How Athens Became a Democracy

Transcript

Athenian democracy was not born in a single moment. But around 508 BC, Cleisthenes gave it a revolutionary new shape. For generations, a small number of powerful aristocratic families had dominated political life in Athens. Cleisthenes was himself born into one of those families. Yet what he proposed was radically different. He reorganised the citizens of Athens into ten new tribes, mixing men from different parts of Attica and weakening the old networks of family and local power. He created a new Council of Five Hundred, drawing citizens from all ten tribes into the government of the city. The wider body of citizens now had a structure through which they could take part in governing Athens themselves. It was not yet the fully developed democracy of the age of Pericles. But the foundations were there. Then its opponents struck back. They called on Sparta for help. A Spartan king entered Athens with troops. Many Athenians were expelled. The new Council was ordered to dissolve. Power was to be returned to a small group. The democratic experiment seemed ready to end almost as soon as it had begun. But the Council refused to dissolve. And the citizens of Athens refused to accept what was being imposed on them. The Spartan king and his Athenian allies retreated to the Acropolis. The Athenians surrounded them. The men who had entered Athens expecting to decide its political future were now trapped on the sacred hill above the city. In the end, the Spartans were forced to leave. The exiles returned. So did Cleisthenes. And the new democracy continued. Cleisthenes had created a political order in which citizens would have a far greater share in governing Athens. But no constitution could defend itself. When the new order was threatened, the Athenians acted for themselves. Cleisthenes designed the democracy. The citizens made it theirs.