Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 508 BC.

Solon ( 594 BC ), Cleisthenes ( 508 / 7 BC ), and Ephialtes ( 462 BC ) all contributed to the development of Athenian democracy.

It is most usual to date Athenian democracy from Cleisthenes, since Solon's constitution fell and was replaced by the tyranny of Peisistratus, whereas Ephialtes revised Cleisthenes ' constitution relatively peacefully.

The greatest and longest lasting democratic leader was Pericles ; after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolution towards the end of the Peloponnesian War.

The Athenian institutions were later revived, but the extent to which they were a real democracy is debatable.

The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (, ekklêsia ).

Another interesting insight into Athenian democracy comes from the law that excluded from decisions of war those citizens who had property close to the city walls-on the basis that they had a personal interest in the outcome of such debates because the practice of an invading army at the time was to destroy the land outside the walls.

Another tack of criticism is to notice the disquieting links between democracy and a number of less than appealing features of Athenian life.

Although democracy predated Athenian imperialism by over thirty years, they are sometimes associated with each other.

A case can be made that discriminatory lines came to be drawn more sharply under Athenian democracy than before or elsewhere, in particular in relation to woman and slaves, as well as in the line between citizens and non-citizens.

Misogyny was by no means an Athenian invention, but it has been claimed that in regard to gender democracy generalised a harsher set of values derived, again, from the common people.

Contemporary opponents of majoritarianism ( arguably the principle behind Athenian democracy ) call it an illiberal regime ( in contrast to liberal democracy ) that allegedly leads to anomie, balkanization, and xenophobia.

Proponents ( especially of majoritarianism ) deny these accusations, and argue that any faults in Athenian democracy were because the franchise was quite limited ( only male citizens could vote — women, slaves and non-citizens were excluded ).

Despite this limited franchise, Athenian democracy was certainly the first — and perhaps the best — example of a working direct democracy.

( ed ) 2004, Athenian democracy.

* Athenian democracy

The battle was a defining moment for the young Athenian democracy, showing what might be achieved through unity and self-belief ; indeed, the battle effectively marks the start of a " golden age " for Athens.

Cleisthenes, " father of Athenian democracy ", modern bust.

Cleisthenes is referred to as " the father of Athenian democracy.

Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens.

The identification of Ajax with the family of Aeacus was chiefly a matter which concerned the Athenians, after Salamis had come into their possession, on which occasion Solon is said to have inserted a line in the Iliad ( 2. 557 – 558 ), for the purpose of supporting the Athenian claim to the island.

Kotys had already married his daughter to the Athenian general Iphicrates.

Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens.

Athenian citizens had to be descended from citizens — after the reforms of Pericles and Cimon in 450 BC on both sides of the family, excluding the children of Athenian men and foreign women.

Running the courts was one of the major expenses of the Athenian state and there were moments of financial crisis in the 4th century when the courts, at least for private suits, had to be suspended.

Even with respect to slavery the new citizen law of 450 BC may have had effect: it is speculated that originally Athenian fathers had been able to register for citizenship offspring had with slave women ( Hansen 1987: 53 ).

Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had furiously rejected this ; the Ionian cities were originally Athenian colonies, and the Athenians, if no-one else, would protect the Ionians.

The Epidaurians had been accustomed to make annual offerings to the Athenian deities Athena and Erechtheus in payment for the Athenian olive-wood of which the statues were made.

The plot failed owing to the late arrival of the Athenian force, when Nicodromus had already fled the island.

Herodotus had no Athenian victories to record after the initial success, and the fact that Themistocles was able to carry his proposal to devote the surplus funds of the state to the building of so large a fleet seems to imply that the Athenians were themselves convinced that a supreme effort was necessary.

In 510 BC, with the aid of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta, the Athenian people had expelled Hippias, the tyrant ruler of Athens.

The Persians sailed down the coast of Attica, and landed at the bay of Marathon, roughly from Athens, on the advice of the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias ( who had accompanied the expedition ).

Furthermore, raising such a large army had denuded Athens of defenders, and thus any secondary attack in the Athenian rear would cut the army off from the city ; and any direct attack on the city could not be defended against.

The Athenians had honed their style of fighting in combat with other phalanxes, wooden shields smashing against wooden shields, iron spear tips clattering against breastplates of bronze ... in those first terrible seconds of collision, there was nothing but a pulverizing crash of metal into flesh and bone ; then the rolling of the Athenian tide over men wearing, at most, quilted jerkins for protection, and armed, perhaps, with nothing more than bows or slings.

The Athenian wings quickly routed the inferior Persian levies on the flanks, before turning inwards to surround the Persian centre, which had been more successful against the thin Greek centre.

The two tribes which had been in the centre of the Athenian line stayed to guard the battlefield under the command of Aristides.

Later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization.

There are many variations of this theory, but perhaps the most prevalent is that the cavalry was re-embarked on the ships, and was to be sent by sea to attack ( undefended ) Athens in the rear, whilst the rest of the Persians pinned down the Athenian army at Marathon.

In 425 BC, which is about the time that Herodotus is thought by many scholars to have died, the Athenian comic dramatist, Aristophanes, created The Acharnians, in which he blames The Peloponnesian War on the abduction of some prostitutes-a mocking reference to Herodotus, who reported the Persians ' account of their wars with Greece, beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines Io, Europa, Medea and Helen.

Perhaps worst of all, the nearby silver mines were totally disrupted, with as many as 20, 000 Athenian slaves freed by the Spartan hoplites at Decelea.

The Ionian states that rebelled expected protection, and many rejoined the Athenian side.

Themistocles had many daughters, of whom Mnesiptolema, whom he had by a second marriage, was wife to Archeptolis, her brother by another mother, she became priestess of Cybele ; Italia was married to Panthoides, of the island of Chios ; Sybaris to Nicomedes the Athenian.

The Athenian people, facing the gravest moment of peril in their history, committed themselves once and for all to the alien element of the sea, and put their faith in a man whose ambitions many had long profoundly dreaded.

However, as happened to many prominent individuals in the Athenian democracy, Themistocles's fellow citizens grew jealous of his success, and possibly tired of his boasting.

At the peak of its power Sparta subdued many of the key Greek states and even managed to overpower the elite Athenian navy.

Images depicting many of the Greek myths are only known from South Italian vases, since Athenian ones seem to have had more limited repertoires of depiction.

On this campaign, Thrasybulus relaid much of the framework for an Athenian empire on 5th century BC model ; he captured Byzantium, imposed a duty on ships passing through the Hellespont, and collected tribute from many of the islands of the Aegean.

* The Athenian statesman, Demosthenes, travels to Peloponnesus, in order to detach as many cities as possible from Macedon's influence, but his efforts are generally unsuccessful.

The total defeat of the Athenian expedition to Sicily and the consequent revolts of many of the subject-allies has weakened Athenian finances severely ; the acknowledged purpose of the revolutionary movement is to revise the constitution to better run Athens ' finances.

The resulting Battle of Pylos results in an Athenian victory leading to the surrender of many of the Spartan troops.

In the Athenian king-list, Xuthus, the son-in-law of Erechtheus, was asked to choose his successor from among his many sons and chose Cecrops II, named for the mythic founder-king Cecrops.

A minor god in Greek mythology, which we read largely through Athenian writers, Aristaeus or Aristaios (), " ever close follower of the flocks ", was the culture hero credited with the discovery of many useful arts, including bee-keeping ; he was the son of Apollo and the huntress Cyrene.

Since Evagoras was an enemy of Persia, and many of the Athenian gains threatened Persian interests, these developments prompted Artaxerxes to switch his support from Athens and her allies to Sparta.

Eteonicus escaped, and a great number of Athenian sailors — estimates as to the precise figure have ranged from near 1, 000 to as many as 5, 000 — drowned.

The artistic unity of his work suffered severely from the frequent and lengthy digressions, of which the most important was On the Athenian Demagogues in the 10th book of the Philippica, containing a bitter attack on many of the chief Athenian statesmen, and generally recognized as having been freely used by Plutarch in several of the Lives.

A great many migrants came to Athens to do business and were in fact essential to the Athenian economy.

During the period of the Delian League and the Second Athenian League ( 5th – 4th century BC ), many more cleruchies were created by Athens such as on Samos Island proved worthy in the Social War.

* Pylos: A bay in the Peloponnese, shut in by the island of Sphacteria, it is associated with Cleon's famous victory and there are many references to it in the play: as a cake that Cleon pinched from Demosthenes ( lines 57, 355, 1167 ); as a place where Cleon like a colossus has got one foot ( 76 ); as an oath by which Cleon swears ( 702 ); as the place where Cleon snatched victory from the Athenian generals ( 742 ); as the origin of captured Spartan shields ( 846 ); as an epithet of the goddess Athena ( 1172 ); and as an equivalent of the hare that Agoracritus stole from Cleon ( 1201 ).