Kleisthenes of AthensMAURIZIO GIANGIULIO

Kleisthenes was an Athenian politician, of the

family of the ALKMAIONIDAI, born in the late 570s

BCE to Megakles (II) and Agariste, the daughter

of Sikyon’s tyrant Kleisthenes. According to

HERODOTUS (6.131.1), he “established the tribes

and the democracy in Athens.”

The influence andwealth of the Alkmaionidai

in the sixth century were enormous. Megakles’

father Alkmaion was well connected at DELPHI

and had close ties with the king of LYDIA.

One generation later, at the time of Agariste’s

wedding, the family was renowned throughout

Greece (Hdt. 6.131.1), andMegakles himself in

the 560s came to hold a position of predomi-

nance at Athens as one of the dynasts involved

in the civil strife from which PEISISTRATOS’

tyranny ultimately arose. Later on, a compro-

mise between the aristocratic families and the

tyrant must have been reached. Kleisthenes

held the archonship in 525/4, and it was only

after the assassination of Hippias’ brother in

514 that the aristocrats resorted to civil war.

Kleisthenes went into exile, and succeeded,

through the influence of the Delphic Oracle, in

persuading the Spartans to overthrow Hippias.

In the resulting power vacuum the Athenian

archon ISAGORAS attempted to place the control

of affairs in the hands of a small elite, while

Kleisthenes gained strong support from the cit-

izens and managed to get his reform bill

approved by the assembly (Hdt. 5.66.1–2,

69.2). The Spartans banned him and his fellows

and laid siege to the ACROPOLIS, but a fiery pop-

ular resistance arose; Isagoras and the Spartans

were driven out, and Kleisthenes returned.

In such a context of strife Kleisthenes must

have realized that the traditional model of

aristocratic political infighting was bound

to threaten the cohesion and autonomy of

Athens. Incorporating a vast majority of the

people of Attica into the political process

and providing the citizens with a chance of

actively participating in public life were in all

probability the only way to forge a cohesive

community of all Athenians.

The cornerstone of Kleisthenes’ reforms

was the invention of the deme as political

unit (see DEMES, ATTIC). The demes were natural

units of habitation scattered all over Attica that

came to be provided with a limited degree of

self-government, and the right to contribute

a fixed quota of members to a new national

council, the BOULE of the 500. Even more

important, a man became a citizen of Athens

by being entered in a deme register. Moreover,

the citizen body was organized into ten new

tribes, built up from the demes in units known

as trittyes (“thirds”; see TRITTYS, TRITTYES). Each

tribe was made up of three groups of trittyes,

one from each of three districts into which the

whole of Attica (including the area of Athens)

was divided (City, Coast, Inland). Such a con-

scious manipulation of the existing spatial

relationships was apparently designed to

bring together men from different parts of

Attica within political units that could hardly

become the nuclei of local factions.

The Athenian polis, thus, was transformed

into a fully integrated region-state, and the

existing political community was provided

with a broader base. Citizens from all over

Attica were given a civic presence in public

life, not so much through the polis assembly

as through the boule, in which every year

500 citizens from all the demes played an

important political role.

Herodotus’ aristocratic informants probably

thought of Kleisthenes as an astute politician

aiming to gain political advantages for himself

and his family. Both the consent he enjoyed and

the stability his measures gave to Athens for

centuries tell against the image of the power-

hungry politician. He was not impelled by pop-

ular pressure nor was he a democratic theorist,

but he was an astute statesman who addressed

the structural problems his polis faced by creat-

ing a “new” political community.

SEE ALSO: Democracy, Athenian; Hipparchos,

son of Peisistratos; Hippias, son of Peisistratos;

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 3782–3783.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04066

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Ionian tribes; Kleisthenes of Sikyon; Megakles

of Athens.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Anderson, G. (2003) The Athenian experiment:

building an imagined political community in

Attica, 508–490 BC. Ann Arbor.

Andrewes, A. (1977) “Kleisthenes’ reform bill.”

Classical Quarterly 27: 241–8.

De Ste. Croix, G. E. M. (2005) Athenian democratic

origins and other essays: 129–232. Oxford.

Giangiulio, M. (2007) “Identita civica e parteci-

pazione: Clistene e Atene.” In M. Giangiulio, ed.,

Storia d’Europa e del Mediterraneo, vol. 3: 533–60.

Rome.

Ober, J. (1996) The Athenian revolution: essays on

ancient Greek democracy and political theory:

32–52. Princeton.

Roussel, D. (1976) Tribu et cite: 269–89.

Paris.

Wade-Gery, H. T. (1958) “The laws of Kleisthenes.”

In Essays in Greek history: 135–54.

Oxford.

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