Born into the rich and aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan around 570 BC, Cleisthenes was raised as a nobleman at a time when the city was deeply divided between ordinary commoners and their wealthy noble rulers.
Named after his grandfather, the young boy had a great deal to live up to. His grandfather had ruled the city of Sicyon, won the Olympics as a chariot racer, and become famous all over Greece for the yearlong competition he held for suitors seeking to marry his daughter.
When Cleisthenes was only 10 years old his brother-in-law Pisistratus, a popular general, seized power there was little opposition from …show more content…
the ordinary Athenians. Pisistratus died in 527 BC. His reign would be remembered as a 'Golden Age' of Athenian. Cleisthenes was a noble Athenian of the Alcmaeonid family.
He championed the cause of the Delphic oracle against the town of Crisa in the Sacred War of c.
595–596 BC. Crisa was destroyed, and Delphi became one of the meeting places of the Amphictyonic League, or religious league of neighbouring states.
The Pythian games were reestablished with new magnificence, and Cleisthenes won the first chariot race in 582. He founded Pythian games at Sicyon and built a new Sicyonian treasury at Delphi. His power was so great that, when he offered his daughter Agariste in marriage, some of the most prominent Greeks sought the honour, which fell upon Megacles, the Alcmaeoid. The story of the rival suitors is told by Herodotus.
When Cleisthenes was forty years old he was a well-known politician with a reputation for clever strategy. Then in the year 514 BC Hippias' brother and right-hand man, Hipparchus, was assassinated in a lovers quarrel. In response Hippias became an increasingly brutal and savage dictator. After long years of waiting, Cleisthenes saw his Oracle of Delphi, the greatest shrine in all Greece; he managed to obtain Spartan help and overthrew Hippias, who fled to Asia Minor. 510 BC, the traditional date of Athens' liberation from the tyrants. However, almost opportunity. Calling in a favor owed him by the immediately Cleisthenes gained
power.
If it wasn’t for Cleisthenes we would not have democracy today. He also was a great leader and he ruled Athens for the rest of his life.
Cleisthenes inspired me with his intelligence and the fact that he was a great leader; however, he was a rebel that killed his brother in law and took over Athens Greece. He was a tyrant in Sicyon. I do not agree with the way in which he rose to the top as a leader. He was unpredictable, persuasive and ruthless. He did anything to get people to agree with him.