Isagoras relied on Sparta to support him, and the Athenian masses did not approve of his bringing in an outsider army. In response, they barricaded Isagoras and his troops in the Acropolis until they agreed to surrender and leave the city entirely. At that moment, Scott explains, Kleisthenes realised there was a mass of people promised a voice if they supported him, and he had to deliver.<\/p>\n
There is much debate over Kleisthenes\u2019s true initial intentions. \u201cPeople really argue over this guy,\u201d says Scott. \u201cWas he an idealist who, despite spending his entire life in the bickering politics of Athens, was nurturing a flame for the masses to have a voice? Or was he just a scheming realist who was looking for any edge he could get at the time, and then realised he actually had to deliver on that?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/10\/GettyImages-591066304-b67a247-e1666601362455.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Despite the contention surrounding his motives, Kleisthenes did deliver his promise to the Athenians. He completely rewrote the ways in which people contributed to the city, and split Attica [the region controlled by Athens] into 30 groups called trittyes<\/em>. Three trittyes<\/em> \u2013 one from the city of Athens, inland Attica, and the coast of Attica \u2013 were combined to make a tribe. The 30 trittyes<\/em> produced 10 tribes, and these tribes dictated how Athenians carried out military service and participated in the council. They also allowed every man, regardless of their location and social status, to engage with politics and business.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly everyone in Athens, whether you were an elite aristocrat or whether you were the lowest born Athenian citizen, had a new way of engaging with the politics and business of Athens,\u201d says Scott. \u201cAnd it was all done through your tribe, forcing you to work with people who actually weren\u2019t geographically close to you and thus were not part or only a small part of the same old aristocratic landed support networks.\u201d<\/p>\n Kleisthenes\u2019s reforms were undoubtedly sweeping but, when we consider his legacy, Scott notes the importance of disentangling Athenian democracy<\/a> from our modern definition. For instance, women were not involved in this system, and it was one entirely based on slavery. \u201cWhat we see as the beginning of our journey is a system that we would not want to recognise as democracy today.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a war that prevented Kleisthenes\u2019s reforms from being ripped up by the next aristocrat to come along. Just two years later, in 506 BC, the Athens was at war with Boeotia. \u201cAthens scored a massive victory in a way that they really weren\u2019t expecting to,\u201d says Scott. This victory was interpreted as people fighting for themselves \u2013 \u201cnot for a tyrant, a ruler, or an aristocratic club\u201d. Very quickly, the new system seemed somehow responsible for enabling military superiority.<\/p>\n This military superiority was evidenced yet again in 490 BC, in the battle of Marathon, when the Athenians beat the Persians, and again a decade later at battles of Salamis<\/a> and Plataea. These three major military conflicts, Scott says, helped convince people that they were stronger under their new system.<\/p>\n What is strange about Kleisthenes\u2019s story is that, after his instigation of these major changes, he disappears from the sources entirely. People assume that he perished soon after 508 BC and, therefore, \u201che died never knowing quite how extraordinary and how long lasting his ideas really were going to be\u201d.<\/p>\n Kleisthenes deserves his 15 minutes of fame, Scott says, because \u201cin the muddied, difficult, confused atmosphere of following 508 BC, when everyone\u2019s looking to him to deliver on his promises, he really comes up with two brilliant new ideas for how to structure Athenian society and how to give everyone a chance to play their part in Athenian society.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s given people, everyone, a new way of engaging with the new political system,\u201d he adds, \u201cand at the same time made it possible that anyone could actually end up on its governing council.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Scott is an ancient historian, and professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Warwick. He has written and presented a range of television and radio documentaries for ITV, BBC, National Geographic, and History Channel. Michael was\u00a0talking to Kev Lochun. Listen to the full interview<\/a> and find more episodes in our 15 minutes of fame podcast series<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Lauren Good Published: Tuesday, 25 October 2022 at 12:00 am Who was Kleisthenes? Kleisthenes was an Athenian aristocrat born around 570 BC \u2013 and a man, Professor Michael Scott argues, who might be regarded as the founding father of democracy. It was Kleisthenes, says Scott, who implemented \u201can extraordinary set of changes\u201d that allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19163,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes.jpg",619,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes.jpg",619,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes.jpg",619,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes.jpg",619,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/10\/15-minutes-of-fame-michael-scott-chooses-kleisthenes.jpg",619,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Lauren Good Published: Tuesday, 25 October 2022 at 12:00 am Who was Kleisthenes? Kleisthenes was an Athenian aristocrat born around 570 BC \u2013 and a man, Professor Michael Scott argues, who might be regarded as the founding father of democracy. It was Kleisthenes, says Scott, who implemented \u201can extraordinary set of changes\u201d that allowed…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why does Kleisthenes deserve his 15 minutes of fame?<\/h3>\n
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