Greece, the crucible of civilization

Today in western civ we watched a video about early Greece before the first revolt in human history when the people, tired of being oppressed for centuries revolted in order to gain their freedom.  We know most of this information because of Herodotus, he was one of the first historians in the world that recorded the events that happened.  

Clisthenes was born in Athens into a remarkably rich family that helped to bring him to hate to the common people.  His family was part of the aristocracy meaning that they lived in a palace of the time.  At the time Athens was not the empire ruling city-state that it was at the point when it ruled an empire.  It was a poor agricultural city-state in which there was not much power, on the other hand, Sparta and Corinth were powerhouses.  These city-states could have ruled empires, but anthens could not but because of the eventual change to democracy brought them wealth and power.