The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

THE FOUR HUNDRED IN POWER 163
the extreme wing, and Theramenes and probably Thymochares were
moderates. This proportion on the board of generals seems to be an
accurate representation of the distribution of power within the ruling
group. The extremists held the upper hand, but they must make some
concessions to the others. The trearment of potential dissidents and
enemies within Athens may have reflected the same division and compromise.
The new regime put some men to death and exiled or imprisoned
others, but the numbers were not large." Whether everyone
wanted to move cautiously or the moderates restrained the others we
cannot know.
Some of the Four Hundred, presumably the extremists, wanted to
institute a general recall of men exiled under the democratic regime.
We do not know how many were in exile or precisely who they were,
but they will have included generals elected by the democracy such
as Pythodorus, Sophocles, and the historian Thucydides. 16 These men,
presumably, would have lost whatever admiration they may have had
for untrammeled democracy as a result of their treatment at its hands,
if Thucydides is at all typical." Most of the exiles were probably those
men who had fled or were expelled in connection with the sacrileges
of 4' 5. Some of them were undoubted! y inveterate enemies of democracy,
and those who were not may well have been embittered by
their experience. After the war, the exiles were clearly oligarchs
friendly to Sparta, and the Spartans made their recall a condition for
peace." There is good reason to believe that many of the exiles of 41 1
were enemies of democracy to some extent. Thucydides' language
makes that clear, for he says that the failure to recall the exiles was an
exception to the "great departures from the rule of the demos" in which
the Four Hundred otherwise engaged." Their reason for holding back,
he tells us, was Alcibiades. A general recall and amnesty would have
allowed him to return, something the extremists would not welcome
at all. However, they could have recalled the exiles and specifically
been elected under the democracy and, in spite of his deeds, might not have seemed
as reliable as the conspirators would have liked.
15
Thucydides (8.70.2) says that the victims were not many. The specific reference
is to those put' to death, but there is no reason to think that the exiles and imprisonments
were widespread.
164.6s.J; s.z6.s.
17
For Thucydides' political opinions, see M. F. McGregor, Phoenix X (1956), 93-
102.
19
Atb. Pol. 34.3; Xen. 2.2.20; Plut. Lys. 14.4; And. J.I 1.
19
8.70. I.