{{short description|6th-century BC Athenian lawgiver}}
{{redirect|Cleisthenes (Athenian)|the delegate satirised by Aristophanes|Cleisthenes (son of Sibyrtius)|other uses|Cleisthenes (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = Cleisthenes
| native_name = Κλεισθένης
| image       = Cleisthenes.jpg
| caption     = Modern bust of Cleisthenes, known as "the father of [[Athenian democracy]]", on view at the [[Ohio Statehouse]], Columbus, Ohio
| office      = [[Eponymous archon]] of [[Classical Athens|Athens]]
| term_start  = 525
| term_end    = 524 BC
| predecessor = [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]]
| successor   = [[Miltiades]]
| birth_date  = c. 570 BC
| death_date  = c. 508 BC
| relatives   = [[Alcmaeonidae]]
}}
'''Cleisthenes''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|l|aɪ|s|θ|ᵻ|n|iː|z}} {{respell|KLYS|thin|eez}}; {{langx|el|Κλεισθένης}}), or '''Clisthenes''' ({{circa|570}}{{Spaced en dash}}{{circa|508 BC}}), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient [[Athens]] and setting it on a [[Athenian democracy|democratic]] footing in [[Athenian Revolution|508 BC]].<ref>Ober, pp. 83 ff.</ref><ref name="Times-2007">{{cite book |author=The New York Times |editor=John W. Wright |title=The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-BIGv9vIoqcC&pg=PA628 |access-date=31 January 2017 |date=30 October 2007 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-312-37659-8 |page=628 |orig-year=1st pub:2004}}</ref> For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy".<ref>R. Po-chia Hsia, Julius Caesar, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, ''The Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures, A Concise History, Volume I: To 1740'' (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007), 44.</ref> He was a member of the aristocratic [[Alcmaeonidae|Alcmaeonid]] clan. He was the younger son of [[Megacles]] and Agariste making him the maternal grandson of the tyrant [[Cleisthenes of Sicyon]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=William|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|work=Alcmaeonidae|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=1867|location=Boston|pages=105–106}}</ref> He was also credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens' assembly and for reducing the power of the nobility over Athenian politics.<ref>Langer, William L. (1968) The Early Period, to c. 500 B.C. An Encyclopedia of World History (Fourth Edition pp. 66).  Printed in the United States of America: Houghton Mifflin Company. Accessed: 30 January 2011</ref>

In 510 BC, [[Spartan army|Spartan]] [[hoplite]]s helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]], son of [[Peisistratus]]. [[Cleomenes I]], king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan [[oligarchy]] headed by [[Isagoras]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal|last=Lewis|first=D. M.|date=1963|title=Cleisthenes and Attica|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434773|journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|volume=12|issue=1|pages=25|jstor=4434773|issn=0018-2311}}</ref> However, Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes and his Athenian supporters. Through Cleisthenes' reforms, the people of Athens endowed their city with [[isonomic]] institutions—equal rights for all citizens (though only free men and women were citizens)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hayek|first=Friedrich A. von|title=The constitution of liberty|date=1960|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-32084-7|location=Chicago|pages=238–242|oclc=498999}}</ref>—and established [[ostracism]] as a punishment.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Robinson|first=C. A.|date=1952|title=Cleisthenes and Ostracism|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/500834|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume=56|issue=1|pages=23–24|doi=10.2307/500834|jstor=500834|issn=0002-9114}}</ref>

==Biography==
Historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BC.<ref>The Greeks:Crucible of Civilization (2000)</ref> A member of the [[Alcmaeonidae]] family,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |title=Cleisthenes |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Cleisthenes/ |access-date=31 October 2024 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> Cleisthenes was the uncle of [[Pericles]]' mother, Agariste,<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'' 6.131</ref> and of [[Alcibiades]]' maternal grandfather, Megacles.<ref>Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1916. 4.</ref> He was the son of Agariste and grandson of [[Cleisthenes of Sicyon]]. Unlike his grandfather who was a tyrant, he adopted politically democratic concepts. When Pisistratus took power in Athens as a tyrant, he exiled his political opponents and the Alcmaeonidae. After Pisistratus' death in 527 BC, Cleisthenes returned to Athens and became the eponymous [[archon]]. A few years later, Pisistratus' successors, [[Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)|Hipparchus]] and [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]], again exiled Cleisthenes.  In 514 BC, [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton]] assassinated Hipparchus, causing Hippias to further harden his attitude towards the people of Athens. This led Cleisthenes to ask the [[Oracle of Delphi]] to persuade the [[Sparta]]ns to help him free Athens from tyranny. Cleisthenes' plea for assistance was accepted by the Oracle as his family had previously helped rebuild the sanctuary when it was destroyed by fire.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Garvin|first=Edward|date=2013|title=The Athenian Constitution|url=https://sites.ualberta.ca/~egarvin/assets/athenian-constitution.pdf|url-status=live|website=University of Alberta|page=19.4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808173915/https://sites.ualberta.ca/~egarvin/assets/athenian-constitution.pdf |archive-date=8 August 2017 }}</ref>

=== Rise to power ===
With help from the Spartans and the [[Alcmaeonidae]] (Cleisthenes' ''genos'', "clan"), he was responsible for overthrowing [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]], the [[tyrant]] son of [[Pisistratus]].<ref name=":33">{{Cite book|last1=Cadoux|first1=Theodore John|title=The Oxford companion to classical civilization|last2=Rhodes|first2=P.J|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, Esther Eidinow|year=2014|isbn=978-0-19-177848-3|edition=2nd|location=New York|chapter=Cleisthenes|oclc=900444999}}</ref> After the collapse of Hippias' tyranny, [[Isagoras]] and Cleisthenes were rivals for power, but Isagoras won the upper hand by appealing to the Spartan king [[Cleomenes&nbsp;I]] to help him expel Cleisthenes. He did so on the pretext of the [[Alcmaeonidae|Alcmaeonid curse]]. Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city.<ref name=":33"/> Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on the pretext that they too were cursed.  He also attempted to dissolve the [[Boule (ancient Greece)|Boule]] (βουλή), a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the daily affairs of the city. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support of the council. Isagoras and his partisans were forced to flee to the [[Acropolis of Athens|Acropolis]], remaining besieged there for two days. On the third day they fled the city and were banished. Cleisthenes was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens.<ref>Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 20</ref> Promptly after his instatement as leader, he commissioned a [[Bronze sculpture|bronze]] [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture)|memorial]] from the [[Greek sculpture|sculptor]] [[Antenor]] in honour of the [[Greek love|lovers]] and [[tyrannicide]]s [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton]], whom Hippias had executed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lucian, De parasito sive artem esse parasiticam, section 48|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0449:section=48|access-date=29 November 2021|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>
<ref>Herodotus 5.70.1</ref>

=== Reformations and governance of Athens ===
==== Political reorganization ====
[[File:ATTICA, Athens. Circa 510 to 500-490 BC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Ancient Greek coinage|Coinage of Athens]] at the time of Cleisthenes. Effigy of [[Athena]], with owl and ΑΘΕ, initials of "[[Athens]]". Circa 510–500/490 BC.]]
After this victory, Cleisthenes began to reform the government of Athens. In order to forestall strife between the traditional clans, which had led to the [[tyranny]] in the first place, he changed the political organization from the four traditional tribes, which were based on family relations, and which formed the basis of the upper-class Athenian political power network, into ten tribes according to their area of residence (their ''[[deme]]''), which would form the basis of a new democratic power structure.<ref>Aristotle, ''Politics'' 6.4.</ref>  It is thought that there may have been 139 demes (though this is still a matter of debate), each organized into three groups called ''[[Trittys|trittyes]]'' ("thirds"), with ten ''demes'' divided among three regions in each trittyes (a city region, ''[[asty]]''; a coastal region, ''[[Paralia (trittys)|paralia]]''; and an inland region, ''[[mesogeia]]'').<ref name="ReferenceA">Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 21</ref> D.M Lewis argues that Cleisthenes established the ''deme'' system in order to balance the central unifying force that a tyranny has with the democratic concept of having the people (instead of a single person) at the peak of political power.<ref name=":03"/> Another by-product of the ''deme'' system was that it split up and weakened his political adversaries.<ref name="Bradeen 1955 22–30">{{Cite journal|last=Bradeen|first=Donald W.|date=1955|title=The Trittyes in Cleisthenes' Reforms|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/283606|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=86|pages=22–30|doi=10.2307/283606|jstor=283606|issn=0065-9711|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Cleisthenes also abolished patronymics in favour of ''demonymics'' (a name given according to the ''deme'' to which one belongs), thus increasing Athenians' sense of belonging to a ''deme''.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> This and the other aforementioned reforms had an additional effect in that they worked to include (wealthy, male) foreign citizens in Athenian society.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kagan|first=Donald|date=1963|title=The Enfranchisement of Aliens by Cleisthenes|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434774|journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|volume=12|issue=1|pages=41–46|jstor=4434774|issn=0018-2311}}</ref>

He also established [[sortition]] – the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity. It is also speculated that, in another move to lower the barriers of kinship and heredity when it comes to participation in Athenian society, Cleisthenes made it so foreign residents of Athens were eligible to become legally privileged.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Oliver|first=James H.|date=1960|title=Reforms of Cleisthenes|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434675|journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|volume=9|issue=4|pages=503–507|jstor=4434675|issn=0018-2311}}</ref><ref name="Bradeen 1955 22–30"/>  In addition, he reorganized the [[Boule (ancient Greece)|Boule]], created with 400 members under [[Solon]], so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe. He also introduced the bouleutic oath, "To advise according to the laws what was best for the people".<ref>Morris & Raaflaub ''Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges''</ref> The court system ([[Dikasterion|Dikasteria]] – law courts) was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe. It was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed, or returned for amendments by the assembly.

==== Introduction of ostracism ====
[[File:Ostraka_against_Themistocles,_482_BC,_Agora_Museum_Athens,_080635.jpg|alt=Bowl-like shards of pottery with Themistocles' name inscribed along the outer edge.|thumb|228x228px|Most famously, Cleisthenes' [[ostracism]] was used against [[Themistocles]] in 472/471 BC. These were the particular ostraca used.]]
Cleisthenes also may have introduced [[ostracism]] (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote by at least 6,000 citizens would exile a citizen for ten years.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, chapter 22|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0046:chapter=22|access-date=29 November 2021|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=of Athens|first=Philochorus|title=Philochorus: Translation of Fragments|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/philochorus.html#30|url-status=live|access-date=29 November 2021|website=www.attalus.org|at=30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100917162834/http://attalus.org/translate/philochorus.html |archive-date=17 September 2010 }}</ref> The initial and intended purpose was to vote for a citizen deemed to be a threat to the democracy, most likely anyone who seemed to have ambitions to set himself up as tyrant.<ref name=":03"/> However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile (e.g., [[Xanthippus]] in 485–84&nbsp;BC).<ref>Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, Chapter 22</ref> Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny. One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized.<ref>Aelian, Varia historia 13.24</ref>

Cleisthenes called these reforms ''[[isonomia]]'' ("equality vis à vis law", ''iso-'' meaning equality; ''nomos'' meaning law), instead of ''[[Democracy|demokratia]]''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Cleisthenes of Athens {{!}} Biography & Facts {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleisthenes-of-Athens|access-date=29 November 2021|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref> Cleisthenes' life after his reforms is unknown as no ancient texts mention him thereafter.

==Attempt to obtain Persian support==
[[File:Ceremony of Presenting Earth and Water.jpg|thumb|According to [[Herodotus]], the Athenians made the gift of "[[Earth and Water]] to the Persians in 507 BC, at the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics.<ref name="penelope.uchicago.edu">{{cite book |title=LacusCurtius • Herodotus — Book V: Chapters 55‑96 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/5C*.html}}</ref>]]
In 507 BC, during the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics, and probably at his instigation, democratic [[Athens]] sent an embassy to [[Artaphernes]], brother of [[Darius I]], and Achaemenid [[Satrap]], of [[Asia Minor]] in the capital of [[Sardis]], looking for Persian assistance in order to resist the threats from [[Sparta]].<ref name="MW84">{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Matt |title=Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107009608 |pages=84–85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EjhEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="MW123">{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Matt |title=Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107009608 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EjhEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |language=en}}</ref> [[Herodotus]] reports that Artaphernes had no previous knowledge of the Athenians, and his initial reaction was "Who are these people?"<ref name="MW84"/> Artaphernes asked the Athenians for "Water and Earth",<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koutsoyiannis |first1=Demetris |last2=Mamassis |first2=Nikos |date=10 May 2021 |title=From mythology to science: the development of scientific hydrological concepts in Greek antiquity and its relevance to modern hydrology |url=https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/2419/2021/ |journal=Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |language=English |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=2419–2444 |doi=10.5194/hess-25-2419-2021 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021HESS...25.2419K |issn=1027-5606}}</ref> a symbol of submission, if they wanted help from the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] king.<ref name="MW123"/> The Athenian ambassadors apparently accepted to comply, and to give "[[Earth and water|Earth and Water]]".<ref name="MW84"/> Artaphernes also advised the Athenians that they should receive back the Athenian tyrant [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]].  The Persians threatened to attack Athens if they did not accept Hippias. Nevertheless, the Athenians preferred to remain democratic despite the danger from the Achaemenid Empire, and the ambassadors were disavowed and censured upon their return to Athens.<ref name="MW84"/>

{{blockquote|After that, the Athenians sent to bring back Cleisthenes and the seven hundred households banished by Cleomenes; then they despatched envoys to Sardis, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians; for they knew that they had provoked the [[Lacedaemonians]] and [[Cleomenes I|Cleomenes]] to war. When the envoys came to [[Sardis]] and spoke as they had been bidden, [[Artaphrenes]] son of [[Hystaspes (father of Darius I)|Hystaspes]], viceroy of Sardis, asked them, "What men are you, and where dwell you, who desire alliance with the Persians?" Being informed by the envoys, he gave them an answer whereof the substance was, that if the Athenians gave king [[Darius I|Darius]] [[earth and water]], then he would make alliance with them; but if not, his command was that they should begone. The envoys consulted together and consented to give what was asked, in their desire to make the alliance. So they returned to their own country, and were then greatly blamed for what they had done.|Herodotus 5.73.<ref name="penelope.uchicago.edu" />}}

There is a possibility that the Achaemenid ruler now saw the Athenians as subjects who had solemnly promised submission through the gift of "Earth and Water", and that subsequent actions by the Athenians, such as their intervention in the [[Ionian Revolt|Ionian revolt]], were perceived as a breach of oath and a rebellion against the central authority of the Achaemenid ruler.<ref name="MW84"/>

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
===Primary sources===
* {{cite wikisource |title=Athenian Constitution |author=Aristotle |translator=[[Frederic George Kenyon]]}}. See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0045 Perseus Project].
* {{cite book|last=Aristotle|title=The Athenian Constitution|year=1984|publisher=Penguin|location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England|isbn=0-14-044431-9|others= P.J. Rhodes trans}}

===Secondary sources===
* {{cite book|editor= Morris I. |editor2=Raaflaub K.|year=1998|title=Democracy 2500?: Questions and Challenges|publisher=Kendal/Hunt Publishing Co}}
* {{cite book|first=Josiah|last=Ober|year=2007|title=Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece|chapter=I Besieged That Man, Democracy's Revolutionary Start|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24562-4}}
* {{cite book|first1=Pierre|last1=Lévêque|first2=Pierre|last2=Vidal-Naquet|year=1996|title=Cleisthenes the Athenian: An Essay on the Representation of Space and Time in Greek Political Thought from the End of the Sixth Century to the Death of Plato|publisher=Humanities Press}}
* David Ames Curtis: Translator's Foreword to Pierre Vidal-Maquet and Pierre Lévêque's ''Cleisthenes the Athenian: An Essay on the Representation of Space and Time in Greek Thought from the End of the Sixth Century to the Death of Plato'' (1993–1994) http://kaloskaisophos.org/rt/rtdac/rtdactf/rtdactfcleisthenes.html

{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Cleisthenes
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Davies|first=J.K.|title=Democracy and classical Greece|year=1993|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0-674-19607-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/democracyclassic0002davi}}
* {{cite book|last=Ehrenberg|first=Victor|title=From Solon to Socrates Greek History and Civilization During the 6th and 5th Centuries BC.|year=2010|publisher=Taylor & Francis|location=Hoboken|isbn=978-0-203-84477-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Forrest|first=William G.|title=The Emergence of Greek Democracy, 800–400 BC|year=1966|publisher=McGraw–Hill|location=New York}}
* {{cite book|last=Hignett|first=Charles|title=A History of the Athenian Constitution to the End of the Fifth Century BC|year=1952|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford}}
* {{cite book|last=Larsen|first=Jakob A. O.|editor1-last=Konvitz|editor1-first=Milton R. |editor2-last=Murphy|editor2-first=Arthur E.| title=Essays in Political Theory Presented to George H. Sabine|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|chapter=Cleisthenes and the Development of the Theory of Democracy at Athens|year=1948}}
* {{cite book|last=O'Neil|first=James L.|title=The origins and development of ancient Greek democracy|year=1995|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, Md.|isbn=0-8476-7956-X}}
* {{cite book|last=Staveley|first=E. S.|title=Greek and Roman voting and elections.|url=https://archive.org/details/greekromanvoting0000stav|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=Cornell Univ. Pr.|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|isbn=0-8014-0693-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Thorley|first=John|title=Athenian democracy|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0-415-12967-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Zimmern|first=Alfred|title=The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens|url=https://archive.org/details/greekcommonwealt00zimm|year=1911|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}}

== External links ==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_02.shtml BBC – History – The Democratic Experiment]
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Cleisthenes |volume=6 |pages=479–481 |short=1 |first=John Malcolm |last=Mitchell}}

{{Ancient Athenian statesmen}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:6th-century BC Athenians]]
[[Category:Ancient legislators]]
[[Category:Alcmaeonidae]]
[[Category:Athenian democracy]]
[[Category:Eponymous archons]]
[[Category:500s BC deaths]]
[[Category:570s BC births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Revolutionaries]]