Ephialtes - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

The success of Ephialtes' reforms was rapidly followed by the ostracism of Cimon, which left Ephialtes and his faction firmly in control of the state, although the fully fledged Athenian democracy of later years was not yet fully established; Ephialtes' reforms appear to have been only the first step in the democratic party's programme. Ephialtes, however, would not live to see the further development of this new form of government; In 461 BC, he was assassinated. The details of his assassination are unknown. However, there are three different theories to explain this event. The first source we have on Ephialtes himself and his death is Antiphon (5.68) written in 420 BC, which states that the identity of the murderer was unknown. “Thus those who murdered Ephialtes, one of your citizens, have never been discovered to this day, and if someone expected his associates to conjecture who were his murderers, and if not, to be implicated in the murder, it would not have been fair to the associates. In addition, the murderers of Ephialtes did not desire to hide the body so there would be no danger of betraying the deed.” However 90 years later, Aristotle, in his Constitution of Athens 25.4, states that Aristodikos of Tanagra was the culprit. As the years progressed, more theories were established. A third idea is that Aristodikos of Tanagra was part of an oligarchic plot; his political ally Pericles would go on to complete the governmental transformation and lead Athens for several decades. In modern Greek, "Efialtes" means "nightmare", because the aristocrats of Athens complained that they constantly saw him in their sleep.