404 BCEAthens
2,429 years ago
404–400 BCE, Athens and the Greek world. 8 posts and events, oldest first.
, Athens
After the surrender, Athens votes in thirty men, Critias among them, to write new laws. Backed by Sparta, they rule as an oligarchy.
it was voted by the people to choose thirty men to frame the ancient laws into a constitution under which to conduct the government.
Background: Thirty Tyrants, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
What was going on: Xenophon is narrating Athens' surrender in 404 BCE. With people dying of famine, the Assembly has just voted, on Theramenes' advice, to accept Sparta's peace terms and tear down the walls.
Why it matters: The surrender ended the Peloponnesian War. Athens lost its Aegean empire and its dominance at sea, and Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece.
Lysander sailed into the harbour, the exiles came home, and the Peloponnesians happily tore down the walls to flute music, thinking Greece's freedom began that day.
After this Lysander sailed into Piraeus, the exiles returned, and the Peloponnesians with great enthusiasm began to tear down the walls to the music of flute-girls, thinking that that day was the beginning of freedom for Greece.
What was going on: Xenophon describes the death of Theramenes under the Thirty, who ruled Athens after its surrender. Critias handed him over to be executed, and Satyrus dragged him from the altar while the council kept quiet, with armed men waiting outside.
Why it matters: Though they held power for only eight months, their rule saw 5% of the Athenian population killed, citizens' property confiscated and other democrats exiled.
Led through the market, he shouted about the wrongs done to him. Told to keep quiet or suffer, he reportedly asked: and if I keep quiet, won't I suffer?
So they led the man away through the market-place, while he proclaimed in a very loud voice the wrongs he was suffering. One saying of his that is reported was this: when Satyrus told him that if he did not keep quiet, he would suffer for it, he asked: Then if I do keep quiet, shall I not suffer?
What was going on: After Athens surrendered in 404 BCE, the Thirty ruled the city with Sparta's backing. Xenophon has just described a man led through the market-place to drink hemlock, playful to the end. Soon Thrasybulus seized the fortress of Phyle.
Why it matters: The more violent the Thirty's regime became, the more opposition it faced, and that opposition ultimately led to its overthrow by Thrasybulus' rebel forces.
With Theramenes dead, the Thirty thought they could rule as tyrants without fear. They barred people from the city and took their land for themselves and their friends.
So, then, Theramenes died; but the Thirty, thinking that now they could play the tyrant without fear, issued a proclamation forbidding those who were outside the roll to enter the city and evicted them from their estates, in order that they themselves and their friends might have these people’s lands.
, Athens
Exiles led by Thrasybulus overthrow the Thirty. The two sides swear not to remember past wrongs and live together again as citizens.
And, pledged as they were under oath, that in very truth they would not remember past grievances, the two parties even to this day live together as fellow-citizens and the commons abide by their oaths.
Background: Thirty Tyrants, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
What was going on: As Plato tells it, Meno has just complained that talking with Socrates leaves his mind and tongue numb, so he can no longer say what virtue is, and has made a teasing comparison. Socrates answers, then offers to keep searching for what virtue is together.
If that numbing fish is numb itself, then I'm like it. I don't confuse people because I'm sure. I confuse them because I'm the most unsure of all.
As for me, if the torpedo is torpid itself while causing others to be torpid, I am like it, but not otherwise. For it is not from any sureness in myself that I cause others to doubt: it is from being in more doubt than anyone else that I cause doubt in others.
The Chorus on not being born
What was going on: In Sophocles' play Oedipus at Colonus, staged after his death, Theseus has just promised an old man his life is safe. The Chorus then sings that long life brings more pain than joy, and that death comes to all.
Best of all is never to be born. Second best, once you are born, is to go back where you came from as fast as you can.
Not to be born is, beyond all estimation, best; but when a man has seen the light of day, this is next best by far, that with utmost speed he should go back from where he came.
Oedipus tells Theseus that time overpowers all
What was going on: In Sophocles' play, Oedipus, driven from his country by his own sons, speaks to Theseus. He goes on to warn that time turns friendship to hostility, between people and between cities, even between Thebes and Theseus.
Only the gods never grow old or die. Everything else is worn down into ruin by time, which beats everything.
Dearest son of Aegeus, to the gods alone old age and death never come, but everything else sinks into chaos from time which overpowers all.
