#cleisthenes

@potasium-offical

I like it.

Cleisthenes (very deceased)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: Around 431 BC

RIP: N/A

Ethnicity: White - Greek

Occupation: Lawyer, aristocrat, politician possibly

Lol. A real tragedy! Some people suffer under the rule of democratic politicians like Cleisthenes and Themistocles and more generally under democratic rule! Give them a Pharaoh (if possible, Senworsret III), a Great King or at least a Greek tyrant!

Now, the truth is that both Cleisthenes and Themistocles were personalities of cardinal importance for ancient Athens, as Herodotus narrates in length in his “Histories”: Cleisthenes was the founder of the Athenian democracy and Themistocles was the founder of the Athenian naval power and the leader who played the major role in saving Athens and more generally Greece from Xerxes’ invasion. But, again as Herodotus shows, although of admirable political and military genius, Themistocles was far from being a flawless person. That’s why later not only he has been chased from power and ostracized by the Athenian people, but he has also been charged at the insistance of the Spartans with accusations of treason of Greece to the Persians. He managed to escape to Persia and he ended his life serving the Great King Artaxerxes I, Xerxes’ son, as advisor and governor of the region of Magnesia in Asia Minor (according to a rather doubtful tradition, he committed suicide to avoid involvement in a new round of Persian hostilities against Greece).

As ancient Athens moved away from kingship and Archaic-era tyranny during the 6th c. BC, formerly monarchial powers and duties were taken on by public magistrates, whose ranks eventually swelled to more than a thousand by the Classical 5th and 4th c. BC. Nevertheless, through family or tribe connections, political associations (hetaireiai) and social networking, often at symposia (upper-class dinner/drinking parties), the Athenian aristocracy maintained its hold on power.

In the face of rising popular anger over oppressive debt, increasing prices, inadequate representation and other perceived injustices, Solon proposed reforms in 594/593 BC that addressed all these issues and defined four classes of citizens (based on annual cereal production): the Pentakosiomedimnoi (500-measures), Knights, (300 measures), Zeugitai (200 measures) and Thetes (everyone else). He called for all citizens to participate in the Assembly (Ekklesia) and may have created the Council of 400 (Boule).

A second reformer, Cleisthenes, reorganized Attica in 508/507 BC into 10 geographically-based tribes, rather than four family-based tribes. He also increased the Boule to 500 members, 50 from each tribe, and established a more objective system of sortition for filling government positions and jury panels. To combat tyranny, Cleisthenes instituted ostracism.

The Ekklesia met on the Pnyx Hill, where speakers stood on an elevated bema to address a gathering of citizens that usually numbered at least 6,000 and may on occasion have reached tens of thousands. As Classical Athens’ prosperity and population expanded, along with its domestic and imperial administration, the lowest class (thetes) became increasingly necessary (e.g., as naval rowers and sailors) and thus potentially powerful.

Greece, or more specifically the city state of Athens, is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Athenian democracy is well-documented and served as a model for the democracies of other Greek city states. Although democracy is the de jure system of government in much of the world today, it is much different from that which was practiced by the ancient Greeks. In fact, some features of Athenian democracy might even be considered to be undemocratic by modern observers.