Greek Philosophers

        In the northern part of Ancient Greece, on the Attica Peninsula, there was a city-state named Athens. The people of Athens were sea-faring people who relied heavily on the sea for trade. Because of this they had a very rich culture with multiple outside influences.   Athens thrived through the Bronze Age (2000-1100 BCE) and Dark Age (1100-800 BCE), but around 800 BCE in the Lyric Age, they began to make some alterations. Around 683 BCE Athens made the switch from a monarchy to an archonship. In 594 BCE Solon was chosen by the Areopagus to become the sole archon of Athens, where he made several changes in trying to fix problems in Athens, going in a more democratic sense. Solon solved some problems, but could not fix all, and turmoil continued in Athens with tyrants and the Spartans until Cleisthenes came to power around 507 BCE. Cleisthenes had previously been exiled from Athens when he was a tyrant, so this time he had decided to take a completely new approach. He gave more power to the people and helped democracy grow.  Around 460 BCE a wealthy Athenian named Pericles came to power in Athens and made minor political changes, created a new system of democracy, and used democracy to glorify and expand the power of Athens. These changes helped Athens thrive until they lost power in 404 BCE. Athenian Democracy was shaped mainly by the contributions of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles.

        Solon greatly influenced democracy in Athens through his political and economic reforms which changed Athenian society. Solon was born in 638 BCE and came to power in 594 BCE. When he came to power Athens was in a state of crisis under the tyrannical Draconian Law with farmers not being able to repay debts, and in return being sold as slaves by their landowners. The first thing Solon did when he came to power was to cancel all debts and free all slaves which allowed Athens to live a proper lifestyle, which they could not with the majority of their people in debt. He held off on grain exports and sold them cheaply to the poor, and boosted exports on wine and olive oil. These were the cash crops of Athens which helped to determine how wealthy of a farmer one was. Solon then offered citizenship to metics and others if they had skills to offer, in hopes of creating a society with only skilled people. Solon kept the nine archons and the Areopagus (a council of aristocrats), and developed the Council of 400 (a group of 400 male citizens who were elected annually) which was offered to the middle class who he allowed to participate more in government. The Council of 400 was then put in charge of lawmaking, which caused the Areopagus to become lesser judges. Solon also created a ranking system which determined power in society based on your medimnis of grain. Athenians in the category of 500 or 300 could participate in all branches of government, Athenians in the 200 category could participate in the Council of 400, and Athenians below 200 could participate only in the Ecclesia. Solon made an attempt to make things fairer for all people by allowing any male citizen to charge any other male citizen. In addition to this Solon made a jury pool of poor and rich male citizens called the Heliaea in the case of an appeal. Aristocrats had an advantage over others due to their class and were often shown special treatment, so the Heliaea would help the lower class. In doing all this, Solon gave more power to the people and was setting the stage for democracy to take over Athens; however, Solon’s dynamic economic reforms would fail in the long run and bringing Athens deeper into debt. Problems began to occur one after another, leading to the arrival of Cleisthenes, “The Father of Democracy.”

        Cleisthenes contributed greatly to Athenian Democracy through his democratic reforms that changed the way Athens functioned. In 508 BCE Cleisthenes and Isagoras teamed up and exiled Hippias, and then Isagoras became Archon. When Isagoras was archon he attempted to become tyrant of Athens and he called Sparta for military purposes and exiled Cleisthenes along with 700 others he thought could overthrow him. Isagoras brought in the Spartans, but when they got to the city the people of Athens performed the first known spontaneous revolution where they went after the Spartans and took them down immediately. When Cleisthenes returned he had quit his tyrannical ways and was under the new mindset that tyranny does not work. With this new attitude he would soon become the “Father of Democracy.” He first designated hometowns called Demes with between 100 and 1000 people in each. Next, Cleisthenes divided Athens into thirds with 10 districts/tribes in each third. He made it so that people had to register at age 18 in their deme. He divided them into the divisions of inland, coast, and city in hopes of breaking the loyalties the citizens had to their clans. Cleisthenes then appointed Demarchs who would keep track of the registration lists for each tribe. He also changed the Council of 400 to Council 500, getting the other 100 from four Hereditary Tribes. Cleisthenes changed voting to a secret vote by making it black/white pebble voting so others would not be able to see who you were voting for. He made it so that the Council of 500 met every nine days and that all male citizens could come to the assembly. Finally, Cleisthenes created the pnyx, an outdoor, permanent assembly site. This would be the place where Athenians would go to discuss new ideas and proposals that would go through the rest of the people. In the military, Cleisthenes appointed polemarchs (general military leaders) along with the other nine archons. He gave the people the freedom to ostracize anyone who they thought was getting too powerful. He would not let the ostracism ruin someone’s life, though, because it would only them for ten years, and they could retain their citizenship and property. By doing all this, he allowed all the people of Athens to be more a part of their government; He spread power amongst the people in different parts of Athenian society and was shaping a democracy with the help of Pericles, that would last for centuries to come.

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