THE BEECHMONT CREST GUIDE TO ANCIENT GREECE
The Age of Pericles
Dictators often stay in power for years, and even decades at stretch. But democratically elected leaders change frequently. It is therefore somewhat rare for a democratically elected leader to dominate a nation’s political system for an extended period of time.
Recent history offers few examples. Perhaps Charles De Gaulle in postwar France and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Depression-era America would be reasonable candidates.
There was one such leader in Athens during the middle of the fifth century B.C.: Pericles. In the 450s, Pericles became the leading political figure in Athens. Although Athens retained its democratic structure, commentators of the period were fond of saying that Athens was effectively ruled by one man.
This was a bit of an exaggeration; but Pericles enjoyed an unusual degree of popularity. He was a persuasive orator; and the policies that he championed early in his career met with enthusiasm in the Athenian polis. Throughout the wars with Persia, Athenian domestic and foreign policy had continued to evolve.
A number of important changes were implemented in the decades after Thermopylae. Athenian democracy was expanded to involve a larger part of the polis.
A body called the ecclesia included all male citizens over the age of eighteen. (However, women, slaves, and resident aliens still had no political rights.) In the 450s, the ecclesia had about 40,000 members. The meetings of the ecclesia were held on a hillside near the acropolis. This space could accommodate 6,000 people at a time.
At these meetings the ecclesia passed all laws and decided important matters of foreign policy. Anyone technically had the right to speak at a session of the ecclesia. In practice, though, only a select group of accomplished orators dared to speak in front of such a large audience.
Ostracism in Athens
Beginning around 490 B.C., the Athenians began a practice known as ostracism. Ostracism was a bit like being voted off the island in the TV reality show Survivor. Each member of the assembly wrote the name of an individual who they believed was harmful to the polis on a small piece of pottery called an ostrakon. If a citizen received a majority of the votes, he could be exiled from the polis for ten years. (In practice, ostracized citizens were often allowed back into the polis before the full ten year period of exile had passed.)