the Four Hundred

Four Hundred, the, a revolutionary oligarchic council (see OLIGARCHY) that seized power from the democratic council of five hundred (the boulē) and ruled Athens for three months in 411 BC before being deposed. It came into being because some Athenians believed that if democratic rule at Athens were replaced by an oligarchy the king of Persia would support Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The Four Hundred were deposed in September 411 and replaced by an assembly of 5, 000 citizens (the Five Thousand), but in 410 the democracy was restored, with its old council of five hundred.