Athenian democracy

Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed by Thucydides, a contemporary historian, as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens as its preeminent orator and statesman, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles

Ostracism (, ostrakismos) was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or a potential tyrant. The word ostracism continues to be used for various forms of shunning.

Cleisthenes ( ; ), or Clisthenes (), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy". He was a member of the aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan. He was the younger son of Megacles and Agariste making him the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon. He was also credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens' assembly and for reducing the power of the nobility over Athenian politics.

democratic regime in 5th- and 4th-century-BCE Athens

the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens

ancient Greek city council

Thrasybulus (; ; 440 – 388 BC) was a Greek general and democratic leader. In 411 BC, in the wake of an oligarchic coup at Athens, the pro-democracy sailors at Samos elected him as a general, making him a primary leader of the ultimately successful democratic resistance to the coup. As general, he was responsible for recalling the controversial nobleman Alcibiades from exile, and the two worked together extensively over the next several years. In 411 and 410, Thrasybulus was in command along with Alcibiades and others at several critical Athenian naval victories.

320s BCE work by Aristotle

The Heliaia or Heliaea (; Doric: Ἁλία Halia) was the largest and most prominent court venue in Classical Athens. The name, which originally designated this specific location, came to be used by ancient sources as a general term for the Athenian popular court system, though modern English-language scholarship typically reserves "Heliaia" for the venue and uses "dikasterion" (pl. dikasteria) for the institutional system.

The Pnyx (; ; , Pnyka) is a hill or hillside in central Athens, the capital of Greece. Beginning as early as 507 BC (Fifth-century Athens), the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy.

thumb|Site plan of the Ancient Agora of Athens where the prytaneis would preside over meetings (ca. 300 BC). The prytaneis (πρυτάνεις; sing.: πρύτανις prytanis) were the executives of the boule of Ancient Athens. They served in a prytaneion.

thumb|A kleroterion in the Ancient Agora Museum (Athens) thumb|A large kleroterion at the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology in [[Reading, Berkshire]] A kleroterion () was a randomization device used by the Athenian polis during the period of democracy to select citizens to the boule, to most state offices, to the nomothetai, and to court juries.

Atimia () was a form of disenfranchisement used in ancient Greek cities.

508–507 BCE revolt by the people of Athens

Form of legal action used in ancient Athens

work by Pseudo-Xenophon

In Ancient Greece, dokimasia (Greek: δοκιμασία) was the name used at Athens to denote the process of ascertaining the capacity of the citizens for the exercise of public rights and duties.

Nomothetai (, singular: , nomothetēs, "lawgivers") were lawmaking panels in classical Athens that approved or repealed laws (nomoi). They were established after the restoration of democracy in 403 BCE to separate the passing by the citizen Assembly (Ekklesia) of temporary decrees from the making of permanent laws.

Misthophoria (, which literally means paid function), was the institutionalized remuneration of ancient Athenian citizens, who temporarily left their jobs to participate in public services.

Asebeia () was a criminal charge in ancient Greece for the "desecration and mockery of divine objects", for "irreverence towards the state gods" and disrespect towards parents and dead ancestors. In English, the word is typically translated as or . Most evidence for it comes from ancient Athens.

thumb|alt=Bronze dikast ticket of Archilochos of Phaleron.|A bronze jury pinakion from about 370–362 BCE, reused after 350 BCE, held in the British Museum.

The dikastērion (, translit. dikastērion; pl. dikastēria) was the system of popular jury courts in Classical Athens during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Alongside the Assembly (ekklesia) and the Council of 500 (boule), it formed one of the three central pillars of Athenian democracy. The dikastēria heard the vast majority of private suits (dikai) and public prosecutions (graphai)—excluding homicide. The term Heliaia, properly the name of the largest court venue (whose location remains unknown), came to be used by some ancient sources as a synonym for the system as a whole. Modern English-lang