Th e Age of Tyrants was an age of growing material pros-
perity, and many tyrants used their wealth to glorify them-
selves and their cities. Peisistratus and his sons (collectively
known as the Peisistratids) were responsible for a major
building program in Athens, for the promotion of great festi-
vals such as the Panathenaea and City Dionysia, and possibly
for the start of Athenian coinage. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos,
was the patron of the lyric poets Anacreon and Ibycus, and
the Sicilian tyrant Hiero supported such notable poets as Pin-
dar, Bacchylides, and Aeschylus.
Tyrants could also be feared, and it is their reputation
for capricious cruelty, discussed in particular by Plato and
Aristotle, that eventually gave the word the entirely nega-
tive connotations it bears to this day. Tyranny was seen as
the chance to exert unbridled power—tyrants lacked the tra-
ditional restraints that kings operated under and could do
whatever they pleased. In the popular imagination this in-
cluded various forms of sexual predation. In Athens, for ex-
ample, the expulsion of the Peisistratid tyrants was popularly
thought to have resulted from a murder committed by a citi-
zen named Aristogiton to defend his lover Harmodius from
the unwanted advances of the tyrant’s brother. Still, opinion
on tyrants varied greatly. Th ucydides (who tells the story of
Harmodius and Aristogiton) praises the Peisistratids for their
good works for the city and the general mildness of their rule.
Even more dramatic is the case of Periander of Corinth. He
is said to have been ruthless in eliminating potential rivals,
to have killed his own wife, and to have sent 300 Corcyraean
youth to Lydia to be made eunuchs; yet he is routinely listed
among the canonical Seven Sages of the Greek world.
ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY
Athens was not only a rich and powerful state but also a
center of learning and the arts. For this reason we have far
more information about the Athenian democracy than about
any other ancient government. But the factors that led to the
development and growth of this political system were by no
means unique, so that an examination of Athenian democ-
racy will allow us to learn much about how Greek cities faced
the challenges of self-governance.
Democracy was essentially an Athenian invention, with
several of its key institutions put in place by Cleisthenes, who
served as archon (leader) in 508–507 b.c.e. It lasted, with
various changes and two brief interruptions, for nearly 200
years, until Athens was conquered by Philip of Macedon in
- It was, however, quite diff erent from any modern democ-
racy in certain key respects. First, it was a direct democracy
rather than a representative one: Almost all decision mak-
ing was done by the citizens of Athens, who voted in popular
assemblies. Th ere were no long-term elected offi cials (offi ces
were held for one year only), nor was there a bureaucracy with
offi ces to oversee public functions (no departments of defense
or the treasury and the like). Second, the Athenian democracy
deliberately excluded from participation a large proportion of
the population: all noncitizens, a group that would include
slaves, women, and the many foreigners resident in Athens.
Although the key concept of Athenian democracy was iso-
nomia, meaning “equality under the law,” decision making
rested in the hands of perhaps a quarter of the population.
(It should be noted, however, that all Greek states restricted
participation to citizen males.)
Th e reforms of Cleisthenes were designed to promote
cohesion among the citizen body and to reduce the power
of older aristocratic institutions. Attica (Athens and its sur-
rounding countryside) was divided into 139 demes, or dis-
tricts, which aft er Cleisthenes formed the most basic units
of citizenship. At age 18 a young man would be enrolled by
his father into his deme register, signifying his admission to
full citizen status; his full name included an indication of his
deme (for example, Sophocles Labdakou Koloneus: Sophocles,
son of Labdakos, of the deme Colonus). Th is system overrode
earlier aristocratic institutions based on kinship; to dimin-
ish the geographical rivalry among city, rural, and coastal
demes, Cleisthenes created ten “tribes,” each composed of
demes from each of the major geographic divisions.
Although the deme was the basic unit of citizenship,
tribal membership lay at the heart of the most important
civic institutions. Th e tribes were the basis for the selection
of citizens for the boule, or Council, made up of 500 citizens,
50 from each tribe. Although the ekklesia (Assembly), com-
posed of all men 18 or older who had been enrolled in their
deme registers, was responsible for all major decisions of the
city during much of the fi ft h century, voting on both policy
matters (declarations of war, taxes, and the like) and laws, the
boule had the administrative responsibilit y of seeing to it that
these decisions were carried out. It also served as a sort of
steering committee for the ekklesia, determining its legisla-
tive agenda: All decrees brought before the ekklesia had to
be proposed fi rst by the boule (though amendments could
be made during the debate on the legislation). Members of
the boule were male citizens over the age of 30 and served
for one year (with a lifetime maximum of two terms). Each
deme nominated a certain number of citizens for member-
ship in the boule (the number varied according to the size of
the deme), who were chosen by lot. Th us all citizens had not
only a theoretical chance to serve in this body but also a fairly
high mathematical chance of actually doing so.
During each of the 10 months of the Athenian year a dif-
ferent tribe supplied 50 prytaneis, who served as presidents
or overseers of the boule during their month in offi ce. Th ey
lived at public expense in a special building in the Agora, the
city’s central market and governmental area, where they were
on round-the-clock duty to deal with emergencies that might
arise, in which case they were empowered to call a full meet-
ing of the boule or even the ekklesia. Each day a diff erent pry-
tanis was chosen by lot as chair, so that any given Athenian
citizen had a reasonable chance of being, in eff ect, head of
state for at least one day during his lifetime.
Aft er a brief period of tyranny under the so-called Th irty
Tyrants, democracy was restored to Athens in 403. In the new528 government organization: Greece