That overawing pressure being now removed by the expulsion of
Hippias, the enslaved forms became at once endued with freedom and
reality. There appeared again, what Attica had not known for thirty
years, declared political parties, and pronounced opposition between
two men as leaders,—on one side, Isagoras son of Tisander, a person
of illustrious descent,—on the other, Kleisthenês the Alkmæônid,
not less illustrious, and possessing at this moment a claim on the
gratitude of his countrymen as the most persevering as well as the
most effective foe of the dethroned despots. In what manner such
opposition was carried on we are not told. It would seem to have been
not altogether pacific; but at any rate, Kleisthenês had the worst
of it, and in consequence of this defeat, says the historian, “he
took into partnership the people, who had been before excluded from
everything.”[243] His partnership with the people gave birth to the
Athenian democracy: it was a real and important revolution.
[243] Herodot. v, 66-69 ἑσσούμενος δὲ ὁ Κλεισθένης τὸν δῆμον
προσεταιρίζεται—ὡς γὰρ δὴ τὸν Ἀθηναίων δῆμον, πρότερον ἀπωσμένον
πάντων, τότε πρὸς τὴν ἑωϋτοῦ μοίρην προσεθήκατο, etc.
The political franchise, or the character of an Athenian citizen,
both before and since Solon, had been confined to the primitive
four Ionic tribes, each of which was an aggregate of so many close
corporations or quasi-families,—the gentes and the phratries. None
of the residents in Attica, therefore, except those included in
some gens or phratry, had any part in the political franchise. Such
non-privileged residents were probably at all times numerous, and
became more and more so by means of fresh settlers: moreover, they
tended most to multiply in Athens and Peiræus, where emigrants would
commonly establish themselves. Kleisthenês broke down the existing
wall of privilege, and imparted the political franchise to the
excluded mass. But this could not be done by enrolling them in new
gentes or phratries, created in addition to the old; for the gentile
tie was founded upon old faith and feeling, which, in the existing
state of the Greek mind, could not be suddenly conjured up as a
bond of union for comparative strangers: it could only be done by
disconnecting the franchise altogether from the Ionic tribes as well
as from the gentes which constituted them, and by redistributing the
population into new tribes with a character and purpose exclusively
political. Accordingly, Kleisthenês abolished the four Ionic tribes,
and created in their place ten new tribes founded upon a different
principle, independent of the gentes and phratries. Each of his
new tribes comprised a certain number of demes or cantons, with
the enrolled proprietors and residents in each of them. The demes
taken altogether included the entire surface of Attica, so that
the Kleisthenean constitution admitted to the political franchise
all the free native Athenians; and not merely these, but also many
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account