Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/293

 DO VNFALL OF THE THIRTY. 271 Such affecting appeals, proceeding from a man of respected station like Kleokntus, and doubtless from others also, began to work so sensibly on the minds of the citizens from Athens, that the Thirty were obliged to give orders for immediately returning, which Thrasybulus did not attempt to prevent, though it might have been in his power to do so. 1 But their ascendency had received a shock from which it never fully recovered. On the next day they appeared downcast and dispirited in the senate, which was itself thinly attended ; while the privileged Three Thousand, marshalled in different companies on guard, were everywhere in discord and partial mutiny. Those among them who had been most compromised in the crimes of the Thirty, were strenuous in upholding the existing authority ; while such as had been less guilty protested against the continuance of such unholy war, and declared that the Thirty should not be permitted to bring Athens to utter ruin. And though the horsemen still continued steadfast partisans, resolutely opposing all accommoda- tion with the exiles, 2 yet the Thirty were farther weakened by the death of Kritias, the ascendent and decisive head, and at the same time the most cruel and unprincipled among them ; while that party, both in the senate and out of it, which had formerly adhered to Theramenes, now again raised its head. A public meeting among them was held, in which what may be called the opposition-party among the Thirty, that which had opposed the extreme enormities of Kritias, became predominant. It was determined to depose the Thirty, and to constitute a fresh oligar- chy of Ten, one from each tribe. 3 But the members of the Thirty were individually reeligible ; so that two of them, Eratos- thenes and Pheidon, if not more, adherents of Theramenes and unfriendly to Kritias and Charikles, 4 with others of the same vein of sentiment, were chosen among the Ten. Charikles and the more violent members, having thus lost their ascendency, no longer deemed themselves safe at Athens, but retired to Eleusis, which they had had the precaution to occupy beforehand. Prob- 1 Xenoph. Ilcllcn. ii, 4, 22 ; Lysias, Orat. xii, cont. Eratosth. s. 55 : ot HEV -yap IK Yletpauuf KpeiTTOvf wrcf cl aaav avrot)f uireh&fiv, etc. 4 Lysias, Orat. xii, cont. Eratnsth. sects. 55, 56 : ol tioKovvref dvai fiiiraroi Xa/3i/l /cat KpiTiip KOT ry TOVTUV iraipd<f, etc.
 * Xenoph. Hcllcn. ii, 4, 24. ' Xenoph. Hcllen. ii, 4, 23.