The Development of Athens up to the Late Sixth Century B.C.

The Athenian State Before 600 B.C.

The Legal and Economic Reforms of Solon

Constitutional Reforms of Solon

The Principles of Solon and the Rise of Peisistratus

The Tyrants at Athens

The Reforms of Cleisthenes

The Successes of Athens

While Sparta is perhaps the most popularly known of the Greek City-States. However the most influential in subsequent history and one of the birth-parents of Western Civilization (along with Rome) is Athens. Here we shall examine the development of Athens in the Archaic Age, and how they began to develop the precursors of what would become Athens greatest achievement of all: Democracy.

In the 10th century B.C. Athens had been the most powerful state on the

mainland: it had held of the Dorian attacks against it, and launched the Ionian migrations that would people the Aegean islands and Anatolia.

However in the following centuries Athens lost its leading place among the Greeks, not because it declined, but rather because the other states advanced. While the large Dorian tribal kingdoms had fallen, the newly consolidated City-States were more organized and better able to project their power. Athens by contrast remained a largely tribal state, with the population enrolled into one of 4 tribes, and each of these divided into thirds (known as a Phratry), for a total of 12 Phratries.

Inside each Phratry, the citizens were divided between members of Clans (who owned and worked the land) and the Guilds (who practised trades and crafts). While all citizens, the Guildsmen were in large part descended from the refugees of earlier generations, and lacked the ability to participate in many of the political functions of the state in the same way Clansmen could.

After the demise of the kingship, Athens was ruled by 9 officials known as Archons who served on an annual basis. On retiring from the Archonship, these men would then become members of the Areopagus council, which was itself the central power of Athens existing constitution.

While an assembly of all citizens (Ekklesia) voted to elect Archons (and thus indirectly on who would enter the Areopagus), the limitations on candidacy (birth and wealth) eliminated many from running, including all Guildsmen, while the Areopagus scrutinized those selected. At the same time, the Ekklesia likely had some limit powers of debate, but it would have been the Areopagus that overwhelmingly set the agenda.

One of the first big reforms to come into play was that initiated by an Archon known as Draco (c.621 B.C) the Lawgiver. He both wrote and published new laws (publishing them was not customary), and was renowned by later generations for the incredible harshness (he was said to have remarked that it was unfortunate there was nothing worse than death to be sentenced to).

While hardly what we would call auspicious, the greatest of Athens lawgivers was just around the proverbial corner: Solon.

Of Draco's new laws, one above all had a devastating effect on the Athenian state: the laws dealing with debt. So harsh were they that a Clansman who defaulted on his debt could be forced to stay on his land and farm it for the creditor, turning over 1/6 of his produce.

As for Guildsmen, they could be bodily seized in case of default and sold with their families into slavery, in Athens or abroad. Wide-scale poverty combined with unscrupulous lenders meant that Athens, which had lacked the serfdom of some Dorian states, was soon awash in slaves, many former citizens!

Meanwhile the state risked dissolving into civil war as disputes between rich and poor, clans and guilds, district vs. distinct, and oligarchs vs. democrats. Into this situation stepped Solon, serving as an Archon in 594/3 B.C., he was made an 'Arbiter' and held full legislative powers, and used them extensively.

He moved to cancel all previous and existing debts, and liberated all the enslaved citizens, both Clansmen and Guildsmen. He even went so far as to have those who had been sold abroad tracked down, purchased, and reinstated as free citizens back home. To allay the bitter factionalism, he likewise re-enfranchised all those who had been stripped of their rights, except for those guilty of the most heinous of crimes.

However, the conditions that had required widespread borrowing and poverty still existed. To address this Solon began to move Athens away from an agricultural economy and towards one of commerce by changing the currency system, and by allowing trade with more and richer markets. In this way poverty would be alleviated, the Guildsmen would find work in their trades, and Solon even went so far as to offer citizenship to immigrants (extremely rare in this era) from other Greek states who would practice a trade in Athens, and so contribute to its prosperity.

Shortly after the above mentioned changes, Solon began to reform the Athenian political system. Where before people would have to meet qualifications of both birth and wealth to run for office, Solon made it contingent only upon wealth (thus effectively allowing Guildsmen into politics).

As well, a class structure based on wealth was established to determine who could run for what offices, measured by each individual’s annual income in the form of units of agricultural produce. At the top were men with 500+ units (Pentakosiomedimnoi), 300+ units (Hippeis), 200+ units (Zeugitai), and those with anything less (Thetes).

Pentakosiomedimnoi

500+

Hippeis

300-500

Zeugitai

200-300

Thetes

<200

While the top 2 classes were eligible for Archonships and high offices, and the top 3 for minor offices, the Thetes were ineligible for office. Solon also created a 'Council of 400', consisting of 100 members from each of the 4 tribes, who prepared business for the Ekklesia and set forth recommendations and in this way balanced out the Areopagus council.

Likewise a new court called the Heliaea was formed by members of the common people, and though they could not judge the Areopagus, they did scrutinize the magistrates. While the power of the Ekklesia was limited, in its bounds it was absolute, and the principal of officials being responsible to the people was now established.

Besides all this he likewise overturned all the laws of Draco (save one: dealing with bloodshed) and established new laws in an attempt to balance favour equally on all the parties of Athenian society.

Solon decided after his reforms were in place to withdraw for 10 years, and enjoined his fellow citizens to work hard to put his laws into effect.

Despite Solon’s principled advice, the people rather promptly failed to follow it. The powerful still attempted to usurp power, and the common people opposed them. The power of the great clans in the countryside remained intact, and it would take reforms more revolutionary than Solon's to break them. So it came to pass that once more the powerful sought to establish oligarchy, and the poor democracy.

One of the main contestants for state power was one Peisistratus, who managed to make himself Tyrant of Athens, before withdrawing (possibly under pressure from Sparta), and settling in Thrace, where he prepared for a return to power.

While political conflict raged, the Athenian economy grew impressively as its exports and coinage became widespread and highly valued, while immigrants flocked there in search of citizenship, swelling Athens manpower and skill sets. Despite the foolishness of many politically, much was owed to Solon for his reforms, and the Athenians would admit as much.

The reforms of Solon had done Athens a great service, but more would be needed if it was to take its rightful place among the great power. Here we’ll examine the further evolution of Athens’ form of government, the beginnings of real democratic practice, and the origins of the Athenians later imperial glory.

While Peisistratus had been forced to withdraw he used his time in exile to plan for his inevitable return. By 546 B.C. he had assembled enough wealth and power in his northern domain to lead a force of mercenaries back to Athens, where he managed to seize power and once again ensconce himself in a Tyranny.

However, it must be said in his defence that by the standards of Tyrants, he was a just and considerate one who helped the common people and worked to beautify and strengthen Athens.

Nonetheless the Athenians, like all people, would prefer no master to a good master. When Peisistratus died in 528/7 B.C. he was replaced by his sons, and while they maintained the efficient tyrannical system of rule, influxes of refugees and returning settlers (many displaced by the advance of Persia) caused social tension. In the summer of 510 B.C. they were overthrown and went into exile.

One of the advantages of the tyranny of Peisistratus and his kin (besides those already mentioned) was that the long absence of so many of the upper class in exile for so long had weakened the traditional factionalism of the state, while the promoting of the common man's interest put value on the individual. As such, Athens in 510 B.C. was far more united than during the previous upheavals in its history. The time was ripe for it to expand its power in a number of areas, and a new governing system was needed to facilitate this.

With the exile of Peisistratus successors, struggles for power made it look as if Athens might yet again fall under an aristocrat's tyranny. However, the people managed to force out the aspiring usurpers, and to give power to the reformer Cleisthenes. Empowered to reform the Constitution, he moved to radically alter the makeup of the Athenian state.

While the old divisions of racial tribes and clans remained in use in the social and religious spheres, the political divisions were totally remade. He started at the lowest level, making the new basic unit of the state the Deme. Henceforth every citizen would be registered as belonging to a Deme (of which there were around 170), and this was to be the most important unit in a citizen's political life, being inducted into his father's Deme when he reached maturity.

Then, at the top level, he divided the land of Attica into 3 geographical parts (the city, the coast, and the interior). Cleisthenes then grouped all the Demes in each region into 10 Trittyes (for perhaps 5 or 6 Demes per Trittyes), but in such a way that instead of being a single territorial unit, each of the Trittyes Demes were spread across the region. From here, one Trittyes from each of the 3 regions were combined to form a 'Tribe', the largest of the new political units, for a total of 10 Tribes (Phyle).

While in the past the powerful families had been able to dominate and intimidate the populations of their surrounding areas into supporting them, the new system made this incredibly difficult (indeed, nearly impossible). Each Tribe would now consist of perhaps 15 to 20 Demes, each widely separated from each other, so that in every Tribe no regional interest would dominate, and the interests of the entire state would be considered, with every Tribe having the same general feelings as all the others.

To give further power to this new system, the old Council of 400 was replaced by a 'Council of 500'. Here, each Tribe would select 50 members by lot from its own elected officials to join the council, and each group of 50 (called committees) would serve for 1/10th of the year in constant session, preparing business for the Council and generally ensuring that the routines of administration were carried out. Likewise, a chairman of the serving committee would be chosen daily (Epistates).

Finally, in 501 B.C. this system was extended into the military sphere: each Tribe supplied a contingent of troops and elected a general to lead them, while the 10 generals were in turn subordinate to the Archon commander-in-chief (Polemarchus).

The true genius of this system was that each man could only ever serve as a member of the Council twice and as the Epistates once between the ages of 30 and 60. Because of this, the same members could not just be elected over and over again (as has been the case in electoral politics in many other systems), and over the next several decades a large percentage of the citizen population received extensive training in government administration and in responsibility to the state.

While Cleisthenes had left much of the rest of the constitution as he found it, the changes he had made allowed for the Council to take on far greater powers half a century later, and for the emergence of popular rule by a majority of the citizen body (Demokratia).

In 506 A.D. the Spartans organized an attack on Athens, along with the states of Boeotia and Chalcis. While this appeared overwhelming, the political reforms of Athens gave its army the confidence and morale to rise to the challenge. When the Peloponnesian forces withdrew, Athens defeated the Boeotian and Chalcidian armies in two separate battles on the same day.

It was after this success that Athens occupied some Chalcidian territory and planted a number of its military-aged citizens on it as farmers. This type of settlement (Cleruchy) was not independent, and its inhabitant remained voting, serving citizens associated with their home Demes. It did however serve several purposes: it acted as a garrison ready for action at a moment's notice, reduced overpopulation by settling refugees and citizens from Attica, and provided additional military and economic power to Athens.

While this was not the first time Cleruchies had been established, the conquest of neighbours and the imposition of Cleruchies were the first signs of Athenian imperialism, a phenomenon that would become far more pronounced later on.