# Ismenias

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**Ismenias** ([Ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek): Ἰσμηνίας) was an ancient [Theban](/source/Thebes_(Greece)) politician of the 4th century BC, leader of the Theban democratic faction.

He rose to power in 403 BC, a year after the end of the [Peloponnesian War](/source/Peloponnesian_War), and pursued an anti-[Spartan](/source/Sparta) policy, which included harboring exiles fleeing from the [Thirty Tyrants](/source/Thirty_Tyrants) in [Athens](/source/Athens). In 382 BC, during a Spartan occupation of Thebes, he was identified, along with [Androcleides](/source/Androcleides), as one of the leaders of the anti-Spartan faction. He was imprisoned and executed for [Medism](/source/Medism).[1]

[Plato](/source/Plato), in his work *[Meno](/source/Meno)*, names him as an example of someone who made a great amount of money in a short period of time, "as much as Polycrates", by acquiring his wealth through a Persian gift,[2] and in the *[Republic](/source/Republic_(Plato))*, he includes him in a list of rich and powerful men with little moral fiber.[3] In 2008, Monique Canto-Sperber suggested that this money came from Persia with the aim of weakening Sparta.[4]

## References

1. Xenophon, Hellenica V.2.31

1. Plato, *Meno*, 90a.

1. Plato, *Republic*, 336a.

1. Flammarion, 2008. p. 2163

## Further reading

- Buck, Robert J. *Thrasybulus and the Athenian Democracy: The Life of an Athenian Statesman*. Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-515-07221-7
- Jacques Cazeaux. *Ménon (1998)* ISBN 978-2-251-79997-1
- Platon, Flammarion, *sous la direction de Luc Brisson*. *Œuvres complètes (Paris, 2008)*. p. 2163.

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