Theramenes

Theramenes changed sides in every Athenian crisis of his generation and was executed by the last regime he helped install. He was prominent in the oligarchic coup of 411 BC that replaced the democracy with the Four Hundred, and then led the movement that overthrew them months later in favour of the broader constitution of the Five Thousand — which Thucydides, who approved of almost nothing, called the best government Athens had in his lifetime. He served as a general afterwards and fought at Arginusae in 406 BC, where the fleet won and a storm prevented the recovery of the shipwrecked crews. He was assigned to that task, and when the generals were prosecuted for the failure he gave evidence against them; six were executed in a single vote, and he was widely believed to have shifted the blame. He negotiated the surrender to Sparta in 404 BC, spending three months with Lysander and returning with terms that included the demolition of the Long Walls. He was then made one of the Thirty Tyrants, and objected as the killings widened beyond any political purpose to the merely wealthy. Critias struck his name from the roll of the Three Thousand, which removed his right to trial, and had him condemned in front of the council with armed men in the room. He drank the hemlock and flicked out the last drops in the manner of a dinner-party game, saying they were for the health of Critias. His nickname was the buskin, the theatrical boot that fits either foot. Thrasybulus overthrew the Thirty within months of his death.

• Lived: 450 BCE – 404 BCE
• Nationality: Greek
• Roles: ruler