How the kleroterion made a random draw
A kleroterion was a stone slab cut with columns of narrow slots. Citizens eligible for office placed small bronze identification plates, called pinakia, into the slots. The plates were arranged in rows, so each row represented a group of candidates.
A narrow tube ran alongside the slots. An official dropped differently colored balls into it; as the balls emerged, their colors determined whether the corresponding row was accepted or rejected. The process continued until enough candidates had been selected. The device made the outcome depend on a public procedure, not on who could make the strongest pitch.
What the lottery could—and could not—do
Random selection helped prevent offices from becoming prizes won through wealth, popularity, or factional campaigning. It also gave ordinary eligible citizens a chance to serve, rather than reserving public work for people who could build a political following. The visible apparatus mattered: observers could see plates go in and watch the draw decide which rows advanced.
But the lottery did not make every Athenian eligible, or place every public responsibility in random hands. Eligibility rules still applied, and some important positions—such as the generals—were chosen by election, where voters could weigh candidates’ abilities. The kleroterion was therefore one tool within Athenian democracy, not a machine that governed the city by itself.
Its striking consequence was institutional: for many offices, Athenians treated chance as a safeguard against concentrated influence—and as a way to make public service a possibility for a broader share of citizens.
