Talk:The Four Hundred (oligarchy)

Note: most of the content of this page comes from Thucydides. I find it weird to reference it with intermediary sources rather than directly with the original source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:CB05:2F7:BE00:35FE:F14E:A0D8:C746 (talk) 09:49, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

Translated Spanish version for merging

 * Here's a translation of Los Cuatrocientos, if somebody cares to merge it into the current pitiful stub of an English article. I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of this information myself. --Quuxplusone 02:19, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The Athenian coup of the Four Hundred, in the year 411 BC, was a revolutionary movement during the Peloponnesian War that overthrew the democratic government of ancient Athens, replacing it with a temporary oligarchy. The movement was led by a group of rich and prominent Athenians who occupied positions of power in the Athenian army in Samos, in coordination with Alcibiades, who promised Persian support to Athens if the democracy were overthrown. The negotiations with Alcibiades were broken off, with the result that Alcibiades' promises went unfulfilled, but the leaders of the oligarchical movement continued with their plans to overthrow the democracy.

The oligarchs planned two coups: one in Athens and one in Samos, the base of the Athenian navy. The coup d'etat in Athens went as they had planned, and the city fell to the control of an oligarchical government known as "the Four Hundred". In Samos, another group of conspirators was neutralized by the Samian democrats and the pro-democracy commanders of the Athenian fleet. The men of the fleet, learning of the coup at home, overthrew their generals and elected new ones in their place, announcing that the city had rebelled against them, not they against the city. The new generals organized the dismissal of Alcibiades in Samos, and announces their intention of carrying the war against Sparta.

In Athens there soon arose a conflict between the moderate oligarchs and the extremists. The moderates, led by Theramenes and Aristocrates, asked for the replacement of the Four Hundred by a larger oligarchy, "the Five Thousand", which would have included all Athenian citizens of the rank of zeugitas or above. Under pressure, the extremist leaders entered into peace negotiations with Sparta and began to fortify the port of Piraeus, which they could have been planning to cede to the Spartans. After Phrinicus, the leader of the extremists, was assassinated, the moderates took courage and arrested an extremist general in Piraeus; a confrontation followed, which ended in the destruction of the new fortification by hoplites. Some days later, the Four Hundred were officially replaced by the Five Thousand, who governed for some months, until after the Athenian victory at Cyzicus in 410 BC.