How Athenian Democracy Worked

Abstract

This chapter begins with a survey of Cleisthenes’ creation often new tribes in 507 B.C., highlighting the importance of this reform for the determination of who was and who was not a citizen, a determination henceforth based on decisions made not by a narrow clique of aristocrats, but by all citizens in a local area. The chapter goes on to draw out the role played by the three major institutions of Athenian democracy: the Council, the Assembly, and the law courts. It ends with a discussion of some other features of the polis, including ostracism, as well as two important reforms to democratic procedures: the graphe paranomon and the boards of nomothetai (lawmakers).