History of the Peloponnesian War

It was with this object in view that they were now diligently building this fort, which was furnished with posterns and entrances and ways for letting the enemy in, and they wished to have it finished in time.

Now hitherto the talk had been confined to small groups and indulged in with some attempt at secrecy; but finally Phrynichus, after his return from his mission to Lacedaemon, was stabbed in full market as the result of a plot by a man of the frontier-patrol, and before he had gone far from the senate-chamber suddenly died. The assassin escaped, while his accomplice, an Argive fellow, was seized and put to the torture by the Four Hundred, but did not reveal the name of anyone who instigated the deed nor anything else, except that he knew many who were wont to come together in the house of the commander of the frontier-patrol and at other houses. So now at length, when no signal action had been taken in consequence of this, Theramenes and Aristocrates and all the rest of the Four Hundred and those outside that body who were of the same way of thinking, went to work more boldly.

For at this same time the Peloponnesian ships had already sailed round from Las, and after taking station at Epidaurus had overrun Aegina; and Theramenes said it was not likely, if their destination were Euboea, that they would have run up the gulf as far as Aegina and then put in to Epidaurus to anchor, unless they had come on invitation for the purposes which he himself had always been denouncing; it was therefore impossible, he concluded, to keep quiet any longer.

Finally, when there had been many other seditious speeches and insinuations, they at last took hold of the situation in earnest. The hoplites in the Peiraeus who were engaged in building the fort at Eetioneia—one of their number being Aristocrates, a taxiarch who commanded the contingent of his own tribe—arrested Alexicles, who was a general of the oligarchical faction and very favourably inclined toward the members of the political clubs, took him into a house and confined him there. Among those who took part with them in this exploit was Hermon, one of the frontier-patrol and commander of the detachment stationed at Munichia;

and, most important of all, the mass of the hoplites were in sympathy with all this.

But when the act was announced to the Four Hundred, who happened to be in session in the senate-chamber, immediately all except those who disapproved of this state of things[*](ie. the present conduct of the Four Hundred.) were ready to rush to arms and began to threaten Theramenes and his followers. But he, justifying himself, said that he was ready to go immediately and assist in the rescue of Alexicles. So he took one of the generals who was in accord with him and proceeded to the Peiraeus; and Aristarchus and some young men of the Knights also went to the rescue. There ensued a tumult that was widespread and alarming;

for the people in the city thought that the Peiraeus had been taken and that the man under arrest had been put to death, while the people in the Peiraeus thought that the men of the city were all but upon them.

But owing to the efforts of the older men to stop those in the city who were running hither and thither and flying to their arms and also of Thucydides, the Athenian proxenus at Pharsalus, who was then in Athens and zealously threw himself in everybody's way and loudly called upon them not to ruin the state when the enemy was near at hand awaiting his turn, the people were with difficulty quieted and refrained from attacking one another.

As for Theramenes, he went to the Peiraeus (he was himself one of the generals) and, so far as shouting was concerned, showed anger at the hoplites; but Aristarchus and those who were opposed to the populace were really displeased.

Most of the hoplites, however, grappled with the task in hand and showed no change of purpose, and they asked Theramenes whether he thought that the fort was being built with any good end in view, and whether it were not better demolished. He answered that if it seemed good to them to demolish it, so it seemed to him also. Thereupon the hoplites and many of the people of Peiraeus at once mounted the fortification and began to tear it down.

And the exhortation addressed to the crowd was, “Whoever wants the Five Thousand to rule in place of the Four Hundred, let him set to work.” For in spite of everything they were still concealing their purpose under the name of the “Five Thousand,” so as not to say outright, “Whoever wants the people to rule”; for they were afraid that the Five Thousand did in reality exist and that one man in speaking to another might without knowing it get into trouble.[*](ie. that the man to whom he suggested a democratic revolution might himself be one of the Five Thousand.) And in fact this was the reason why the Four Hundred did not wish either that the Five Thousand should actually exist or that it should become known that they did not exist— because they thought, on the one hand, that to make so many men partners in the government was outright democracy, and, on the other hand, that the uncertainty would inspire fear in each against his neighbour.