Among these targets of the Thirty was the family of Cephalus, who is the host of the gathering portrayed in Plato’s Republic. Cephalus was a foreigner from Syracuse who had migrated to Athens at the invitation of Pericles.[46] His family ran a large arms factory, making shields. After Cephalus’ death his son Polemarchus inherited the family business. Socrates was evidently a close friend of the family.[47] The Thirty now issued arrest warrants for ten prominent foreigners, including Polemarchus (a prominent character in Plato’s Republic) and his brother Lysias (who was later to become a famous speech writer). Lysias himself tells his story in a speech he delivered in a trial held after the fall of the Thirty, in which he accused Eratosthenes of crimes against Lysias’ family.[48]
While Lysias was entertaining guests at his house, guards arrived from the Thirty, driving out the guests and arresting Lysias. Lysias offered a bribe to Peison, the member of the Thirty in charge of the arrest, who answered that he would help if Lysias made it worth his while. Lysias offered him a talent of silver, which Peison agreed to, swearing an oath to free the prisoner. Lysias entered a room, opened a chest to get the money, followed by Peison. Peison thereupon helped himself to the whole chest, amounting to more than three talents’ worth. Two more of the Thirty arrived at the house. Peison announced that he was going to search Polemarchus’ house (presumably not for evidence but for valuables); he sent the other two oligarchs with Lysias in custody to the house of Damnippus after whispering to Lysias that he would free him later.[49]
At Damnippus’ house Theognis was guarding others who had been arrested in the same dragnet. Fearing that Peison would not honor his oath, Lysias spoke to Damnippus, his friend, asking him to help Lysias escape. Damnippus thought he had better offer a bribe to Theognis to protect himself from reprisals. While Damnippus was talking to Theognis, Lysias, who was familiar with the house, slipped out a series of hallways leading to a rear door on the back alley, where no guard was posted. He fled to the house of another friend, a ship captain named Archeneus, who lived outside the city, and told him what had happened. The captain went into town to ask after Polemarchus and heard that he had been arrested and taken into custody. Unable to help his brother, Lysias sailed by night to Megara, presumably on his friend’s ship.[50]
Polemarchus was condemned without any charges being brought or any trial and made to drink the hemlock. The family owned three houses, all of which were confiscated. The formerly wealthy family had to lay out Polemarchus’ body in a rented hut and borrow clothing to bury him in. The government appropriated everything the family had—seven hundred shields from the arms factory, furniture, clothing, jewelry, and one hundred and twenty slaves. They even took the gold earrings from the ears of Polemarchus’ widow.[51] Similar scenes occurred in other households on the same day, and for many days thereafter, creating fear and loathing toward a lawless and rapacious government as it descended into a police state and a kleptocracy.
Polemarchus was just one of many victims of the Thirty. Of those who survived prosecutions and confiscations, many gathered in the Athenian port of Piraeus, while others fled to nearby cities—Argos, Megara, and Thebes. Sparta demanded that all cities expel Athenian refugees; but now that Sparta had won the war and was throwing her weight around, the Spartan coalition was beginning to crumble, so that the cities harboring refugees simply ignored the Spartan demands. In the winter of 404-403 Thrasybulus and Anytus, the later accuser of Socrates, led a band of seventy Athenian refugees from Thebes to Phyle, a border fortress on the south slope of Mt. Parnes. When the Thirty sent troops to destroy them, the troops were caught by a sudden snowstorm; the rebels made guerilla raids on the troops and drove them back. Exiles thereafter flocked to Phyle to join the rebellion. The rebels soon won another victory against cavalry and infantry sent out from Athens.[52] Lysias was not idle either. Though his factory and his house had been confiscated, he still had resources and connections with arms dealers. He supplied 200 shields to the rebels and hired 500 mercenaries to aid their cause, as well as contributing 2000 drachmas in funds.[53]
[46].Lysias 12.4.
[47]. Plato portrays Socrates as an intimate of the family, attending a party at their house, Republic I, 327b-328c, and speaking at length with Polemarchus (discussed above in the previous chapter). The dramatic date is notoriously problematic, with features suggesting dates from 424 to 408; see Nails 2002: 324-26.
[48].Lysias 12.
[49].Lysias 12.8-13.
[50].Lysias 12.14-17.
[51].Lysias 12.17-19.
[52].Xenophon Hellenica 2.4.1-7; Diodorus Siculus 14.5.5-6.3; Plutarch Lysander 27.2-3.
[53].Ps.Plutarch Lives of the Ten Orators = Moralia 835e-f; see Krentz 1982: 73 and n. 11.