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Thrasybulus

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military People

          This article is about the Athenian general. For the tyrant of
          Miletus, see Thrasybulus (tyrant).

                              Thrasybulus
   c. 440s BC – 388 BC
   Thrasybulus receiving an olive crown for his successful campaign
   against the Thirty Tyrants. From Andrea Alciato's Emblemata.
    Allegiance  Athens
   Battles/wars Peloponnesian War, Corinthian War

   Thrasybulus ( Ancient Greek: Θρασύβουλος, brave-willed, Eng.
   /θræsɪ'bju:ləs/; d. 388 BC) was an Athenian general and democratic
   leader. In 411 BC, in the wake of an oligarchic coup at Athens, the
   pro-democracy sailors at Samos elected him as a general, making him a
   primary leader of the successful democratic resistance to that coup. As
   general, he was responsible for recalling the controversial nobleman
   Alcibiades from exile, and the two worked together extensively over the
   next several years. In 411 and 410, Thrasybulus commanded along with
   Alcibiades and others at several critical Athenian naval victories.

   After Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Thrasybulus led the
   democratic resistance to the new oligarchic government, known as the
   Thirty Tyrants, that the victorious Spartans imposed on Athens. In 404
   BC, he commanded a small force of exiles that invaded Attica and, in
   successive battles, defeated first a Spartan garrison and then the
   forces of the oligarchics. In the wake of these victories, democracy
   was re-established at Athens. As a leader of this revived democracy in
   the 4th century BC, Thrasybulus advocated a policy of resistance to
   Sparta and sought to restore Athens' imperial power. He was killed in
   388 BC while leading an Athenian naval force during the Corinthian War.

Personal life and early career

   Almost nothing is known of Thrasybulus's background or early life. His
   father was named Lycus, and he was a native of the deme of Steiria in
   Athens. He was probably born between 455 and 441 BC, although a date as
   late as the late 430s BC cannot be ruled out. He was married, and had
   two children. Several facts make it clear that he was from a wealthy
   family; he held the office of trierarch, which involved significant
   personal expenditures, on several occasions, and in the fourth century
   his son was able to pay a substantial fine of 10 talents. He was
   probably also of an aristocratic family, since his daughter married a
   grandson of the notable nobleman Nicias.

   By 411 BC, Thrasybulus was clearly established to some degree as a
   pro-democracy politician, as events discussed below make clear. He is
   not mentioned before that time, however, in any sources, so it is
   impossible to present a picture of his actions.

   As a politician, Thrasybulus consistently advocated several policies
   throughout his career. He was an advocate of Athenian imperialism and
   expansionism, and a strong supporter of Periclean democracy. He seems
   to have been an unspectacular public speaker, although Plutarch notes
   that he had "the loudest voice of the Athenians." During his period of
   prominence within the democracy, he seems to have led what might now be
   termed a populist faction.

Coup of 411 BC

   In 413 BC, a massive Athenian expedition force was completely
   obliterated in Sicily. In the wake of this defeat, Athens found itself
   facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Cities throughout its
   Aegean empire began to rebel, and a Peloponnesian fleet sailed to
   assist them. Seeking to contain the crisis, Athens tapped its reserve
   fund to rebuild its fleet and dispatched what ships it had to establish
   an advance naval base at Samos.

   In this general atmosphere of crisis, aristocrats at Athens who had
   long desired to overthrow the democracy there began to agitate publicly
   for a change of government, and formed a conspiracy to bring oligarchic
   government to Athens. Their plans included recalling Alcibiades, who
   had been exiled by the democratic government. These oligarchs initiated
   their plans at Samos, where they successfully encouraged a number of
   Samian oligarchs to begin a similar conspiracy.

   A dispute has arisen among modern historians over Thrasybulus'
   involvement in this plot. Donald Kagan has suggested that Thrasybulus
   was one of the founding members of the scheme and was willing to
   support moderate oligarchy, but was alienated by the extreme actions
   taken by the plotters. R.J. Buck, on the other hand, maintains that
   Thrasybulus was probably never involved in the plot, possibly because
   he was absent from Samos at the time of its inception.

   Upon their return to Athens, the conspirators succeeded in ending
   democratic rule and imposing an oligarchy of 400 rulers. At Samos,
   however, the coup did not go forward so smoothly. Samian democrats
   learned of the conspiracy and notified four prominent Athenians, the
   generals Leon and Diomedon, Thrasybulus, and Thrasyllus, at that time a
   hoplite in the ranks. With the support of these men and the Athenian
   soldiers in general, the Samian democrats were able to defeat the
   conspirators when they attempted to seize power.

   A ship was dispatched to Athens to notify the city of this success
   against the oligarchs. Upon its arrival, however, the crew was
   arrested, as the news of a democratic victory was far from welcome to
   the new oligarchic government. Learning of this, the army at Samos
   deposed its generals and elected new generals who were believed to be
   more steadfast in their support of democracy, Thrasybulus and
   Thrasyllus among them. The army, stating that they had not revolted
   from the city but that the city had revolted from them, resolved to
   stand by the democracy while continuing to prosecute the war against
   Sparta.

   One of the first actions Thrasybulus took as general was to bring about
   the recall of Alcibiades, a policy that he had supported since before
   the coup. After persuading the sailors to support his plan, Thrasybulus
   sailed to retrieve Alcibiades and returned with him to Samos. The aim
   of this policy was to win away Persian support from the Spartans, as it
   was believed that Alcibiades had great influence with Tissaphernes.
   Alcibiades was elected as general alongside Thrasybulus and the others.
   Shortly after this, following the revolt of Euboea, the government of
   the 400 at Athens was overthrown and replaced by a broader oligarchy,
   which would eventually give way to democracy.

In command

   In the months following these events, Thrasybulus commanded the
   Athenian fleet in several major engagements. At the Battle of
   Cynossema, he commanded one wing of the fleet and prevented Athenian
   defeat by extending his flank to prevent encirclement; the battle ended
   in Athenian victory. Shortly afterwards Thrasybulus again commanded a
   wing of the Athenian fleet at Abydos, another Athenian victory.

   Thrasybulus was again in command of a squadron of the Athenian fleet at
   the Battle of Cyzicus, a stunning Athenian victory. In this battle, the
   Athenians drew the Spartan fleet out to pursue a small force led by
   Alcibiades; when the Spartans had gotten a good distance from land, two
   squadrons under the command of Thrasybulus and Theramenes appeared in
   their rear to cut off their retreat. The Spartans were forced to flee
   to a nearby beach, where Alicbiades landed his men in an attempt to
   seize the Spartan ships. The Spartans, however, with the assistance of
   a Persian army, began to drive this Athenian force into the sea; seeing
   this, Thrasybulus landed his own force to temporarily relieve pressure
   on Alcibiades, and meanwhile ordered Theramenes to join up with
   Athenian land forces nearby and bring them to reinforce the sailors and
   marines on the beach. The Spartans and Persians, overwhelmed by the
   arrival of multiple forces from several directions, were defeated and
   driven off, and the Athenians captured all the Spartan ships which were
   not destroyed.

   In 409 and 408, Thrasybulus remained in command, but his actions are
   difficult to trace. He appears to have spent much of the time
   campaigning in Thrace, recapturing cities for the empire and restoring
   the flow of tribute from the region. In 407 BC, he was in command of a
   fleet sent to besiege Phocaea; this siege had to be lifted, however,
   after the Spartans under Lysander defeated the main Athenian fleet at
   Notium. This defeat led to the downfall and exile of Alcibiades.
   Thrasybulus was either removed from command on the spot by Alcibiades
   or not reelected at the end of his term; either way, he was out of
   office from then until the end of the war.

   Thrasybulus did return to action, however, at the Battle of Arginusae
   in 406 BC. There, he was a trierarch in the Athenian relief fleet sent
   out to assist the admiral Conon, who was blockaded at Mytilene. That
   battle was a major Athenian victory; after the battle, the generals in
   charge took the majority of their ships to attack the Peloponnesian
   fleet blockading Conon, leaving behind a force under Thrasybulus and
   his fellow trierarch Theramenes to rescue the survivors. This operation
   was thwarted, however, by a sudden storm which drove the rescue force
   to land, and a great number of Athenians—estimates as to the precise
   figure have ranged from near 1,000 to as many as 5,000—drowned. The
   result was one of the great Athenian political scandals of the war,
   which culminated in a vicious debate between Theramenes and the
   generals at Athens over who was to blame for the disaster, after which
   the generals were executed. Thrasybulus, for unknown reasons, seems to
   have had very little involvement in this debate.

The Thirty Tyrants

   In 404 BC, following a defeat at the Battle of Aegospotami, Athens was
   forced to surrender, ending the Peloponnesian War. In the wake of this
   surrender, the Spartan navarch Lysander imposed a strict oligarchic
   government on Athens, which came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants.
   This government executed a number of citizens and deprived all but a
   few of their rights, eventually growing so extreme that even the
   moderate oligarch Theramenes fell afoul of the government and was
   executed. Fearing for their lives, numerous Athenians fled to Thebes.

   Thrasybulus had been one of the first to oppose the oligarchy and had
   been exiled to Thebes shortly after its rise to power. There, he was
   welcomed and supported by the Theban leader Ismenias and his followers,
   who assisted him in preparing for a return to Athens. In 403 BC, he led
   a party of 70 exiles to seize Phyle, a defensible location on the
   border of Attica and Boeotia. A storm prevented the forces of the
   Thirty from expelling him immediately, and numerous exiles flocked to
   join him. When the Spartan garrison of Athens, supported by Athenian
   cavalry, was sent out to oppose him, Thrasybulus led his force, now 700
   strong, in a surprise daybreak raid on their camp, killing 120 Spartans
   and putting the rest to flight.

   Five days later, Thrasybulus led his force, which had already grown to
   the point that he could leave 200 men at Phyle while taking 1,000 with
   him, to Piraeus, the port of Athens. There, he fortified the Munychia,
   a hill that dominated the port, and awaited the coming attack. The
   forces of the Thirty, supported by the Spartan garrison, marched to
   Piraeus to attack him. Thrasybulus and his men were outnumbered 5 to 1,
   but held a superior position and presumably benefited from
   consternation amidst the ranks of the oligarchs. In the battle, the
   exiles put the oligarchic forces to flight, killing Critias, the leader
   of the Thirty.

   After this victory, the remainder of the Thirty fled to Eleusis, and
   the oligarchs within Athens began squabbling amongst themselves. New
   leaders were selected, but were unable to deal with Thrasybulus, and
   were forced to send to Sparta for help. From Sparta, however, came not
   the aggressive Lysander, but the more conservative Pausanias.
   Pausanias' force narrowly defeated Thrasybulus' men, but only with
   great effort, and, unwilling to push the issue, he arranged a
   settlement between the forces of Thrasybulus and the oligarchs in the
   city. Democracy was restored, while those oligarchs who wished to do so
   withdrew to Eleusis. In power, Thrasybulus pushed through a law which
   pardoned all but a few of the oligarchs, preventing a brutal reprisal
   by the victorious democrats. For his actions, Thrasybulus was awarded
   an olive crown by his countrymen.

Later actions

   In the revived democracy established in 403 BC, Thrasybulus became a
   major and prestigious leader, although he was soon superseded at the
   head of the state by Archinus. Thrasybulus seems to have advocated a
   more radically democratic policy than the populace was willing to
   accept at the time; he called for reinstating pay for political
   service, and sought to extend citizenship to all the metics and
   foreigners who had fought alongside him against the Thirty. He was
   initially cautious about offending Sparta, but, when Persian support
   became available at the start of the Corinthian War, he became an
   advocate of aggressive action, and about this time seems to have
   regained his preeminence in Athenian politics. He initiated the
   rebuilding of the long walls, which had been demolished at the end of
   the Peloponnesian War, and commanded the Athenian contingents at Nemea
   and Coronea; these two defeats, however, damaged his political stature,
   and he was replaced at the head of the state by Conon, whose victory at
   Cnidus had ended Sparta's dreams of naval empire.

   Thrasybulus largely faded from view for several years as Conon led the
   Athenian fleet to a series of victories, but in 392 BC Conon was
   imprisoned by the Persian satrap Tiribazus while attending a peace
   conference at Sardis; although released, he died in Cyprus without
   returning to Athens. Thrasybulus, leading the faction that sought to
   reject the peace offer, regained his position atop Athenian politics.
   In 389 BC, he led a force of triremes to levy tribute from cities
   around the Aegean and support Rhodes, where a democratic government was
   struggling against Sparta. On this campaign, Thrasybulus relaid much of
   the framework for an Athenian empire on the fifth century model; he
   captured Byzantium, imposed a duty on ships passing through the
   Hellespont, and collected tribute from many of the islands of the
   Aegean. In 388 BC, as he led his fleet South through the Aegean, his
   soldiers ravaged the fields of Aspendus. In retaliation, the Aspendians
   raided the Athenian camp by night; Thrasybulus was killed in his tent.

   The gains that Thrasybulus made on this campaign were soon reversed,
   however, by Persian intervention. Alarmed by the sudden reappearance of
   something resembling the Athenian empire that had driven them from the
   Aegean in the fifth century, the Persians began supporting Sparta, and
   a Persian fleet was soon in the Hellespont, threatening Athens' grain
   supply. Peace was quickly concluded, on the same terms that the
   Athenians had rejected in 392; Thrasybulus' campaigns, though
   impressively successful in spreading Athenian influence, had little
   long-term effect, since they prompted Persia to force the Athenians to
   give up what they had gained.

Historical opinions

   Thrasybulus has been widely recognized as a successful military
   commander. Most of the major ancient historians assigned credit for the
   dramatic Athenian victories of 411 BC to Alcibiades, but a few, such as
   Cornelius Nepos, pointed to the decisive role that was played in these
   battles by Thrasybulus. More recent historians, such as Donald Kagan
   and R.J. Buck, have tended to support this analysis, pointing to the
   role that Thrasybulus played in crafting Athenian strategy in all these
   battles, and specifically to the decisive action he took at Cyzicus,
   which saved Alcibiades's force from being swamped, and turned a
   potential Athenian defeat into a stunning victory. R.J. Buck has
   suggested that Thrasybulus suffered from an "anti-democratic tradition
   of ancient historiography," which led many writers to minimize the
   accomplishments of one of democracy's strongest advocates.

   Throughout his career, Thrasybulus defended democracy at Athens against
   its opponents. He was one of the few prominent citizens who the Samians
   trusted to defend their democracy, and who the fleet selected to lead
   it through the troubled time of conflict with the 400. Later, in his
   opposition to the Thirty Tyrants, Thrasybulus risked his life when few
   others would, and his actions were responsible for the quick
   restoration of democracy. In the words of Cornelius Nepos,

     This most noble action, then, is entirely Thrasybulus's; for when
     the Thirty Tyrants, appointed by the Lacedaemonians, kept Athens
     oppressed in a state of slavery, and had partly banished from their
     country, and partly put to death, a great number of the citizens
     whom fortune had spared in the war, and had divided their
     confiscated property among themselves, he was not only the first,
     but the only man at the commencement, to declare war against them.

   John Fine points to the clemency shown by Thrasybulus and other
   democrats in the wake of their victory over the Thirty as a key
   contribution towards reestablishing stable government in Athens. While
   many city-states throughout the Greek world broke down into vicious
   cycles of civil war and reprisal, Athens remained united and
   democratic, without interruption, until near the end of the third
   century, and democracy, albeit interrupted several times by conquest or
   revolution, continued there until Roman times, several centuries later.

   Thus Thrasybulus won praise as an Athenian patriot and staunch,
   principled democrat. He has been criticized by modern historians,
   however, for failing to recognize that Athens in the 4th century could
   not sustain an imperial policy. R.J. Buck suggests that Thrasybulus,
   who came of age in the heady days when the democracy and empire under
   Pericles were at their fullest extent, never accepted that the
   devastating losses Athens had suffered in the Peloponnesian War made
   the return of those times impossible.

   Thrasybulus was a capable general, particularly successful in naval
   warfare, and a competent speaker, but was frequently overshadowed or
   pushed aside by more charismatic or spectacularly successful leaders.
   Buck has compared him to Winston Churchill, another advocate of
   imperial policies who held fast to his beliefs after the tide of
   history had turned against him, and who rose to his peak of prominence
   at his country's darkest hour. Throughout his two decades of
   prominence, whether in or out of leadership, Thrasybulus remained a
   steady advocate of traditional Athenian imperial democracy, and he died
   fighting for the same cause he was advocating on his first appearance
   in 411.
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