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

THE FOUR HUNDRED IN POWER 169
friends of democracy and enemies of oligarchic conspiracy: to the
generals Leon and Diomedon, "for these men bore the oligarchy unwillingly
because they were honored by the people"; to the trierarch
Thrasybulus; and to Thrasyllus, although he was only a hoplite in the
ranks. The Samians sought out these men because they were among
those "who always seemed to be most opposed to the conspirators. wu
Thucydides' language here reveals important information about the.
state of affairs at Samos that points in a different direction from his
general account. Instead of a monolithic conspiracy of oligarchs working
to overthrow the democracies in Athens and Samos, we see a more
nuanced picture. Staunch democrats such as Leon and Diomedon had
accepted the idea of bringing back Alcibiades and altering the democratic
constitution at Athens, however unhappily they viewed this
plan. Were they among those whom Thucydides has characterized as
part of "the mob," who, "even if they were somewhat annoyed for the
moment hy what was being done, kept quiet hy the pleasant prospect
of pay from the King?" Or were they among those "conspiring to
install oligarchy" who went off privately to consider their detailed plan
of action after making their general intentions known to the Athenian
forces on Samos? 44 It is hard to imagine that any two Athenian generals,
almost always chosen from men of the upper classes, could deserve
the former designation hut no less difficult to believe that staunch
democrats such as Leon and Diomedon proved themselves to be could
have been thought of as instigators of oligarchy. Evidently, they fit in
neither group and require some other designation. Because of their
rank they could not have been excluded from the private deliberations
once it was publicly announced what was afoot. Thus that inner circle
must have included true oligarchs like Peisander but also thoroughgoing
democrats like Leon and Diomedon, who reluctantly tolerated
the course of events. To an outsider, they may have seemed part of
the leading group and therefore friendly to oligarchy, at least to some
degree. That would explain the otherwise incomprehensible decision
later taken by the Athenian democrats on Samos to dismiss them along
with the other generals and those trierarchs thought to be unreliable. 45
Even more striking is the democrats' confidence in the trierarch
4}8. 73+
#8.48·3·
45 8.76.2. See HCT V, 268, which includes the perceptive observation that "no exception
is made for Leon and Diomedon, who disliked the oligarchy (]3·4) but may
have been thought to have acquiesced in it too easily."