Quick questions on Ephialtes, Pericles, and the development of Athenian democracy: HSC Ancient History

By 478 BC Athens had been a democracy of sorts for thirty years. Cleisthenes (508/7 BC) had created the ten tribes, the deme system, the Council of 500, and ostracism. But the Areopagus, the Council of former archons (chief magistrates), retained extensive "guardian" powers: it scrutinised magistrates, tried political offenders, and supervised the laws. The archonship was elective and effectively confined to the wealthier classes.

Archonship by lot (487 BC). From 487 BC the archons were selected by lot from a pool of elected candidates (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 22.5). This weakened the prestige of the office and the social position of the Areopagites who eventually filled it.

Its membership consisted of former archons serving for life. Even after 487 BC and the broadening of the archonship, the Areopagus was an aristocratic body.

Ephialtes son of Sophonides emerged as the leader of the democratic faction in the late 460s BC. With his younger associate Pericles he attacked the Areopagus through a series of prosecutions of individual Areopagites for corruption (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 25.2).

In 461 BC Ephialtes was assassinated. The murderer was Aristodicus of Tanagra (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 25.4). The killer was probably hired by oligarchic opponents. The assassination did not reverse the reform.

Pericles son of Xanthippus (the victor of Mycale) and Agariste (an Alcmaeonid, niece of Cleisthenes) emerged as the leading democratic politician after Ephialtes's death.

Pericles proposed and passed a law restricting Athenian citizenship to those whose father and mother were both Athenian citizens (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 26.4). Previously only paternal descent had been required.

Funded by allied tribute moved to Athens in 454 BC after the Egyptian disaster, the Periclean building program transformed the Athenian Acropolis.

The period 478 to 440 BC saw the flowering of Athenian culture.

By 440 BC the Athenian political system worked roughly as follows:

Thucydides 1.107 to 117; 2.65. The major source for Pericles.

Christian Meier, Athens (1990, English 1998). The polis as the political achievement.

From 487 BC the archons were selected by lot from a pool of elected candidates (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 22.5). This weakened the prestige of the office and the social position of the Areopagites who eventually filled it.

The third Solonian property class became eligible for the archonship. The office continued to be opened to lower classes.

The ten annually elected generals (strategoi) became the most important political magistrates. Election (not lot) selected the strategoi; the office could be held repeatedly; Pericles held it 15 times (around 443 to 429 BC).