with this precious but indigestible food. Thus
laden, he waddled as well as he could from the chamber, presenting so
ludicrous a spectacle that the good-natured monarch burst into a loud
laugh on seeing him.

Croesus not only let him keep all he had taken, but doubled its value
by other presents, so that Alkmaeon returned to Athens as one of its
wealthiest men. Megacles, the son of this rich Athenian, was he who won
the prize of fair Agariste of Sicyon, in the contest which we have
elsewhere described. The son of Megacles and Agariste was named
Cleisthenes, and it is he who comes first in the list of famous men whom
we have here to describe.

It was Cleisthenes who made Attica a democratic state; and thus it came
about. The laws of Solon--which favored the aristocracy--were set aside
by despots before Solon died. After Hippias, the last of those despots,
was expelled from the state, the people rose under the leadership of
Cleisthenes, and, probably for the first time in the history of mankind,
a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" was
established in a civilized state. The laws of Solon were abrogated, and
a new code of laws formed by Cleisthenes, which lasted till the
independence of Athens came to an end.

Before that time the clan system had prevailed in Greece. The people
were divided into family groups, each of which claimed to be descended
from a single ancestor,--often a supposed deity. These clans held all
the power of the state; not only in the early days, when they formed the
whole people, but later, when Athens became a prosperous city with many
merchant ships, and when numerous strangers had come from afar to settle
within its walls.

None of these strangers were given the rights of citizenship. The clans
remained in power, and the new people had no voice in the government.
But in time the strangers grew to be so numerous, rich, and important
that their claim to equal rights could no longer be set aside. They took
part in the revolution by which the despots were expelled, and in the
new constitution that was formed their demand to be made citizens of the
state had to be granted.

Cleisthenes, the leader of the people against the aristocratic faction,
made this new code of laws. By a system never before adopted he broke up
the old conditions. Before that time the people were the basis on which
governments were organized. He made the land the basis, and from that
time to this la