Cleisthenes invents democracy
Athens reorganises its citizens by residence and hands power to the assembly.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 year
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
In 508 BCE Cleisthenes redistributes Athenian citizens into ten artificial tribes drawn from scattered districts, deliberately cutting across the regional and family loyalties that aristocrats had used to build factions. The Council of 500 is chosen by lot, and the assembly of all citizens decides policy. It is direct rather than representative, and it excludes women, slaves and foreigners — a large majority of the population. It is still the first system in which ordinary citizens govern.