Why was Pericles repeatedly elected as one of Athens’s generals?

Pericles was repeatedly elected as one of Athens’s generals—a position known as strategus—primarily because the office was elective and allowed for indefinite reelection, unlike other magistracies filled by lot. This structure enabled individuals who commanded public confidence to establish significant, long-term political power.1

Pericles’s ability to maintain this position rested on his immense prestige, which the historian Thucydides attributed to his manifest intelligence and incorruptibility. Following the ostracism of his political rival Thucydides (son of Melesias) in 443 BCE, Pericles faced little domestic opposition and was widely viewed as indispensable to the state. Although Athenian democracy limited executive power, the assembly consistently granted Pericles the authority he sought, effectively allowing him to govern as the first man of Athens.234