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Plutarch (Plut. Them.).
Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).

In the years following the Persian Wars, which ended in 479 BCE (source: OCD³), the principle advocate of a less democratic, more restricted government was Cimon, the son of Miltiades (Plut. Cim. 4.1; Plut. Cim. 10.7). Themistocles was a leading advocate of democratic reforms, and Ephialtes seems to have been his successor in this role, after Themistocles was ostracized in 472 BCE (Plut. Them. 22.2; Plut. Cim. 10.6-8; source for date: OCD³).

In the years before Ephialtes enacted his reforms, both Cimon and Themistocles stood trial before the Court of the Areopagus, and these trials provide an interesting background to Ephialtes’ reforms.

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Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
 
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Chersonese.
Aegean.
Thrace.
Athens.
Macedonia.

By 467 BCE, while the Persians had been mostly driven from the Aegean sea, they remained in the Chersonese, a peninsula in the northern Aegean, and allied themselves with some of the people of Thrace; the Athenians dispatched Cimon to wage war against them (Plut. Cim. 14.1; source for date: OCD³). Cimon won a victory in Thrace, which would have allowed him, had he wished to, to invade Macedonia. When he failed to do this, he was brought to trial in Athens, accused of accepting bribes to leave Macedonia alone; one of the prosecutors at his trial was Pericles (Plut. Cim. 14.2-3). Cimon spoke well in his own defense (Plut. Cim. 14.3) and was acquitted, but this trial, at least as Plutarch narrates Cimon’s career, marked the beginning of a period of confrontation between him and the democratic reformers (Plut. Cim. 15.1-2; Plut. Cim. 10.7).

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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Thucydides (Thuc.).
Plutarch (Plut. Them.).
 
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Persia.
Athens.

Themistocles was himself a member of the Court of the Areopagus, but was ostracized at the end of the 470s BCE (Plut. Them. 22.1; Thuc. 1.135). While he was in exile, the Court of the Areopagus tried him for treason—the charge was “Medism,” or conspiring with Persia—and condemned him to death, although he was absent (Thuc. 1.138; Plut. Them. 22.1; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.3). According to Aristotle, Themistocles encouraged Ephialtes to limit the powers of the Court of the Areopagus in order to forestall his own prosecution (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.3-4). This directly contradicts all other sources, who make it clear that Themistocles was not, in fact, in Athens at the time of his trial (Thuc. 1.135-138; Plut. Them. 22.1), but it might suggest that the trial of Themistocles, a famous advocate of democratic reform, influenced Ephialtes.

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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
 
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Athens.

Cause and effect in history, ancient or modern, are difficult to establish, but we can say this: when Ephialtes enacted his reforms that limited the powers of the Court of the Areopagus, thus making Athens more democratic (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 41.1; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27.1; Plut. Per. 7.6), that court had recently acquitted a famous opponent of democracy and had condemned a famous proponent of democracy.

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Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
 
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Peloponnese.
Sparta.

In the year 462, Cimon led an Athenian army to the Peloponnese to help Sparta put down a rebellion, a mission that Ephialtes had opposed (Plut. Cim. 16.8). Ephialtes seems to have taken advantage of his absence to enact democratic reforms, especially a reform in the powers and authority of the Court of the Areopagus (Plut. Cim. 15.1-2; for a full discussion of the circumstances of Cimon’s absence, and the timing of Ephialtes’ reforms, see the article on Cimon). Upon Cimon’s return, he was ostracized for ten years (Plut. Cim. 17.2; Plut. Per. 9.4).

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