Cleisthenes
✓ Source-basedrisingLate 6th century Athenian politician and reformer
He broke the grip of Athenian aristocrats and handed power to the assembly - the 508 BC constitutional redesign that made democracy possible. Twenty-five centuries later, historians still call him its father.
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About this person
Born around 570 BC into the aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan, Cleisthenes was the younger son of Megacles and grandson of a Sicyonian tyrant. After Spartan hoplites helped overthrow the tyrant Hippias in 510 BC, Sparta's king installed a pro-Spartan oligarchy under Isagoras. Cleisthenes rallied the middle class and democrats, seized control, and survived two Spartan interventions in 508 and 506 BC. His reforms gave Athens isonomic institutions - equal rights for all citizens, though only free men and women qualified - and introduced ostracism as a check on power. He died around 508 BC, having shifted authority from the nobility to the citizens' assembly.
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