Cleisthenes was a member of the powerful Alcmaeonid family that had been previously exiled by Peisistratus. When the Alcmaeonids returned with a Spartan army to drive Hippias out of Athens, Cleisthenes emerged as the leader. Cleisthenes built on Solon’s work and his new laws were unexpectedly not in favour of the nobles. The changes that Cleisthenes made were very radical and must have distressed many Athenians with traditional views. However his political arrangements played a vital role in the development of Athenian democracy which continued to develop after his death.
One of the most major changes that Cleisthenes brought about was the changing of the Athenian tribal system. The population of Athens had always been divided into four different tribes based on ancestry. One tribe consisted of many phratries, which were a clan made up of several extended families, or genos. A genos consis
New tribal system changed the way that a man would refer to himself, e.g. instead of the introducing himself as someone’s son; he would introduce himself as a man of a certain village. Solon’s classification of the people into four economic classes remained, and archonship was still open only to the richest class.
Cleisthenes also created a council consisting of 500 members called the Boule. Every tribe elected 50 members by lot to represent the tribe during the year. Each group of 50 served for one tenth of the year, the ruling group called the prytaneis. One of the Prytaneis were selected by lot each day to be chairman of the Prytany, (Epistates). The Epistates looked after the keys to the temple where the treasure and state records were kept, and also had the public seal.
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