The Birth of the Athenian Community : From Solon to Cleisthenes

The Birth of the Athenian Community offers a new interpretation of the origins and advancement of the city of Athens. Instead of approaching Athenian history traditionally, as a linear progression, this book presents it as a gradually rising complexity of a multidimensional social fabric comprised of distinct but closely interwoven kinship, legal, and political communities. Their evolving relationship determined the course of Athenian history, including Cleisthenes’ establishment of demokratia and Pericles’ political reforms, among other important events. Similar developments in other parts of the Greek world suggest that Athens’ evolution, while much better documented, was not unique.

The Birth of the Athenian Community elucidates the social and political development of Athens in the sixth century, when, as a result of reforms by Solon and Cleisthenes (at the beginning and end of the sixth century, respectively), Athens turned into the most advanced and famous city, or polis, of the entire ancient Greek civilization. Undermining the current dominant approach, which seeks to explain ancient Athens in modern terms, dividing all Athenians into citizens and non-citizens, this book rationalizes the development of Athens, and other Greek poleis, as a gradually rising complexity, rather than a linear progression. The multidimensional social fabric of Athens was comprised of three major groups: the kinship community of the astoi, whose privileged status was due to their origins; the legal community of the politai, who enjoyed legal and social equality in the polis; and the political community of the demotai, or adult males with political rights. These communities only partially overlapped. Their evolving relationship determined the course of Athenian history, including Cleisthenes’ establishment of demokratia, which was originally, and for a long time, a kinship democracy, since it only belonged to qualified male astoi.