I. Athens:

In 594 BC the Areopagus of Athens appointed a man named Solon as the archon and lawgiver of Athens. His job as lawgiver was to make a constitution, or a set of laws, for the people of Athens to follow. He tried very hard to make a set of laws that the people could understand and that made sense. Solon had a lot of power as lawgiver, but he did not want to take over Athens and become a tyrant. In fact, one of the reasons that he tried to make his laws so clear was to make sure that Athens would never have a tyrant.

In around 560 BC a man named Peisistratus (Pie-si-strat-us) tried to become tyrant of Athens. He failed that time but in 546 he tried again and succeeded. Both Aristotle and Herodotus thought he was a fairly good and honorable ruler, even if he was a tyrant. He died around 528 and his oldest son Hippias became tyrant of Athens.

Two young men named Harmodius (Har-mode-ius) and Aristogeiton (Aristo-guy-ton) had a quarrel with Hippias. In 514 BC they killed Hippias' younger brother Hipparchus (Hip-ark-us). Harmodius died while killing Hipparchus. Hippias believed there was a larger conspiracy to take away his power and became paranoid. He had Aristogeiton tortured trying to find out who else was against him. He killed many people and became more and more unpopular.

In 510 BC Sparta helped those who were against Hippias overthrew him. After some confusion, a man named Cliesthenes (Klys-then-ees) took over Athens. From there the great experiment with democracy started in Athens.