Theramenes Theramenes ( ; Greek : ; " floruit " 411 – 404 BC ) was an Athenian statesman , prominent in the final decade of the Peloponnesian War . He was particularly active during the two periods of oligarchic government at Athens , as well as in the trial of the generals who had commanded at Arginusae in 406 BC . A moderate oligarch , he often found himself caught between the democrats on the one hand and the extremist oligarchs on the other . Successful in replacing a narrow oligarchy with a broader one in 411 BC , he failed to achieve the same end in 404 BC , and was executed by the extremists whose policies he had opposed . Theramenes was a central figure in four major episodes of Athenian history . He appeared on the scene in 411 BC as one of the leaders of an oligarchic coup , but , as his views and those of the coup ' s other leaders diverged , he began to oppose their dictates and took the lead in replacing the narrow oligarchy they had imposed with a more broadly based one . He served as a general for several years after this , but was not reelected to that office in 407 BC . After the Battle of Arginusae , in which he served as a trierarch , he was assigned to rescue Athenian sailors from sinking ships , but was prevented from doing so by a storm . That incident prompted a massive furor at Athens , in which Theramenes had to exonerate himself from responsibility for the failed rescue ; the controversy ended in the execution of six generals who had commanded at that battle . After the Athenian defeat at Aegospotami in 405 BC , Theramenes arranged the terms by which Athens surrendered to Sparta . He then became a member of the narrow oligarchic government , known as the Thirty Tyrants , that Sparta imposed on its defeated rival . As he had in 411 BC , Theramenes soon came into conflict with the more extreme members of that government ; his protests against the reign of terror the Thirty implemented led the leading oligarchs to plot his demise ; he was denounced before the oligarchic assembly , and then , when that body appeared reluctant to punish him , struck him from the roster of citizens and executed him without trial . Theramenes remained a controversial figure after his death ; Lysias vigorously denounced him while prosecuting several of his former political allies , but others defended his actions . Modern historical assessments have shifted over time ; in the 19th century , Theramenes ' s part in the coup of 411 BC and his use of Arginusae were widely condemned , but newly discovered ancient texts and 20th - century scholarship supported more positive assessments . Some historians have found in Theramenes a selfish opportunist , others a principled moderate . The details of his actions , his motivations , and his character continue to be debated down to the present day . Historical record . No ancient biographies of Theramenes are known , but his life and actions are relatively well documented , due to the extensive treatment given him in several surviving works . The Attic orator Lysias deals with him at length in several of his speeches , albeit in a very hostile manner . Theramenes also appears in several ancient narrative histories : Thucydides ' account includes the beginnings of Theramenes ' career , and Xenophon , picking up where Thucydides left off , gives a detailed account of several episodes from Theramenes career ; Diodorus Siculus , probably drawing his account from Ephorus at most points , provides another account that varies widely from Xenophon ' s at several points . Theramenes also appears in several other sources , which , although they do not provide as many narrative details , have been used to illuminate the political disputes which surrounded Theramenes ' life and memory . Family . Only the barest outlines of Theramenes ' life outside the public sphere have been preserved in the historical record . His father , Hagnon had played a significant role in Athenian public life in the decades before Theramenes ' appearance on the scene . He had commanded the group of Greek colonists who founded Amphipolis in 437 – 6 BC , had served as a general on several occasions before and during the Peloponnesian War , and was one of the signers of the Peace of Nicias . Hagnon ' s career overlapped with his son ' s when he served as one of the ten commissioners appointed by the government of the 400 to draft a new constitution in 411 BC . Coup of 411 BC . Overthrow of the democracy . Theramenes ' first appearance in the historical record comes with his involvement in the oligarchic coup of 411 BC . In the wake of the Athenian defeat in Sicily , revolts began to break out among Athens ' subject states in the Aegean Sea and the Peace of Nicias fell apart ; the Peloponnesian War resumed in full by 412 BC . In this context , a number of Athenian aristocrats , led by Peisander and with Theramenes prominent among their ranks , began to conspire to overthrow the city ' s democratic government . This intrigue was initiated by the exiled nobleman Alcibiades , who was at that time acting as an assistant to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes . Claiming that he had great influence with Tissaphernes , Alcibiades promised to return to Athens , bringing Persian support with him , if the democracy that had exiled him were replaced with an oligarchy . Accordingly , a number of trierarch s and other leaders of the Athenian army at Samos began planning the overthrow of the democracy . They eventually dispatched Peisander to Athens , where , by promising that the return of Alcibiades and an alliance with Persia would follow if the Athenians would replace their democracy with an oligarchy , he persuaded the Athenian " ecclesia " to send him as an emissary to Alcibiades , authorized to make whatever arrangements were necessary . Alcibiades , however , did not succeed in persuading the satrap to ally with the Athenians , and , to hide this fact , demanded ( claiming to be speaking for Tissaphernes ) greater and greater concessions of them until they finally refused to comply . Disenchanted with Alcibiades but still determined to overthrow the democracy , Peisander and his companions returned to Samos , where the conspirators worked to secure their control over the army and encouraged a group of native Samian oligarchs to begin planning the overthrow of their own city ' s democracy . In Athens , meanwhile , a party of young oligarchic revolutionaries succeeded in gaining de facto control of the government through assassination and intimidation . After making arrangements to their satisfaction at Samos the leaders of the conspiracy set sail for Athens . Among them was Theramenes ; Thucydides refers to him as " one of the leaders of the party that put down the democracy — an able speaker and a man with ideas . " Calling the assembly together , the conspirators proposed a series of measures by which the democracy was formally replaced with a government of 400 chosen men , who were to select and convene a larger body of 5 , 000 as time went on . Shortly afterwards , the conspirators went , under arms , to the council chamber , where they ordered the democratic council to disperse after collecting their pay ; the council did as ordered , and from this point forward the mechanism of government was fully under the control of the oligarchic conspirators ; they quickly changed the laws to reflect the new form of government they had imposed . Conflict within the movement . At this point , several conflicts began to develop that threatened the future of the new government at Athens . First , the planned coup at Samos was thwarted by the efforts of Samian democrats and a group of Athenians who they entrusted with helping them . When the army at Samos heard the news of the coup at Athens , which arrived along with exaggerated reports of outrages being perpetrated by the new government , they declared their loyalty to democracy and hostility to the new government . At Athens , meanwhile , a split developed between the moderate and radical oligarchs , with Theramenes emerging alongside one Aristocrates son of Scelias as the leader of the moderate faction . The extremist faction , led by Phrynicus , containing such prominent leaders of the coup as Peisander and Antiphon , and dominant within the 400 , opposed broadening the base of the oligarchy , and were willing to seek peace with Sparta on almost any terms . The moderates , on the other hand , although willing to seek peace with Sparta on terms that would preserve Athens ' power , were not willing to sacrifice the empire and the fleet , and wanted to broaden the oligarchy to include the putative 5 , 000 , presumably including all men of hoplite status or higher . Shortly after taking power , the extremist leaders of the revolution had begun constructing fortifications on Eetioneia , a dominant point in the entrance to the harbor of Piraeus , ostensibly to protect the harbor against an attack from the fleet at Samos . With internal dissent increasing , they joined these new fortifications to existing walls to form a redoubt defensible against attacks from land or sea , which contained a large warehouse into which the extremists moved most of the city ' s corn supply . Theramenes protested strongly against the building of this fortification , arguing that its purpose was not to keep the democrats out , but to be handed over to the Spartans ; Thucydides testifies that his charges were not without substance , as the extremists were actually contemplating such an action . Initially cautious ( as enemies of the regime had been executed before ) , Theramenes and his party were emboldened and galvanized into action by several events . First , a Peloponnesian fleet , ostensibly dispatched to assist anti - Athenian forces on Euboea , was moving slowly up the coast of the Peloponnese ; Theramenes charged that this fleet was planning to seize the fortifications on Eetioneia , in collaboration with the extremists . Second , an Athenian militiaman , apparently acting on orders from conspirators higher in the ranks of the government , assassinated Phrynichus , the leader of the extremist faction . He escaped , but his accomplice , an Argive , was captured ; the prisoner , under torture , refused to state the name of his employer . With the extremists unable to take effective action in this case , and with the Peloponnesian fleet overrunning Aegina ( a logical stopping point on the approach to Piraeus ) , Theramenes and his party decided to act . Aristocrates , who was commanding a regiment of hoplites in Piraeus , arrested the extremist general Alexicles ; enraged , the extremist leaders of the 400 demanded action , and made a number of threats against Theramenes and his party . To their surprise , Theramenes volunteered to lead a force to rescue Alexicles ; the leaders of the extremists acquiesced , and Theramenes set out to Piraeus , sharing his command with one other moderate and one extremist , Aristarchus . When Theramenes and his force arrived at Piraeus , Aristarchus , in a rage , exhorted the men to attack the hoplites who had seized Alexicles . Theramenes feigned rage as well , but when asked by the hoplites whether he thought that the fortification on Eetioneia was a good idea , he responded that if they wanted to pull it down , he thought that would be good . Calling out that everyone who wanted the 5 , 000 to govern instead of the 400 , the hoplites set to work . Donald Kagan has suggested that this call was probably instigated by Theramenes ' party , who wanted the 5 , 000 to govern ; the hoplites tearing down the fortification might well have preferred a return to the democracy . Several days later , the Peloponnesian fleet approached Piraeus , but , finding the fortifications destroyed and the port well defended , they sailed on to Euboea . Several days later , the 400 were formally deposed and replaced by a government of the 5 , 000 ; the most extreme of the oligarchs fled the city . In command . Under the government of the 5 , 000 and under the democracy that replaced it in 410 BC , Theramenes served as a general for several years , commanding fleets in the Aegean Sea and the Hellespont . Shortly after the rise of the government of the 5 , 000 , Theramenes set sail to the Hellespont to join Thrasybulus and the generals elected by the army at Samos . After the Athenian victory at Abydos , he took thirty triremes to attack the rebels on Euboea , who were building a causeway to Boeotia to provide land access to their island . Unable to stop the construction , he plundered the territory of several rebellious cities , then travelled around the Aegean suppressing oligarchies and raising funds from various cities of the Athenian Empire . He then took his fleet to Macedon , where he assisted the Macedonian king Archelaus in his siege of Pydna , but , with that siege dragging on , he sailed on to join Thrasybulus in Thrace . The fleet soon moved on from there to challenge Mindarus ' fleet , which had seized the city of Cyzicus . Theramenes commanded one wing of the Athenian fleet in the resulting Battle of Cyzicus , a decisive Athenian victory . In that battle , Alcibiades ( who had been recalled from exile by the fleet at Samos shortly after the coup ) led a decoy force that drew the Spartan fleet out into open water , while Thrasybulus and Theramenes , each commanding an independent squadron , cut off the Spartans ' retreat . Mindarus was forced to flee to a nearby beach , and vicious fighting ensued on land as the Athenians attempted to drag off the Spartan ships . Thrasybulus and Alcibiades kept the Spartans occupied while Theramenes joined up with the nearby Athenian land forces and then hurried to the rescue ; his arrival precipitated a total Athenian victory , in which all the Spartan ships were captured . In the wake of this victory , the Athenians captured Cyzicus and constructed a fort at Chrysopolis , from which they extracted a customs duty of one tenth on all ships passing through the Bosporus . Theramenes and another general remained at this fort with a garrison of thirty ships to oversee the collection of the duty . At Athens , meanwhile , the government of the 5 , 000 was replaced by a restored democracy within a few months of this battle ; Donald Kagan has suggested that the absence of Theramenes , " the best spokesman for the moderates " , paved the way for this restoration . According to Diodorus and Plutarch , Theramenes participated under the command of Alcibiades to the siege of Byzantium ( 408 BC ) , winning the battle against the peloponnesiac army that was appointed to defend that city : Alcibiades was in command of the right wing , while Theramenes was in charge of the left one . Arginusae . Theramenes remained a general through 407 BC , but , in that year , when the Athenian defeat at Notium led to the downfall of Alcibiades and his political allies , Theramenes was not reelected . In the next year , however , he did sail as a trierarch in the scratch Athenian relief fleet sent out to relieve Conon , who had been blockaded with 40 triremes at Mytilene by Callicratidas . That relief force won a surprising victory over the more experienced Spartan force in the Battle of Arginusae , but in the wake of that battle Theramenes found himself in the middle of a massive controversy . At the end of the battle , the generals in command of the fleet had conferred to decide on their next steps . Several pressing concerns presented themselves ; 50 Peloponnesian ships under Eteonicus remained at Mytilene , blockading Conon , and decisive action by the Athenians could lead to the destruction of that force as well , but , at the same time , ships needed to be dispatched to recover the sailors of the twenty five Athenian triremes sunk or disabled in the battle . Accordingly , all eight generals , with the larger part of the fleet , set out for Mytilene , while a rescue force under Thrasybulus and Theramenes , both of whom were trierarchs in this battle but had served as generals in prior campaigns , remained behind to pick up the survivors and retrieve corpses for burial . At this point , however , a severe storm blew up , and both of these forces were driven back to shore . Eteonicus escaped , and a great number of Athenian sailors — estimates as to the precise figure have ranged from near 1 , 000 to as many as 5 , 000 — drowned . Soon after the news of this public tragedy reached Athens , a massive controversy erupted over the apportionment of blame for the botched rescue . The public was furious over the loss of so many sailors , and over the failure to recover the bodies of the dead for burial , and the generals suspected that Thrasybulus and Theramenes , who had already returned to Athens , might have been responsible for stirring up the assembly against them , and wrote letters to the people denouncing the two trierarchs as responsible for the failed rescue . Thrasybulus and Theramenes were called before the assembly to defend their behavior ; in their defense , Theramenes produced a letter from the generals in which they blamed only the storm for the mishap ; the trierarchs were exonerated , and public anger now turned against the generals . All eight were deposed from office , and summoned back to Athens to stand trial . Two fled , but six returned as commanded to face the charges against them . Diodorus notes that the generals committed a critical error by attempting to shift the blame onto Theramenes . " For , " he states , " although they could have had the help of Theramenes and his associates in the trial , men who both were able orators and had many friends and , most important of all , had been participants in the events relative to the battle , they had them , on the contrary , as adversaries and bitter accusers . " When the trial came , Theramenes ' numerous political allies were among the leaders of the faction seeking the generals ' conviction . A bitter series of debates and legal maneuvers ensued as the assembly fought over what to do with the generals . At first , it appeared that they might be treated leniently , but in the end , public displays of bereavement by the families of the deceased and aggressive prosecution by a politician named Callixenus swung the opinion of the assembly ; the six generals were tried as a group and executed . The Athenian public , as the grief and anger prompted by the disaster cooled , came to regret their action , and for thousands of years historians and commentators have pointed to the incident as perhaps the greatest miscarriage of justice the city ' s government ever perpetrated . Negotiating a peace . In 405 BC , the Athenian navy was defeated and destroyed by the Peloponnesian fleet under Lysander at the Battle of Aegospotami in the Hellespont . Without sufficient funds to build another fleet , the Athenians could only wait as Lysander sailed westward across the Aegean towards their city . Blockaded by land and sea , with their food supplies running low , the Athenians sent ambassadors to the Spartan king Agis , whose army was camped outside their walls , offering to join the Spartan alliance if they were allowed to keep their walls and port ; Agis , claiming that he had no power to negotiate , sent the ambassadors on to Sparta , but there they were told that , if they really wanted peace , they should bring the Spartans better proposals . The Athenians were initially intransigent , going so far as to imprison a man who suggested that a stretch of the long walls be torn down as the Spartans had insisted , but the reality of their situation soon compelled them to consider compromises . In this situation , Theramenes , in a speech to the assembly , requested that he be sent as an ambassador to Lysander ( who was at this time besieging Samos ) to determine the Spartans ' intentions towards Athens ; he also stated that he had discovered something that might improve the Athenians ' situation , although he declined to share it with the citizenry . His request was granted , and Theramenes sailed to Samos to meet with Lysander ; from there , he was sent to Sparta , perhaps stopping at Athens on the way . At Sparta , with representatives of all of Sparta ' s allies present , Theramenes and his colleagues negotiated the terms of the peace that ended the Peloponnesian War ; the long walls and the walls of Piraeus were pulled down , the size of the Athenian fleet was sharply limited , and Athenian foreign policy was subordinated to that of Sparta ; the treaty also stipulated that the Athenians were to use " the constitution of their ancestors " . Theramenes returned to Athens and presented the results of the negotiations to the assembly ; although some still favored holding out , the majority voted to accept the terms ; the Peloponnesian War , after 28 years , was at an end . Thirty Tyrants . In the wake of Athens ' surrender , the long walls were torn down and the troops besieging the city returned to their various homes ; a Spartan garrison probably remained in Athens to supervise the dismantling of the walls ; Lysander sailed off to Samos to complete the siege of that city . Another clause of the treaty that had ended the war had allowed all exiles to return to Athens , and these men , many of them oligarchic agitators who had been cast out by the democracy , were hard at work in the months after the treaty . Five " overseers " were appointed by the members of the oligarchic social clubs to plan the transition to an oligarchy . In July 404 BC , they summoned Lysander back to Athens , where he supervised the change of government ; an oligarchic politician , Dracontides , proposed in the council to place the government in the hands of thirty chosen men ; Theramenes supported this motion , and , with Lysander threatening to punish the Athenians for failing to dismantle the walls quickly enough unless they assented , it passed the assembly . Thirty men were selected : ten appointed by the " overseers " , ten chosen by Theramenes ( including himself ) , and ten picked by Lysander . This government , which soon came to be known as the " Thirty Tyrants " for its excesses and atrocities , rapidly set about establishing its control over the city . The oligarchs , led by Critias , one of the " overseers " and a former exile , summoned a Spartan garrison to ensure their safety and then initiated a reign of terror , executing any men who they thought might possess sufficient initiative or a large enough following to effectively challenge them . It was this campaign that first drove a wedge between Theramenes and the leaders of the Thirty ; initially a supporter of Critias , Theramenes now argued that it was unnecessary to execute men who had shown no sign of wishing the oligarchy harm just because they had been popular under the democracy . This protest , however , failed to slow the pace of the executions , so Theramenes next argued that , if the oligarchy was to govern by force , it must at least expand its base ; fearful that Theramenes might lead a popular movement against them , Critias and the leaders of the Thirty issued a list of 3 , 000 men who would be associates in the new government . When Theramenes again objected that this number was still too small , the leaders arranged for a military review to be staged after which the citizens were ordered to pile their arms ; with the help of the Spartan garrison , the oligarchs then confiscated all arms except those belonging to the 3 , 000 . This , in turn , marked the beginning of even greater excesses ; to pay the Spartan garrison ' s wages , Critias and the leaders ordered each of the Thirty to arrest and execute a metic , or resident alien , and confiscate his property . Theramenes , protesting that this action was worse than the worst excesses of the democracy , refused to follow the order . Critias and his compatriots , in the light of these events , decided that Theramenes had become an intolerable threat to their rule ; accordingly , speaking before the assembly of the 3 , 000 , Critias denounced Theramenes as a born traitor , always ready to shift his political allegiances with the expediencies of the moment . Famously , he branded him with the nickname " cothurnus " , the name of a boot worn on the stage that could fit either foot ; Theramenes , he proclaimed , was ready to serve either the democratic or oligarchic cause , seeking only to further his own personal interest . In an impassioned response , Theramenes denied that his politics had ever been inconsistent . He had always , he insisted , favored a moderate policy , neither extreme democracy nor extreme oligarchy , and held true to the ideal of a government composed of men of hoplite status or higher , who would be able to effectively serve the state . This speech had a substantial effect on the audience , and Critias saw that , if the case were brought to a vote , Theramenes would be acquitted . Accordingly , after conferring with the Thirty , Critias ordered men with daggers to line the stage in front of the audience and then struck Theramenes ' name from the roster of the 3 , 000 , denying him his right to a trial . Theramenes , springing to a nearby altar for sanctuary , admonished the assemblage not to permit his murder , but to no avail ; the Eleven , keepers of the prison , entered , dragged him away , and forced him to drink a cup of hemlock . Theramenes , imitating a popular drinking game in which the drinker toasted a loved one as he finished his cup , downed the poison and then flung the dregs to the floor , exclaiming " Here ' s to the health of my beloved Critias ! " Historiography . Theramenes lived a controversial life , and his death did not end the struggle over how to interpret his actions . In the years after his death , his reputation became an item of contention as former associates of his defended themselves against prosecutors under the restored democracy . ( The regime of the Thirty lasted only until 403 BC . ) It would appear that , as they defended themselves before democratic - sympathizing Athenian jurymen , Theramenes ' former comrades in the oligarchy attempted to exculpate themselves by associating their actions with those of Theramenes and portraying him as a steadfast defender of the Athenian democracy ; examples of such accounts can be found in the " Histories " of Diodorus Siculus and in the " Theramenes papyrus " , a fragmentary work discovered in the 1960s . An example of the sort of attack this portrayal was intended to defend against can be found in two orations of Lysias , " Against Eratosthenes " and " Against Agoratus " ; there , Theramenes is portrayed as treasonous and self - interested , doing tremendous harm to the Athenian cause through his machinations . Xenophon adopts a similarly hostile attitude in the early parts of his work , but apparently had a change of heart during the chronological break in composition that divides the second book of the " Hellenica " ; his portrayal of Theramenes during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants is altogether more favorable than that of his earlier years . A final portrayal is offered by Aristotle , who , in his " Constitution of the Athenians " , portrays Theramenes as a moderate and a model citizen ; historians have disputed the origin of this account , with some treating it as a product of 4th - century BC propaganda by a moderate " Theramenean " party , while others , such as Phillip Harding , see no evidence for such a tradition and argue that Aristotle ' s treatment of Theramenes is entirely a product of his own reassessment of the man . Diodorus Siculus , a compiler of histories in the time of Augustus , presents a generally favorable account of Theramenes , which appears to be drawn from the noted historian Ephorus , who studied in Athens under Isocrates who was taught by Theramenes . Theramenes ' reputation has undergone a dramatic shift since the 19th century , when Xenophon ' s and Lysias ' unfavorable accounts were widely accepted , and Theramenes was execrated as a turncoat and blamed for instigating the execution of the generals after Arginusae . The discovery of Aristotle ' s " Constitution of the Athenians " in 1890 reversed this trend for the broad assessment of Theramenes ' character , and Diodorus ' account of the Arginusae trial has been preferred by scholars since Antony Andrewes undermined Xenophon ' s account in the 1970s ; Diodorus ' more melodramatic passages , such as his elaborate presentation of Theramenes ' last moments , are still discounted , but he is now preferred on a number of issues , and on the Arginusae trial in particular . Aristophanes , in The Frogs , pokes fun at Theramenes ' ability to extricate himself from tight spots , but delivers none of the scathing rebukes one would expect for a politician whose role in the shocking events after Arginusae had been regarded as particularly blameworthy , and modern scholars have seen in this a more accurate depiction of how Theramenes was perceived in his time ; Lysias , meanwhile , who mercilessly attacks Theramenes on many counts , has nothing negative to say about the aftermath of Arginusae . Recent works have generally accepted the image of Theramenes as a moderate , committed to the ideal of a hoplite - based broad oligarchy . Donald Kagan has said of him that " . . . his entire career reveals him to be a patriot and a true moderate , sincerely committed to a constitution granting power to the hoplite class , whether in the form of a limited democracy or a broadly based oligarchy " , while John Fine has noted that " like many a person following a middle course , he was hated by both political extremes . " The constitution of the 5 , 000 is recognized as his political masterpiece ; his attempt to bring about a similar shift towards moderatism in 404 led directly to his death . That death , meanwhile , has become famous for its drama , and the story of Theramenes ' final moments has been repeated over and over throughout classical historiography . " Because he met his death defying a tyrant , " John Fine notes , " it is easy to idealize Theramenes . " In the millennia since his death , Theramenes has been both idealized and reviled ; his brief seven - year career in the spotlight , touching as it did on all the major points of controversy in the last years of the Peloponnesian War , has been subject to myriad different interpretations . From the polemical contemporary works which describe his career have emerged the outlines of a complex figure , charting a dangerous course through the chaos of the late 5th - century Athenian political scene ; although historians from ancient times to the present have offered far more specific portraits , of one form or another , it may be that nothing more than that outline will ever be known with certainty .