<P> Not long afterwards, the nascent democracy was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratos, but was reinstated after the expulsion of his son, Hippias, in 510 . This sort of aristocratic takeover "was ended by the appeal by one contender, Cleisthenes, for the support of the populace ." The reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 / 7 undermined the domination of the aristocratic families and connected every Athenian to the city's rule . "Cleisthenes fixed the boundaries of the polis as a political rather than a geographical entity--boundaries which Solon had left permeable--by formally identifying the free inhabitants of Attica at that time as Athenian citizens ." He did this by making the traditional tribes politically irrelevant and instituting ten new tribes, each made up of about three trytties, each consisting of several demes . "Every male citizen on reaching the age of 18 was now to be registered in his deme . It was this registration which confirmed his citizenship ." </P> <P> A third set of reforms was instigated by Ephialtes in 462 / 1 . While his opponents were away attempting to assist the Spartans, Ephialtes persuaded the Assembly to reduce the powers of the Areopagus: "in effect stripping it of all its controlling and supervisory powers and leaving it only as a court for cases of homicide and certain offences of sacrilege ." At the same time or soon afterwards, the membership of the Areopagus was extended to the lower level of the propertied citizenship . </P> <P> In the wake of Athens' disastrous defeat in the Sicilian campaign in 413 BCE, a group of citizens took steps to limit the radical democracy they thought was leading the city to ruin . Their efforts, initially conducted through constitutional channels, culminated in the establishment of an oligarchy, the Council of 400, in the Athenian coup of 411 BCE . The oligarchy endured for only four months before it was replaced by a more democratic government . Democratic regimes governed until Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404 BCE, when government was placed in the hands of the so - called Thirty Tyrants, pro-Spartan oligarchs . After a year pro-democracy elements regained control, and democratic forms persisted until the Macedonian army of Phillip II conquered Athens in 338 BC . </P> <P> Alexander the Great had led a coalition of the Greek states to war with Persia in 336 BC, but his Greek soldiers were hostages for the behavior of their states as much as allies . His relations with Athens were already strained when he returned to Babylon in 324 BC; after his death, Athens and Sparta led several Greek states to war with Macedon and lost . </P>

Three things that the establishment of democracy allowed citizens of ancient greece to do