Dēmos · Classical Athenian Democracy · a Stoa Publication
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Ephialtes’ Family and Character.
The Areopagus Before the Reforms..
Political Background to Ephialtes’ Reforms: Cimon and Themistocles.
Political Background to Ephialtes’ Reforms: the People.
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Christopher W. Blackwell, edition of January 27, 2003
(Section 1 of 10)
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Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
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Athens.
Ephialtes was a democratic reformer in Athens in the
(Section 2 of 10)
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Isocrates (Isoc. 15).
Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
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Athens.
Athens.
Writing in the
(Section 3 of 10)
Plutarch did not write a biography of Ephialtes, unfortunately, and so we know many fewer details about him than about other prominent Athenians. Interested readers should read the article on Cimon, Ephialtes’ principle political rival, to fill out the picture of Athenian politics in the
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Diodorus (Diod.).
Herodotus (Hdt.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
Demosthenes (Dem. 13).
Aelian (Ael. VH).
Ephialtes was the son of Sophonides (Diod. 11.77.6). Aelian includes him in a list of important public figures who were not rich (Ael. VH 2.43; Ael. VH 11.9), which we might contrast to the famous wealth of his political rival Cimon (Hdt. 6.136.3; Plut. Cim. 4.4; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27.2-3; Plut. Cim. 10.1-2; Dem. 13.29). Aelian also calls Ephialtes a “philosopher”, but what that is supposed to mean is not clear (Ael. VH 3.17).
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Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
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Athens.
Aegean.
Persia.
Ephialtes seems to have held the position of strategos (στρατηγός), or General, at Athens, since we hear of him commanding an Athenian fleet in the Aegean, shortly after Cimon’s victories over Persia in
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Diodorus (Diod.).
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Athens.
Apart from these few details, most of what we know about Ephialtes has to do with is greatest political triumph, the reform of the Council of the Areopagus at Athens. Diodorus, who is critical of the reform, summarizes the event and adds a “moral,” saying that Ephialtes “persuaded the Assembly to vote to curtail the power of the Council of the Areopagus and to destroy the renowned customs which their fathers had followed. Nevertheless, he did not escape the punishment for attempting such lawlessness, but he was done to death by night and none ever knew how he lost his life” (Diod. 11.77.6).
(Section 4 of 10)
The Council of the Areopagus (also called the Court of the Areopagus), its history, and its role in the Athenian democracy is described at length, with links to the ancient evidence, elsewhere (see Areopagus). What follows is a brief summary of its powers before Ephialtes’ reforms, to help put those reforms in context.
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Aeschylus (Aesch. Eum.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Rh.).
Demosthenes (Dem. 23).
Isocrates (Isoc. 7).
Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
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Athens.
The Court of the Areopagus was an ancient institution. It features in the mythological history of Athens, as portrayed in Aeschylus’ tragedy Eumenides, in which the goddess Athene puts the Eumenides, or Furies, on trial on this Hill of the Areopagus at Athens (Aesch. Eum.). Even under the democratic government of the
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Isocrates (Isoc. 7).
Plutarch (Plut. Sol.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
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Athens.
The Court of the Areopagus was an aristocratic institution, composed of “men who were of noble birth” (οῖς καλῶς γεγονόσι) (Isoc. 7.37). It was composed of men who had held the office of archon (Plut. Sol. 19.1; Plut. Per. 9.3). Members of the Court of the Areopagus, the “Areopagites” (Ἀρεοπαγίται) held office for life, not only in pre-democratic Athens but also in the
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Pol.).
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Athens.
Solon changed method by which Athenians became archons—forty candidates were elected, and from these forty, nine archons were picked by lot (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 8.1). Under the laws of Solon, the Court of the Areopagus retained its role as “overseer of the constitution” (ὥσπερ ὑπῆρχεν καὶ πρότερον ἐπίσκοπος οὖσα τῆς πολιτείας); it could punish citizens, fine them, and spend money itself without answering to any other governing body; and it oversaw cases impeachment (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 8.4). Aristotle describes the government of Athens under Solon as a blend of elements—the courts were democratic, the elected archons were aristocratic, and the Court of the Areopagus was oligarchic (Aristot. Pol. 1273b).
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
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Salamis.
Peloponnese.
Athens.
The Court of the Areopagus seems to have enjoyed a return to its former glory immediately after the Persian Wars. Aristotle tells the story of how, during the chaos of the Persian invasion in
(Section 5 of 10)
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Pol.).
Diodorus (Diod.).
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Sparta.
The ancient sources are not consistent regarding who was responsible for the reform of the Areopagus. Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians, for example, mentions Ephialtes alone at one point (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.1), Ephialtes and Themistocles elsewhere (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.3-4), and Pericles elsewhere (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27.1). Plutarch also gives credit to Pericles (Plut. Per. 9.3), but his description of events helps straighten out the confusion and point to Ephialtes as the man responsible for the reforms themselves: “For this reason all the more did Pericles, strong in the affections of the people, lead a successful party against the Council of the Areopagus. Not only was the Council robbed of most of its jurisdiction by Ephialtes, but Cimon also, on the charge of being a lover of Sparta and a hater of the people, was ostracized” (Plut. Per. 9.4 [emphasis added — CWB]). Elsewhere in his biography of Pericles, Plutarch refers to Ephialtes as the one “who broke down the power of the Council of the Areopagus” (Plut. Per. 7.6). According to Plutarch, then, Pericles may have been an important influence behind the events, but it was Ephialtes who actually brought about the reforms (see also Aristot. Pol. 1274a, which seems to agree with Plutarch’s version, and Diod. 11.77.6, which mentions Ephialtes only).
(Section 6 of 10)
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Plutarch (Plut. Them.).
Plutarch (Plut. Cim.).
In the years following the Persian Wars, which ended in
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
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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
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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
(Section 7 of 10)
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Pol.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Pol.).
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Athens.
According to Aristotle, Ephialtes brought about a reform of the Court of the Areopagus by denouncing the Court before the Council (τῆς βουλῆς τῶν πεντακοσίων) and the Assembly (ἐν τῷ δήμῳ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.4). So the reform was not, finally, the work of Ephialtes alone, but an act of legislation by two of the more democratic institutions in Athens. Aristotle connects this event to a newfound feeling of power among the common people of Athens following the Persian Wars, when the less wealthy citizens by serving in the navy had saved the city. He makes the connection between naval victories and the reform of the Court of the Areopagus explicitly in his Politics (Aristot. Pol. 1274a), and the Constitution of the Athenians strongly suggests the connection as well: “For he took away some of the functions of the Areopagus, and he urged the state very strongly in the direction of naval power, which resulted in emboldening the multitude, who brought all the government more into their own hands.” (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27.1; note that “he” in this quotation is Pericles, but as we have seen this work attributes these reforms to Ephialtes and Pericles, as does the Politics [see Aristot. Pol. 1274a — CWB]).
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
By
(Section 8 of 10)
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Philochorus (Philoch. fr.).
By means of Ephialtes’ reforms, according to Aristotle, “the Council of the Areopagus was deprived of the superintendence of affairs. After this there came about an increased relaxation of the constitution” (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 26.1). A fragment from Philochorus, who was a historian writing in the
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Demosthenes (Dem. 23).
To understand what Aristotle means by “deprived of superintendence of affairs”, or what Philochorus means by “only those cases pertaining to the body” we can only look at comments in the sources about the Court of the Areopagus’ role after Ephialtes’ reforms. Aristotle, describing the Court of the Areopagus and its functions in
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Aristotle (Aristot. Pol.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
If Ephialtes’ reforms took many crimes out of the jurisdiction of the Court of the Areopagus and assigned them to other courts, with juries of citizens, then there would have been a greater need for citizens to serve on juries. And, in fact, several of the accounts of Ephialtes and Pericles reforming the Court of the Areopagus also the institution of pay for jury service, an innovation that may have aimed at meeting this new need. Aristotle relates the two reforms very closely, and relates them both to an increasingly democratic government: “Ephialtes and Pericles docked the power of the Council on the Areopagus, while Pericles instituted payment for serving in the law-courts, and in this manner finally the successive leaders of the people led them on by growing stages to the present democracy” (Aristot. Pol. 1274a; also Plut. Per. 9.3; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27.2-3).
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Lysias (Lys. 7).
Apollodorus (Dem. 59).
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Athens.
The evidence from the
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Lysias (Lys. 1).
Aeschines (Aeschin. 1).
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Greece.
Ephialtes’ reforms took authority away from the Court of the Areopagus and put it into the hands of the people, but the court did retain its status as a time-honored and exalted institution. At the
(Section 9 of 10)
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Aristotle (Aristot. Ath. Pol.).
Diodorus (Diod.).
Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
Antiphon (Antiph. 5).
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Tanagra.
Aristotle says that, shortly after reforming the Court of the Areopagus, Ephialtes was kidnapped and murdered by Aristodicus of Tanagra (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.2; also Plut. Per. 10.7, who cites Aristotle as his source). Other sources do not think that the case of Ephialtes’ murder is so easily solved, however. Diodorus, highly critical of Ephialtes’ democratic reforms, describes the man’s end in moral terms: “Ephialtes the son of Sophonides, who, being a popular leader, had provoked the masses to anger against the Areopagites, persuaded the Assembly to vote to curtail the power of the Council of the Areopagus and to destroy the renowned customs which their fathers had followed. Nevertheless, he did not escape the punishment for attempting such lawlessness, but he was done to death by night and none ever knew how he lost his life” (Diod. 11.77.6). Plutarch says that the historian Idomeneus—who lived in the
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Plutarch (Plut. Per.).
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Athens.
Plutarch, whose judgement of Ephialtes’ reforms and their effect on the people of Athens is highly critical (Plut. Per. 7.6), nevertheless names the reformer as one of the founders of Athens’ prosperity and power in the
(Section 10 of 10)