Athens and the Birth of Democracy (TRIH ep 334)
507 BCE · Resource
Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the origins and character of Athenian democracy. Using myth (Athena, Erechtheus, Theseus) and constitutional history, they trace social tensions in Archaic Athens — Solon's reforms, the rival aristocratic families, the rise and rule of Peisistratos and his sons, and the Spartan intervention — leading to Cleisthenes' radical restructuring (demes, tribes, thirds) around 507–506 BC. They emphasise that Athenian democracy was not rights-based in a m...
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 507 BCE
- Persian invasions of Greece (499 BCE)
- Gautama Buddha (563 BCE)
- Ramayana (500 BCE)
- Confucius (551 BCE)
- Achaemenid Persian Empire (550 BCE)
- Peloponnesian War (431 BCE)
- Plato (428 BCE)
- Roman Republic founded (509 BCE)
- Cyrus the Great (600 BCE)
- Parthenon (447 BCE)