Cleisthenes

Kleisthenes of Athens (Ancient Greek Κλεισθένης Kleisthénēs, stressed on the first syllable in German; * c. 570 BC; † after 507 BC) was a politician and statesman in 6th-century BC Athens. His name is inextricably linked with the Kleisthenian Reforms of 508/507 BC, considered by historians to be a milestone on the road to Attic democracy.

Kleisthenes came from the family of the Alkmeonids and was the son of Megakles. His mother Agariste was the daughter of the Sikyonian tyrant Kleisthenes. Kleisthenes of Athens probably became archon already under the tyrant Hippias in 525/24 BC. The Alkmeonids belonged to the Eupatridai, the influential Attic noble families, and were thus potential rivals to the Peisistratid tyranny. Perhaps soon after his archontate, Kleisthenes left Athens with the Alkmeonids to mobilize against the Peisistratids from outside. With financial contributions to the oracle of Delphi, which served the purpose of building, the priesthood there was taken against the Athenian tyrannical regime. By means of corresponding oracle sayings, the Spartans were won over for plans to overthrow the Peisistratids, which Kleomenes I finally brought about with the expulsion of Hippias in 510 BC.

Now Kleisthenes and the Alkmeonids returned from exile to Athens. Initially an ally, Isagoras, who was acting as archon in 508/507 B.C., became the opponent of Kleisthenes, who aimed at a profound reform. After the intervention of the Spartan king Kleomenes I in favor of Isagoras, Kleisthenes and his political companions left Athens again, but were soon able to return because the council, representing large parts of the citizenry, now turned against Isagoras and his numerically small Spartan support corps. Kleisthenes was thus finally given the opportunity to fundamentally reorganize the political structures of the Attic polis through a drastic work of reform, in a way that brought about a mixing of the citizenry and which, for Herodotus, made him the founder of democracy.

It is unclear whether the introduction of ostracism, which seems to agree with his reform approach committed to isonomy and is attributed to him in the work Athenaion Politeia, goes back to Kleisthenes. The surviving sources are silent about the further fate of Kleisthenes beyond his reform work.