athens creates democracy
around 500 bc a new leader named cleisthenes (klys-thuh-neez) gained power in athens. although he was a member of one of the most powerful families in athens,
cleisthenes didn’t want aristocrats to run the government. he thought they already had too much influence. by calling on the support of the people, cleisthenes was able to overthrow the aristocracy once and for all. in its place, he established a completely new form of government. under cleisthenes’ leadership, athens developed the world’s first democracy. for this reason, he is sometimes called the father of democracy.
democracy under cleisthenes
under cleisthenes, all citizens in athens had the right to participate in the assembly, or gathering of citizens, that created the city’s laws. the assembly met outdoors on a hillside so that everyone could attend the meetings. during meetings, people stood before the crowd and gave speeches on political issues. every citizen had the right to speak his opinion. in fact, the athenians encouraged people to speak. they loved to hear speeches and debates. after the speeches were over, the assembly voted. voting was usually done by a show of hands, but sometimes the athenians used secret ballots.
the number of people who voted in the assembly changed from day to day. for major decisions, however, the assembly needed about 6,000 people to vote. but it wasn’t always easy to gather that many people together in one place. according to one greek writer, the government sent slaves to the market to round up more citizens if necessary. in one of the writer’s plays, slaves walked through the market holding a long rope between them.
the rope was covered in red dye and would mark the clothing of anyone it touched. any citizen with red dye on his clothing had to go to the assembly meeting or pay a large fine.
because the assembly was so large, it was sometimes difficult to make decisions. the athenians therefore selected citizens to be city officials and to serve on a smaller council. these officials decided which laws the assembly should discuss. this the government run more smoothly.
fyi in order to break the power of the aristocrats, cleisthenes re-organized all athenians into 10 new tribes. the tribes were an important part of local politics, and many had local assemblies similar to the athenian assembly.
changes in athenian democracy
as time passed, citizens gained more powers. for example, they served on juries to decide court cases. juries had anywhere from 200 to 6,000 people, although juries of about 500 people were much more common. most juries had an odd number of members to prevent ties.
men spoke before the assembly to support or argue against different issues. persuasive speakers often convinced others to pass laws they supported. men in the crowd often argued with speakers.
like the ancient greeks, we use juries to decide court cases. but our modern juries have only 12 people.
athens remained a democracy for about 170 years. it reached its height under a brilliant elected leader named pericles (per-uhkleez). he led the government from about 460 bc until his death in 429 bc.
pericles encouraged the athenians to take pride in their city. he believed that participating in government was just as important as defending athens in war. to encourage people to participate in government, pericles began to pay people who served in public offices or on juries. pericles also encouraged the people of athens to introduce democracy into other parts of greece.
the assembly would vote once a year to ostracize, or exile, citizens of athens. if enough citizens voted in favor of ostracism, citizens would gather to cast a vote for the person they wanted to see exiled from athens. the citizen receiving the most votes would be forced to leave the city for up to 10 years.
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