21. The Struggle to Replace the Rule of a Tyrant With the Rule of the People
After liberating Athens, the Spartans left the Athenians to govern themselves. They immediately split into rival camps: oligarchs and populists. The oligarchs, led by Isagoras, wanted the government returned to the hands of the wealthy. The populists, led by Cleisthenes and comprising a majority of Athenians, declared Athens a democracy ruled by a popular Assembly. Cleisthenes’ camp prevailed, but the oligarchic faction solicited Spartan aid to forcibly overthrow the democracy. The Spartans, no fans of democracy, sent another army to Attica, overthrew the democracy, and replaced it with an oligarchy. Cleisthenes and 700 democracy-supporting Athenian families were exiled.
However, Cleisthenes and the exiles returned soon thereafter. The population rose up in revolt, and the aristocratic faction and the Spartans were besieged in the Acropolis, Athens’ fortified hilltop. The rebels allowed the Spartans to leave, but the Athenian anti-democrats were slaughtered to a man. Having decisively dealt with the oligarchic threat, Cleisthenes set about laying the groundwork for what would eventually emerge as the flourishing democracy of Classical Athens.
