Athenian Government

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There were many differences between Solon’s and Cleisthenes’ attempts to reform the Athenian Constitution and resolve the disparity of political power between the Eupatridae and the poor. Three major attempts Solon undertook to create equality between the Eupatridae and the poor were; cancelling all debts that the poor owed to the Eupatridae; changing the currency and, discontinuing most rules created by Draco. After rebelling against the tyranny of Hippias and gaining power in Athens, Cleisthenes also made three changes to the Athenian Constitution; he separated the four tribes into ten, he made the council consist of five-hundred members instead of the previous four-hundred and, he made each tribe send fifty representatives instead of the prior one-hundred.
In Athens, Cleisthenes increased the size of the Council by one hundred members, making it have five hundred representatives. With this change, each of the ten tribes had to decrease the amount of representatives they sent to the Council by fifty. This was because Cleisthenes added six tribes, “each tribe now contributing fifty [representatives], whereas formerly each had sent a hundred…" (Aristotle, Athen, 21) Aristotle said, the Athenian government evolves because of Cleisthenes, when he increased the amount of Council members to five hundred and increased the number of tribes to ten. Since Cleisthenes made these large adjustments, the number of representatives sent to the Council from each tribe decreased from one hundred to fifty. Also, this system of sending representatives was very democratic because the people of the tribes decided who was chosen. Since the tribes now send less representatives these new representatives were more impactful to the government since there ...

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...was how he cancelled some debts the Athenian lower classes had established. However, Solon did not cancel all debts in Athens. He also informed the lower classes of how selfish and untrustworthy the classes above them were, and to not find comfort with the people you work for.
Solon’s and Cleisthenes’ reforms were very different because they both tried to resolve the Athenian government’s problems using different approaches. The approach of Solon was one that involved mainly affecting the economy of Athens, the money and changing the laws set by past tyrants. Cleisthenes’ approach was one focused on mainly the government and the Boule, changing the size of the Council and the amount of tribes and representatives sent by each tribe. While both these lawgivers took very different approaches, they both attempted to change Athens for the sake of the people.

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