Historical Background

Democracy and the Athenians: Cleisthenes

In this course, Dr Tom Hooper (University of Cambridge) explores the democracy reforms of Cleisthenes in the early 6th century BC. We begin by thinking about the development of the Athenian constitution in the sixth century, including the reforms of Solon in 594 BC and the Peisistratid regime in the middle of the century. After that, we turn to the events of 508 BC, focusing in particular on whether the democratic reforms that emerged are better understood as a top-down phenomenon, led by Cleisthenes, or a bottom-up one, led by the Athenian people. In the third and fourth modules, we think about two the key elements of Cleisthenes' democratic reforms – first his reorganisation of Attica into demes, trittyes and tribes, and then his establishment of the Council of 500. After that, we think about how the reforms of Cleisthenes could be said to have established democracy in Athens – how did they give 'kratos' ('power') to the 'demos' ('people')? – before turning in the sixth module to the legacy of Cleisthenes' reforms: why did the Athenians of the fifth and fourth centuries not give more credit to Cleisthenes for his role in the establishment of their cherished democratic constitution?

Historical Background

In this module, we provide a broad introduction to the reforms of Cleisthenes by thinking about the development of the Athenian constitution from the archonship in Solon in 594 BC.