After this revolution the administration of the state became more and
more lax, in consequence of the eager rivalry of candidates for popular
favour. During this period the moderate party, as it happened, had no
real chief, their leader being Cimon son of Miltiades, who was a
comparatively young man, and had been late in entering public life; and
at the same time the general populace suffered great losses by war. The
soldiers for active service were selected at that time from the roll of
citizens, and as the generals were men of no military experience, who
owed their position solely to their family standing, it continually
happened that some two or three thousand of the troops perished on an
expedition; and in this way the best men alike of the lower and the
upper classes were exhausted. Consequently in most matters of
administration less heed was paid to the laws than had formerly been
the case. No alteration, however, was made in the method of election of
the nine Archons, except that five years after the death of Ephialtes
it was decided that the candidates to be submitted to the lot for that
office might be selected from the Zeugitae as well as from the higher
classes. The first Archon from that class was Mnesitheides. Up to this
time all the Archons had been taken from the Pentacosiomedimni and
Knights, while the Zeugitae were confined to the ordinary magistracies,
save where an evasion of the law was overlooked. Four years later, in
the archonship of Lysicrates, thirty 'local justices', as they as they
were called, were re-established; and two years afterwards, in the
archonship of Antidotus, consequence of the great increase in the
number of citizens, it was resolved, on the motion of Pericles, that no
one should be admitted to the franchise who was not of citizen birth by
both parents.