Cleisthenes

• Power struggle with the archon Isagoras after Hippias’ expulsion:

  Cleisthenes proposed widespread democratic reform to get the support of the most citizens
• •Very complicated reorganization of the entire Athenian citizenry
• 139 ‘demes’ established


  villages, which became the basic unit of political identity and action
• Everyone arranged into ten new ‘tribes’

  Each tribe is made of three trittyes based on regions from the city, inland, and the coast
• •The ten tribes form the basis of the boule, which is the main decision-making body in the Athenian democratic state, as well as the military
• •Introduced ostracism to get rid of threats to the democracy