The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

constitution. Theramenes, however, criticized this scheme also,
first on the ground that, while proposing to give all respectable
citizens a share in the constitution, they were actually giving it
only to three thousand persons, as though all merit were confined
within that number; and secondly because they were doing two
inconsistent things, since they made the government rest on the
basis of force, and yet made the governors inferior in strength to
the governed. However, they took no notice of his criticisms, and
for a long time put off the publication of the list of the Three
Thousand and kept to themselves the names of those who had been
placed upon it; and every time they did decide to publish it they
proceeded to strike out some of those who had been included in it,
and insert others who had been omitted.
37
    Now when winter had set in, Thrasybulus and the exiles occupied
Phyle, and the force which the Thirty led out to attack them met
with a reverse. Thereupon the Thirty decided to disarm the bulk of
the population and to get rid of Theramenes; which they did in the
following way. They introduced two laws into the Council, which
they commanded it to pass; the first of them gave the Thirty
absolute power to put to death any citizen who was not included in
the list of the Three Thousand, while the second disqualified all
persons from participation in the franchise who should have
assisted in the demolition of the fort of Eetioneia, or have acted
in any way against the Four Hundred who had organized the previous
oligarchy. Theramenes had done both, and accordingly, when these
laws were ratified, he became excluded from the franchise and the
Thirty had full power to put him to death. Theramenes having been
thus removed, they disarmed all the people except the Three
Thousand, and in every respect showed a great advance in cruelty
and crime. They also sent ambassadors to Lacedaemonian to blacken
the character of Theramenes and to ask for help; and the
Lacedaemonians, in answer to their appeal, sent Callibius as
military governor with about seven hundred troops, who came and
occupied the Acropolis.
38
    These events were followed by the occupation of Munichia by the
exiles from Phyle, and their victory over the Thirty and their
partisans. After the fight the party of the city retreated, and
next day they held a meeting in the marketplace and deposed the
Thirty, and elected ten citizens with full powers to bring the war
to a termination. When, however, the Ten had taken over the
government they did nothing towards the object for which they were
elected, but sent envoys to Lacedaemonian to ask for help and to
borrow money. Further, finding that the citizens who possessed the
franchise were displeased at their proceedings, they were afraid
lest they should be deposed, and consequently, in order to strike
terror into them (in which design they succeeded), they arrested
Demaretus, one of the most eminent citizens, and put him to death.
This gave them a firm hold on the government, and they also had the
support of Callibius and his Peloponnesians, together with several
of the Knights; for some of the members of this class were the most
zealous among the citizens to prevent the return of the exiles from
Phyle. When, however, the party in Piraeus and Munichia began to
gain the upper hand in the war, through the defection of the whole
populace to them, the party in the city deposed the original Ten,
and elected another Ten, consisting of men of the highest repute.
Under their administration, and with their active and zealous
cooperation, the treaty of reconciliation was made and the populace
returned to the city. The most prominent members of this board were
Rhinon of Paeania and Phayllus of Acherdus, who, even before the
arrival of Pausanias, opened negotiations with the party in
Piraeus, and after his arrival seconded his efforts to bring about
the return of the exiles. For it was Pausanias, the king of the
Lacedaemonians, who brought the peace and reconciliation to a
fulfillment, in conjunction with the ten commissioners of
arbitration who arrived later from Lacedaemonian, at his own
earnest request. Rhinon and his colleagues received a vote of
thanks for the goodwill shown by them to the people, and though
they received their charge under an oligarchy and handed in their
accounts under a democracy, no one, either of the party that had
stayed in the city or of the exiles that had returned from the
Piraeus, brought any