The Institutions of Incipient Democracy
The scanty evidence seems to indicate that by the seventh century all free-born adult
male citizens of Athens had the right to attend open meetings, in a body called the
assembly1 (ekklesia ), which elected nine magistrates
called archons (rulers) each year. The archons, still all aristocrats in
this early period, headed the
government2 and rendered verdicts in disputes and criminal
accusations. As they had earlier, aristocrats at this time still dominated Athenian
political life by using their influence to secure election as archons ,
perhaps by marshaling their traditional bands of followers as supporters and by making
alliances with other aristocrats. The right of middle-class and poor men to serve as
members of the assembly as yet had only limited value because little business besides
the election of archons was conducted in its gatherings, which probably met
rarely in this period and then only when the current archons decided the
time was right.
