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35-574: The term designates since antiquity the inland portion of the Attic peninsula. The term acquired a technical meaning with the reforms of Cleisthenes in c.  508 BC , when each of the ten Attic tribes was in territory composed of three zones ( trittyes ), urban ( asty , the main city of Athens), interior ( mesogeia ) and coastal ( paralia ). In the Classical period , the mesogeia comprised about 47 settlements ( demoi ). In modern usage,

70-618: A deme . This and the other aforementioned reforms had an additional effect in that they worked to include (wealthy, male) foreign citizens in Athenian society. He also established sortition – the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity. It is also speculated that, in another move to lower the barriers of kinship and heredity when it comes to participation in Athenian society, Cleisthenes made it so foreign residents of Athens were eligible to become legally privileged. In addition, he reorganized

105-455: A particular political regime; Plato uses it to refer to simply equal rights and Aristotle does not use the word at all. 'Isonomia' was also used in Hellenic times by Pythagorean physicians, such as Alkmaeon, who used it to refer to the balance or equality of those opposite pairs of hot/cold, wet/dry and bitterness/sweetness that maintained the health of the body. Thus: Alkmaeon said that

140-401: A tyranny has with the democratic concept of having the people (instead of a single person) at the peak of political power. Another by-product of the deme system was that it split up and weakened his political adversaries. Cleisthenes also abolished patronymics in favour of demonymics (a name given according to the deme to which one belongs), thus increasing Athenians' sense of belonging to

175-513: A year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed, or returned for amendments by the assembly. Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote by at least 6,000 citizens would exile a citizen for ten years. The initial and intended purpose was to vote for a citizen deemed to be a threat to the democracy, most likely anyone who seemed to have ambitions to set himself up as tyrant. However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in

210-501: Is Spata, and its main harbour is Rafina. The Athens International Airport is also located near Spata. This article about a location in Ancient Attica is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( / ˈ k l aɪ s θ ɪ n iː z / KLYS -thin-eez ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Κλεισθένης ), or Clisthenes ( c.  570  – c.  508 BC ),

245-426: Is thought that there may have been 139 demes (though this is still a matter of debate), each organized into three groups called trittyes ("thirds"), with ten demes divided among three regions in each trittyes (a city region, asty ; a coastal region, paralia ; and an inland region, mesogeia ). D.M Lewis argues that Cleisthenes established the deme system in order to balance the central unifying force that

280-450: Is unknown as no ancient texts mention him thereafter. In 507 BC, during the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics, and probably at his instigation, democratic Athens sent an embassy to Artaphernes , brother of Darius I , and Achaemenid Satrap , of Asia Minor in the capital of Sardis , looking for Persian assistance in order to resist the threats from Sparta . Herodotus reports that Artaphernes had no previous knowledge of

315-467: The demos ," or majority. The public administration theorist, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos , reserved for isonomy a central role in his model of human organization. He was particularly concerned with distinguishing the space of the isonomy from that of the economy. Following Arendt, Guerreiro Ramos argued that individuals should have the opportunity to engage with others in settings that are unaffected by economizing considerations. The isonomy constitutes such

350-610: The Boule , created with 400 members under Solon , so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe. He also introduced the bouleutic oath, "To advise according to the laws what was best for the people". The court system ( Dikasteria – law courts) was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe. It was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times

385-636: The Lacedaemonians and Cleomenes to war. When the envoys came to Sardis and spoke as they had been bidden, Artaphrenes son of Hystaspes , viceroy of Sardis, asked them, "What men are you, and where dwell you, who desire alliance with the Persians?" Being informed by the envoys, he gave them an answer whereof the substance was, that if the Athenians gave king Darius earth and water , then he would make alliance with them; but if not, his command

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420-601: The tyrant son of Pisistratus . After the collapse of Hippias' tyranny, Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power, but Isagoras won the upper hand by appealing to the Spartan king Cleomenes I to help him expel Cleisthenes. He did so on the pretext of the Alcmaeonid curse . Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city. Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on

455-476: The Athenians preferred to remain democratic despite the danger from the Achaemenid Empire, and the ambassadors were disavowed and censured upon their return to Athens. After that, the Athenians sent to bring back Cleisthenes and the seven hundred households banished by Cleomenes; then they despatched envoys to Sardis, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians; for they knew that they had provoked

490-533: The Athenians, and his initial reaction was "Who are these people?" Artaphernes asked the Athenians for "Water and Earth", a symbol of submission, if they wanted help from the Achaemenid king. The Athenian ambassadors apparently accepted to comply, and to give " Earth and Water ". Artaphernes also advised the Athenians that they should receive back the Athenian tyrant Hippias . The Persians threatened to attack Athens if they did not accept Hippias. Nevertheless,

525-625: The Athenians, such as their intervention in the Ionian revolt , were perceived as a breach of oath and a rebellion against the central authority of the Achaemenid ruler. Isonomic Isonomia (ἰσονομία "equality of political rights ," from the Greek ἴσος isos , "equal," and νόμος nomos , "usage, custom, law," ) was a word used by ancient Greek writers such as Herodotus and Thucydides to refer to some kind of popular government. It

560-462: The Western legal tradition. Isonomia was imported into England at the end of the sixteenth century as a word meaning "equality of laws to all manner of persons". Soon after, it was used by the translator of Livy in the form "Isonomy" (although not a direct translation of isonomia ) to describe a state of equal laws for all and responsibility of the magistrates. During the seventeenth century it

595-489: The aristocratic council and made it accessible for participation from various groups of people. Historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BC. Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles ' mother, Agariste, and of Alcibiades ' maternal grandfather, Megacles. Cleisthenes came from the family of the Alcmaeonidae . He was the son of Agariste and grandson of Cleisthenes of Sicyon . Unlike his grandfather who

630-510: The city tended to be targeted for exile (e.g., Xanthippus in 485–84 BC). Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny. One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized. Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia ("equality vis à vis law", iso- meaning equality; nomos meaning law), instead of demokratia . Cleisthenes' life after his reforms

665-467: The equality ( isonomia ) of the powers (wet, dry, cold, hot, bitter, sweet, etc.) maintains health, but that monarchy [one overruling] among them produces disease. According to economist and political theorist Friedrich Hayek , isonomia was championed by the Roman Cicero and "rediscovered" in the eleventh century AD by the law students of Bologna who he says are credited with founding much of

700-401: The form of government he favors "democracy." The rule of the people has the fairest name of all, equality ( isonomia ), and does none of the things that a monarch does. The lot determines offices, power is held accountable, and deliberation is conducted in public. Thucydides used isonomia as an alternative to dynastic oligarchy and moderate aristocracy. In time the word ceased to refer to

735-439: The late Middle Ages , the area was the site of Albanian ( Arvanite ) settlement, as can be seen from toponyms such as Spata or Liopesi . Before the 2011 Kallikratis reform , the area comprised the municipalities of Gerakas , Glyka Nera , Anthousa , Pallini , Paiania , Pikermi , Spata, Artemida , Rafina, Markopoulo Mesogaias , Keratea , Koropi , Kalyvia Thorikou , Vari , Kouvaras , and Voula . Its main settlement

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770-427: The people of Athens endowed their city with isonomic institutions—equal rights for all citizens (though only free men were citizens) —and established ostracism as a punishment. Cleisthenes reforms set up the Athenian population into a total of ten different tribes that were based off of local demes or districts. Because of this there was a more equal representation within the political system. Cleisthenes had replaced

805-695: The people of Athens. This led Cleisthenes to ask the Oracle of Delphi to persuade the Spartans to help him free Athens from tyranny. Cleisthenes' plea for assistance was accepted by the Oracle as his family had previously helped rebuild the sanctuary when it was destroyed by fire. With help from the Spartans and the Alcmaeonidae (Cleisthenes' genos , "clan"), he was responsible for overthrowing Hippias ,

840-492: The pretext that they too were cursed. He also attempted to dissolve the Boule (βουλή), a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the daily affairs of the city. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support of the council. Isagoras and his partisans were forced to flee to the Acropolis , remaining besieged there for two days. On the third day they fled the city and were banished. Cleisthenes

875-589: The term refers to the central portion of East Attica , separated from the Athens basin by Mount Hymettus , and delineated to the north by Mount Penteli and to the south by the mountains of south Attica (Merenta, Panio  [ el ] , Laureotic Olympus ). To the east the Mesogeia reaches the Aegean Sea at the Petalioi Gulf , but is separated from the actual coastline by a line of low hills. In

910-403: The traditional clans, which had led to the tyranny in the first place, he changed the political organization from the four traditional tribes, which were based on family relations, and which formed the basis of the upper-class Athenian political power network, into ten tribes according to their area of residence (their deme ), which would form the basis of a new democratic power structure. It

945-487: Was a tyrant, he adopted politically democratic concepts. When Pisistratus took power in Athens as a tyrant, he exiled his political opponents and the Alcmaeonidae . After Pisistratus' death in 527 BC, Cleisthenes returned to Athens and became the eponymous archon . A few years later, Pisistratus' successors, Hipparchus and Hippias , again exiled Cleisthenes. In 514 BC, Harmodius and Aristogeiton assassinated Hipparchus, causing Hippias to further harden his attitude towards

980-567: Was also credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens' assembly and for reducing the power of the nobility over Athenian politics. In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias , son of Peisistratus . Cleomenes I , king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras . However, Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes and his Athenian supporters. Through Cleisthenes' reforms,

1015-421: Was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC . For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy". He was a member of the aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan. He was the younger son of Megacles and Agariste making him the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon . He

1050-412: Was gradually replaced by the phrases " equality before the law ", " rule of law " and "government of law". Political theorist Hannah Arendt argued that isonomy was equated with political freedom at least from the time of Herodotus. The word essentially denoted a state of no-rule, in which there was no distinction between rulers and ruled. It was "the equality of those who form a body of peers." Isonomy

1085-543: Was in fact something else. Along with isonomia , the Athenians used several terms for equality all compounds beginning with iso- : isegoria (equal right to address the political assemblies), isopsephos polis (one man one vote) and isokratia (equality of power). When Herodotus invents a debate among the Persians over what sort of government they should have, he has Otanes speak in favor of isonomia when, based on his description of it, we might expect him to call

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1120-493: Was subsequently eclipsed until brought back into English as isonomy ( "equality of law" ). Economist Friedrich Hayek attempted to popularize the term in his book The Constitution of Liberty and argued that a better understanding of isonomy, as used by the Greeks, defines the term to mean "the equal application of the laws to all." Mogens Herman Hansen has argued that, although often translated as "equality of law," isonomia

1155-421: Was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens. Promptly after his instatement as leader, he commissioned a bronze memorial from the sculptor Antenor in honour of the lovers and tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton , whom Hippias had executed. After this victory, Cleisthenes began to reform the government of Athens. In order to forestall strife between

1190-417: Was that they should begone. The envoys consulted together and consented to give what was asked, in their desire to make the alliance. So they returned to their own country, and were then greatly blamed for what they had done. There is a possibility that the Achaemenid ruler now saw the Athenians as subjects who had solemnly promised submission through the gift of "Earth and Water", and that subsequent actions by

1225-449: Was unique among the forms of government in the ancient lexicon in that it lacked the suffixes "-archy" and "-cracy" which denote a notion of rule in words like "monarchy" and "democracy." Arendt goes on to argue that the Greek polis was therefore conceived not as a democracy but as an isonomy. "Democracy" was the term used by opponents of isonomy who claimed that "what you say is 'no-rule' is in fact only another kind of rulership...rule by

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