Preface

TL;DRAbstract

Greek politics were highly personalized. The very existence of the institution of ostracism, for example, whereby individuals were sent into exile by means of a popular vote, attests to the fact. Pericles owed his dominance of Athenian political life in large part to the fact that he had successfully rallied opposition to Thucydides (son of Milesias, to distinguish him from the historian) in the 440s bce. Thucydides had been the first to create anything like a political party in Athens, encouraging his partisans to sit together in the assembly. Thucydides' power came to an abrupt end when he was ostracized in 443 bce, and Pericles was pre-eminent for the next decade or more. On Pericles' death in 429 there was a struggle for the succession, at the level of succeeding to the grip on Athenian politics that Pericles had enjoyed, rather than any formal position beyond an annual election to a generalship. There were ten generals each year, and any pre-eminence was due to the Athenian public

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