Pericles, democracy and the Athenian empire: WACE Year 12 Ancient History
“The leadership of Pericles, the working of Athenian democracy, and the nature of the Athenian empire on the eve of and during the war”
Pericles was the dominant Athenian statesman from the 450s until his death in 429 BC. He championed a radical democracy in which citizens governed directly through the assembly and law courts, and he presided over the transformation of the anti-Persian Delian League into an Athenian empire funded by allied tribute. At the war's outbreak in 431 BC he designed the strategy of avoiding land battle and relying on naval power, but he died of the plague in 429 BC, removing Athens' steadying hand.
What this dot point is asking
SCSA wants you to understand how Athens was led and governed on the eve of and during the Peloponnesian War, and Pericles is the central figure. You need to explain how Athenian democracy worked, how the Delian League became an Athenian empire, the leadership and strategy of Pericles, and the significance of his death early in the war. The Greece option is examined through source analysis and essays, so you must name and evaluate evidence such as Thucydides, Plutarch and the epigraphic tribute lists.
Athenian democracy under Pericles was direct and radical by ancient standards. Adult male citizens met in the assembly (ekklesia) to debate and decide policy, war and law by majority vote; a council (boule) of five hundred, chosen by lot, prepared business; and large citizen juries staffed the law courts. Pericles is associated with measures that deepened this democracy, including pay for jury service, which allowed poorer citizens to participate, and a law restricting citizenship to those with two Athenian parents. He held no monarchic office but was repeatedly elected as one of the ten generals (strategoi), exercising leadership through persuasion in the assembly rather than formal command.
Thucydides gives a famous and double-edged assessment of Periclean leadership, observing that Athens was in theory a democracy but in practice was becoming rule by its first citizen. This is a crucial source judgement: Pericles led not by holding special power but by the authority of his arguments and his record, dominating the assembly through eloquence and trust. His funeral oration, as reconstructed by Thucydides, presents an idealised vision of Athens as the school of Greece, a self-governing community worth dying for, and is a central, though literary and idealising, source for Athenian self-image.
The Delian League was founded in 478 BC as a voluntary alliance to continue the war against Persia, with members contributing ships or money. Over time Athens converted it into an empire: the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens in 454 BC, allied tribute funded Athenian projects, and revolts were crushed. By Pericles' day allied contributions sustained Athenian power, recorded in the inscribed tribute lists.
The Athenian empire grew out of the Delian League, the alliance formed in 478 BC after the Persian Wars to continue resistance to Persia. Athens, with its great fleet, led the League, and members contributed either ships or, increasingly, money. Over the following decades Athens turned the alliance into an empire: it suppressed attempts to secede, moved the common treasury from Delos to Athens in 454 BC, and used allied tribute to fund its navy and its building programme, including the Parthenon. The inscribed Athenian Tribute Lists, recording the contributions of subject states, are a vital epigraphic source for the scale and workings of this empire, providing official documentary evidence alongside the narrative of Thucydides.
The empire was central to Athenian power and to the causes of the war. The tribute of the subject states funded the fleet that made Athens dominant at sea and paid for the public works and pay for office that sustained the democracy. But Athenian expansion and interference, such as the Megarian Decree restricting a Spartan ally's trade, alarmed Sparta and its allies. Thucydides identifies the growth of Athenian power and the fear it caused in Sparta as the truest underlying cause of the war, placing the empire that Pericles defended at the heart of the conflict.
The strategoi were the ten annually elected generals who led Athens in war and, in practice, in politics, since they could be re-elected indefinitely. Pericles exercised his long ascendancy by repeated election as strategos combined with his unrivalled influence in the assembly. His authority rested on persuasion and reputation, not on any office above the law, which is what made it both powerful and fragile.
When the war broke out in 431 BC, Pericles devised Athens' strategy. Recognising that Athens could not defeat Sparta's superior army in a land battle, he persuaded the Athenians to abandon the countryside of Attica, bring the rural population inside the Long Walls connecting the city to its port at Piraeus, and rely on the fleet, imperial revenue and seaborne raids to outlast Sparta. The strategy was rational, but crowding the population behind the walls contributed to a catastrophe: a devastating plague struck Athens from 430 BC, killing a large part of the population and, in 429 BC, Pericles himself. Thucydides, an eyewitness, gives a famous clinical account of the plague.
Pericles' death removed the leader whose authority had restrained Athenian politics, and Thucydides contrasts his measured leadership with the reckless demagogues who followed, such as Cleon, and with later disasters such as the Sicilian Expedition. This judgement, that Athens declined once it lost his guiding hand, is itself an interpretation that students should weigh rather than accept uncritically. Understanding Pericles, the democracy he led, the empire he defended and the strategy he set is essential to explaining both the outbreak and the early course of the war.
Build from how he governed to the consequences.
Step 1: Define his leadership
Explain that he held no office above the law, only repeated election as strategos, and led by persuasion in the sovereign assembly.
Step 2: Deepening democracy
Cite pay for jury service and the citizenship law, with Thucydides' judgement that Athens was rule by its first citizen.
Step 3: The empire he defended
Explain the Delian League's conversion into empire, the treasury moved to Athens in 454 BC, and tribute funding the fleet and the Parthenon.
Step 4: War strategy
Use the defensive plan of 431 BC behind the Long Walls and his death in the plague of 429 BC.
Step 5: Judge the impact
Conclude that he balanced democracy and empire, and weigh Thucydides' interpretation that Athens declined once it lost his steadying hand.
Students sometimes describe Pericles as if he governed Athens single-handedly. He held no special office beyond the annually elected generalship and depended on persuading the sovereign assembly. His power rested on influence and reputation, and Thucydides' line about rule by the first citizen is an interpretation to analyse, not a literal constitutional fact. Strong answers distinguish his real authority from formal power.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
WACE 2022-style20 marksEvaluate the leadership of Pericles and its impact on Athenian democracy and empire.Show worked answer →
A 20 mark essay needs a thesis on the nature and effect of his leadership.
Thesis. Argue that Pericles led not by office but by persuasion, deepening democracy while sustaining an empire that brought both greatness and war.
Democracy. Cite pay for jury service, the citizenship law and his repeated election as strategos, with Thucydides' line on rule by the first citizen.
Empire. Explain the Delian League's conversion into empire, the treasury moved to Athens in 454 BC, allied tribute funding the Parthenon, and the tribute lists.
War strategy. Use the defensive plan of 431 BC, the Long Walls, and his death in the plague of 429 BC.
Judgement. Conclude his leadership balanced democracy and empire, and weigh Thucydides' claim that Athens declined once it lost him. Markers reward the evaluation and source awareness.
WACE 2020-style8 marksAssess the usefulness of Thucydides and the Athenian Tribute Lists for understanding the Athenian empire.Show worked answer →
An 8 mark source question needs origin, purpose and usefulness for each.
Thucydides. An exiled Athenian general whose history analyses the empire and its dangers; invaluable but written from an Athenian perspective with composed speeches.
Tribute Lists. Inscribed official records of allied contributions, documentary and concrete, useful for the scale and workings of the empire but laconic.
Judgement. Conclude that together they are highly useful, the narrative giving analysis and the inscriptions giving hard documentary evidence, provided Thucydides' perspective is weighed and the two corroborated.