176 HISTORICAL TALES.

and important that their claim to equal rights could
no longer be set aside. They took part in the revo-
lution by which the despots were expelled, and in
the new constitution that was formed their demand
to be made citizens of the state had to be granted.

Cleisthenes, the leader of the people against the
aristocratic faction, made this new code of laws. By
a system never before adopted he broke up the old
conditions. Before that time the people were the
basis on which governments were organized. He
made the land the basis, and from that time to this
land has continued the basis of political divisions.

Setting aside the old division of the Attic people
into tribes and clans, founded on birth or descent,
he separated the people into ten new tribes, founded
on land. Attica was divided by him into districts or
parishes, like modern townships and wards, which
were called Demes, and each tribe was made up of
several demes at a distance from each other. Every
man became a citizen of the deme in which he lived,
without regard to his clan, the new people were
made citizens, and thus every freeborn inhabitant of
Attica gained full rights of suffrage and citizenship,
and the old clan aristocracy was at an end. The
clans kept up their ancient organization and re-
ligious ceremonies, but they lost their political con-
trol. It must be said here, however, that many of
the people of Attica were slaves, and that the new
commonwealth of freemen was very far from in-
cluding the whole population.

One of the most curious of the new laws made by
Cleisthenes was that known as “ostracism,” by