An oligarchy is said to be that in which the few and the wealthy, and a democracy that in which the many and the poor are the rulers, as Aristotle put it in his Politics. (1). Athens was a democracy throughout most of the 5th and the 4th century. Only in 411 and 404 did oligarchs succeed in establishing a government where the few and wealthy ruled over the many and mostly poor. Neither oligarchic regime lasted even as long as a year.