolution. Nor is the garrison needed to explain the death of Theramenes, since the Thirty provided a number of young men armed with daggers for the purpose of whatever intimidation was necessary. It is rather naive to think that the fact that the excluded were still armed "'History of the Athenian Constitution 387.

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Appendix: Chronology

made any difference. Armed or unarmed, the Athenians could have resisted had they wanted to, with knives, axes, sickles, anything (cf. Cinadon's plans for revolt in Sparta). Xenophon' s entire narrative (though more subtly than Diodoms') stresses the tyrannical nature of the Thirty. The Thirty acquire a mercenary bodyguard (cf. Pisistratus, Dionysius of Syracuse, and other tyrants), execute the best of their potential opponents (remember Thrasybulus' famous parable of the ears of corn), 24 and disarm the excluded (disarming the people was characteristic of oligarchies and tyrannies, according to Aristotle). 25 Xenophon uses the verb tyrannein and he makes Critias compare the Thirty's rule to a tyranny. 00 On the other hand, Xenophon presents Theramenes as the voice of reason and moderation, particularly in the pair of speeches he gives to Theramenes and Critias, here representing the radicals. 27 These speeches (which take up a disproportionate amount of space) and the execution of Theramenes, which follows, bring out the oppressive nature of the oligarchy. If Aristotle's chronology is correct, this memorable picture of the contrast between Critias and Theramenes is in part a creation of the artist rather than a mirror image of events. Critias was not the only extremist leader, and Theramenes was not alive to witness some of the events he mentions in the speech Xenophon has put into his mouth (e.g., the arrival of the garrison, the disarmament of the excluded, and the execution of the metics). For Xenophon, who had probably served in the cavalry I / that supported the Thirty, this representation might have I 2-