Abstract
This study continues a series of articles dealing with antidemocratic coups d’état in Athens in the end of the 5th century BC and their historical signifi cance. The following problems are considered: principal pieces of evidence on the oligarchic regime of 411 BC and their comparative value; the essence of the oligarchs’ plans and Alcibiades’ place in them; easiness of the establishment of the oligarchy of Four Hundred and easiness of its fall; dynamics of the political evolution during the transitional period (411–410 BC). Notice is taken of the absence of unity in milieu of the antagonists of radical democracy, which weakened their camp.
Keywords
Classical Greece, Athens, oligarchy, democracy, coups d’état, Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, Alcibiades.
Igor E. Surikov
Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;
Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
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Acknowledgements: Russian Science Foundation, project no. 23-28-00024
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