The Cylonian Affair was one of the earliest recorded political crises in ancient Athens. A failed attempt to seize power ended in the killing of men who had sought sanctuary at a sacred altar, triggering a religious scandal that...
The roots of Western governments can be traced back to over two millennia to the Athenian democracy of ancient Greece.
In ancient Athens, the Greeks devised a system of government that handed power to its citizens in unprecedented ways and...
Cleisthenes played a pivotal role in shaping Athenian democracy, yet when we think of its glory, we almost immediately picture Pericles: the great statesman delivering a stirring speech to a captivated crowd. But what if we’ve been focusing on...
One of the most remarkable inventions of Ancient Athenian democracy was a device used to randomly select citizens for public duties such as jury service and public office.
The kleroterion consisted of a stele with horizontal rows of slots on...
Most of us have heard of Athens, the birthplace of democracy, but how many of us know the intriguing details of how Cleisthenes and Isagoras shaped the creation of the system that still influences our lives to this day?
Democracy...
It is something of a cliché for modern politicians to stand before marble columns and invoke the legacy of Ancient Athenian democracy, as if we were merely operating a high-tech version of Athens itself. We often like to imagine...
Thrasybulus (c. 440–388 BCE) was an important ancient Greek general and politician, particularly known for his role in the restoration of democracy in Athens after the fall of the Athenian Empire in 404 BCE.
Early life and military beginnings
Little is...
Near the end of the 6th century BC, a strange marriage contest on the Greek mainland set off a chain of events that no one present could possibly have understood, ultimately leading—through a legendary drunken dance—to the birth of...
The enduring influence of Greek art and philosophy in modern times was explored during a thought-provoking discussion on Wednesday at the Liszt Institute, examining why the legacy of Ancient Greece—long celebrated as the cradle of Western civilization and a...
