Archon of Athens (525/524 b. c.e.)
Born: c. 570 b. c.e.; place unknown Died: After 507 b. c.e.; place unknown Also known as: Kleisthenes of Athens Category: Government and politics
Life Born into Athens’ most powerful family, the Alcmaeonids, Cleisthenes (KLIS-thuh-neez) of Athens held the archonship in 525/524 b. c.e., but soon afterward his family was driven into exile by the tyrant Hippias of Athens. Spending lavishly at Delphi to influence the oracle to pressure the Spartans, Cleisthenes convinced Cleomenes I of Sparta to overthrow the tyranny in 510 b. c.e., but in the ensuing factional struggles, he was outdone by his rival Isagoras, who was elected archon in 508/507 b. c.e. In reaction, Cleisthenes appealed to the people, leading Isagoras to call in Cleomenes, but popular support for Cleisthenes sent Isagoras and the Spartan king packing.
Refashioning Solon’s constitution in order to create a less fractious government and enhance his own political position, Cleisthenes then established the basic machinery of the fifth century b. c.e. democracy, creating the ten tribes and the Council of Five Hundred. He also created the institution of ostracism and established contacts with Persia in order to protect the new government from the Spartan threat, which ended with the failed Peloponnesian invasion of 507 b. c.e. Having thus set Athens on the path from an aristocratic tribal state to a true democracy, Cleisthenes disappeared, presumably dying of old age.
Influence Whatever Cleisthenes’ personal motives, the government he created enabled the development of the fifth century b. c.e. democracy and all that would mean to the West.
Further Reading
Aristotle. The Politics, and the Constitution of Athens. Rev. ed. Edited by Stephen Everson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Burn, A. R. Persia and the Greeks: The Defense of the West, 546-478 B. C. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984.
Forsdyke, Sara. Exile, Ostracism, and Democracy: The Politics of Expulsion in Ancient Greece. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Robin Waterfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Hignett, C. A History of the Athenian Constitution. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1952.
Rhodes, P. J., ed. Athenian Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Thorley, John. Athenian Democracy. 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Richard M. Berthold
See also: Athenian Democracy; Athens; Cleomenes I; Delphi; Hippias of
Athens; Solon’s Code.
World History
