r, had an equal chance of obtaining the
honours of the state. Other changes which accompanied this
revolution--for such it must be called--were the institution of paid
DICASTERIES or jury-courts, and the almost entire abrogation of the
judicial power of the Senate of Five Hundred. It cannot be supposed
that such fundamental changes were effected without violent party
strife. The poet AEschylus, in the tragedy of the EUMENIDIES, in vain
exerted all the powers of his genius in support of the aristocratical
party and of the tottering Areopagus; his exertions on this occasion
resulted only in his own flight from Athens. The same fate attended
Cimon himself; and he was condemned by ostracism (B.C. 461) to a ten
years' banishment. Nay, party violence even went the length of
assassination. Ephialtes, who had taken the lead in the attacks upon
the Areopagus, fell beneath the dagger of a Boeotian, hired by the
conservative party to dispatch him.

It was from this period (B.C. 461) that the long administration of
Pericles may be said to have commenced. The effects of his accession
to power soon became visible in the foreign relations of Athens.
Pericles had succeeded to the political principles of Themistocles, and
his aim was to render Athens the leading power of Greece. The
Confederacy of Delos had already secured her maritime ascendency;
Pericles directed his policy to the extension of her influence in
continental Greece. She formed an alliance with the Thessalians,
Argos, and Megara. The possession of Megara was of great importance,
as it enabled the Athenians to arrest the progress of an invading army
from Peloponnesus, AEgina, so long the maritime rival of Athens, was
subdued and made tributary. The Athenians marched with rapid steps to
the dominion of Greece. Shortly afterwards the battle of OEnophyta
(B.C. 456), in which the Athenians defeated the Boeotians, gave Athens
the command of Thebes, and of all the other Boeotian towns. From the
gulf of Corinth to the straits of Thermopylae Athenian influence was
now predominant. During these events the Athenians had continued to
prosecute the war against Persia. In the year B.C. 460 they sent a
powerful fleet to Egypt to assist Inarus, who had revolted against
Persia; but this expedition proved a complete failure, for at the end
of six years the revolt was put down by the Persians, and the Athenian
fleet destroyed (B.C. 455). At a later period (B.C. 449) Cimon, w