FOUR FAMOUS MEN OF ATHENS. 175

Alemeon returned to Athens as one of its wealthiest
men, Megacles, the son of this rich Athenian, was
he who won the prize of fair Agaristé of Sicyon, in
the contest which we have elsewhere described. The
son of Megacles and Agaristé was named Cleisthenes,
and it is he who comes first in the list of famous
men whom we have here to describe.

It was Cleisthenes who made Attica a democratic
state; and thus it came about. The laws of Solon—
which favored the aristocracy—were set aside by
despots before Solon died. After Hippias, the last
of those despots, was expelled from the state, the
people rose under the leadership of Cleisthenes, and,
probably for the first time in the history of mankind,
a government “of the people, for the people, and
by the people” was established in a civilized state.
The laws of Solon were abrogated, and a new code
of laws formed by Cleisthenes, which lasted till the
independence of Athens came to an end.

Before that time the clan system had prevailed in
Greece. The people were divided into family groups,
each of which claimed to be descended from a single
ancestor,—often a supposed deity. These clans held
all the power of the state; not only in the early
days, when they formed the whole people, but later,
when Athens became a prosperous city with many
merchant ships, and when numerous strangers had
come from afar to settle within its walls.

None of these strangers were given the rights of
citizenship. The clans remained in power, and the
new people had no voice in the government. But
in time the strangers grew to be so numerous, rich,