Politics
Cleisthenes
In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people.” This system was comprised of three separate institutions: the Ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy; the Boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes; and the Dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors. Although this Athenian democracy would survive for only two centuries, Cleisthenes’ invention was one of ancient Greece’s most enduring contributions to the modern world.
Around 460 B.C., under the rule of the general Pericles Athenian democracy began to evolve into something that we would call an aristocracy: the rule of what Herodotus called “the one man, the best.” Though democratic ideals and processes did not survive in ancient Greece, they have been influencing politicians and governments ever since. Generals were among the only public officials who were elected, not appointed.
