Cleisthenes' Reforms

Cleisthenes’ reforms of 508/507 BCE transformed Athens after the fall of Peisistratid tyranny. New territorial groupings weakened the political influence of elite families and became a key stage in the development of democracy. The demos was the citizen body, while a deme was a local community; the terms are not interchangeable.

Territorial reform

Cleisthenes made demes the basis of citizen registration. Many settlements and local communities already existed; the reform gave them a new political role. Each deme had an assembly of demesmen and its own officials, including a demarch.

Deme membership determined civic registration and was inherited by descendants. Moving did not change it automatically. The deme name supplemented a citizen’s name and patronymic: for example, Pericles, son of Xanthippus, of Cholargos. Membership of a deme should not be translated as membership of a modern political party.

Attica was divided into urban, coastal and inland regions, each containing ten trittyes. Each new tribe combined one trittys from each region. The resulting ten tribes mixed citizens from different parts of Attica and weakened regional groupings. They received heroic names chosen with the involvement of the Delphic oracle.

Political reform

The Council of Five Hundred, or boule, replaced the Council of Four Hundred traditionally associated with Solon. Each of the ten new tribes supplied fifty members, with places distributed among demes. The council prepared business for the assembly and handled everyday administration. Prytanies, groups of councillors from one tribe, took turns performing current duties.

The reforms broadened citizen participation, but Classical Athenian institutions developed gradually. Not all later rules of selection by lot, jury organisation or restrictions on the Areopagus can be attributed to one reform by Cleisthenes.

Ancient tradition associated the law of ostracism with Cleisthenes; its first attested use dates to 488/487 BCE. Ostracism could remove an influential citizen temporarily without confiscating his property and was not an ordinary criminal conviction.

Results

The reforms of Cleisthenes were one of the key stages in the development of Ancient Athens. A democracy was formed in the country, the foundation of which was laid by Solon in the 590s BC. e. demos began to actively participate in political life, and the reforms themselves contributed to the emergence of politicians from the people. The reforms carried out by Cleisthenes significantly reduced the political influence of the aristocratic families-phratries.

Related topics

• Ancient Greece-Hellas
• Aristotle
• Peisistratid Dynasty
• Greek Tyranny
• Athenian Democracy

Literature and sources

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