A quiz question · medium
In what century BC did Athens develop the world's first known democratic government?
Athenian democracy emerged through the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508/507 BC and reached its mature form under Pericles in the mid-5th century BC. Citizen participation was direct (not representative) and was restricted to adult male citizens — approximately 30,000 to 60,000 men in a city of perhaps 300,000 including women, slaves, and resident foreigners. The system functioned for about 180 years before being suppressed by Macedonian conquest in 322 BC.
Read the full facts →From the facts
Ancient Greece Ancient Greece was the Greek-speaking civilisation of the eastern Mediterranean from approximately 800 BC to 146 BC, when it was absorbed into the Roman Republic. Its philosophy, mathematics, drama, and political theory shaped Western thought for the next 2,500 years.
Daily quiz appearances
Related questions
- Athens invented democracy — direct citizen voting, in person, on every major political question. When did the system reach its mature form?
- Where did the Athenians defeat the Persian invasion army in 490 BC?
- Plato's Academy at Athens — founded around 387 BC — operated, with various interruptions, for almost a thousand years. Which emperor closed it for good, and when?
- Sponge divers off the small Greek island of Antikythera in 1901 brought up a corroded lump of bronze about the size of a shoebox. It took 120 years to admit what it actually was.