Although Thucydides, at 8.89, claims that the moderates' call for the government of the 5,000 was a mere piece of propaganda, modern scholars have disagreed, pointing to the account given by Aristotle at Ath. Pol.29 as an indication that the moderates were sincere; see Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 392–3, and Hornblower, The Greek World, 147.
For the battle and the decision of the generals, see Diodorus, Library, 13.98–100 and Xenophon, Hellenica, 1.6.29–35. For a modern synthesis and analysis, see Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 454–61.
The account followed here is that of Diodorus, 13.101. Xenophon, at 1.7, gives a different account which places much more of the blame for the trial and execution on Theramenes' shoulders. Modern scholars (see Fine The Ancient Greeks, 514–15, Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 461–66, and Hornblower, The Greek World, 151) have generally preferred Diodorus' account, for a number of reasons. See the section on historiography.
See Lysias, Against Eratosthenes, 68–71 and Against Agoratus9–14 and Xenophon, Hellenica2.2.16–20; for modern accounts, see Hornblower, The Greek World, 151–2, and Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 480–1.
Diodorus, at 14.3.6–7, would have Theramenes opposing the motion until compelled by Lysander to drop his objection, but this appears to be a piece of propaganda circulated by his associates in the years after his death; see Harding, The Theramenes Myth, 107.
Although Thucydides, at 8.89, claims that the moderates' call for the government of the 5,000 was a mere piece of propaganda, modern scholars have disagreed, pointing to the account given by Aristotle at Ath. Pol.29 as an indication that the moderates were sincere; see Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 392–3, and Hornblower, The Greek World, 147.
See Lysias, Against Eratosthenes, 68–71 and Against Agoratus9–14 and Xenophon, Hellenica2.2.16–20; for modern accounts, see Hornblower, The Greek World, 151–2, and Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 480–1.
For this speech, see Xenophon, Hellenica, 2.3.35–49.
For the events from the end of the trial onwards, see Xenophon, Hellenica, 2.3.50–56.
Aristotle (Constitution of the Athenians, 37) gives a slightly different account of Theramenes' sentence to death. He asserts that "Theramenes was executed after Thrasybulus occupied Phyle and argues that the Thirty introduced two laws into the Council of 3,000, with orders to pass them; one was to give the Thirty absolute powers to execute any citizens not members of the roll of Three Thousand, and the other prohibited admission to citizenship under the present constitution for all who had actually taken part in the demolition of the fort on Eteiona, or in any act of opposition to the Four Hundred who had instituted the former oligarchy; in both of these proceedings Theramenes had in fact participated, so that the result was that when the laws had been ratified he became outside the constitution and the Thirty had authority to put him to death." In the past half century, however, scholars have recognized Xenophon's account as preferable.
