Pericles was the son of Xanthippus and the Alcmaeonid Agariste, niece of Cleisthenes and granddaughter of Agariste of Sicyon, the wife of Megacles (2). In 463 BC Pericles led the prosecution of Cimon, the leader of the conservatives, who was accused of neglecting Athens’ interests in Macedonia; Cimon’s acquittal was a setback for democrats.
In autumn 462 BC Cimon led 4000 hoplites to the Peloponnese in response to Sparta’s plea to its allies for help to defeat helots. During his absence Ephialtes (d.461 BC), the leader of the democrats, and Pericles introduced reforms that weakened the Areopagus by transferring some of its powers to democratic institutions: the Council of Five Hundred, the Assembly, and the Heliaia. Partly because of the transference of much of the jurisdiction of the Areopagus to the Heliaia, and partly because judicial business had grown anyway, the Athenians began to select 6000 citizens by lot each year to serve as Heliasts and then divided this large group into a number of jury courts (Dikasteria).
In 461 BC the democrats ostracised their primary political opponent, Cimon. When Ephialtes was murdered by a member of an oligarchic club, Pericles became the leader of the democrats. In 458/7 BC he lowered the property requirement for the archonship, and in 454 BC he gave generous wages to citizens who served as jurymen. His most controversial measure was the law of 451 BC limiting Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. Probably, its main aim was to encourage Athenian men to take Athenian brides. With many Athenians receiving new plots of land to rent or cultivate abroad, families did not want to be left with unmarried daughters while their males took foreign wives.
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