Cleisthenes was the younger son of Megacles and Agariste making him the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon.
13 Facts About Cleisthenes
2.
Cleisthenes was credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens' assembly and for reducing the power of the nobility over Athenian politics.
3.
Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles' mother, Agariste, and of Alcibiades' maternal grandfather, Megacles.
4.
Cleisthenes was the son of Agariste and grandson of Cleisthenes of Sicyon.
5.
Cleisthenes did so on the pretext of the Alcmaeonid curse.
6.
Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city.
7.
Cleisthenes attempted to dissolve the Boule, a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the daily affairs of the city.
8.
Cleisthenes was recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens.
9.
Cleisthenes abolished patronymics in favour of demonymics, thus increasing Athenians' sense of belonging to a deme.
10.
Cleisthenes introduced the bouletic oath, "To advise according to the laws what was best for the people".
11.
One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized.
12.
Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia, instead of demokratia.
13.
In 507 BC, during the time Cleisthenes was leading Athenian politics, and probably at his instigation, democratic Athens sent an embassy to Artaphernes, brother of Darius I, and Achaemenid Satrap, of Asia Minor in the capital of Sardis, looking for Persian assistance in order to resist the threats from Sparta.