Thirty Tyrants

The Thirty Tyrants (Ancient Greek: οἱ τριάκοντα τύραννοι, oi triákonta týrannoi) were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE. Upon Lysander's request, the Thirty were elected as a government, not just as a legislative committee. The Thirty Tyrants maintained power for thirteen months. Though brief, their reign resulted in the killing of 5% of the Athenian population, the confiscation of citizens' property, and the exile of other democratic supporters. They became known as the "Thirty Tyrants" because of their cruel and oppressive tactics. The two leading members were Critias and Theramenes.

The rule of the Thirty

With Spartan support, the Thirty established an interim government in Athens. The Thirty were concerned with the revision and/or erasure of democratic laws inscribed on the wall next to the Stoa Basileios. Consequently, the Thirty reduced the rights of Athenian citizens in order to institute an oligarchical regime. The Thirty appointed a council of 500 to serve the judicial functions formerly belonging to all the citizens. However, not all Athenian men had their rights removed. In fact, 3,000 Athenian men were chosen by the Thirty "to share in the government". These hand-selected individuals were allowed to carry weapons, entitled to a jury trial, and able to reside within city limits. The list of the selected 3,000 was consistently revised. Although little is known about these 3,000 men for a complete record was never documented, it is hypothesized that the Thirty appointed these select few because they were the only men the Thirty could find who were devotedly loyal to their regime. The majority of Athenian citizens did not support the rule of the Thirty.

Thirty Tyrants (Roman)

The Thirty Tyrants (Latin: Tyranni Triginta) were a series of thirty rulers who appear in the Historia Augusta as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus.

Given the notorious unreliability of the Historia Augusta, the veracity of this list is debatable; there is a scholarly consensus that the author deliberately inflated the number of pretenders in order to parallel the Thirty Tyrants of Athens.

The Historia actually gives 32 names; however, because the author (who wrote under the name of Trebellius Pollio) places the last two during the reigns of Maximinus Thrax and Claudius II respectively, this leaves thirty alleged pretenders during the reign of Gallienus.

The following list gives the Thirty Tyrants as depicted by the Historia Augusta, along with notes contrasting the Historia Augusta's claims with their actual historical positions:

Notwithstanding the author's pretensions regarding the time during which these persons aspired to the throne, this list includes:

Thirty Tyrants (disambiguation)

Thirty Tyrants may refer to either of two groups of rulers in classical Antiquity: