Thrasybulus (General of Athens)

Thrasybulos ( Greek Θρασύβουλος Thrasýboulos ), also shortened Thrasybul ; * around 440 BC Chr. In Steiria , Attica ; † 388 BC Chr. In Aspendos ( Asia Minor ) was an Athenian strategist . In several battles during the Peloponnesian War he commanded fleets or individual contingents of the Attic League . After Athens was occupied by Sparta at the end of the war , he commanded a group of insurgents who managed to defeat an Athens garrison maintained by Sparta and restore democracy. Thrasybulus died as the leader of an Attic fleet in the Corinthian War .

Early life

Almost nothing is known about Thrasybulus' personal life. His father was named Lykos and came from the village of Steiria, near Athens. Today this village is located near Porto Rafti , in the municipality of Markopoulo Mesogeas . It was probably made between 455 and 441 BC. BC, but at least before 430 BC Born in BC. He was married and had two children. Thrasybulus came from a wealthy family. This becomes clear because he soon held the post of trierarch (commander of a trireme ), which was associated with considerable costs. Presumably he even belonged to the nobility: his daughter married the grandson of the well-known statesman Nikias .

Until 411 BC He had established himself as a pro-democratic politician, as the events described below make clear. However, it is not mentioned in any source before 411 BC. BC, so its actual political actions are unclear.

Thrasybulus was a proponent of Attic imperialism and expansionism as well as democracy after the coinage of Pericles (495-429 BC). He seems to have been a rather unspectacular speaker, but Plutarch testifies that he had the "loudest voice of all Athenians". During his politically active time, Thrasybulos seems to have been part of a group that would be called the “populist faction” today.

The Peloponnesian War

In 413 BC During the main phase of the Peloponnesian War, Athens' fleet was completely destroyed during the expedition to Sicily . As a result, the mighty city got into the greatest crisis in its history. The Attic League threatened to break up, several of the long suppressed member cities rehearsed the uprising with the support of the Sparta-led Peloponnesian League .

Athens used the last reserves of the federal treasury to set up a new fleet and avert the crisis. All available ships were meanwhile assembled in the port of the island of Samos , among them the Trireme of Thrasybulus.

The coup of 411 BC Chr.

In the climate of general crisis, the nobles of Athens planned the long-awaited overthrow of the democratic government. They formed a conspiracy with the aim of placing Athens under an oligarchy . For this plan, the support of the former general Alkibiades was to be won, who had been banished at the beginning of the Sicily expedition for alleged religious crimes and now worked for the Spartans. The oligarchs began their conspiracy on Samos by planning a coup to overthrow the island's democratic government.

In modern historical research it is controversial which role Thrasybulus played in the conspiracy. Donald Kagan suspects that Thrasyboulos was one of the founding members of the League and advocated a moderate oligarchy, but was repelled by the extreme actions of the conspirators. RJ Buck argues that Thrasybulus was probably not involved in the plan, as he may not have been on the island at the time in question.

On their return to Athens, the conspirators achieved the overthrow of democracy and established an oligarchy of 400 selected citizens. On Samos, however, the coup d'état that was taking place at the same time failed: the democrats of the Sami government had learned of the plan and informed the strategists Leon , Diomedon , Thrasyllos and Thrasybulus. With the help of the four generals and their troops, the attempt to seize power was suppressed.

However, when Samos sent a ship to Athens to report on the incidents, the crew was captured there by the new oligarchic government. Samos then renounced Athens and elected his own military leaders, among them Thrasyllos and Thrasybulus, who should support democracy and continue the fight against Sparta.

One of Thrasybulus' first acts was to get Alcibiades on the side of the democrats, which he had advocated for a long time. After he had the support of the Samians for this procedure, he sailed away and brought Alcibiades to Samos. His goal was to convince the Persians to stop supporting Sparta. Alkibiades had a great influence on Satrap Tissaphernes , the Persian military leader in Asia Minor. Alkibiades was elected strategist on Thrasybulus' side. Shortly afterwards, the oligarchy of the 400 fell again in Athens after Euboea , the largest and richest island in the Attic Empire, revolted and renounced.

The fight against Sparta

In the months that followed, Thrasybulus led Attic fleets in several major battles. At the Battle of Kynossema it was thanks to his wing that the fleet was not trapped and defeated by the Spartans. Shortly thereafter, Thrasybulus commanded another wing of the Attic fleet at the Battle of Abydos. The battle also ended victorious for Athens.

At the Battle of Cyzicus , 410 BC BC, Thrasybulus led a squadron of Attic ships. In this battle Alkibiades lured the Spartan fleet out of the port with a small group of ships. When the fleet was well away from land, Thrasybulus and Theramenes appeared with a squadron each aft of the Spartans and cut off their way back to the port. The Spartans were pushed to a nearby beach where they abandoned their ships. Alkibiades pursued them and tried to capture the ships. However, with the help of Persian troops, the Spartans were able to push Alkibiades back and threatened to throw him back into the sea. Thereupon Thrasybulus and Theramenes landed with their troops at different places on the beach and were able to overwhelm the united Spartans and Persians. As a result, the Athenians won all the Spartan ships that had not been destroyed in battle.

In the years 409 and 408 BC Chr. Thrasybulus seems to have spent a lot of time fighting for Thrace , where he recaptured cities and secured the tribute payments for the Attic League. In 407 BC In BC he commanded a fleet that besieged the city ​​of Phocaea in Asia Minor . The siege had to be lifted when the Spartan Nauarch Lysander defeated the Attic fleet under Alcibiades at the Battle of Notion . Alkibiades and Thrasybulus lost their posts as strategists.

In the Battle of the Arginus in 406 BC He appeared as the commander of an Attic auxiliary fleet that was supposed to free the strategist Konon , who was stuck with his fleet near Mytilene on the island of Lesbos . The naval battle was a major victory for Athens; after the battle, the strategists carried away most of the ships to pursue the Peloponnesian fleet. Thrasybulus and Theramenes stayed behind with a small fleet to retrieve the survivors of the sea battle. This venture failed, however, as a strong storm smashed the ships ashore, drowning thousands of Athenians. The result was a political scandal that culminated in a fiery debate between Theramenes and the strategists over who was to blame for the disaster. In the end, several strategists were executed. Thrasybulus appears to have said very little in the debate for reasons unknown.

The rule of thirty

Two years later, in 404 BC. BC, ended the Peloponnesian War. In the battle of Aigospotamoi against the Spartan sea ​​lord Lysander , an incompetent college of admirals had lost the entire Attic fleet of 180 ships. Only the strategist Konon escaped the disaster with ten ships. Soon afterwards Athens had to surrender and the Attic League was dissolved. A strict oligarchic regime was instituted in the city that came to be known as the Rule of Thirty . The new government executed numerous citizens and stripped most of their rights. The government's measures became so extreme that Theramenes fell out with Kritias (an uncle of Plato ) and was sentenced to death herself. Many Athenians fled to Thebes out of fear for their lives .

In contrast to Theramenes, Thrasybulus protested against oligarchic rule from the start and was exiled to Thebes for it. There he was welcomed by the leading politician of Thebes, Ismenias, who promoted the plans of the exiles to return to Athens. In 403 BC BC Thrasybulus led a group of 70 exiles to Phyle, a well defensible place on the border from Attica to Boeotia. A violent storm prevented the thirty from facing the exiles straight away. Instead, Thrasybulus received support from numerous Athenians who joined him. When the garrison maintained by Sparta approached, he already had 700 men under his command. In a surprise attack at dawn, he overran the garrison camp, killing 120 soldiers and driving the others to flight.

Five days later, his force had grown to 1,200 soldiers. He left 200 men in Phyle and led the remaining 1,000 to Piraeus , the port of Athens. There he fortified his position on Munychia , a hill above the harbor, and waited for the imminent attack. The troops of the Thirty, supported by the Spartan garrison, marched on Piraeus. Thrasybulus and his men were outnumbered 1: 5, but thanks to their superior position, and probably also because of disputes over rank among the thirty, the exiles succeeded in driving the oligarchs to flight. Critias was killed in the fight. The remaining thirty fled to Eleusis . In Athens, the remaining oligarchs elected new leaders, but they were unable to keep Thrasybulus in check. The new rulers of Athens were forced to call on Sparta for help.

King Pausanias of Sparta led an army to Athens, attacked Thrasybulus and involved him in heavy fighting. When both armies had withdrawn, the king brokered a compromise between the oligarchs and Thrasybulus.

The compromise stipulated that democracy would be restored in the city, but the oligarchs who wished it were given safe conduct into exile in Eleusis. Athens would be an independent city again, but the League remained dissolved.

When Thrasybulus returned to the city, he enforced a law that granted amnesty to most of the oligarchs, thus protecting them from reprisals by the victorious Democrats. For the liberation of Athens, Thrasybulus was honored by the citizens with the wreath of olive branches.

Democratic Restoration and the Corinthian War

In the restored democracy after 403 BC Thrasybulus was a respected man. He represented a more far-reaching democratization - further than the people of his time would accept. So he wanted to give citizenship to the metics and non-Athenians who had supported him in the fight against the thirty.

At first he was hesitant about revanchist plans regarding Sparta. Around 395 BC However, the tide turned: Athens allied itself with Corinth , Thebes and Argos and tried, with Persian help, to end the supremacy of Sparta in the Greek area. At the beginning of the Corinthian War, Thrasybulus regained his position as a strategist. He organized the reconstruction of the destroyed Long Walls between Athens and Piraeus. After the two lost battles of Nemea and Koroneia , however, he had to surrender his post to Konon. His victory in the Battle of Knidos ended Sparta's dreams of supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean.

Thrasybulus fell out of sight for some time while Konon led the Attic fleet to a series of victories. 392 BC BC Konon traveled to a peace conference in the Persian Sardis , where he was captured by Satrap Tiribazus. After his release, he died in Cyprus before he could return to Athens. Thrasybulos, who had spoken out against the peace offer, got his old post again. 389 BC BC he led a fleet of Trier to Rhodes , where a democratic government rose against Sparta. During this campaign, Thrasybulus rebuilt the network of the ancient Athenian empire from the previous century; he conquered Byzantium (Istanbul), introduced a customs duty for crossing the Dardanelles (Greek Hellespont) and collected tribute from many islands in the Aegean.

388 BC When he led his fleet south, his troops sacked the fields of Aspendos. In retaliation, the town's citizens attacked the Attic camp the following night. Thrasybulus was killed in his tent.

The conquests of Thrasybulus from his campaign were soon reversed with Persian help. Alerted by the apparent resurrection of the Attic Sea League, which they founded in the 5th century BC. From the Aegean Sea, the Persians began to support Sparta again. Soon the so-called King's Peace was concluded under the same conditions as in the negotiations in 392 BC. Completed under Konon. Thrasybulus' campaign after 392 BC BC once again showed the power and influence of Athens, but had no long-term effect.

Historical assessment

Thrasybulus is widely regarded as a successful general. Many ancient historians reckoned Athens' dramatic victories of 411 BC. Chr. Alkibiades at. However, some (such as Cornelius Nepos ) recognized the crucial role that Thrasybulus had played in the battles. Modern historians such as Yale's Donald Kagan and RJ Buck agree with this judgment. They point to the role that Thrasybulus played in planning the battles and to his intervention at Kyzikos, where he saved Alcibiades and turned an impending defeat into a decisive victory. RJ Buck suspects that Thrasybulus' memory suffered from the anti-democratic tradition of the ancient historians who tried to belittle the success of one of the strongest advocates of Attic democracy .

Throughout his career, Thrasybulus defended the democracy of Athens from its enemies. He was one of the few prominent citizens to whom the Samosi entrusted their fleet in the fight against the 400 oligarchs. Later, fighting against the rule of the Thirty, Thrasybulus risked his life when few others would have dared and achieved the restoration of Attic democracy.

John Fine points out that the grace shown by Thrasybulus and other Democrats in their victory over thirty was essential to restore a stable government in Athens. While several Greek city-states repeatedly fell into wars and campaigns of revenge, Athens remained united under a democratic leadership for many decades.

Thrasybulus is also accused of not having recognized the signs of the times after the Peloponnesian War, with his attempt to restore the old Athenian empire. RJ Buck suspects that Thrasybulus, who grew up in the heyday of the Attic League, could never accept the crushing defeat of Athens and the loss of supremacy in the Aegean Sea. The speaker Lysias gives a critical view of his financial behavior in his speeches Against Ergocles and Against Philocrates .

Thrasybulus was a successful general, especially on the water, and an able orator, although he was more often overshadowed by more charismatic or more spectacular leaders. Buck compared him to Winston Churchill , another proponent of imperial power, who still clung to his ideas after the world was turning, and who was at its height in the darkest hour of his country. During the two decades that Thrasybulus was in the limelight, he was always an advocate of Attic democracy and the Attic League - and when he died he still stood for the same principles as when he first appeared in 411 BC. Chr.

literature

• Bruno Bleckmann : Athens' path to defeat . Teubner, Stuttgart et al. 1998, ISBN 3-519-07648-9 , ( contributions to antiquity 99), (also: Göttingen, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1996).
• Robert J. Buck: Thrasybulus and the Athenian Democracy. The life of an Athenian statesman. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07221-7 , ( Historia single fonts issue 120).
• John VA Fine: The Ancient Greeks. A critical history. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass. 1983, ISBN 0-674-03314-0 .
• Donald Kagan : The Peloponnesian War. Penguin Books, New York City NY et al. 2004, ISBN 0-670-03211-5 .
• Karl Friedrich Scheibe: The oligarchic upheaval in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War . TO Weigel, Leipzig 1841, pp. 104–106, especially note 6.
• Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Classical Athens. Primus, Darmstadt 1999, ISBN 3-89678-117-0 .

Web links

• Cornelius Nepos: Thrasybulus - Latin original and translation by Johannes Siebelis.