tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-649431201703508681.post3442270229769868147..comments2023-11-02T10:22:20.717-04:00Comments on Mike Anderson's Ancient History Blog: How Cleisthenes Saved the Athenian PolisMike Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02072553719998549925noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-649431201703508681.post-17621867552059212392012-09-21T21:26:11.741-04:002012-09-21T21:26:11.741-04:00Some problems with your account.
1. The Hyperakri...Some problems with your account.<br /><br />1. The Hyperakrioi were not associated with the city, but with the hill country in the north-east of Attica (also called Diakria) and the region around Marathon, where Pisistratus had family support. Pisistratus' association with the city took root only after he had taken final control and it is a mistake to conflate his support from the hills with Cleisthenes' later division of Attica containing a city trittys.<br /><br />2. There were no less than 139 demes in 508/7 when Cleisthenes instituted his reforms, and no more than 140. Also, the demes all had different populations. Therefore, they could not possibly have been divided so evenly among the tribes and trittyes, certainly not by groups of three. Many sources give differing accounts of this (Herodotus and Strabo most famously), but non can contest the epigraphic record which clearly shows a complex and uneven distribution of the demes between and within the tribes and trittyes. Cleisthenes' was forced to deal with it in this way because of uneven populations between the demes.<br /><br />See John Traill's work "The Political Organization of Attica..." from 1975, and David Whitehead's "The Demes of Attica" from 1986 for the authoritative opinions on this topic.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08050988825910325736noreply@blogger.com