The Ephialtic Reforms and their Consequences.Ephialtes' reforms are a famous example of how democracy attempted to destroy aristocracy in Ancient Athens. These reforms, limiting the power and the very nature of the archaic Council of the Aereopogus are interesting because of three reasons. Their causes, their effects, and the role they held in Athens as a democracy. The causes of Ephialtes' reforms are disputed primarily between two sources: ''Themistocles encouraged Ephialtes to limit the powers of the Court of the Areopagus in order to forestall his own prosecution'' (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 25.3-4) against every other source. The other sources suggest Ephialtes as at least somewhat of a democratic character who wishes to reduce the aristocratic power in athens. If one believes Aristotle here, then it shows how full Athenian politics were of personal agendas and alternative motives, and this is interesting when in comparison with the reforms of Cleisthenes and even Pericles. If one believes the other sources here, then it shows that despite some political corruption every now and then people acted truly in the name of democracy and passed laws and legislations for precisely that reason. We do not know for sure which source is right, and in my opinion it is most likely a mixture of the two - Ephialtes saw the Aereopagus as strange and contradictory to democracy, and he was also intrigued and perhaps offended at the Aereopagus' trial of Themistocles - his predecessor. The reforms themselves basically disintegrated the Aereopagus. ''the Council of the Aereopagus was deprived of the superintendence of affairs. After this there came about an increased relaxtion of the constitution" (Aristot. Ath. Pol. 26.1) - this shows us that the Aerepogus was always an aristocratic institution that was trusted by the peoples to make correct decisions - in fact decisions so correct that they would overrule any decisions made by any other institution within athens. Ephialtes' took the following rights from the council of the Aereopagus: 1) Jurisdiction in most cases, 2) The right to try cases of conspiracy against the contitution, to hear complaints against magistrates, and to try private citizens who had broken laws, 3) Its power to examine magistrates at the end of their term of office, and 4) The power to enquire into the integrity of those already elected into office. These powers were all either transfered to the assembly or the council of the 500. These reforms were very crushing to the Aereopagus and after them, it was left as a tradition rather than a practical establishment. Furthermore, a large number of members of the council were tried for their conduct in office. The effects of the reforms are quite clear. The last remaining power of the aristocracy was demolished, its powers transfered to the lower classes. This built a stronger democracy out of athens - it is the first time that the very highest power is held by the people, and not the upper classes. Whether this actually benefitted the democracy is a difficult question - in the modern world, even in the most democratic states, you don't have the masses making the decisions. Educated people are elected, and then given the authority to pass laws and decide what is best for the state - we call this democracy, and it works - countries flourish and so do its people on an overall leve. So in a way, having the Aereopagus at its power - a council of educated, experienced people advising and enforcing the state - had always been very beneficial. However, if holding the belief that complete radical democracy can work, then of course an aristocratic power such as that had to go. It is important to note that Ephialtes did not overturn Athens into a complete democracy - there were still a lot of non-democratic aspects such as state pay.