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This then was the constitution drawn up by the Hundred elected by the Five Thousand. These proposals were carried by the multitude, being put to the vote by Aristomachus, and the Council in Callias's year was dissolved on the 14th day of the month of Thargelion before it had completed its term of office; while the Four Hundred came into office on Thargelion the 21st; and the Council elected by lot was due to enter office on Scirophorion the 14.1 [2] In this way therefore the oligarchy was set up, in the archonship of Callias, about a hundred years after the expulsion of the tyrants, the chief movers having been Peisander, Antiphon and Theramenes, men of good birth and of distinguished reputation for wisdom and judgement. [3] But when this constitution had been set up, the Five Thousand were only nominally chosen, but the Four Hundred with the aid of the Ten with autocratic powers2 entered the Council-chamber and governed the state. They also sent envoys to the Lacedaemonians and proposed to conclude peace on terms of uti possidetis; but the Lacedaemonians would not consent unless Athens would also relinquish the empire of the sea, so that they finally abandoned the project.
1 The three dates are about May 31, June 7, and June 30.
2 The Ten Generals, see Aristot. Ath. Pol. 31.2.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.
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