Thirty Tyrants were 30 Athenians elected to replace the democratic government of Athens after the city surrendered to Sparta in 404 B.C. The politician Critias was their leader. They took steps to make Athens more like Sparta, such as limiting citizenship to 3,000 men. When they were slow to produce a promised new constitution, open resistance to their rule began. They responded by bringing in Spartan soldiers to crush uprisings and by taking weapons away from Athenians. But resistance continued until the Spartan king Pausanias forced a settlement. In 403 B.C., the reign of the Thirty ended, and the new leader declared an amnesty (pardon) for all citizens except the Thirty and a few others. These events made Critias’s nephew Plato decide against a political career and devote his life to philosophy.
