Thrasybulus Thrasybulus ( ; ' brave - willed ' ; died 388 BC ) was an Athenian general and democratic leader . In 411 BC , in the wake of an oligarchic coup at Athens , the pro - democracy sailors at Samos elected him as a general , making him a primary leader of the successful democratic resistance to that coup . As general , he was responsible for recalling the controversial nobleman Alcibiades from exile , and the two worked together extensively over the next several years . In 411 and 410 , Thrasybulus commanded along with Alcibiades and others at several critical Athenian naval victories . After Athens ' defeat in the Peloponnesian War , Thrasybulus led the democratic resistance to the new oligarchic government , known as the Thirty Tyrants , which the victorious Spartans imposed on Athens . In 404 BC , he commanded a small force of exiles that invaded Attica and , in successive battles , defeated first a Spartan garrison and then the forces of the oligarchy . In the wake of these victories , democracy was re - established at Athens . As a leader of this revived democracy in the 4th century BC , Thrasybulus advocated a policy of resistance to Sparta and sought to restore Athens ' imperial power . He was killed in 388 BC while leading an Athenian naval force during the Corinthian War . Personal life and early career . Almost nothing is known of Thrasybulus ' s background or early life . His father was named Lycus , and he was a native of the deme of Steiria in Athens . He was probably born between 455 and 441 BC , although a date as late as the late 430s BC cannot be ruled out . He was married , and had two children . Several facts make it clear that he was from a wealthy family ; he held the office of trierarch , which involved significant personal expenditures , on several occasions , and in the 4th century BC , his son was able to pay a substantial fine of 10 talents . By 411 BC , Thrasybulus was clearly established to some degree as a pro - democracy politician , as events discussed below make clear . He is not mentioned in any sources before 411 , so it is impossible to present a picture of his actions . As a politician , Thrasybulus consistently advocated several policies throughout his career . He was an advocate of Athenian imperialism and expansionism , and a strong supporter of Periclean democracy . He seems to have been an unspectacular public speaker , although Plutarch notes that he had " the loudest voice of the Athenians . " During his period of prominence within the democracy , he seems to have led what might now be termed a populist faction . Coup of 411 BC . In 413 BC , a massive Athenian expedition force was completely obliterated in Sicily . In the wake of this defeat , Athens found itself facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude . Cities throughout its Aegean empire began to rebel , and a Peloponnesian fleet sailed to assist them . Seeking to contain the crisis , Athens tapped its reserve fund to rebuild its fleet and dispatched what ships it had to establish an advance naval base at Samos . In this general atmosphere of crisis , aristocrats at Athens who had long desired to overthrow the democracy there began to agitate publicly for a change of government , and formed a conspiracy to bring an oligarchy to power in Athens . Their plans included recalling Alcibiades , who had been exiled by the democratic government . These oligarchs initiated their plans at Samos , where they successfully encouraged a number of Samian oligarchs to begin a similar conspiracy . A dispute has arisen among modern historians over Thrasybulus ' involvement in this plot . Donald Kagan has suggested that Thrasybulus was one of the founding members of the scheme and was willing to support moderate oligarchy , but was alienated by the extreme actions taken by the plotters . R . J . Buck , on the other hand , maintains that Thrasybulus was probably never involved in the plot , possibly because he was absent from Samos at the time of its inception . Upon their return to Athens , the conspirators succeeded in ending democratic rule and imposing an oligarchy of 400 rulers . At Samos , however , the coup did not go forward so smoothly . Samian democrats learned of the conspiracy and notified four prominent Athenians , the generals Leon and Diomedon , Thrasybulus , and Thrasyllus , at that time a hoplite in the ranks . With the support of these men and the Athenian soldiers in general , the Samian democrats were able to defeat the conspirators when they attempted to seize power . A ship was dispatched to Athens to notify the city of this success against the oligarchs . Upon its arrival , however , the crew was arrested , as the news of a democratic victory was far from welcome to the new oligarchic government . Learning of this , the army at Samos deposed its generals and elected new generals who were believed to be more steadfast in their support of democracy , Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus among them . The army , stating that they had not revolted from the city but that the city had revolted from them , resolved to stand by the democracy while continuing to prosecute the war against Sparta . One of the first actions Thrasybulus took as general was to bring about the recall of Alcibiades , a policy that he had supported since before the coup . After persuading the sailors to support his plan , Thrasybulus sailed to retrieve Alcibiades and returned with him to Samos . The aim of this policy was to win away Persian support from the Spartans , as it was believed that Alcibiades had great influence with Tissaphernes . Alcibiades was elected as general alongside Thrasybulus and the others . Shortly after this , following the revolt of Euboea , the government of the 400 at Athens was overthrown and replaced by a broader oligarchy , which would eventually give way to democracy . In command . In the months following these events , Thrasybulus commanded the Athenian fleet in several major engagements . At the Battle of Cynossema , he commanded one wing of the fleet and prevented Athenian defeat by extending his flank to prevent encirclement ; the battle ended in Athenian victory . Shortly afterwards Thrasybulus again commanded a wing of the Athenian fleet at Abydos , another Athenian victory . Thrasybulus was again in command of a squadron of the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Cyzicus , a stunning Athenian victory . In this battle , the Athenians drew the Spartan fleet out to pursue a small force led by Alcibiades ; when the Spartans had gotten a good distance from land , two squadrons under the command of Thrasybulus and Theramenes appeared in their rear to cut off their retreat . The Spartans were forced to flee to a nearby beach , where Alcibiades landed his men in an attempt to seize the Spartan ships . The Spartans , however , with the assistance of a Persian army , began to drive this Athenian force into the sea ; seeing this , Thrasybulus landed his own force to temporarily relieve pressure on Alcibiades , and meanwhile ordered Theramenes to join up with Athenian land forces nearby and bring them to reinforce the sailors and marines on the beach . The Spartans and Persians , overwhelmed by the arrival of multiple forces from several directions , were defeated and driven off , and the Athenians captured all the Spartan ships which were not destroyed . In 409 and 408 , Thrasybulus remained in command , but his actions are difficult to trace . He appears to have spent much of the time campaigning in Thrace , recapturing cities for the empire and restoring the flow of tribute from the region . In 407 BC , he was in command of a fleet sent to besiege Phocaea ; this siege had to be lifted , however , after the Spartans under Lysander defeated the main Athenian fleet at Notium . This defeat led to the downfall and exile of Alcibiades . Thrasybulus was either removed from command on the spot by Alcibiades or not reelected at the end of his term ; either way , he was out of office from then until the end of the war . Thrasybulus did return to action , however , at the Battle of Arginusae in 406 BC . There , he was a trierarch in the Athenian relief fleet sent out to assist the admiral Conon , who was blockaded at Mytilene . That battle was a major Athenian victory ; after the battle , the generals in charge took the majority of their ships to attack the Peloponnesian fleet blockading Conon , leaving behind a force under Thrasybulus and his fellow trierarch Theramenes to rescue the survivors . This operation was thwarted , however , by a sudden storm which drove the rescue force to land , and a great number of Athenians — estimates as to the precise figure have ranged from near 1 , 000 to as many as 5 , 000 — drowned . The result was one of the great Athenian political scandals of the war , which culminated in a vicious debate between Theramenes and the generals at Athens over who was to blame for the disaster , after which the generals were executed . Thrasybulus , for unknown reasons , seems to have had very little involvement in this debate . The Thirty Tyrants . In 404 BC , following a defeat at the Battle of Aegospotami , Athens was forced to surrender , ending the Peloponnesian War . In the wake of this surrender , the Spartan navarch Lysander imposed a strict oligarchic government on Athens , which came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants . This government executed a number of citizens and deprived all but a few of their rights , eventually growing so extreme that even the moderate oligarch Theramenes fell afoul of the government and was executed . Fearing for their lives , numerous Athenians fled to Thebes . Thrasybulus had been one of the first to oppose the oligarchy and had been exiled to Thebes shortly after its rise to power . There , he was welcomed and supported by the Theban leader Ismenias and his followers , who assisted him in preparing for a return to Athens . In 403 BC , he led a party of 70 exiles to seize Phyle , a defensible location on the border of Attica and Boeotia . A storm prevented the forces of the Thirty from expelling him immediately , and numerous exiles flocked to join him . When the Spartan garrison of Athens , supported by Athenian cavalry , was sent out to oppose him , Thrasybulus led his force , now 700 strong , in a surprise daybreak raid on their camp , killing 120 Spartans and putting the rest to flight . Five days later , Thrasybulus led his force , which had already grown to the point that he could leave 200 men at Phyle while taking 1 , 000 with him , to Piraeus , the port of Athens . There , he fortified the Munychia , a hill that dominated the port , and awaited the coming attack . The forces of the Thirty , supported by the Spartan garrison , marched to Piraeus to attack him . Thrasybulus and his men were outnumbered 5 to 1 , but held a superior position and presumably benefited from consternation amidst the ranks of the oligarchs . In the battle , the exiles put the oligarchic forces to flight , killing Critias , the leader of the Thirty . After this victory , the remainder of the Thirty fled to Eleusis , and the oligarchs within Athens began squabbling amongst themselves . New leaders were selected , but were unable to deal with Thrasybulus , and were forced to send to Sparta for help . From Sparta , however , came not the aggressive Lysander , but the more conservative Pausanias . Pausanias ' force narrowly defeated Thrasybulus ' men , but only with great effort , and , unwilling to push the issue , he arranged a settlement between the forces of Thrasybulus and the oligarchs in the city . Democracy was restored , while those oligarchs who wished to do so withdrew to Eleusis . In power , Thrasybulus pushed through a law which pardoned all but a few of the oligarchs , preventing a brutal reprisal by the victorious democrats . For his actions , Thrasybulus was awarded an olive crown by his countrymen . Later actions . In the revived democracy established in 403 BC , Thrasybulus became a major and prestigious leader , although he was soon superseded at the head of the state by Archinus . Thrasybulus seems to have advocated a more radically democratic policy than the populace was willing to accept at the time ; he called for reinstating pay for political service , and sought to extend citizenship to all the metics and foreigners who had fought alongside him against the Thirty . He was initially cautious about offending Sparta , but , when Persian support became available at the start of the Corinthian War , he became an advocate of aggressive action , and about this time seems to have regained his preeminence in Athenian politics . He initiated the rebuilding of the long walls , which had been demolished at the end of the Peloponnesian War , and commanded the Athenian contingents at Nemea and Coronea ; these two defeats , however , damaged his political stature , and he was replaced at the head of the state by Conon , whose victory at Cnidus had ended Sparta ' s dreams of naval empire . Thrasybulus largely faded from view for several years as Conon led the Athenian fleet to a series of victories , but in 392 BC Conon was imprisoned by the Persian satrap Tiribazus while attending a peace conference at Sardis ; although released , he died in Cyprus without returning to Athens . Thrasybulus , leading the faction that sought to reject the peace offer , regained his position atop Athenian politics . In 389 BC , he led a force of trireme s to levy tribute from cities around the Aegean and support Rhodes , where a democratic government was struggling against Sparta . On this campaign , Thrasybulus relaid much of the framework for an Athenian empire on 5th century BC model ; he captured Byzantium , imposed a duty on ships passing through the Hellespont , and collected tribute from many of the islands of the Aegean . In 388 BC , as he led his fleet South through the Aegean , his soldiers ravaged the fields of Aspendus . In retaliation , the Aspendians raided the Athenian camp by night ; Thrasybulus was killed in his tent . The gains that Thrasybulus made on this campaign were soon reversed , however , by Persian intervention . Alarmed by the sudden reappearance of something resembling the Athenian empire that had driven them from the Aegean in the 5th century BC , the Persians began supporting Sparta , and a Persian fleet was soon in the Hellespont , threatening Athens ' grain supply . Peace was quickly concluded , on the same terms that the Athenians had rejected in 392 BC ; Thrasybulus ' campaigns , though impressively successful in spreading Athenian influence , had little long - term effect , since they prompted Persia to force the Athenians to give up what they had gained . Historical opinions . Thrasybulus has been widely recognized as a successful military commander . Most of the major ancient historians assigned credit for the dramatic Athenian victories of 411 BC to Alcibiades , but a few , such as Cornelius Nepos , pointed to the decisive role that was played in these battles by Thrasybulus . More recent historians , such as Donald Kagan and R . J . Buck , have tended to support this analysis , pointing to the role that Thrasybulus played in crafting Athenian strategy in all these battles , and specifically to the decisive action he took at Cyzicus , which saved Alcibiades ' s force from being swamped , and turned a potential Athenian defeat into a stunning victory . R . J . Buck has suggested that Thrasybulus suffered from an " anti - democratic tradition of ancient historiography , " which led many writers to minimize the accomplishments of one of democracy ' s strongest advocates . Throughout his career , Thrasybulus defended democracy at Athens against its opponents . He was one of the few prominent citizens whom the Samians trusted to defend their democracy , and whom the fleet selected to lead it through the troubled time of conflict with the 400 . Later , in his opposition to the Thirty Tyrants , Thrasybulus risked his life when few others would , and his actions were responsible for the quick restoration of democracy . In the words of Cornelius Nepos , John Fine points to the clemency shown by Thrasybulus and other democrats in the wake of their victory over the Thirty as a key contribution towards reestablishing stable government in Athens . While many city - states throughout the Greek world broke down into vicious cycles of civil war and reprisal , Athens remained united and democratic , without interruption , until near the end of the 3rd century BC , and democracy , albeit interrupted several times by conquest or revolution , continued there until Roman times , several centuries later . Thus Thrasybulus won praise as an Athenian patriot and staunch , principled democrat . He has been criticized by modern historians , however , for failing to recognize that Athens in the 4th century BC could not sustain an imperial policy . R . J . Buck suggests that Thrasybulus , who came of age in the heady days when the democracy and empire under Pericles were at their fullest extent , never accepted that the devastating losses Athens had suffered in the Peloponnesian War made the return of those times impossible . Thrasybulus was a capable general , particularly successful in naval warfare , and a competent speaker , but was frequently overshadowed or pushed aside by more charismatic or spectacularly successful leaders . Buck has compared him to Winston Churchill , another advocate of imperial policies who held fast to his beliefs after the tide of history had turned against him , and who rose to his peak of prominence at his country ' s darkest hour . Throughout his two decades of prominence , whether in or out of leadership , Thrasybulus remained a steady advocate of traditional Athenian imperial democracy , and he died fighting for the same cause he was advocating on his first appearance in 411 .