Thrasybulus and many other Athenian exiles had found refuge in Boeotia. In January 403 BC, together with Ismenias and other Theban citizens, he started out from Thebes at the head of seventy exiles and seized the Athenian fortress of Phyle near the Boeotian border on the direct road to Athens. The Thirty marched out at the head of the Spartan garrison together with a strong Athenian force to meet them, but their attack was repulsed with considerable loss.
Probably in May 403 BC Thrasybulus marched to Piraeus which he seized without opposition. On the following day when the force of the Thirty marched to attack him he retired to the hill of Munychia, the citadel of the Piraeus and the only approach to which was by a steep ascent. He positioned his hoplites in files ten lines deep in front of his slingers and dart-men. When the enemy came in range they seemed to waver at the first discharge. Thrasybulus charged down the hill and routed them, killing seventy, including Critias.
The victorious democrats now issued a proclamation inviting all Athenians to unite and put an end to the slaughter. This was rejected by the oligarchs, who expected the Spartans to intervene on their behalf. With the loss of Critias the majority passed to the moderates, who now deposed the Thirty. The oligarchs now split into two camps. A Board of Ten was constituted and together with the commanders of the cavalry they controlled the defence of the city. Some of the Thirty were re-elected into this Ten, but the more violent of them were deposed and they retired for safety to Eleusis in west Attica
Much of the spring and summer of 403 BC was filled with a war of skirmishes and reprisals in the countryside between the two opposing armed camps at Athens and Piraeus. In about August 403 BC the Spartans sent Lysander as harmost with his brother Libys as navarch to blockade Thrasybulus and his men at Piraeus. During Lysander’s absence the Spartans decided to send Pausanias (r.409-395 BC) to succeed him who on entering Attica superseded Lysander and won a battle outside Piraeus then returned to his camp.
Instead of exploiting his victory, Pausanias sought a reconciliation between the two factions. The opposing sides surrendered to Pausanias and asked for a committee to be sent to Athens to assist in the peace process. A full amnesty was proclaimed for everyone except for the Thirty and their immediate associates, but there would be two separate states in Attica, one at Eleusis, where the Thirty could be joined by any sympathisers, and the other at Athens. The two states were separated from one another by a ban on movement between them except for the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries, to which the citizens of Athens were admitted. During the archonship of Euclides (403/2 BC) the democracy of Ephialtes and Pericles was reaffirmed in all its essentials. In 401 BC Eleusis began to rearm; a preventive strike was launched and the town was reabsorbed into the Athenian state.
Prejudice against the extreme oligarchs spread to the social and intellectual circles from which they had sprung – the aristocratic, the free-thinking and outspoken. In 339 BC, Socrates (469-399 BC) was prosecuted for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens with his teachings. At his trial he made the now famous claim that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. He pleaded his innocence but was convicted and was forced to drink the hemlock.
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