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Paving the road to democracy-Religion
and Politics- important figures
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Solon
Peisistratus
Cleisthenes
From 6th to 5th century- Towards
Democracy
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594 Solon was appointed archon, with powers to inaugurate
reforms.
- He cancelled all land debts (seisachtheia), freed all debt
slaves, instituted a milder code of laws, reformed earlier
criminal code (known as Draco’s laws, known to be strict)
redistributed political powers.
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He divided the citizens into four property classes, each of which was
eligible for certain political offices. Set up the Council of 400 and
increased the powers of the assembly.
He established a new ruling body, the boule or council, composed of
400 members. It was claimed its function was to hold the balance
between the areopagus (Council of Elders) and the ecclesia
(Assembly of Citizens).
He created four new classes that were based on wealth and not on
birth (timocracy?)
AREOPAGUS
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The areopagus with the Solonian Reforms had
its power reduced since the boule (COUNDIL
of 400) took over the role of preparing the
legislation for the ecclesia (assembly of
citizens). The Aregopagus could forbid any
legislation that was unconstitutional,
It consisted of the archons who were now
elected by all citizens.
COURTS
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The courts were made up from all citizens,
and the panels of judges were selected by lot
(i.e. their names were chosen from an urn or
piece of pottery). This meant all classes of
citizens had a chance to act as judges. As
these courts overviewed the conduct of all
officials (magistrates), they were, at least in
theory, in complete control of the state.
Radical Democracy and Oligarchy
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So Athens under Solon had many elements that would later be a part of
the radical democracy—
democratic juries,
an Assembly
A Council,
selection of officials by lot rather than by vote
—while retaining many oligarchic elements in the form of property
qualifications and a powerful Council of the Areopagus.
According to Herodotus, after formulating these new laws for a new
Athenian Constitution, Solon made the people swear to obey them,
unchanged, for ten years, then went abroad from Athens (Hdt. 1.29.1).
After SOLON
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Peisistratus (Peisistratos) the tyrant ruled Athens. His tyranny was an
important stage as his rule was able to further diminish the power of the
aristocracy. Period of instability followed
Cleisthenes to power - introduced democratic reforms. Citizenship was
no longer defined in terms of the four traditional tribal ties. Ten new tribes
were formed, each tribe made up of trittyes (thirds), [based on the
geographic location: city, inland and coast] and the trittyes were made up
of demes. The membership of the deme guaranteed citizenship. The
Assembly of 500 was also created during his leadership. (See Herodotus,
The Histories, V, 66, 69, 73 and Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 20)
495Pericles (nephew of Cleisthenes) was born.
CLEISTHENES
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According to Aristotle’s The Constitution of
Athens
“Cleisthenes appointed ten eponymous heroes
for the tribes, chosen by the Delphic priestess
from a pre-selected list of a hundred founding
heroes”
Reforms of Cleisthenes 508/7> important for
paving the road towards Athenian Democracy
as a political system
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City Administration
Annually selected magistrates
Nine archons
Cleisthenes’s reforms aimed at breaking the
power of the aristocratic families, replacing
regional loyalties (and factionalism) with panAthenian solidarity, and preventing the rise of
another tyrant.