PROSTATES TOU DEMOU

Throughout the period of Perikles' ascendancy, the state was run reasonably well, but after his death there was a marked decline. It was then that the people first got a leader who was not approved by the respectable citizens; before this the leaders had always come from this class. The first leader of the people was Solon, and he was followed by Peisistratos, both of them aristocrats of good family. After the fall of the tyranny there was Kleisthenes the Alkmaionid, and he had no opponent after the expulsion of Isagoras and his supporters. Then Xanthippos was the leader of the people and Miltiades was the leader of the aristocrats; then came Themistokles and Aristeides. After them Ephialtes led the people and Kimon the wealthier classes. Then Perikles led the people, while Thucydides, a relative by marriage of Kimon, led the other group. After the death of Perikles, Nikias, who died in Sicily, was the leader of the upper classes, while Kleon the son of Kleanaitos led the people. The latter appears to have corrupted the people more than anyone else by his violence. He was the first to shout when addressing the people, he used abusive language, and addressed the Ekklesia with his garments tucked up, when it was customary to speak properly dressed. After them, Theramenes the son of Hagnon was leader of the gother group, while Kleophon the lyre-maker, who intruduced the two-obol payment, was the leader of the people. . . . After Kleophon there was an unbroken series of demagogues . . . .