After this Pericles came forward as popular leader, having first
distinguished himself while still a young man by prosecuting Cimon on
the audit of his official accounts as general. Under his auspices the
constitution became still more democratic. He took away some of the
privileges of the Areopagus, and, above all, he turned the policy of
the state in the direction of sea power, which caused the masses to
acquire confidence in themselves and consequently to take the conduct
of affairs more and more into their own hands. Moreover, forty-eight
years after the battle of Salamis, in the archonship of Pythodorus, the
Peloponnesian war broke out, during which the populace was shut up in
the city and became accustomed to gain its livelihood by military
service, and so, partly voluntarily and partly involuntarily,
determined to assume the administration of the state itself. Pericles
was also the first to institute pay for service in the law-courts, as a
bid for popular favour to counterbalance the wealth of Cimon. The
latter, having private possessions on a regal scale, not only performed
the regular public services magnificently, but also maintained a large
number of his fellow-demesmen. Any member of the deme of Laciadae could
go every day to Cimon's house and there receive a reasonable provision;
while his estate was guarded by no fences, so that any one who liked
might help himself to the fruit from it. Pericles' private property was
quite unequal to this magnificence and accordingly he took the advice
of Damonides of Oia (who was commonly supposed to be the person who
prompted Pericles in most of his measures, and was therefore
subsequently ostracized), which was that, as he was beaten in the
matter of private possessions, he should make gifts to the people from
their own property; and accordingly he instituted pay for the members
of the juries. Some critics accuse him of thereby causing a
deterioration in the character of the juries, since it was always the
common people who put themselves forward for selection as jurors,
rather than the men of better position. Moreover, bribery came into
existence after this, the first person to introduce it being Anytus,
after his command at Pylos. He was prosecuted by certain individuals
on account of his loss of Pylos, but escaped by bribing the jury.