Athens went a long way in the direction of egalitarian democracy, and provides a quantity of documentation which enables us to study the working of this democracy in some detail.

In the late seventh century, the earliest period for which we have evidence, the whole of Attica already belonged to the single polis of Athens; and monarchy had given way to an aristocracy in which the basileus was an annual official, one of a board of nine archons. In the 630s or 620s there was an unsuccessful attempt by Cylon to make himself tyrant; in 621/0, perhaps in response to Cylon's attempt and its aftermath, Athens was given a written code of laws by Draco. In 594/3 Solon liberated those Athenians who were dependent serfs, and revised the constitution and the code of laws so as to weaken the stranglehold of the aristocracy. Pisistratus became tyrant in the middle of the sixth century, and left his power to his sons, but the tyranny was brought to an end in 511/0.

Cleisthenes laid the foundations of the democracy in 508/7, when he organised the citizens in ten new tribes and devised a system of government which required a high degree of participation by the citzens. Ephialtes in 462/1 transferred to more representative bodies the politically important powers still being exercised by the council of the Areopagus; and shortly afterwards Pericles began for jurors the system of state payments which made it possible for the poorer citizens to play an active part in public affairs.