View source for Pericles

===Ostracising Cimon===
Around 461 BC, the leadership of the democratic party decided it was time to take aim at the [[Areopagus]], a traditional council controlled by the Athenian aristocracy, which had once been the most powerful body in the state.<ref name="For">Fornara-Samons, ''Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles'', [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft2p30058m&chunk.id=d0e2016&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e2016&brand=eschol/ 24–25].</ref> The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, [[Ephialtes of Athens|Ephialtes]], proposed a reduction of the Areopagus's powers. The [[Ecclesia (ancient Athens)|Ecclesia]] (the Athenian Assembly) adopted Ephialtes's proposal without opposition.<ref name="Plutarch IX"/> This reform signalled the beginning of a new era of "radical democracy".<ref name="For"/>

The democratic party gradually became dominant in Athenian politics, and Pericles seemed willing to follow a populist policy to cajole the public. According to [[Aristotle]], Pericles's stance can be explained by the fact that his principal political opponent, Cimon, was both rich and generous, and was able to gain public favour by lavishly handing out portions of his sizeable personal fortune.<ref name="Ar27"/> The historian Loren J. Samons II argues, however, that Pericles had enough resources to make a political mark by private means, had he so chosen.<ref>Samons, L.J., ''What's Wrong with Democracy?'', p. 80.</ref>

In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this opponent using [[ostracism]]. The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding [[Sparta]].<ref>Plutarch, ''Cimon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0017%3Achapter%3D16%3Asection%3D2 XVI].</ref>

After Cimon's ostracism, Pericles continued to promote a populist social policy.<ref name="Plutarch IX"/> He first proposed a decree that permitted the poor to watch theatrical plays without paying, with the state covering the cost of their admission. With other decrees he lowered the property requirement for the [[archon]]ship in 458–457 BC and bestowed generous wages on all citizens who served as jurymen in the [[Heliaia]] (the supreme court of Athens) some time just after 454&nbsp;BC.<ref>Fornara-Samons, ''Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles'', [https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft2p30058m&chunk.id=d0e2642&toc.id=&brand=eschol/ 67–73].</ref> His most controversial measure, however, was a law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Thomas R. Martin|Martin, Thomas R.]]|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0009%3Achapter%3D11|title=An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander|year=1999|via=[[Perseus Digital Library]]}}</ref>

Such measures impelled Pericles's critics to hold him responsible for the gradual degeneration of the Athenian democracy. The 19th century Greek historian [[Constantine Paparrigopoulos]], argued that Pericles sought for the expansion and stabilisation of all democratic institutions.<ref name="Papar">Paparrigopoulos, K., ''History of the Greek Nation'', Ab, p. 145.</ref> Accordingly, he enacted legislation granting the lower classes access to the political system and the public offices, from which they had previously been barred.<ref>Aristotle, [[:s:Athenian_Constitution#24._Aristides_and_the_League:_the_population_of_Athens_supported_by_the_revenues_of_the_League.|''Constitution of Athens'', 24]] and ''Politics'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0058 1274a].</ref>

According to Samons, Pericles believed that it was necessary to raise the ''[[Deme|demos]]'', in which he saw an untapped source of Athenian power and the crucial element of Athenian military dominance.<ref>Samons, L.J., ''What's Wrong with Democracy?'', p. 65.</ref> (The fleet, backbone of Athenian power since the days of Themistocles, was manned almost entirely by members of the lower classes).<ref>Fine, ''The Ancient Greeks'', pp. 377–378.</ref>

Cimon, in contrast, apparently believed that no further free space for democratic evolution existed. He was certain that democracy had reached its peak and Pericles's reforms were leading to the stalemate of populism. According to Paparrigopoulos, history vindicated Cimon, because Athens, after Pericles's death, sank into the abyss of political turmoil and [[demagogy]]. Paparrigopoulos maintained that an unprecedented regression descended upon the city, whose glory perished as a result of Pericles's populist policies.<ref name="Papar"/>

According to another historian, Justin Daniel King, radical democracy benefited people individually, but harmed the state.<ref name="King24">King, J.D., {{cite web|url=http://www.vu.union.edu/~kingj/classics.pdf|title=Athenian Democracy and Empire|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060921155603/http://www.vu.union.edu/~kingj/classics.pdf|archive-date=21 September 2006}}&nbsp;{{small|(135&nbsp;KB)}}, pp. 24–25.</ref> In contrast, [[Donald Kagan]] asserted that the democratic measures Pericles put into effect provided the basis for an unassailable political strength.<ref>Kagan, D., ''The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War'', p. 79.</ref> After all, Cimon finally accepted the new democracy and did not oppose the citizenship law, after he returned from exile in 451&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Kagan135-136">Kagan, D., ''The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War'', pp. 135–136.</ref>