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καὶ οὗτος ὑπεριδὼν Ἴωνας. H. seems to regard Cleisthenes as of old Attic, as opposed to Ionic descent (ch. 62. 2 n.), and so likely to despise Ionians as his grandfather despised Dorians. But the motive is superficial and improbable. The Athenians still celebrated the Ionic festival, the Apaturia (i. 147), and retained the old tribes and phratries, at least for religious purposes. We also find Athens claiming kinship with the Ionians (ch. 97; ix. 106) as their mother city, and may attribute the contempt expressed for the Ionians, here and elsewhere, to later prejudice reflected in H. (cf. i. 143 n.). The true meaning of the reforms was very different. By breaking down the old tribal organization, Cleisthenes was enabled to strengthen the state by the admission of many new citizens (cf. Ath. Pol. 20 “ἀποδιδοὺς τῷ πλήθει τὴν πολιτείαν”, Ar. Pol. iii. 2. 1275 b 37 “πολλοὺς γὰρ ἐφυλέτευσε ξένους καὶ δούλους μετοίκους”, and Ath. Pol. ch. 21), and to free it from the undue influence of the old families and clans. [Cf. Aristotle's sagacious remarks (Pol. vi. 4. 18, 19, 1319 b) on the necessity of breaking up old associations and forming new ones, when the franchise is extended.] By the wise choice of a natural local division, the deme, as the basis of his scheme, and the skilful distribution of the demes and trittyes among the ten tribes (Ath. Pol. ch. 21, inf. § 2), he provided against the crying danger of local factions, and also secured the permanence of his institutions. Lastly, by making Athens the one place where members of a tribe gathered together from their different trittyes for a common purpose, Cleisthenes elevated the city in the eyes of all its citizens, new and old. He thus completed the work, ascribed in legend to Theseus, but in reality left incomplete by Solon and Pisistratus, the unification (συνοικισμός) of Attica. For Cleisthenes' measures cf. Busolt (op. cit. 853 f.) and E. M. Walker in C. A. H. iv. 141-56.
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