Aristocracy of Athens & Reforms of Cleisthenes
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Democracy has had a long and complicated history. Traditionally, ancient Greece has been seen as the birthplace of the western style democracy that many modern nations are currently modeled after. Study of the historical facts, however, show that the political processes that brought about democracy as it is now known, were not as straightforward as might be assumed. For example, advances and reforms in Solon's era were overtaken by the Peisistratid tyrants (Plutarch Sol. 29.1), built upon by Cleisthenes (Freeman 132), diminished for a time afterwards by the aristocracy, and then built upon again by Pericles several years later (Freeman 201). In fact, tyrants, oligarchies, and aristocracies still controlled many facets of the governments in Greece. This paper will examine the reforms made by Cleisthenes of Athens around 507/508 BCE (Freeman 132) and determine whether or not the influence of the aristocracy in Athens truly disappeared as a direct result of these reforms. With the downfall of the Peisistratids tyrants in 514 BCE, Athens now had a hole in its governing structure and many of the aristocracy vied for control. It was Cleisthenes, however, of the cursed aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan, who was able to return from exile in 510 BCE and gain control of the government through overwhelming public support (Aristotle 20.1-20.5). By 507/508 BCE, Cleisthenes was able to put through a series of reforms that essentially weakened much of the political power of the aristocrac
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ocratic fashion (133). Ideally, all citizens were now able to participate in politics as equals in a full democracy. As will be pointed out in the following, however, although the aristocracy lost much power at this time, it was not until several years later when its influence truly disappeared from Athenian politics.
One of the changes brought about by Cleisthenes was the ability of the populace to vote to ostracize someone once a year. At the time, those who were usually voted out tended to be aristocrats who had supported tyrants (Aristotle 22.1-5). Later on, however, this tended to be anyone who appeared too great or who may have been accused of "medism" (supporters of the Persians and Medes) (Aristotle 22.6, Freeman 200). Although this law had popular support, as Freeman contends, it could also be used to get rid of unwanted democratic influences. One example is Themistocles, who as founder of the Athenian navy, was closely linked to moving towards more democratic rights. The navy tended to be where citizens of lower income did service, and in that service saw that they had earned the right to be heard more in city affairs making Themistocles a popular leader of the people (Freeman 200). With the Persian Wars, however
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Solon Cleisthenes, Aristotle Cleisthenes, Themistocles Aristotle, Medes Aristotle, Bailkey Lim, , Assembly Boule, BCE Athens, BCE Cleisthenes, Freeman Athenian, freeman 200, freeman 132, university press, 507/508 bce, freeman 201, harvard university press, march 7, william heinemann, heinemann ltd, 7 2004, reforms cleisthenes, ma harvard university, press london william, university press london, cambridge ma harvard,
Approximate Word count = 1387
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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