Tyrants Everywhere

In Ancient Greece, there were a lot of changes I government. In 621 B.C.E Draco was in charge. All Athenians are equal under the law. Although things were more equal, death was a punishment for many crimes. Draconian is a term used for punishments that are worse than crimes. Draco also allowed people to pay their debt by being slaves of the people they owe. This was in no way fair.

Solon’s reform came next. He decided to outlaw slavery. He also allowed Athenian citizens to speak at assemblies. Many times today we used the word citizen when we were not talking about fair citizens. These citizens were only considered as such if they were men, land owning, and free. They were also allowed to press charges no matter if they are wealthy or poor.

In 500 BCE Cleisthenes took over, I will address him as C because his name is sooo long to type.  Under his law all citizens could submit laws and he created the council of 500. The council of 500 was 500 random “citizens” being chosen to talk to the assembly.

Hippias was a tyrant in 527-510 BCE. He was a harsh tyrant due to the fact that his brother was murdered. He was soon ostracized form Greece. With him gone, there was a struggle for power between Isagoras, who had the help of aristocrats, Cleisthenes, who had the help of citizens. In the end Isagoras won. He then ostracizes C but C’s supporter revolt! The supporters of C ostracize Isagoras in 508 BCE.