Interested in further reading or just curious if I'm making it all up? These aren't all of the books and sources that I've used but here are several I have found myself going back to. 

Democracy’s Beginning –  Thomas Mitchell

Democracy : A Life –  Paul Cartledge

The Birth of Politics – Melissa Lane

Lords of the Sea – John Hale

Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy –  JM Moore

Ancient Greece - Thomas Martin

History of the Peloponnesian War  –  Thucydides

The Landmark Thucydides  –  Robert Strassler

The Landmark Herodotus - Robert Strassler

The Landmark Xenophon - Robert Strassler

The Political Organization of Attica - John Traill

Shouts, murmurs, and votes: Acclamation and aggregation in ancient Greece - Melissa Schwartzberg

Democracy: Electoral and Athenian - Sheldon S. Wolin

War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy - George Tridimas 

Morality, institutions and the wealth of nations: Some lessons from ancient Greece - George C. Bitros, Anastassios D. Karayiannis 

Introducing the Ancient Greeks –  Edith Hall

A War Like No Other  – Victor Davis Hanson

The Peloponnesian War –  Donald Kagan

On the Constitution – The Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, edited by Ralph Gabriel

Parallel Lives – Plutarch (Solon, Lycurgus, Themistocles, Pericles, Cimon, Aristides)

Works and Days – Hesiod

Thoughts on Government – Adams

Mixing Larceny with the Spirit of Justice: Rousseau as the modern Lycurgus – Dorina Verli

Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times – Thomas R. Martin

Persian Fire - Tom Holland

The Battle of Salamis - Barry Strauss

Thermopylae - Paul Cartledge

The Attic Theatre - A.E Haigh

Everyday Life in Classical Athens - T.B.L. Webster

Greek Theatre Practice - Michael J. Walton