Ancient Greece: Political History and Notable People (All Other Categories: Legal, Militaristic, Geographical, etc.)

Dates span rule in office only where necessary; some dates are lifespans since rule is not known or they were not known to be rulers

1700 BCE - 1400 BCE - King Minos (All Facts)

• King of Knossos in Crete

• According to legend, he had the Palace at Knossos built with labyrinthine passages in order that he could hide the monster he had fathered, the Minotaur, from human society

600’s BCE - King Byzas (All Facts)

• Legendary founder of the city and colony of Byzantium

600’s BCE - Lycurgus (All Facts)

• Legendary lawgiver who instituted “Eunomia”

• Was from and gave law in Sparta

690 BCE - Antiphemos (All Facts)

• Founder of the city of Gela in Sicily

• Was from Rhodes

657 BCE - 627 BCE - Cypselus (All Facts)

• Considered history’s / Ancient Greece’s first “tyrant” who was an aristocrat who seized power and took over the government in a time of crisis

• Was the first tyrant and ruler of the Greek city of Corinth

• Famous for walking around without a bodyguard, which indicated that he still enjoyed the support of his soldiers

• His rule was mild towards the ordinary people but he was popular

• His rule has been shrouded in legend and a myth which describes

  • His mother, Labda, who was a member of the ruling family, the Bacchiads, who kept power within the family by inter-marrying; but was lame and was spurned by her kinsmen, and so she married Aetion, a non-Bacchiad

  • Her family, whom took no notice of this until she became pregnant and the Oracle at Delphi told Aetion that Labda will bear the namesake tyrant

  • Enraged, the Bacchiads sent men to the village of Petra where Aetion lived to kill him as a baby

    • Their plan was to ask Labda if one of them could hold the child out of affection for its father, and then whoever was given the baby would dash him to the floor

  • Chance saved him for, as Labda handed him over, the baby enchanted his would-be killer with his smile and he was returned safely

  • When a second attempt was made on his life, Labda hid him in a chest and he was saved once again

    • It is said that his name derives from the Greek word for “chest”

  • The Bacchiads were right to fear him because, when he grew to manhood, the Oracle at Delphi hailed him as king of the namesake city

  • Armed with this prophecy and the support of the army, he overthrew his kinsmen, who had become increasingly unpopular, and made himself master of the namesake city

  • Upon taking rule, he was ruthless towards the Bacchiads:

    • he killed many, exiled others, and stripped them of their property

    • He was to make sure that they never again return to power

• After the defeat of the Bacchiads, he came to the height of his power and prosperity

627 BCE - 585 BCE - Periander (All Facts)

• Second tyrant of Corinth and son of Cypselus

• Brought about a prosperous time in Corinth's history, as his administrative skill made Corinth one of the wealthiest city states in Greece

• Constructed the “dioklos,” a trackway for ships

• Was one of the Seven Sages of Greece

640 BCE - Theagenes (All Facts)

• One of Ancient Greece’s first tyrants

• He was tyrant and ruler of the Greek city of Megara

• Supported an unsuccessful coup by his son-in-law Cylon at Athens

640 BCE - 568 BCE - Pittacus (All Facts)

• Greek tyrant of Mytilene

• Was one of the Seven Sages of Greece

620 BCE - 600 BCE - Dracon / Draco (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon and lawmaker

• Deeply religious man

• His laws

  • culminated into the first written constitution of Athens, which replaced the system of oral law and blood feud with the written code which was to be strictly enforced by a court of law

  • gave Athenians a set of rules applicable to all

    • However, his laws were considered severely harsh

      • This is because they established the death penalty for most offenses

      • His name lends itself to a descriptor for law codes or rules if they are too harsh

    • Nonetheless, his laws brought an end and settled the differences brought about by blood feuds and acts of personal revenge that plagued Athens for centuries

  • outlined the penalties for other crimes including

    • Robbery and theft

    • Sacrilege and personal insults

  • and were

    • Identified and allocated appropriate penalties including

      • Fines that vary according to the importance of the victim

      • Imprisonment

      • Enslavement

      • Execution

  • set out a new (for the time) legal concept that made a clear distinction between manslaughter and premeditated murder

    • For murder, there is a scale of penalties that even took into account the weapons used

594 BCE - 560 BCE - Solon (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon (statesman) and lawmaker

• Was one of the Seven Sages of Greece

• Credited with laying the foundations for Athenian and Greek Democracy

  • It was said that he brought democracy to Athens, however, two classes were still denied any part in the political process in his system and thus had no control over their lives: women and slaves

• Reorganized the distribution of political power, taking it from the old aristocracy and dividing it between four new property-owning classes according to the yields from their lands

  • Under his rule, he established a census that would divide people up by how much wine, oil or grain they produced in order to determine their political standing

  • Actual power resided in the first three of these classes, who filled public posts either by election or by casting lots

  • Even the lowest class, the Thetes, were admitted to the judicial tribunals and Assembly

  • The people in these classes took part in the appointment of magistrates and members of the Council

• Granted foreigners civil rights

• His efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline resulted in his overturning most of Draco's laws via constitutional reform and the introduction of a completely new set of laws by the time of his rule

  • Repealed all of Draco’s laws except the one on homicide

• His laws

  • Guaranteed freedom to every citizen of Athens

  • Could be read by everybody

  • Were written on wooden tablets set in rotating four-sided frames

• His most famous law was called the “Seisachtheia,” which was Greek for “the shaking off of burdens,” in which he abolished the system whereby a man and his family could fall into slavery if they failed to pay off their debts and/or mortgages

  • Some of the lower classes expected him to be more radical than he was, and thus were disappointed with his new laws; nevertheless, the reality of office forced him to compromise

  • His successor would quickly take advantage of this

• Established the “Council of the Four Hundred”

561 BCE - 527 BCE - Pisistratus (All Facts)

• Tyrant of Athens

  • Seized power by overthrowing his predecessor who was his fierce political opponent

  • Made War against Megara to seize power which his predecessor fought him over

• Considered to have ruled over Athens in a “Golden Age” in which he

  • Determined to rule fairly

  • Maintained a tranquil atmosphere over Athens

  • Beautified the city

  • Encouraged sculptors and poets

• Formed a third faction between those in Athens quarreling between those that lived on the plain and those who lived along the shore

  • This faction drew on the strength of the poor farmers and the men of the hills who felt they had not benefited from his predecessor’s reforms

• His rule was marked more by farce than by tragedy and his rule has not been that cruel

  • Inflicted some cuts and bruises on himself and his mules, and drove his cart into the meeting place of Athens and claiming that he had barely escaped with his life from a band of assassins

    • This story likely served as propaganda in order to make up an excuse to come to power

    • It horrified the good citizens enough though to the point where, when he demanded a bodyguard, the citizens of Athens allowed him to form a band of tough men armed with wooden clubs

    • Backed by these tough men, he then seized the Acropolis and power over Athens

528 BCE - 527 BCE - Hipparchus (All Fact)

• Tyrant of Athens, son of Pisistratus, who was murdered by his elder brother and successor Hippias during a religious procession in which he was stabbed to death

• This was because he

  • Fell in love with a handsome young Athenian man named Harmodius, but Harmodius rejected him since he was already locked in a passionate affair with a man named Aristogeiton, so, determined to have his revenge after being twice rejected, he offered Harmodius’ virginal sister a place of honor in the procession and then rejected her and blamed her to be wicked which enraged Harmodius, who then plotted with his lover Aristogeiton and a group of their friends to kill the brothers and overthrow the dynasty

  • However, after they murdered him, their plot failed because Harmodius was killed on the spot and Aristogeiton was caught and tortured to death by Hippias

527 BCE - 510 BCE - Hippias (All Facts)

• Last tyrant of Athens

• Was the brother of his predecessor and son of his brother’s predecessor

• Unleashed a campaign of terror against his enemies in which he killed his brother, those who tried to kill his brother, Harmodius, Aristogeiton and their allies; and many others as he sought to destroy his enemies

  • Murdered and stabbed to death his brother and predecessor

• This campaign of terror, however, only strengthened the opposition to his rule

  • He was eventually overthrown by his successor with the help of Cleomenes I and his Spartan troops who then installed Isagoras in his place

525 BCE - 524 BCE - Cleisthenes (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon and lawgiver

• Considered the “Father of Athenian Democracy,” he is credited with reforming the Athenian constitution

  • Through his reforms, he and the people of Athens established

    • the legal concept of Isonomia - equal rights for all citizens (free men and women)

    • the legal concept / process of ostracism - punishment for being considered dangerous to Greece (banishment)

• Broke up the city-state into administrative units called the “deme” which were combined into “trittyes” and formed ten new “phylai” (tribes) which replaced the prior division in Athens of four tribes in which each tribe chose 50 men to send to the Council of Athens

  • Through this administrative reorganization, all citizens of Athens, from the richest to the poorest, could be represented on the Council of Athens

  • This meant that all Athenians were equal under the eyes of the law

  • This thus stripped the phylai of their political power

• When Spartan mercenaries helped him overthrow his predecessor Hippias, they installed a new leader in his place, Isagoras, whom he then wrested power from with the help of the “demos” or people (specifically, the middle class)

  • Faced a Spartan army led by King Cleomenes I that allied with Isagoras, his rival

• Some in his day thought the motive behind his reforms was not genuine and were not to the cause of the people but rather a simple device to curb the power of his rivals among the landed gentry

524 BCE - 523 BCE - Miltiades (the Younger) (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon and statesman who led the Greeks against the Persian army at the Battle of Marathon

• Persuaded nine other generals to fight immediately instead of waiting for help from the Spartans

• Had heard that the Persians had withdrawn some of their cavalry to the ships to prepare for an attack on Athens from the sea

  • So he chose that time to attack, relying on surprise, speed, and a three-pronged assault across a wide front

  • His forces ran towards the Persian archers, getting underneath their arrows

  • At first, the Persians broke through in the center and pursued him and the Athenians inland

  • The two armies on the flanks, however, defeated the Persian flanks and made a concerted attack on the main force from the rear

  • They then captured seven Persian ships

  • Some 6,400 Persians were killed while the Athenian army’s losses numbered fewer than 200

• Famous for dying from a wound sustained in an abortive attack on Paros

• He led a failed expedition to destabilize Persian influence in the Cyclades and capture the fold reserves of Paros and Thasos

  • Before his death, he was heavily fined by the Athenians for his failure

Histiaeus (All Facts)

• Held hostage by Darius in Susa

• His cousin, Aristagoras, took over in Miletus

500’s BCE - Aristagoras (All Facts)

• Greek leader who helped Ionia rebel against Persia and instigated the Greek rebellions against Persia and Greco-Persian Wars

• Ruler of the city-state of Miletus of Ionia

• Took over Miletus after Histiaeus was held hostage by Darius in Susa

  • Set out to gain favor with the Persians by proposing that they join with him in an expedition to capture Naxos and other Aegean islands and even though the Persians agreed, bad blood developed between him and Darius and the Persians betrayed him and the expedition was a disaster

• Cousin of Hisitaeus

  • A slave arrived to him from Susa who told him to shave his head and when he did he found on the slave’s head a message from his cousin Histiaeus tattooed on the slave’s scalp urging him to lead a revolt against the Persians

    • So to win the support of the people to rebel against Persia, he overthrew all the tyrants in the cities around Miletus and proclaimed equality under the laws

    • He then sought help from King Cleomenes of Sparta, by having showed him a bronze map and pointing out the expedition route, which seemed short, but when Cleomenes asked how long it would take and he said three months, Cleomenes rejected his request

      • So he got help from the Athenians instead who agreed to provide him 20 warships

493 BCE - 492 BCE - Themistocles (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon, politician and general

• As Archon

  • He convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens via a building program which involved the construction of 200 triremes for the larger war against Persia and the smaller war against Aegina

    • He raised money for the building program by

      • Persuading his fellow citizens to fund the building program with the recent big find of silver at the Laurion mines

      • Via the trierarchy, a tax levied on those who own very large amounts of property

    • He housed the fleet made by the building program by

      • promoting the modernization of Piraeus, the port of Athens

      • promoting the dredging of the Bay of Mounychia, in which enormous repair yards were built there

    • Required 40,000 oarsmen total to man the triremes

  • He reasoned that if Athens were ever to be defeated by the Persians, or any other power, the triremes that were built could be used for the mass emigration of Athenians towards the west of Greece if in such a time of crisis

• As a politician, he

  • was a populist, having the support of lower-class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility

  • was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy

  • advocated for the construction and expansion of the Athenian navy throughout his lifetime

  • He oversaw the construction of the “Northern Wall” in Piraeus after it had been devastated by the Persians in 480 BCE

    • Led the whole population in working on the new wall(s), even having demolished public and private buildings to help to provide materials

• As a general, he

  • Led the Greeks in the Battle of Salamis

  • Fought in the Battle of Marathon

• Was eventually ostracized by the Athenians in a decision in which he was voted to be banished, from which he fell victim to ostracism being used as a political weapon

  • This came as a surprise to many Athenians who revered him for his populism and advocation of the Athenian navy to protect themselves from the Persians

490 BCE - 479 BCE - Aristides the Just (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon and Statesman

• Convinced Athens’ Ionian allies of the need for an alliance or “Symmachia,” and he would go on to found the Delian League

  • Proposed that each member should pay an annual tribute to finance a fleet of triremes, with the contribution of each city fixed according to its means

  • Helped to make Athens the ruling state of the Delian League

• Was initially ostracized by the Athenians, but, who, banished in the decade after the Battle of Marathon which he served in as a general, he was later recalled

  • His rivalry with Themistocles and the democrats led to his exile

  • Was recalled to command the Athenian forces at the Battle of Platea

• Thus, he is remembered for his generalship in the Battles of Marathon and Platea during the Persian Wars

• Died in poverty

479 BCE - 478 BCE - Pausanias (All Facts)

• Spartan Reagent Ruler and General

• Led the Greek forces to victory against Mardonius and the Persians at the Battle of Platea

• Accused of fomenting a helot revolt in his native Sparta, he took sanctuary in a temple, where he was left to starve to death

510 BCE - 450 BCE - Cimon (All Facts)

• Athenian strategos and politician

  • Took advantage of Themistocles’ political decline, he became the most powerful man in Athens afterwards

• Son of Miltiades

• Destroyed or captured most of the Persian ships at the mouth of the Eurymedon River, off the coast of Pamphylia

  • Regained control of the city-states in Thrace and along the Aegean basin

  • Secured Athenian dominance in the Aegean

• Defeated the Persians in a great naval and land battle at Eurymedon River in Asia Minor in 466 BCE

• Came from a powerful and old ruling family, but had to rely on his oratorical skills more so than a hereditary right to govern

• Eventually ostracized by Pericles, he acted as the principal negotiator with Sparta during the First Peloponnesian War

• He was later recalled from being ostracized in order to lead the Athenians to victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in Cyprus in 450 BCE, having recovered most of Cyprus before he died at the siege of Citium (Larnaca) in 449 BCE

460’s BCE - Ephialtes (All Facts)

• Athenian politician and lawmaker (radical reformer)

• Early leader of the Democratic movement started by Cleisthenes

• Took advantage of the absence of his predecessor from leadership due to his predecessor having gone on a military expedition to Messenia

• Respected for his integrity by his fellow citizens

• Forced a fundamental law through the Assembly which was designed to establish a new fairness among political institutions by depriving the Areopagus of its principal judicial powers

  • This thus made it so that everything concerning Athenian administration would be handled by the Council of Five Hundred or the Heliaia

• He thus transferred a considerable amount of political power from the aristocracy to the people

  • He made many enemies as a result

461 BCE - 429 BCE - Pericles (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon, general, and orator

• As Archon, he

  • Ruled over Greece during his namesake Golden Age, where he

    • Oversaw the construction projects of the Acropolis including

      • The Parthenon

      • The Erectheum

      • The Propylaea

      • The Temple of Athena Nike

    • Diverted some of the funds raised for defense by other Greek city-states in the Delian League to these projects

      • His critics alleged that he had misused the allies’ money for the sake of vanity

    • Saw it as a massive public works project, providing employment for architects, sculptors, painters, craftsmen, and laborers

      • His critics said he favored his friends like Phidias, the sculptor, to build many of the buildings; and said that he gave Phidias such leeway because Phidias had arranged love affairs for him with Athenian women, when they came on the pretext of looking at the works of art he commissioned

    • Was determined to turn the Acropolis into

      • a shrine to Athens’ patron goddess Athena

      • a showplace for the art of Athens’ citizens

  • Maintained that Athens had built up the finest navy in the region

  • Continued the democratic political reforms began by his friend Ephialtes

  • Made the Athenians fully aware of their power by using the principle of democracy to bring unity and glory to the city-state

  • Organized a congress of all Greek states in order to

    • plan the rebuilding of the temples destroyed by the Persians

    • establish freedom of the seas

    • establish peace among the states

  • Although nothing came of these ambitious objectives, he gained much honor as he was appointed commissioner for the building of the Parthenon

• As a general during the Peloponnesian War, he

  • Shored up his position in Athens and restored order in the Aegean after signing a 5-year truce with Sparta in 451 BCE

  • Checked the Spartan army that marched towards his Athens in violation of the truce

  • Assisted Egypt in its rebellions against the Persians by blockading Memphis in 459 BCE and assisting them at Papremis

    • However, the Greeks lost two squadrons in battle there and were bottled up, along with the rebels, within the Nile River

    • Sustaining heavy losses, the Greeks are put to flight and take refuge in an island in the Nile Delta

  • Avoided set battles

  • Gathered the people of Attica behind the defensive walls he had built, allowing the superior Spartan army to ravage the countryside while the Athenian fleet harried the enemy coastline

• Seized power by ostracizing his rival Thucydides

• Additionally ostracized Cimon, who was later recalled

• Came from a powerful and old ruling family, but had to rely on his oratorical skills more so than a hereditary right to govern

• Despite his democratic principles and incorruptibility, he remained a rich and haughty aristocrat

• He had many enemies who slandered him

• Shortly after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, he praised the dead of the city of Athens as worthy of their city, and warned that “freedom depends upon being courageous”

• Killed by the Great Plague of Athens in 429 BCE

429 BCE - 422 BCE - Cleon (All Facts)

• Athenian leader and successor of Pericles

• Changed his predecessor’s policy, in which he decided it would be best to raid and blockade rather than avoid set battles

• Under his reign, during the Second Peloponnesian War, Athens

  • Closed the Gulf of Corinth in 429 BCE

  • Put down a revolt in Lesbos in 428 BCE

  • Attempted to capture Boeotia in 427 BCE

  • Seized all but one base in the Corinthian Gulf by 427 BCE

  • Established a base in Spartan territory at Sphacteria in 425 BCE

  • Gained victory over Megara and its port Nisaea in 424 BCE

  • However,

    • they lost the Battle of Delium in a campaign in Boeotia in 424 BCE

    • Morale fell by 424 BCE

426 BCE - 413 BCE - Demosthenes, son of Alcisthenes (All Facts)

• Athenian general who drove out the Peloponnesian attacks on Athens during the Second Peloponnesian War around 425 BCE

• Athenian general who led Athens to victory against the Spartans at the Battle of Pylos in 425 BCE

459 BCE - 424 BCE - Hippocrates of Athens (All Facts)

• Strategos of the Athenians who served alongside Demosthenes

• His column is halted at the Battle of Delium by a phalanx of the pro-Spartan Boeotians in which 1,000 Athenians died in the ensuing battle

400’s BCE - 407 BCE - Hermocrates (All Facts)

• Syracusan general from Greek Sicily during the Athenians' Sicilian Expedition in the midst of the Peloponnesian War who played a large part in bringing about the Syracusan victory against Athens

470 BCE - 413 BCE - Nicias (All Facts)

• Athenian politician and general

• As a politician, he

  • became the principal rival of Cleon and the democrats in the struggle for political leadership of the Athenian state in which he led a party against him

  • Politically a moderate conservative, he opposed the aggressive imperialism of Cleon and Alcibiades

• Wrote up his namesake peace treaty to make a truce with the Spartans during the Second Peloponnesian War

• In his debate with his political rival Alcibiades, he pointed out the dangers of the naval expedition to Sicily proposed by Alcibiades and called into question Alcibiades’ extravagant lifestyle

  • In response, Alcibiades boasted of the honor that he had brought to Athens by having his chariots come first, second, and fourth in the Olympics

• As a general, he

  • Led the Athenian expedition to Sicily after Alcibiades defected to Sparta

    • There, the Athenians suffered a major catastrophe

    • He and his forces were destroyed by the Syracusans and their Spartan allies in a great land and sea battle

  • Was captured and executed

432 BCE - 407 BCE - Alcibiades (All Facts)

• Athenian Archon and general

• Was a brilliant, impetuous scion of one of Athens’ richest families

  • Outside of the Peloponnesian War, he is best remembered as a student of Socrates

• He broke the Peace of Nicias and resumed the fighting of the Second Peloponnesian War

  • Opposed to the peace with Sparta established by his political rival Nicias, he demanded the war resume for the greater glory of Athens

• He engaged in a famous debate with Nicias in which he had persuaded the audience (the assembly) to send a powerful naval expedition to Sicily consisting of the triremes

  • When Nicias pointed out the dangers of the naval expedition to Sicily proposed by Alcibiades and called into question Alcibiades’ extravagant lifestyle; he responded by saying that he had brought honor to Athens by having his chariots come first, second, and fourth in the Olympics

  • His fiery words in the debate were greeted with acclaim, forcing Nicias to bow to his arguments and even to propose that the power of the expedition be increased

  • Due to his oratorical power, he eventually won and and thus triremes were sent to do battle with Syracuse

• Politicians schemed to have him tried for sacrilege because they accused him of mocking the Eleusinian Mysteries and hacking off statues of the god Hermes

  • Although this was likely done for political reasons, a slave was questioned via torture about who had profaned the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Hermes statues and the slave revealed that it was him

  • All of his political enemies thus used these incidents of the hacking of Hermes statues and profaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries as a means of blaming him and being able to put him to death since that was the traditional charge for doing these things

• In response,

  • He offered to stay in Athens to face such charges, but his political rivals forced him to take command of his Sicilian Expedition so they could plot against him in his absence

  • They then recalled him from the expedition, but on the way back he learned they were planning to execute him, so he defected to Sparta

  • Thus, Nicias took command of the Athenian forces in the Sicilian Expedition

• Upon defecting to Sparta, he informed them that it was best for them to invade Attica while Athens was still fighting and suffering miserably from the Sicilian Expedition to which his information proved sound

• Upon defecting to Persia, he was eventually recalled back to Athens as a general where he led them in the Battle of Cyzicus, annihilating a Persian fleet there

• Returned to Athens, after it betrayed him a few years ago, and was welcomed and pardoned; reflecting the euphoria in Athens after recent victories over the Peloponnesians in Anatolia and the restoration of democracy in Athens

454 BCE - 395 BCE - Lysander (All Facts)

• Spartan General in the Battle of Aegospotami during the Second Peloponnesian War who

  • Singlehandedly brought an end to the Second Peloponnesian War, in which the Spartans came out on top and forced Athens to capitulate

  • headed a Spartan fleet built with Persian money

  • destroyed the Athenian vanguard and fleet

  • caught the rest of the fleet by surprise before it was ready for sea

  • landed soldiers at the Athenian fortress of Eteonikos

  • seized part of the palisade

  • fixed grappling irons to the Greek ships and dragged them away

• His soldiers routed the Greeks, who resisted as well as they could, but were disorganized by his surprise attack and soon broke and fled

• He played a key role in Sparta's domination of Greece for the next decade until his death at the Battle of Haliartus

• Humbled Athens’ glory, having the city be ruled by Tyrants which he imposed on it

443 BCE - 389 BCE - Conon (All Facts)

• Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War

• Led the Athenian naval forces when they were defeated by the Lysander and the Spartans with their Peloponnesian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami

• He escaped in his trireme, but, fearing the consequences if he returned to Athens, fled to Cyprus

• Later in his life, he significantly contributed to the restoration of Athens’ political and military power

404 BCE - 403 BCE - Critias and The Thirty Tyrants (All Facts)

• Gang of reactionary extremists imposed upon Athens by Lysander of Sparta after their victory in the Second Peloponnesian War

• The gang is ruled by the namesake leader and ruled by fear

• They were comprised of previously exiled / ostracized opponents of democracy within Athens

• They took their revenge upon Athens by killing large numbers of people and indulging with great cruelty in their suffering

  • Among their victims is Theramenes, the moderate leader who was once their leader’s friend

• Systematically eliminated the democrats

  • Allowed only a privileged 3,000 to bear arms, and anyone not among those 3,000 could be summarily executed

  • Others were ordered to dispatch themselves with a fatal draught of hemlock, often without a trial

• Murdered immigrants who served Athens well and seized their possessions for personal gain

• Was one of the saddest and most shameful chapters in Athenian history

455 BCE - 388 BCE - Thrasybulus (All Facts)

• Athenian democratic leader and general

• After Athens' defeat in the Second Peloponnesian War, he led the democratic resistance against the new oligarchic government, known as the Thirty Tyrants, imposed by Lysander and the victorious Spartans upon Athens

• He commanded a small force of exiles and invaded Spartan-ruled Attica at the Battle of Munychia, having defeated the Spartans there and then the oligarchy; thus having restored democracy in Athens and having reconciled the Athenians of past plights

• He declared amnesty for everyone except the surviving members of the Thirty Tyrants and other oligarchic extremists

• Was killed in the Corinthian War