The Traitors Who Shaped the History of Ancient Greece

The traitors of Ancient Greece not lone betrayed their city-states, family, and friends but besides divine law. Painting ‘Death of Alcibiades’ by Philippe Chery. Credit: Public Domain

In Ancient Greece, the connection “traitor” carried a value that echoed done history. Among the aureate pages of Greek civilization prevarication darker chapters marked by betrayal—stories of men who turned against their homeland, their people, and the noble ideals of Hellenism.

To beryllium labeled a traitor was nary trivial substance successful Ancient Greece. Ethics and morality were regarded arsenic the highest quality virtues, and betraying one’s city-state, friends, oregon household was seen not lone arsenic a motivation failing but besides arsenic an discourtesy against divine law.

Though acts of treason were uncommon successful the past world, their consequences were profound, shaking the precise foundations of city-states. The names of these betrayers became arsenic good known arsenic those of heroes, yet dissimilar heroes, they were condemned and formed retired from society. A traitor successful Ancient Greece was not lone idiosyncratic who aided overseas invaders but besides 1 who betrayed his ain radical for idiosyncratic ambition, greed, oregon vanity.

Ephialtes of Trachis, 1 of the astir infamous traitors of Ancient Greece

Ephialtes of Trachis is remembered arsenic the astir notorious traitor successful Ancient Greek history, his betrayal everlastingly linked to 1 of the boldest displays of Greek courage: the Battle of Thermopylae. He stands among the 3 cardinal figures of the conflict immortalized successful art, literature, and film—alongside Leonidas, king of Sparta, and Xerxes, king of Persia. Unlike the others, however, Ephialtes chose a way that sealed the destiny of the Greek defenders successful favour of the enemy.

In 480 BC, erstwhile Xerxes and his Persian forces invaded Greece, the vastly outnumbered Hellenic conjugation led by Leonidas held the constrictive upland walk of Thermopylae successful Phthiotis against hundreds of thousands of invaders. The 300 Spartans fought with bonzer valor, sidesplitting thousands and holding the walk arsenic the rocky terrain constricted the Persians’ advantage. Their basal mightiness person succeeded had Ephialtes not betrayed his chap Greeks, revealing a hidden upland way that allowed the Persians to flank the defenders. Trapped betwixt the invading forces, Leonidas and his men fought to their past breath.

The heroism of Leonidas and his 300 men became legendary. Yet the sanction of Ephialtes endured arsenic a awesome of treachery. Herodotus recounted: “Ephialtes, lad of Eurydemus, a antheral of Trachis, came to Xerxes, hoping for a large reward, and informed him of the way that led implicit the upland to Thermopylae” (Histories 7.213).

According to Herodotus, Ephialtes was driven by greed and self-interest alone, and his sanction became synonymous with betrayal. As helium wrote, “The sanction of Ephialtes is held successful infamy by each Greeks” (Histories 7.214). When Ephialtes was aboriginal killed by a chap Greek, his decease was wide interpreted arsenic divine retribution for his treason.

Demaratus of Sparta

Sparta was the lone city-state successful Ancient Greece with two kings simultaneously. This dual monarchy existed due to the fact that the Spartans were astir perpetually engaged successful warfare: portion 1 king led the service successful battle, the different remained successful Sparta to grip administration.

At the opening of the 5th period BC, the 2 kings were Demaratus (r. 515–491 BC) and Cleomenes I. A quality arose implicit Demaratus’ legitimacy owed to questions astir his parentage—his parent had been antecedently married. The kings besides disagreed connected Spartan argumentation toward Athens. Cleomenes sought to punish the leaders of Aegina, who had allied with Persia, but Demaratus refused to enactment the campaign.

Demaratus’ stance angered the Spartans, who yet moved to regenerate him with his brother, Leotychides II. Exiled from Sparta, Demaratus fled to Persia, wherever the Persian king granted him the metropolis of Pergamum and surrounding territories, appointing him arsenic an advisor.

Ten years aft his exile, Demaratus became a traitor to his homeland erstwhile helium accompanied Xerxes connected the Persian expedition against Greece. Despite this, helium was 1 of the fewer advisors who openly expressed uncertainty astir Xerxes’ chances of victory. Herodotus recounts galore consultations betwixt Xerxes and Demaratus, successful which Demaratus consistently refrained from flattery and offered honorable assessments of the subject situation.

Yet, careless of his caution and counsel, the precise enactment of siding with the enemies of Ancient Greece cemented his estimation arsenic a traitor.

The enigma of Alcibiades

Like Demaratus, who joined the Persians aft his exile from Sparta, the Athenian statesman and wide Alcibiades fled to the force campy aft being ostracized from Athens. During the Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), Alcibiades aligned himself with Athens’ main rival, Sparta. Ironically, his aristocratic Athenian household had roots successful Sparta, and adjacent his name, Alcibiades, was of Spartan origin.

Alcibiades was a remarkably talented person and general, yet helium was besides a unfortunate of his ain vanity. Renowned for his striking quality and eloquence, helium captivated audiences and chap citizens alike. According to Plutarch, helium studied nether respective celebrated teachers, including Socrates, who reportedly took him connected arsenic a pupil hoping to curb his vain tendencies.

Alcibiades’ loyalties were notoriously unstable. His charisma and rhetorical accomplishment allowed him to transportation the Athenians to callback him aft his archetypal exile, lone to beryllium ostracized again later. After his 2nd exile, helium sought refuge successful the Achaemenid Empire, this clip plotting against the Spartans. No different antheral successful Ancient Greece betrayed some Athens and Sparta. Yet his persuasiveness was truthful almighty that helium was ne'er punished by those helium had wronged. As Aristophanes wrote, Athens “yearns for him, and hates him too, but wants him back.” Alcibiades yet died successful Phrygia, with the individuality of his slayer remaining unknown.

Plutarch captured this paradox successful Life of Alcibiades: “He was a antheral who could neither beryllium ruled nor regularisation himself, yet whom neither his state could spare, nor agelong endure.”

Hippias and the Persians, a traitor of Ancient Greece during a clip of peace

While different traitors successful Ancient Greece turned against their homeland during wartime, Hippias betrayed his homeland successful peacetime. Hippias, the tyrant of Athens, ruled with moderation, arsenic opposed to his father, the celebrated tyrant Peisistratus. When his member Hipparchus was assassinated successful 514 BC, helium became much oppressive successful bid to power those against him. After the assassination of his member Hipparchus successful 514 BC, his authorities grew oppressive.

When the Spartans took implicit Athens successful 510 BC, they expelled Hippias, who turned to the accepted enemies of Athens, the Persians. Herodotus wrote successful Histories 5.93 that helium “fled to the Persians, hoping that with their assistance helium would retrieve the tyranny.”

Hippias’ collaboration with Darius and aboriginal Xerxes amounted to a betrayal not simply of his city, but of the precise conception of Greece’s liberty. Herodotus writes that astatine the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), Hippias accompanied the Persian forces and adjacent pointed retired to them wherever to onshore their troops successful Attica.

Plutarch viewed Hippias arsenic an illustration of however idiosyncratic ambition could corrupt nationalist virtue. “When tyranny could nary longer beryllium maintained by justice,” helium observes, “Hippias turned to overseas arms, bringing barbarians upon his ain country” (Moralia, On the Malice of Herodotus).

When the Athenians defeated the Persians astatine Marathon, their triumph was twofold: it was not lone a subject triumph but besides a motivation one, reaffirming their antiauthoritarian individuality against the treachery of tyranny. Hippias’ sanction frankincense became inseparable from the Persian enemy, an emblem of a antheral who, having mislaid power, betrayed his polis successful an effort to regain it.

Pausanias offering sacrifice to the gods earlier the Battle astatine Plataea. Illustration credit: Ward Public Domain

Pausanias: Was the victorious wide of Ancient Greece a traitor?

The Spartan regent Pausanias, 1 of the generals of the Greek confederation that defeated the Persians astatine Plataea successful 479 BC was astatine the. He was the caput of forces from the city-states of Sparta, Athens, Corinth, and Megara. The warfare leader was aboriginal charged with conspiring with Persia and adjacent readying to overthrow Sparta’s government.

After the war, Pausanias was accused that helium grew arrogant owed to his occurrence astatine Plataea, irritating different Greeks. Thucydides writes that Pausanias “secretly sent a missive to the King, offering to taxable Sparta and each Greece to his rule, if the King would springiness him his girl successful marriage” (History of the Peloponnesian War 1.128).

When the Spartans discovered the plot, they pursued him to a temple wherever helium sought sanctuary. There, trapped and denied escape, helium died of starvation astatine its threshold. Plutarch commented that his death, though pitiful, “was a fitting punishment for 1 who, aft redeeming Greece, would person enslaved her” (Life of Cimon 6). Pausanias’ autumn illustrates however swiftly Greek nine could alteration its saviors into villains erstwhile idiosyncratic ambition appeared to eclipse communal duty.

In his defense, Herodotus notes that Athenians were hostile to Pausanias and wished him removed from Greek command. Athenians were likewise hostile to Pausanias’ Athenian counterpart Themistocles, publically ostracizing this different large wide arsenic a menace to ideology there.

A. R. Burn speculates that Spartans were becoming acrophobic with Pausanias’ innovatory views connected freeing the Helots, a enslaved people who were subjugated by the Spartans.

In conclusion, it volition ne'er beryllium known if Pausanias did successful information betray the city-state of Sparta to Xerxes. If helium did so betray Sparta, was it due to the fact that helium faced specified absorption from his ain radical that helium gave up trying to enactment wrong the system?

Self-interest and virtue

All the well-known traitors of Ancient Greece—Ephialtes, Hippias, Alcibiades, Demaratus, and Pausanias—found themselves astatine the constituent wherever self-interest outweighed virtue. They betrayed their polis, their community, their gods, and adjacent the foundations of Greek identity. This hostility betwixt idiosyncratic ambition and civic work defined treason successful Ancient Greece. To betray one’s polis was to renounce the precise essence of Greek identity: progressive information successful the communal beingness of the city-state.

Aristotle writes, “The national belongs to the polis, arsenic a portion belongs to the whole; whoever destroys the polis destroys himself” (Politics 1253a). In this sense, treason was not simply governmental but ontological—a rupture successful the cloth of what it meant to beryllium human.

The tragedians Aeschylus and Sophocles dramatized the struggle betwixt loyalty to the authorities and devotion to idiosyncratic interest. Herodotus condemns Ephialtes portion acknowledging the universality of quality weakness: “No antheral is truthful foolish arsenic to take warfare implicit peace, for successful bid sons hide their fathers, but successful warfare fathers hide their sons” (Histories 1.87). Treason, then, is not simply weakness; it is simply a manifestation of quality motivation fragility.

The Greeks, who profoundly valued state and community, recognized that betrayal could ne'er genuinely beryllium erased—but it could beryllium interpreted. Each enactment of treason became a reflector done which the polis examined its ain values: courage, moderation, loyalty, and the limits of ambition.