[1] Although they maintained power for only eight months, their reign resulted in the killing of 5% of the Athenian population, the confiscation of citizens' property, and the exile of other democratic supporters.
[2] After the Athenian navy was destroyed at the battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, Lysander led the Spartan and Peloponnesian League naval force to Athens for the final destruction of the city.
[3] After initial negotiations of surrender failed, Athenian general Theramenes asked the Ecclesia for permission to speak with Lysander, believing that he could get the best possible conditions from the Spartans.
The terms agreed on called for Athens to destroy the long walls of Piraeus, allow exiles back into the city, and reduce their navy to only twelve vessels, surrendering all remaining ones to the Spartans.
The Ecclesia split into different factions on what the new government should be, with some favoring an oligarchic model while Theramenes became the de facto leader of those who wanted a democratic system.
The debate led to deadlock and the Spartans intervened and demanded that the Athenians appoint thirty men to oversee the drafting of new laws and a new constitution.
They appointed other officials, including 10 men who would rule the port town of Piraeus on behalf of the Thirty, and hired 300 mastigophoroi, whip bearers who would act as a police force.
Around this time, Thirty members Aeschines and Aristoteles travelled to Sparta and met with Lysander, requesting that a Spartan garrison be stationed in Athens.
[11] Led by Critias, the Thirty Tyrants presided over a reign of terror in which they executed, murdered, and exiled hundreds of Athenians, seizing their possessions afterward.
[citation needed] Plato, in the opening portion of his Seventh Letter (the authenticity of which is questioned by several modern scholars),[22] recounts the rule of the Thirty Tyrants during his youth.
He explains that following the revolution, fifty-one men became rulers of a new government, with a specific group of thirty in charge of the public affairs of Athens.
Socrates remained in the city through this period, which caused the public to associate him with the Thirty and may have contributed to his eventual death sentence, especially since Critias had been his student.
[25] In Plato's Apology, Socrates recounts an incident in which the Thirty once ordered him (and four other men) to bring before them Leon of Salamis, a man known for his justice and upright character, for execution.
When the oligarchy came into power, the Thirty Commissioners, in their turn, summoned me and four others to the Round Chamber and instructed us to go and fetch Leon of Salamis from his home for execution.
[26]Later on, in his Seventh Letter, Plato describes the interaction between the Thirty and Socrates from his own point of view: They tried to send a friend of mine, the aged Socrates, whom I should scarcely scruple to describe as the most upright man of that day, with some other persons to carry off one of the citizens by force to execution, in order that, whether he wished it, or not, he might share the guilt of their conduct; but he would not obey them, risking all consequences in preference to becoming a partner in their iniquitous deeds.