Ebook: The Thirty at Athens

In 404 B.C., shortly after the end of the Peloponnesian War, oligarchic conspirators overthrew the Athenian democracy with the aid of Spartan general Lysander and appointed thirty men to rule the city. Over the next eight months, the thirty provoked violent resistance. They executed many prominant citizens and brought in a Spartan garrison to aid them in the civil war. By the time the democracy was restored in 403, roughly 1500 people had died. The author explores the aims of the oligarchs and why they were not achieved. He takes the view that the thirty had a clear, political goal -- the remodeling of the state on lthe lines of the Spartan constitution -- and asserts they came close to contravening the Athenian democratic tradition. He places the responsibility for much of the bloodshed during this period on the democrats as well as the oligarchs. He bases his interpretation on Aristotle's Athenaion Politeia rather than the account of the thirty by Xenophon.