Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cleisthenes (/ ˈ k l aɪ s θ ɪ n iː z / KLYS-thin-eez; Ancient Greek: Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570 – c. 508 BC), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC.
In 753 BCE the perpetual archonship by the Eupatridae [3] were limited to 10 year terms (the "decennial archons"). [4] After 683 BCE the offices were held for only a single year. [5] Bust of Solon, democratic reformer in Athenian Antiquity. By the 7th century BCE, social unrest had become widespread, as Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis.
The early Athenian tradition, followed by the 3rd century BC Parian Chronicle, made Cecrops, a mythical half-man half-serpent, the first king of Athens. [5] The dates for the following kings were conjectured centuries later, by historians of the Hellenistic era who tried to backdate events by cross-referencing earlier sources such as the Parian Chronicle.
The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language. [1] The origin myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus, [2] Apollodorus, [3] Ovid, Plutarch, [4] Pausanias and others.
Before Solon's reforms, the Athenian state was administered by nine archons appointed or elected annually by the Areopagus on the basis of noble birth and wealth. [66] [67] [f] There was an assembly of Athenian citizens (the Ekklesia) but the lowest class (the Thetes) was not admitted and its deliberative procedures were controlled by the ...
Solon of Athens (c. 638 BCE – c. 558 BCE) was a famous legislator and reformer from Athens, framing the laws that shaped the Athenian democracy. Cleobulus, tyrant of Lindos (fl. c. 600 BCE), reported as either the grandfather or father-in-law of Thales; Myson of Chenae (6th century BCE); and
Phrynichus (oligarch) (died 411 BC) - Athenian general who took a leading part in establishing the oligarchy of the Four Hundred; Pigres of Halicarnassus – poet; Pindar – poet; Pirrone – philosopher; Pisistratus – tyrant of Athens; Pittacus of Mytilene – one of the Seven Sages of Greece; Pithios – architect; Plato – philosopher
Athenian democracy had many critics, both ancient and modern. Ancient Greek critics of Athenian democracy include Thucydides the general and historian, Aristophanes the playwright, Plato the pupil of Socrates, Aristotle the pupil of Plato, and a writer known as the Old Oligarch. While modern critics are more likely to find fault with the ...