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The Athenian Revolution (508–507 BCE) was a revolt by the people of Athens that overthrew the ruling aristocratic oligarchy, establishing the almost century-long self-governance of Athens in the form of a participatory democracy – open to all free male citizens.
A company of citizens : what the world's first democracy teaches leaders about creating great organizations. Boston. Meier C. 1998, Athens: a portrait of the city in its Golden Age (translated by R. and R. Kimber). New York; Ober, Josiah (1989). Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology and the Power of the People. Princeton.
The destruction of Athens, took place between 480 and 479 BCE, when Athens was captured and subsequently destroyed by the Achaemenid Empire.A prominent Greek city-state, it was attacked by the Persians in a two-phase offensive, amidst which the Persian king Xerxes the Great had issued an order calling for it to be torched.
By the time of the Peloponnesian War, the democracy in Athens was approximately 100 years old. [2] Most of the upper class accepted this form of government, while either vying for positions of leadership within it or, remaining aloof outside of it. [3] Until the war, most of the leading Athenian politicians had come from noble families. [3]
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.
The Pnyx was the official meeting place of the Athenian democratic assembly (Ancient Greek: ἐκκλησία, ekklesía).In the earliest days of Athenian democracy (after the reforms of Kleisthenes in 508 B.C.), the ekklesia met in the Agora.
These activities were often handled by a form of direct democracy, based on a popular assembly. Others, of judicial and official nature, were often handled by large juries, drawn from the citizen body in a process known as sortition. By far the most well-documented and studied example is the Athenian democracy in Athens.
In the wake of these victories, democracy was re-established at Athens. As a leader of this revived democracy in the 4th century BC, Thrasybulus advocated a policy of resistance to Sparta and sought to restore Athens' imperial power. He was killed in 388 BC while leading an Athenian naval force during the Corinthian War.