13 Triumph of the Radical Democracy

For more than 30 years, from 461 to 429 B.C., Pericles directed the assembly at Athens, carrying the reforms of Cleisthenes to their logical conclusion. At a comparatively young age, Pericles emerged as the dominant figure in the assembly after the ostracism of his conservative foe Cimon and the assassination of his senior political ally Ephialtes. Within a decade, Pericles transformed Athenian politics, making the assembly sovereign in both law and practice. Powers to discipline magistrates were transferred from the Areopagus, the council of ex-archons, to the popular juries composed of citizens of hoplite or thetic rank. Pericles introduced wages for jury and council service, established circuit courts for rural Attica, and initiated building programs offering high pay to poor citizens. In 451/50 B.C., Athenian citizenship was restricted, and slaves and foreigners usurping citizen rights were severely punished. With these reforms and the power of his oratorical skills, Pericles assured his domination of the assembly. Yet with his death in 429 B.C., the Athenian assembly would face a crisis—seeking a democratic leader of Pericles’s stature to guide policy in a great war.