ng, like their father, at first
wisely but despotically, cultivating art and letters and friendship of
great men. But sensual passions led to outrages which resulted in the
assassination of Hipparchus. Hippias, having punished the conspirators,
changed the spirit of the government, imposed arbitrary taxes, surrounded
himself with an armed guard, and ruled tyrannically and cruelly. After
four years of despotic government, Athens was liberated, chiefly by aid of
the Lacedaemonians, now at the highest of their power. Hippias retired to
the court of Persia, and planned and guided the attack of Darius on
Greece--a traitor of the most infamous kind, since he combined tyranny at
home with the coldest treachery to his country. His accursed family were
doomed to perpetual banishment, and never succeeded in securing a pardon.
Their power had lasted fifty years, and had been fatal to the liberties of
Athens.

(M384) The Lacedaemonians did not retire until their king Cleomenes formed
a close friendship with Isagoras, the leader of the aristocratic party--and
no people were prouder of their birth than the old Athenian nobles.
Opposed to him was Cleisthenes, of the noble family of the Alcmaeonids, who
had been banished in the time of Megacles, for the murder of Cylon, who
had been treacherously enticed from the sanctuary at the altar of Athena.
Cleisthenes gained the ear of the people, and prevailed over Isagoras, and
effected another change in the constitution, by which it became still more
democratic. He remodeled the basis of citizenship, heretofore confined to
the four Ionic tribes; and divided the whole country into demes, or
parishes, each of which managed its local affairs. All freemen were
enrolled in the demes, and became members of the tribes, now ten in
number, instead of the old four Ionian tribes. He increased the members of
the senate from four to five hundred, fifty members being elected from
each tribe. To this body was committed the chief functions of executive
government. It sat in permanence, and was divided into ten sections, one
for each tribe, and each section or committee, called _prytany_, had the
presidency of the senate and ecclesia during its term. Each prytany of
fifty members was subdivided into committees of ten, each of which held
the presidency for seven days, and out of these a chairman was chosen by
lot every day, to preside in the senate and assembly, and to keep the keys
of the Acropolis and treasur