Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes
About 461 BCE Cimon was ostracised as the post-Ephialtes conflict closed. In the causal graph this event strengthens Political Polarization, a driver that weakens Having a say in government — a worsening welfare path.
Read the full account
About 461 BCE Cimon was ostracised as the post-Ephialtes conflict closed. The dated expulsion is not jury-pay and not the later ostracism of Thucydides son of Melesias. Pericles’s documented role is: Cimon was ostracised about 461 after the Areopagus fight. Ephialtes had already been murdered; Pericles’ circle benefited; he did not uniquely invent ostracism. Ostracism is not misthos. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear. Pericles's documented role is: Cimon was ostracised about 461 after the Areopagus fight.
Context
A failed Spartan earthquake-help, Areopagus reform, and unnamed sherd-voters already structure the file. A beneficiary is not unique authorship of every sherd. Later Plutarch is not a tape. The public setting is the file around -0461-01-01. The instrument stays Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes. The setting of Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes is the public file around -0461-01-01. Driver political-polarization is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.
Shared responsibility is part of Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes. Naming Pericles does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from -0461-01-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.
Why it matters
Worsening polarisation path: a ten-year expulsion of a rival leader. Complex shared vote. Welfare reading worsening. The attached mechanism is A dated ostracism polarised Athens by expelling a conservative-pro-Spartan leader for a decade. Lag to any modern indicator is not treated as zero. This path is attached because the mechanism is named from this act, not because a driver list needed coverage. The welfare reading on this path is worsening.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Pericles
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.4 · verified
Cimon was ostracised about 461 after the Areopagus fight. Ephialtes had already been murdered; Pericles’ circle benefited; he did not uniquely invent ostracism.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactCimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes
- strengthensDriverPolitical Polarization
- weakensIndicators (2)Having a say in government
impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 1 January 461 · verified
A dated ostracism polarised Athens by expelling a conservative-pro-Spartan leader for a decade.
Weakens · Relationship strength 0.18 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.45)
Observed
29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).
20212023 Above normal = better
Strengthens · Relationship strength 0.18 (weight 0.4 × strength 0.45)
Observed
43.9 Score · 43.9 above the normal line (2024)
Worse than normal26 readings, 1996–2024: rose from 43 Score to 43.9 Score.
Normal is zero · any amount = worse
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Britannica — Cimon, ostracismEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
- 2.Britannica — PericlesEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
Britannica’s Pericles and Cimon lives independently date a c. 461 ostracism. Official: Britannica — Pericles, ostracism of Cimon (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pericles-Athenian-statesman (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent: Britannica — Cimon, ostracism (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cimon (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). The two URLs are different pages. Where the carrier is a later edition or a received narrative, that limit is stated rather than upgraded to an autograph. Official carrier: Britannica — Pericles, ostracism of Cimon (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pericles-Athenian-statesman (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent carrier: Britannica — Cimon, ostracism (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cimon (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Established: Cimon’s ostracism c. 461 in Pericles’ file. Not established: unique sherd-counts as a welfare series. Established: a sourced public record of Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes under -0461-01-01.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.
If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.
Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Ostracism is not misthos. Mixed effects of Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes are separate paths.
That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorPericles
- contributed toFactCimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes
- strengthensDriverPolitical Polarization
- weakensIndicatorHaving a say in government
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). Cimon is ostracised as Pericles’ faction thickens after Ephialtes. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/per-cimon-ostracism-461
https://factrail.ai/facts/per-cimon-ostracism-461
Accessed 16 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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