A Great Leader in Ancient Greece

Dear National Geographic members, I have called you all here today to present a Life Time Achievement Award to a great leader of the Ancient Greece world. In Ancient Greece, the people made great achievement in technology, government, writings, and much, much more. The person I am about to present the award to has created a spectacular form of government we still use today. I will tell you about his achievements later, but let me tell you some background information about this leader. His name is Cleisthenes and was a noble Athenian. His family had greatly influenced Cleisthenes on leadership and forms of government. Many of his relatives were powerful leaders of some sort. His father was Megacles. Megacles was the leader of the powerful Almeonid clan in Athens. His mother was the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon. Cleisthenes was destined for a career like the one he had. He came to power in 507 B.C.. May I present to you, the great Cleisthenes, the maker of democracy. A democracy is a government by the people. Cleisthenes made this type of government because there was a huge demand of change from the people. Some Athenians were very powerful with wealth and from the form of government, aristocracy. Aristocracy is a form of government ruled by the landholding people. Ordinary people were not happy about this since many people did not have any rights or citizenship. Farmers had to sell their land to the wealthy nobles and themselves into slavery. Cleisthenes made the power available to every citizen. Cleisthenes expanded the role of ordinary citizens in the government. He increased the number of people in the Council to 500 and the members were chosen by lottery so everyone had a equal chance to be in the government. The council prepared laws for the assembly and supervised the daily work of the government. National Geographic members, what Cleisthenes has done here by increasing the number of people in the council, made the government stronger. His actions