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

252 - THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
The Athenians refused Sparta's proposal for peace some time in
May. Within two months, probably late in June, the regime of the
Five Thousand was removed and replaced by the full, untrammeled
democracy that Athens had enjoyed before the introduction of the
probouloi in 41 3. 24 After praising the moderate regime of the Five Thousand,
Aristotle says: "The people quickly took away their control of
the state. " 15 This is the only direct ancient reference to the transition,
but there is plenty of evidence to show that the full democracy was
again in control in the summer of 410. We are not told how or why
the change came about. Modern writers connect it with the new confidence
felt by the people after the battle of Cyzicus, but if that were
sufficient, we would expect the restoration to have occurred in May,
under the first impact of the good news rather than a month or two
later. In fact, if anything, the victory at Cyzicus, ought to have bolstered
the prestige of the Five Thousand. The success at Cyzicus and
the two preceding victories came under their auspices and under the
command chiefly of Thrasybulus, Alcibiades, and Theramenes, none
of them a radical democrat. It is often suggested that the transition
between constitutions was gradual, but no matter how gradual it may
have been, there had to be a decisive moment when the exclusive
powers of the Five Thousand were abolished and full political rights
were restored to the entire citizen body. We cannot be certain what
event or events provided the immediate cause of the change, but the
evidence permits some reasonably plausible speculation.
to make a counter demand requiring the Spartans to restore all of the former Athenian
cities. He bases this on Aristotle (Ath. Pol. J4.I), who places that demand after the
Athenian victory at Arginusae in 406. There seems no compelling reason to move those
demands to an earlier occasion.
z.~For the date, see B. D. Meritt, Athenian Financial Documents (Ann Arbor, I9J2),
105-7· Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society cxv (I97I), 106, I 14-1 Is; and
Rhodes, Commentary, 415. The first evidence we have of the change in regimes is
provided by the decree of Demophantus (And. 1 .96-98), which deals with punishments
for those who plot against the democracy. It is dated to the first prytany of the year
41 o/9. An inscription recording the accounts of the treasurers of Athena for that year
(GH/, 37, lines 5-7) shows that payments for the Great Panathenaia were made in the
second prytany, leading Meritt (followed by Meiggs and Lewis [GHI, 258]) to infer
that the conciliar year began earlier than the archontic year, perhaps about June 16. I
agree with Rhodes that the payment could have been made after the festival, permitting
the conciliar and archontic years to have begun at the same time, in the month of July.
In either case the transition to democracy would have occurred at least a month after
the rejection of the Spartan offer.
25
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