What is archonship by lot?

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.

What is the zeugitai admitted to the archonship?

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

What is the role of the strategoi?

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).

Born around 495 BC. Aristocratic (Alcmaeonid through his mother) but politically committed to the democracy. Educated by Damon (music) and Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (philosophy).

What is political method?

Elected strategos from 454 BC; held the office every year from around 443 to 429 BC (15 times in succession). Won the Assembly through reasoned oratory rather than mass appeal.

What are thucydides son of Melesias?

Pericles's main conservative opponent in the 440s BC. Organised the oligarchic protest against the building program. Ostracised around 443 BC; after his ostracism Pericles had no serious rival.

NESA Practice (NESA)-style practice: Outline the reforms of Ephialtes in 462 BC and their immediate consequences.

A 7-mark "outline" needs the reforms and the consequences. **The Areopagus before 462 BC.** The Areopagus was the council of former archons (chief magistrates). It had broad "guardian" powers: scrutiny of magistrates, trials for political offences, and the supervision of laws. **The reforms.** Ephialtes, supported by Pericles, prosecuted individual Areopagites for corruption and stripped the council of its political powers. The Areopagus was reduced to a homicide court and certain religious functions. **Powers transferred.** Political powers went to the boule (council of 500), the ekklesia (assembly), and the heliaia (popular law courts). The dokimasia (scrutiny of new magistrates) and the euthynai (audit at the end of office) were transferred to the boule and the courts. **The assassination.** Ephialtes was murdered in 461 BC. The reforms held. **Cimon's ostracism.** Cimon tried to reverse the reforms; he was ostracised in 461 BC. **Consequences.** The radical democracy. Pericles emerged as the leading politician. State pay was introduced over the next decade. The First Peloponnesian War began in the same year. Markers reward the Areopagus, the reforms, the transfer of powers, and the political consequence.

§-Syllabus dot point

NSWAncient HistorySyllabus dot point

How did Athenian democracy develop between 478 and 440 BC, and what were the reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles?

The internal political development of Athens, the reforms of Ephialtes (462 BC), the leadership of Pericles, the introduction of state pay for jurors and officials, the Periclean building program, and the cultural achievements of the period

A focused answer to the HSC Ancient History dot point on the development of Athenian democracy in the period. The reforms of Ephialtes against the Areopagus in 462 BC, the assassination of Ephialtes, the leadership of Pericles, the introduction of state pay (misthos), the citizenship law of 451 BC, the building program, and the cultural achievements.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.812 min answerUpdated 2026-07-01

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What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to describe the internal political development of Athens between 478 and 440 BC, the reforms of Ephialtes against the Areopagus in 462 BC, the leadership of Pericles, the introduction of state pay (misthos), the citizenship law of 451 BC, the Periclean building program, and the cultural achievements of the period.

In plain English

Think of the Areopagus as an unelected board of ex-mayors who had quietly kept a veto over council decisions for generations, even after the town had voted to become a democracy. In 462 BC, while the board's toughest defender was away on a trip, a reformer called Ephialtes got the town meeting to strip that board of everything except handling murder cases, and handed its real power to the ordinary citizen council, the full town meeting, and the citizen-run courts. He was killed soon after in murky circumstances, but the change stuck. A few years later Pericles, his young ally, made it possible for POOR citizens to actually show up and use these new powers by paying them a daily wage for jury duty and council service, like turning an unpaid volunteer committee into a paid civic job so ordinary workers could afford to take part.

The answer

The Cleisthenic background

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.

The radical democracy emerged in stages between 487 and 451 BC.

The reforms before Ephialtes

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.
The zeugitai admitted to the archonship (around 457 BC): The third Solonian property class became eligible for the archonship. The office continued to be opened to lower classes.
The role of the strategoi: 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).

The Areopagus before 462 BC

The Areopagus had:

Scrutiny (dokimasia) of incoming magistrates
Audit (euthynai) of outgoing magistrates
Trial of political offences (treason, attempt to overthrow the democracy)
Trial of homicide
Religious cases (impiety)
Supervision of public morals

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 and his reforms (462 BC)

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).

The opportunity (462 BC). Cimon was absent in Spartan territory with 4,000 hoplites helping suppress the helot revolt at Mount Ithome. With Cimon and his philolaconian conservatives away, Ephialtes pushed the reform through the Assembly.

The reform. The Areopagus was stripped of its political powers. Its retained functions were:

Trial of homicide (including premeditated murder, wounding with intent, arson, and poisoning)
Religious cases (impiety, in some interpretations)
Some supervisory functions over sacred olive trees

Powers transferred. The political powers went to:

The Council of 500 (boule), for the dokimasia and euthynai
The popular law courts (heliaia), for political trials
The Assembly (ekklesia), for broader political supervision

Cimon's response. Cimon attempted to reverse the reform on his return. He was ostracised in 461 BC.

The assassination of Ephialtes (461 BC)

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 took over Ephialtes's role.

The leadership of Pericles

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.

Background: Born around 495 BC. Aristocratic (Alcmaeonid through his mother) but politically committed to the democracy. Educated by Damon (music) and Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (philosophy).
Political method: Elected strategos from 454 BC; held the office every year from around 443 to 429 BC (15 times in succession). Won the Assembly through reasoned oratory rather than mass appeal.
Thucydides son of Melesias: Pericles's main conservative opponent in the 440s BC. Organised the oligarchic protest against the building program. Ostracised around 443 BC; after his ostracism Pericles had no serious rival.
Thucydides's verdict: Thucydides (2.65) summarises: "in name a democracy but in fact rule by the first man."

State pay (misthos)

Pericles introduced state pay for participating in public functions. The exact dates are debated but the system was established between around 460 and 450 BC.

Jury pay: Two obols per day (later three under Cleon in 425 BC) for service in the heliaia. Around 6,000 jurors served annually.
Council pay: Five obols per day for members of the boule.
Magistracy pay: Most state magistracies (around 1,500 a year) received daily pay.
Hoplite pay: From 432 BC, hoplites and rowers on campaign received daily pay.
Significance: Pay made participation possible for poor citizens (thetes and zeugitai). The radical democracy depended on it. Aristotle (Athenian Constitution 27.3 to 4) reports that Pericles introduced jury pay in response to the demagoguery of Cimon's wealth (Cimon had paid for his rural neighbours' meals from his estates).

The citizenship law (451 BC)

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.

Reasons. Multiple. The law restricted access to the state pay system; tightened ethnic identity in a period of imperial expansion; responded to a recent grain distribution scandal in which large numbers of non-citizens had claimed citizenship.

Consequences. Marriages between Athenians and non-citizens (especially Ionian Greeks) lost citizenship for the children. The law had personal consequences for Pericles himself: his sons by the Milesian Aspasia would be non-citizens. He had to petition the Assembly in 429 BC for citizenship for his son Pericles the Younger after both his Athenian sons died of plague.

The building program

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

The Parthenon (447 to 432 BC): Designed by Ictinus and Callicrates with sculpture by Phidias. The chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos (438 BC) by Phidias. The metopes, frieze, and pediments depicting Athenian and mythological scenes. Cost around 700 talents.
The Propylaea (437 to 432 BC): Monumental gateway, designed by Mnesicles. Construction halted by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.
The Odeon of Pericles (440s BC): A roofed music hall on the south slope of the Acropolis.
Later additions: The temple of Athena Nike (around 421 BC), the Erechtheion (421 to 406 BC).
Funding: Allied tribute funded the program. Plutarch (Pericles 12) records the conservative protest by Thucydides son of Melesias: Athens was "decking herself out like a vain woman with our allies' money." Pericles replied that Athens defended the allies and could spend the surplus as she pleased.
Significance: The building program made the empire physically present in Athens. The civic religion was monumentalised. The artisans (stonemasons, sculptors, gilders) drew the Athenian poor into a wage economy of public works.

Cultural achievements

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

Tragedy: Aeschylus (525 to 456 BC) wrote the Oresteia (458 BC). Sophocles (around 496 to 406 BC) won his first victory in 468 BC and wrote Antigone around 441 BC. Euripides's first surviving play (Alcestis) is from 438 BC.
Comedy: State-supported from the 480s BC. Cratinus, Crates, and Eupolis are the major fifth-century comedians before Aristophanes.
Philosophy: Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (Pericles's teacher) taught a rational cosmology at Athens. He was later prosecuted for impiety in the 430s BC.
History: Herodotus of Halicarnassus moved to Athens in the 440s BC and gave public readings of his Histories. Thucydides began collecting material in the same period.
Sculpture: Phidias designed the Parthenon sculptures and the statue of Athena Parthenos. Polyclitus of Argos created the Doryphoros (Spear-bearer) and the canon of human proportions.
Architecture: The Doric and Ionic orders reached their classical forms. The Parthenon (Doric with Ionic frieze) and the Erechtheion (Ionic) are the showcase buildings.

The radical democracy in operation

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

Assembly (ekklesia): Meeting four times each prytany (around 40 times a year) on the Pnyx, open to all adult male citizens, voting by show of hands on policy.
Council of 500 (boule): Chosen by lot, one prytany of 50 in continuous session, preparing business for the Assembly.
Heliaia: Popular law courts, 6,000 jurors annually, chosen by lot.
Strategoi: Ten annually elected generals, the principal political magistrates.
Magistracies: Around 700 internal magistrates and 700 external, mostly chosen by lot.
Pay: State pay for jurors, councillors, and most magistrates.

The system was the most participatory of any ancient state. Only adult male citizens participated; women, slaves, and metics (resident foreigners) did not. Citizenship was hereditary and exclusive. The whole system rested on the empire: allied tribute, formally paid for the League's defence, funded the pay that made citizen participation affordable, so the "radical democracy" and the Athenian empire grew up as two sides of the same settlement, a link historians continue to debate the precise weight of.

The sources

Thucydides 1.107 to 117; 2.65: The major source for Pericles.
Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 25 to 28: The key political summary.
Plutarch, Pericles: Later but draws on lost authors (Stesimbrotus, Ion of Chios, the Atthidographers).
Aeschylus, Eumenides (458 BC): The play justifies the Areopagus's reduced role; it ends with Athena founding the Areopagus as a homicide court.
Inscriptions: The Athenian Tribute Lists; the Parthenon building accounts; the Strasbourg ostracon list of Pericles.
Archaeology: The Acropolis; the agora and the Pnyx; the Odeon site.

Historiography

Christian Meier, Athens (1990, English 1998): The polis as the political achievement.
Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (1991): Biographical synthesis.
P. J. Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia (1981): Standard commentary.
Josiah Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989): Argues the radical democracy's real innovation was giving the mass citizen body (the demos, acting through the ekklesia, boule and dikasteria) genuine institutional power over the traditional elite, who had to persuade rather than command; on this reading the 462 BC settlement, not the Periclean building program, is the structural turning point.
Mogens Herman Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (1991): The standard institutional study of how the ekklesia, boule, dikasteria and magistracies actually functioned in practice (quorums, procedure, the balance of lot and election); used by historians to test claims made from Aristotle's summary against epigraphic and procedural detail.

Ancient critics of the democracy

Not every ancient voice endorsed the system. Two ancient critics are commonly set against Thucydides and Aristotle's more measured accounts.

The "Old Oligarch." The anonymous pamphlet Constitution of the Athenians, transmitted among the works of Xenophon (hence "Pseudo-Xenophon"), is a hostile fifth-century critique: it argues the Athenian poor deliberately built a system (pay, lot, control of the courts and navy) that served their own class interest, and grudgingly admits the system was internally consistent and effective even while condemning it as rule by the worst citizens.

Plato. Writing after Athens's defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Plato (Republic, Gorgias) is sharply critical of democratic leaders including Pericles, arguing that flattering the masses with material benefits like misthos and building works was not true statesmanship because it fed the citizens' appetites rather than improving their characters. Plato's hostility should be weighed against his broader anti-democratic philosophy, not treated as neutral reportage.

Using these critics well means naming them, stating their actual objection (class interest for the Old Oligarch; corruption of civic virtue for Plato), and weighing their bias (both wrote from an anti-democratic, elite perspective) against the institutional evidence in Aristotle and the inscriptions.

How to read a source on this topic

Section IV sources on the democracy typically include extracts from Thucydides 2.65, Aristotle Athenian Constitution 25 to 28, or Plutarch. Three reading habits.

First, attend to the conservative perspective. Both Thucydides and Aristotle wrote after the fact, often with a critical view of mass politics. The democratic case must be reconstructed.

Second, distinguish the reforms from the rhetoric. Ephialtes and Pericles passed real laws (the Areopagus reform, state pay, the citizenship law). The "Periclean Age" of cultural flowering is partly a literary construction.

Third, integrate empire and democracy. Allied tribute paid for the building program and the state pay. The radical democracy was an imperial democracy.

Model exam responses

1. Source-analysis response (using an owned reconstructed source). "Source A, a reconstructed heliastic-oath tablet recording jurors swearing to accept the state's daily payment for their service, is useful for a historian studying the mechanics of the radical democracy because it links the abstract principle of citizen participation to the concrete daily wage (misthos) that made it possible for thetes and poorer zeugitai to attend. Its reliability as a picture of the SCALE of participation is limited on its own, since a single oath tablet says nothing about how many of the roughly 6,000 annual jurors were genuinely poor citizens rather than the comfortably off. Corroborated with Aristotle's figure of 2 obols (later 3 under Cleon, 425 BC) and the [Aristotle] account of Pericles's motive in introducing pay (Ath. Pol. 27.3-4), the source's oath formula becomes strong evidence for how the democracy formalised, and paid for, mass participation.

Marker's note: names the specific figures (2/3 obols, 6,000 jurors), evaluates USEFULNESS and LIMITATION separately, and corroborates the described source with genuine own knowledge rather than just describing it.

2. Essay paragraph (assess/evaluate). "Ephialtes's reform of 462/1 BC was the structural precondition for everything that followed: by transferring the Areopagus's dokimasia, euthynai and political jurisdiction to the boule, ekklesia and heliaia ([Aristotle], Ath. Pol. 25.2-4), it removed the one body capable of checking the popular institutions from outside them. That the reform survived Ephialtes's own assassination in 461 BC (Ath. Pol. 25.4; Plutarch, Cimon 15) and Cimon's subsequent ostracism shows it commanded support beyond a single leader. Ober's argument that radical democracy is defined by the institutional power of the mass citizen body over the elite supports treating 462/1 BC, not the Periclean building program of the 440s BC, as the true foundation of the system Thucydides later described as rule 'in name a democracy.'"

Marker's note: opens with a clear position, cites the primary source with book/chapter, uses a named modern historian as ARGUMENT rather than decoration, and closes the paragraph by linking back to the set question.

Command words, sources and historiography

Command words: "Outline"/"describe" want accurate sequence and detail, no judgement required. "Explain" wants REASONS and CONSEQUENCES linked by cause. "Assess"/"evaluate"/"to what extent" demand a sustained VERDICT defended in every paragraph, not a balanced-but-unresolved list.
Using a described source: Work through content (what does it actually say/show), reliability (origin, likely bias - e.g. the Old Oligarch and Plato both write as hostile elites), usefulness (what it can and cannot tell a historian about this dot point), and perspective (whose viewpoint is represented, and whose is missing - e.g. no surviving source gives the thetes' own voice on state pay).
Weaving historiography: Do not drop a historian's name at the end of a sentence. Use them to DO WORK: "Ober's reading of radical democracy as mass institutional power over elites explains why Ephialtes's transfer of jurisdiction in 462/1 BC, not the later building program, is the structural turning point" is an argument; "Ober also studied Athenian democracy" is a list.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of NESA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

2022 HSC (style)20 marksEvaluate the significance of the reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles for the development of Athenian democracy between 462 and 440 BC.

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A 25-mark essay needs the reforms, the consequences, and a judgement.

Thesis: Ephialtes (462 BC) and Pericles (citizenship law, state pay, building program) completed the democratic revolution begun by Cleisthenes.
Ephialtes (462 BC): Stripped the Areopagus of its political powers. Retained only the trial of homicide and religious cases. Powers transferred to the boule, ekklesia, and heliaia.
The assassination: Ephialtes was assassinated in 461 BC (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 25.4). The killing did not reverse the reform.
Cimon's ostracism (461 BC): Failed to reverse the reform; Pericles emerged.
State pay: Pericles introduced misthos for jurors (2 then 3 obols), councillors, and magistrates. Pay made participation possible for poor citizens.
Citizenship law (451 BC): Required both parents to be Athenian citizens.
Building program (447 BC): Parthenon, Propylaea, Erechtheion, Athena Nike, the Odeon. Funded by allied tribute. Plutarch (Pericles 12) records the conservative protest.
Ostracism of Thucydides son of Melesias (around 443 BC): Pericles unchallenged.
Cultural: Aeschylus's Oresteia (458 BC), Sophocles's Antigone (around 441 BC), Anaxagoras, Herodotus.
Historiography: Thucydides (2.65) "in name a democracy but in fact rule by the first man." Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 25 to 28. Meier, Athens (1990). Kagan, Pericles of Athens (1991).
Verdict: Ephialtes opened the path; Pericles built the radical democracy. By 440 BC Athenian democracy was the most participatory ancient government.

Practice (NESA)7 marksOutline the reforms of Ephialtes in 462 BC and their immediate consequences.

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A 7-mark "outline" needs the reforms and the consequences.

The Areopagus before 462 BC: The Areopagus was the council of former archons (chief magistrates). It had broad "guardian" powers: scrutiny of magistrates, trials for political offences, and the supervision of laws.
The reforms: Ephialtes, supported by Pericles, prosecuted individual Areopagites for corruption and stripped the council of its political powers. The Areopagus was reduced to a homicide court and certain religious functions.
Powers transferred: Political powers went to the boule (council of 500), the ekklesia (assembly), and the heliaia (popular law courts). The dokimasia (scrutiny of new magistrates) and the euthynai (audit at the end of office) were transferred to the boule and the courts.
The assassination: Ephialtes was murdered in 461 BC. The reforms held.
Cimon's ostracism: Cimon tried to reverse the reforms; he was ostracised in 461 BC.
Consequences: The radical democracy. Pericles emerged as the leading politician. State pay was introduced over the next decade. The First Peloponnesian War began in the same year.

Markers reward the Areopagus, the reforms, the transfer of powers, and the political consequence.

Practice questions

Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.

foundation4 marksSource A: a reconstructed prytany roster of this type lists fifty bouleutai (councillors) from a single tribe, chosen for one prytany of the year, alongside a note that each councillor could serve on the boule no more than twice in a lifetime. Using Source A and your own knowledge, outline how membership of the Council of 500 was determined.

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1 mark: identifies the boule (Council of 500) as the body described.

1 mark: states members were chosen by lot (sortition), not election, from citizens over 30.

1 mark: notes the tribal structure - fifty members from each of the ten tribes, one prytany (tenth of the year) in continuous session at a time, drawn from Source A's "fifty bouleutai from a single tribe."

1 mark: uses the source's detail on the lifetime service limit to show the system was designed to rotate participation as widely as possible among citizens.

Markers reward correct use of the source's specific numbers alongside accurate own knowledge of the lot system.

foundation5 marksOutline the powers the Areopagus lost as a result of Ephialtes's reforms of 462 BC.

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1 mark: identifies Ephialtes and the year 462 BC.

1 mark: the dokimasia (scrutiny of incoming magistrates) was removed.

1 mark: the euthynai (audit of outgoing magistrates) was removed.

1 mark: the trial of political offences (treason, attempts against the democracy) was removed.

1 mark: states what remained - trial of homicide and some religious/olive-tree supervision - to show the reform was a stripping, not an abolition.

Markers reward precision: full marks require both what was lost and what was retained.

core7 marksSource B: an ExamExplained reconstruction of a heliastic oath tablet records jurors swearing to judge according to the laws and, where none exist, according to their most just opinion, and to accept the daily payment set by the state for their service. Using Source B and your own knowledge, explain the significance of state pay (misthos) for the operation of Athenian democracy.

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2 marks: identifies misthos and the amounts (2 obols, later 3 under Cleon in 425 BC, for the roughly 6,000 heliaia jurors; 5 obols for boule members).

2 marks: explains that pay removed the economic barrier to participation for thetes and poorer zeugitai, who could not otherwise afford a day away from work.

2 marks: uses Source B's detail on the oath and daily payment to link the practical mechanism (payment for a day's civic duty) to the ideological claim of full citizen participation in the courts.

1 mark: notes the debated link to empire - tribute revenue from 454 BC helped fund pay and the building program, so the radical democracy at home rested partly on the allied contribution.

Markers reward the explicit causal link between pay and PARTICIPATION, not just the definition of misthos.

core6 marksExplain why Cimon's absence at Mount Ithome in 462 BC created the political opportunity for Ephialtes's reforms.

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2 marks: identifies Cimon as the leading conservative/philolaconian politician and his expedition of 4,000 hoplites to help Sparta suppress the helot revolt at Ithome.

2 marks: explains that Cimon's absence removed the strongest opposition to reform from the Assembly, allowing Ephialtes (with Pericles) to carry the vote stripping the Areopagus.

2 marks: links the consequence - Cimon's failed attempt to reverse the reform on his return led to his own ostracism in 461 BC, confirming the political shift.

Markers reward the causal chain (absence, opportunity, reform, backlash, ostracism), not just a narrative retelling.

core6 marksOutline the effects of Pericles's citizenship law of 451/0 BC.

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1 mark: states the law's content - Athenian citizenship required BOTH parents to be Athenian citizens, tightening the previous rule of paternal descent only.

2 marks: explains at least two motives (restricting access to the growing benefits of citizenship, including state pay; tightening identity amid imperial expansion; the context of a recent grain-distribution scandal).

2 marks: gives a specific consequence, e.g. Pericles's own sons by Aspasia of Miletus lost citizenship rights, forcing him to petition the Assembly in 429 BC for his son Pericles the Younger.

1 mark: notes the irony/significance - the most democratic reformer restricted rather than expanded the citizen body.

Markers reward a NAMED specific consequence over a generic paraphrase of the law.

exam25 marksTo what extent was Ephialtes, rather than Pericles, responsible for the establishment of the radical Athenian democracy? In your answer, refer to relevant sources and historians.

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Band-6 requires a sustained JUDGEMENT (a clear "to what extent" position), not a two-part biography.

Thesis. Ephialtes supplied the decisive constitutional break of 462 BC that made radical democracy structurally possible; Pericles then built the institutions (pay, citizenship law, building program) that made it socially and financially sustainable. The two are not competing claims but sequential and mutually dependent - full credit lies with neither alone, though the constitutional foundation is Ephialtes's.

Argument line 1 - the constitutional break was Ephialtes's. In 462 BC, exploiting Cimon's absence at Ithome, Ephialtes stripped the Areopagus of the dokimasia, euthynai and political trials, transferring them to the boule, ekklesia and heliaia ([Aristotle], Athenian Constitution 25.2-4). This is the single most important structural change of the period: without it, the aristocratic Areopagus retained a veto-like supervisory power over the whole system.

Argument line 2 - the reform survived Ephialtes's death, showing it was not merely personal. Ephialtes was assassinated in 461 BC by Aristodicus of Tanagra, almost certainly at oligarchic instigation ([Aristotle], Ath. Pol. 25.4; Plutarch, Cimon 15, who preserves a variant tradition on the killing). The reform held regardless, and Cimon's own attempt to reverse it failed, ending in his ostracism - evidence the change had genuine popular support beyond one leader.

Argument line 3 - Pericles built the sustaining infrastructure, not the foundation. State pay (misthos) for jurors, councillors and magistrates made participation economically possible for the poor; the building program (from 447 BC) monumentalised the democracy and drew allied tribute into the domestic economy; 15 consecutive strategiai from around 443 BC gave the system stable leadership. None of this required a NEW constitutional transfer of power - it operationalised the settlement Ephialtes had already created.

Argument line 4 - historiography: Thucydides (2.65) judges the mature system "in name a democracy but in fact rule by the first man," a verdict about Pericles's PERSONAL ascendancy, not about who created the democratic structure. Josiah Ober (Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens, 1989) stresses that radical democracy depended on the mass citizen body's institutional power (boule, dikasteria, ekklesia) established in 462 BC, which elite leaders like Pericles then had to persuade rather than command. Mogens Hansen's institutional study of the Athenian democracy likewise locates the defining transfer of sovereign power to the demos in the 462 BC settlement, treating the Periclean period as elaboration.
Model paragraph: "The decisive structural change was Ephialtes's in 462 BC. By transferring the Areopagus's dokimasia, euthynai and political jurisdiction to the boule, ekklesia and heliaia ([Aristotle], Ath. Pol. 25.2-4), Ephialtes removed the last aristocratic check on the popular institutions, and the reform's survival after his assassination in 461 BC (Ath. Pol. 25.4; Plutarch, Cimon 15) confirms it rested on more than one man's authority. Ober's argument that radical democracy is defined by the institutional power of the mass citizen body supports reading 462 BC, not the 440s BC, as the true foundation."
Verdict: To a large extent, Ephialtes established the radical democracy's constitutional architecture; Pericles's contribution, while indispensable to its stability and reach, was consolidation rather than creation.

Marker's note: top bands require the explicit "to what extent" judgement sustained across paragraphs, at least one primary citation with book/chapter (Ath. Pol. 25), at least one named modern historian used as ARGUMENT (not decoration), and a verdict that directly answers the question set.

exam20 marksAssess the view that Periclean Athens was, in Thucydides's words, 'in name a democracy but in fact rule by the first man.'

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Thesis: Thucydides's verdict (2.65) captures a real tension in Periclean Athens: formally the ekklesia, boule and dikasteria retained sovereign power, but Pericles's unbroken run of strategiai and unmatched oratorical authority produced a de facto personal ascendancy that the sources treat as anomalous.
Argument line 1 - the formal structure remained fully democratic: The ekklesia voted directly on policy, the boule of 500 was chosen by lot with a one-year, twice-in-a-lifetime limit, the dikasteria (6,000 jurors annually) were also chosen by lot, and ostracism remained available against any citizen who threatened to dominate - a real institutional constraint that had already removed Cimon (461 BC) and Thucydides son of Melesias (around 443 BC).
Argument line 2 - Pericles's personal dominance was real and unusual: He held the strategia in 15 consecutive years from around 443 BC, an office chosen by election rather than lot precisely because military and diplomatic leadership required continuity. His command of persuasive oratory, Thucydides implies, let him lead the Assembly rather than follow it.
Argument line 3 - historiography contextualises rather than resolves the tension: Christian Meier (Athens, 1990) frames the polis's political achievement as an equilibrium between institutional openness and exceptional individual leadership. Donald Kagan's biographical synthesis (Pericles of Athens, 1991) treats Pericles's ascendancy as earned through persuasion within democratic rules, not a subversion of them - answering Thucydides's implicit criticism.
Model paragraph: "Thucydides's formula is best read as a comment on POLITICAL CULTURE rather than constitutional fact: no law gave Pericles power beyond an annually renewable, electable strategia, and the ostracisms of Cimon and Thucydides son of Melesias show the demos retained the capacity to remove a dominant figure. Kagan's reading of Pericles's ascendancy as won through persuasion, not command, supports treating 2.65 as praise disguised as paradox rather than a verdict that the democracy was hollow."
Verdict: The description is a rhetorically sharp exaggeration: institutionally Athens remained a radical democracy, but Pericles's unmatched personal authority within it justifies Thucydides's paradox as an accurate impression, if not a literal description.

Marker's note: rewards direct engagement with the quoted historian's words, correct dating of the strategiai, and named modern historiography used to adjudicate the "to what extent" the quotation is fair.