Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/268

 246 HISTORY OF GREECE. ihe Thirty rejected this proposition ; being doubtless convinced as the Four Hundred had felt seven years before, vhen Theramene"s demanded of them to convert their fictitious total of Five Thousand into a real list of as many living persons that " to enroll so great a number of partners, was tanta- mount to a downright democracy." 2 But they were at the same time not insensible to the soundness of his advice : moreover, they began to be afraid of him personally, and to suspect that he was likely to take the lead in a popular opposition against them, as he had previously done against his colleagues of the Four Hundred- They therefore resolved to comply in part with his recommenda- tions, and accordingly prepared a list of three thousand persons to be invested with the political franchise ; chosen, as much as possible, from their own known partisans and from oligarchical citi- zens. Besides this body, they also counted on the adherence of the horsemen, among the wealthiest citizens of the state. These horsemen, or knights, taking them as a class, the thousand good men of Athens, whose virtues Aristophanes sets forth in hostile antithesis to the alleged demagogic vices of Kleon, remained steady supporters of the Thirty, throughout all the enormities of their career. 2 "What privileges or functions were assigned to the chosen three thousand, we do not hear, except that they could not be condemned without the warrant of the senate, while any other Athenian might be put to death by the simple fiat of the Thirty.3 A body of partners thus chosen not merely of fixed number, but of picked oligarchical sentiments was by no means the addition which Theramenes desired. While he commented on the folly of supposing that there was any charm in the number three thousand, as if it embodied all the merit of the city, and nothing else but merit, he admonished them that it was still insufficient for (heir defence ; their rule was one of pure force, and yet inferior in force to those over whom it was exercised. Again the Thirty acted upon his admonition, but in a way very different from that which he contemplated. They proclaimed a general muster 1 Thucyd. viii, 89-92. rb [tsv Ka-aart/aai fieroxovf TOGOVTO- if, uvTiKpvg ut w tj-yovfiei-oi. Xcnoph. Hellcn. ii, 3, 8, 19 : ii, 4, 2, 8, 24. 3 Xcnopb. Hcllcn. ii,3. 51,