The Thirty Tyrants

How the Athenian Democracy became a Dictatorship

This (modified) excerpt from How to Think Like Socrates, relates some of the events that occurred following the surrender of Athens at the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War.

Theramenes, after meeting with the Spartans, returned with the news that Athens would be spared if the Long Walls and fortifications of Piraeus were leveled and all but twelve of t…