Key takeaways
- Wikipedia credits Solon (594 BC), Cleisthenes (508–07 BC) and Ephialtes (462 BC) with the main stages in building Athenian democracy.
- Three bodies held the system together: the assembly open to adult male citizens, the Council of 500 chosen by lot, and citizen juries of 200 or more.
- Wikipedia says about 1,100 citizens held office each year, mostly chosen by lot, with about 100 elected, including the ten generals.
- Women, slaves, metics and children were excluded; one estimate puts adult male citizens at about 30,000 in a 4th-century Attica of 250,000–300,000 people.
- Population figures are estimates and sources disagree: an EBSCO Research Starter gives about 45,000 male citizens and dates the system to 460–320 BCE.
- Athens lost its independent democracy when the Macedonian army of Philip II conquered it in 338 BC, Wikipedia notes, though governors appointed by the Macedonians kept some of the traditional institutions.
Athenian democracy was a system in which adult male citizens governed directly: they attended an open assembly and voted in person, served on a council chosen by lot, and sat on juries in their hundreds. It was also a system that excluded most people living in Attica. Both halves of that sentence matter, and this guide covers each, using Wikipedia's account of the institutions and two EBSCO Research Starters as a cross-check.
Three reformers and a century of change
Democracy at Athens was built in stages rather than founded on one day. Wikipedia credits three reformers in particular: Solon in 594 BC, Cleisthenes in 508–07 BC and Ephialtes in 462 BC.
Solon divided citizens into four property classes and, Wikipedia says, set up an assembly open to all male citizens, while also cancelling existing debts and ending borrowing on the security of one's own person. The tyrant Peisistratos took power in 561 BC; his son Hippias was expelled in 510. Cleisthenes then made the old tribes politically irrelevant and created ten new tribes built from local units called demes, so that citizens were organised by where they lived rather than by family or wealth. Ephialtes, in 462/1, persuaded the assembly to reduce the aristocratic council of the Areopagus to a court for homicide and sacrilege.
The system was interrupted twice by oligarchic coups, in 411 and 404 BC, during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta. Wikipedia notes that democratic forms then persisted until the Macedonian army of Philip II conquered Athens in 338 BC.
Dating the "start" is itself a matter of choice. The EBSCO Research Starter on Athenian democracy dates the system to 460–320 BCE, which effectively begins with Ephialtes rather than Cleisthenes. Neither date is wrong; they answer different questions about when the system became recognisably democratic — the kind of judgement discussed in what makes an event a turning point.
The assembly, the council and the courts
Wikipedia describes three political bodies where citizens gathered in hundreds or thousands.
The assembly (ekklesia). Any adult male citizen over 20 could attend; members were not elected. It made decrees such as declaring war or granting citizenship, elected some officials, legislated and, for a time, tried political crimes. Voting was usually by show of hands. In the 5th century there were ten fixed meetings a year; in the 4th century, forty. After 403 BC citizens were paid to attend, and only the first 6,000 to arrive were admitted and paid.
The Council of 500 (boule). Each of Cleisthenes's ten tribes supplied 50 councillors, aged at least 30 and chosen by lot each year. The council drafted the proposals the assembly debated, handled finance and received ambassadors. Each tribe's 50 members took turns as the standing committee for 36 days, and a chairman was chosen by lot each day.
The courts (dikasteria). Jurors had to be 30 or older and were drawn from an annual pool of 6,000. Private suits had juries of at least 200 (401 if more than 1,000 drachmas was at stake); public suits had 501. There were no judges and no lawyers; litigants spoke for themselves, timed by a water clock, and cases had to end by sunset.
Lottery, not election, for most offices
Wikipedia says about 1,100 citizens held office each year. Most were chosen by lot; a much smaller group of about 100 was elected, chiefly officials handling large sums of money and the ten generals (strategoi), whose work needed expertise and contacts across the Greek world.
Allotment, Wikipedia explains, was seen as a way to prevent the corrupt purchase of votes and to give every eligible citizen an equal chance of office. Offices filled by lot could not be held twice, except the council, which a citizen could join in two non-consecutive years. Officeholders were checked before taking up office and examined after leaving it, and the assembly could remove them at any of its main meetings. No officeholder could impose a fine above fifty drachmas.
The idea of a "citizen initiator" — ho boulomenos, "anyone who wishes" — tied it together: any citizen with full rights could speak in the assembly or bring a public lawsuit.
Counting who actually had a vote
Wikipedia states plainly that participation was open only to free, adult male citizens: not minors, metics (resident foreigners), women or slaves. After a law of 450 BC associated with Pericles and Cimon, citizenship required two Athenian parents.
A worked example shows the scale. Wikipedia estimates that 4th-century Attica may have held some 250,000–300,000 people, of whom about 30,000 were adult male citizens entitled to vote.
| Total population | Adult male citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 300,000 | 30,000 | 10% |
| 250,000 | 30,000 | 12% |
So on these estimates roughly one inhabitant in eight to ten had a vote. Wikipedia separately puts actual participants at 10 to 20 percent of inhabitants, varying between the 5th and 4th centuries.
These numbers are estimates, and sources do not agree. The EBSCO Research Starter gives an overall population of approximately 45,000 male citizens, while Wikipedia suggests the 5th-century figure was perhaps as high as 60,000 before falling during the Peloponnesian War. Treat any single number as a range — a point worth keeping in mind whenever you weigh primary and secondary sources.
Ostracism and the ancient critics
Ostracism, in Wikipedia's description, let the assembly exile citizens deemed threats to the state's stability, as a preventive measure against would-be tyrants. Its origin is disputed: the EBSCO entry on Cleisthenes notes that ancient writers credited him with it, but because it was not used until 487 BCE, it was in all probability created by someone else.
The surviving ancient commentary is mostly hostile. Wikipedia lists Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle and the writer known as the Old Oligarch among critics who thought democracy too inclusive rather than too narrow. It cites the trial of six generals together after Arginusae in 406 BC, which was technically illegal, and the execution of Socrates in 399 BC. Because so much of the record comes from opponents, spotting bias in history writing is a practical skill here, not a theoretical one.
Placing Athens on a wider timeline
Athens built its democracy in the same decades it was fighting Persia; the outsider's view of that empire is covered in how Achaemenid Persia was governed, and the wars themselves in the Greco-Persian Wars. The end of independent Athenian politics belongs to the story of Alexander the Great and his father Philip II.
World History Timeline Sim, our own app, organises major events chronologically and lets you browse them by year, era, region, country or category, which helps when lining up Athenian reforms against events elsewhere. Its Time Travel Mode is alternate history: the chains of consequences are simulations, not what happened. The app is free on Google Play, supported by ads, with optional in-app purchases. It is meant for following your curiosity and sits alongside coursework rather than standing in for it; for the institutions themselves, the sources cited here, and the ancient texts behind them, are where to check. More in this vein sits in the education and brain training collection.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How did Athenian democracy work day to day?
Who was excluded from Athenian democracy?
Why did the Athenians choose officials by lot?
Did Cleisthenes invent ostracism in Athens?
Sources
- Athenian democracy (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Athenian democracy (Research Starter, by Mark Dziak) (opens in a new tab)EBSCO — accessed
- Reforms of Cleisthenes (Research Starter) (opens in a new tab)EBSCO — accessed
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