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Demos: The Men Who Made and Perfected Ancient Athenian Democracy

Khalid Elhassan January 13, 2025 16 min

Democracy - Ancient Athens — Ancient Athens. Imgur

11. Bribing the Spokeswoman of the Gods

A young Cleisthenes races chariots at the Olympic Games. Eon Images

Cleisthenes plotted with fellow exiles to overthrow the tyranny. They considered invasion, but Hippias had a well-equipped army, while the exiles did not, and lacked the funds for an army of their own. So they sought to enlist the help of Sparta, which had the Greek world’s best army, to liberate Athens. The Spartans were known for their piety. So the exiles bribed the priests of Delphi, the Greek world’s most important religious site and home of the Oracle of Delphi, to put in a good holy word. The Oracle, which for centuries had given petitioners cryptic answers that could be interpreted in various ways, suddenly began to give every Spartan petitioner who showed up the same uncryptic answer: “Liberate Athens!” So the Spartans marched into Attica in 508 BC, liberated Athens, then marched back home. The Athenians, left to govern themselves, immediately split into rival camps.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.