Cleisthenes [SEP] noble family
for all citizens (though only men were citizens)—and established ostracism.
Biography.
Historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BCE. Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles' mother Agariste and of Alcibiades' maternal grandfather Megacles.
Biography Rise to power.
With help from the Spartans and the Alcmaeonidae (Cleisthenes' "genos", "clan"), he was responsible for overthrowing Hippias, the tyrant son of Pisistratus. After the collapse of Hippias' tyranny, Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power, but Isagoras
Hipparchus c514, Hippias took on sole rule, and in response to the loss of his brother, became a worse leader and increasingly disliked. Hippias exiled 700 of the Athenian noble families, amongst them Cleisthenes' family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus says they bribed the Pythia to always tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias. This, supposedly, worked after a number of times, and Cleomenes led a Spartan force to overthrow Hippias, which succeeded, and