ABSTRACT
It seems that after the overthrow of the tyrants the noble families expected the business of politics to continue in the same way as it had before Peisistratos succeeded in establishing himself as tyrant (Chapter III). The family which was so persistent in seeking to expel the tyrants, the Alkmeonidai, were at this time led by Kleisthenes, the son of the Megakles who had alternately collaborated with and opposed Peisistratos (Chapter III, pp. 91-9). Kleisthenes, having been arkhon in 525/4 BC (Chapter IV, pp. 111-12), was now a senior member of the Areopagos-even though he had been in exile for much of the intervening period. His great rival was Isagoras, from a family which Herodotos [80] says was famous but does not even name. The faction of Isagoras emerged as victorious and the symbol of their success may have been the election to the arkhonship of 508/7 BC of Isagoras himself or another member of his family with the same name. Kleisthenes, who came from a family which had been willing to bribe the priestess at Delphi (Chapter IV, pp. 130-7), had a brilliant idea: incorporation of the common people, who had previously been spurned by the Alkmeonidai and every other noble family, into his faction. His success in gaining the adhesion of the lower classes enabled him to pass his tribal reorganisation (and presumably the other changes he made). And this in turn enabled him to overcome his opponents. Isagoras’s response to the Alkmeonid success was to call in the Spartan army, under the same king Kleomenes who had driven out the tyrant family from Athens. When the use of force failed, Isagoras had no choice but to leave the country.
