Cimon

Most important geographical locations during Cimon's life.

Timeline

Cimon (in Greek, Κίμων — Kimōn) (510, Athens - 450 BC, Citium, Cyprus), was an Athenian statesman, strategos and a major political figure in mid-5th century BC Greece. Cimon played a key role in creating the powerful Athenian maritime empire following the failure of the Persia invasion of Greece by Xerxes I (480 BC). Cimon became a celebrated military hero, fighting at the Battle of Salamis. After this battle, Cimon was elevated to the rank of admiral.

One of Cimon’s greatest exploits was his destruction of a Persian fleet and army at the Strymon River in 466 BC. He was heavily involved in Athenian and Greek politics. In 462 BC he led an unsuccessful expedition to support the Spartans during the helot uprisings. As a result, he was dismissed and ostracized in 461 BC. However, he was recalled from exile before the end of his ten year ostracism to broker a five year peace treaty in 451 BC between Sparta and Athens. Cimon led the Athenian aristocratic party against Pericles. Cimon opposed the democratic revolution of Ephialtes seeking to retain aristocratic party control over Athenian institutions.

Early years

Cimon was born in Athens in 510 BC. He was of noble birth (his father was the celebrated Athenian general Miltiades and his mother was Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus and a relative of the historian Thucydides).

While he was a young man, his father, Miltiades, was fined 50 talents after an accusation of treason by the Athenian state. As Miltiades could not afford to pay the fine, he was jailed where he died in 489 BC. Cimon inherited his father’s debt and also had to look after his sister Elpinice. According to Plutarch, the wealthy Callias took advantage of this situation, proposing that he would pay the sum if Elpinice would marry him. In response, Cimon agreed to betroth his sister to him. ^[1][2][3]

Marriage

Later he married Isodice, Megacles' granddaughter, and a member of the important Athenian family, the Alcmaeonidae. Their first children were twin boys and they were named Lacedaemonius (who would become an Athenian commander) and Eleus. The third son was Thessalus (who would become a politician).

Military career

During the Battle of Salamis, Cimon distinguished himself by his bravery. He is mentioned as being a member of an embassy sent to Sparta in 479 BC.

Between 478 BC and 476 BC, a number of Greek maritime cities around the Aegean Sea did not wish to be under Persian control again and at Delos offered their allegiance, through Aristides, to Athens. They form the Delian League (also know as the Confederacy of Delos) and it is agreed that Cimon will be their principal commander. ^[4] Until 463 BC, as strategos of the League, Cimon commanded most of the League’s operations. During this period, he and Aristides drove the Spartans under Pausanias out of Byzantium, he captured Eion on the Strymon from the Persian general Boges and conquered Scyros.

With the League’s capture of Scyros, he was able to drive out the pirates who used that town as their base and he then established an Athenian colony at Eion with 10,000 settlers. The new colony was called Amphipolis.^[1][5]. On his return, he brought the “bones” of the mythological Theseus back to Athens. To celebrate this achievement, three Herma statues were erected around Athens.^[1]

Battle of the Eurymedon

Around 466 BC Cimon carried the war against Persia into Asia Minor and won the Battle of the Eurymedon on the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia. This was a decisive defeat of the Persians as Cimon's land and sea forces captured the Persian camp and destroyed or captured the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes (manned by Phoenicians). Many new allies of Athens were then able to be recruited by Athens into the Delian League, such as the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border.

There is a view amongst some historians that while in Asia Minor, Cimon negotiated a peace between the League and the Persians after his victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon. This may help to explain why the Peace of Callias negotiated by his brother-in-law in 450 BC is sometimes called the Peace of Cimon as Callias’ efforts may have led to a renewal of the Cimon’s earlier treaty. He had served Athens well during the Persian Wars and according to Plutarch: "In all the qualities that war demands he was fully the equal of Themistocles and his own father Miltiades".^[1][4]

Thracian Chersonesus

After his successes in Asia Minor, Cimon moved to the Thracian Chersonesus. There he subdued the local tribes and between 465 BC and 463 BC he ended the revolt of the Thasians. Thasos had revolted from the Delian League over rivalry over trade with the Thracian hinterland and, in particular, over the ownership of a gold mine. Athens under Cimon laid siege to Thasos after the Athenian fleet defeated the Thasos fleet. These actions earned him the enmity of Stesimbrotus of Thasos (a source used by Plutarch in his writings about this period in Greek history).

Trial for Bribery

Despite these successes, he was prosecuted by Pericles for allegedly accepting bribes from Alexander I of Macedon. During the trial, Cimon said: "Never have I been an Athenian envoy, to any rich kingdom. Instead, I was proud, attending to the Spartans, whose frugal culture I have always imitated. This proves that I don't desire personal wealth. Rather, I love enriching our nation, with the booty of our victories." As a result, Elpinice convinced Pericles not to be too harsh in his criticism of her brother. Cimon was in the end acquitted.^[1]

Helot Revolt in Sparta

In 462 BC, Cimon sought the support of Athens’ citizens to providing help to Sparta. Although Ephialtes maintained that Sparta was Athens' rival for power and should be left to fend for itself, Cimon's view prevailed. Cimon then led 4,000 hoplites to Mt. Ithome to help the Spartan aristocracy deal with a major revolt by its helots. However, this expedition ended in humiliation for Cimon and for Athens when, after an attempt to storm Mt. Ithome failed, the Spartans sent Cimon and his army back on suspicion of “revolutionary tendencies”.

Exile

This insulting rebuff caused the collapse of Cimon's popularity at Athens. As a result, in 461 BC Ephialtes and Pericles were able to get agreement that Cimon be ostracised for ten years. With Cimon’s departure, the reformer Ephialtes took the lead in running Athens. Ephialtes, with the support of Pericles, reduced the power of the Athenian Council of Areopagus (filled with ex-archons and so a stronghold of oligarchy) and transferred them to the people, i.e. the Council of Five Hundred, the Assembly and the popular law courts. Some of Cimon’s policies were reversed including his pro-Spartan policy and his attempts at peace with Persia.

In 458 BC, Cimon sought to return to Athens to assist it in its fight against Sparta at Tanagra but was rebuffed.

Return to Athens

Eventually, around 451 BC, Cimon is able to return to Athens. While not allowed to return to the level of power he once enjoyed, he was able to negotiate on Athens’ behalf a five year truce with the Spartans. With a Persian fleet moving against a rebellious Cyprus, Cimon, proposed an expedition to help Cyprus. He gained Pericles' support. So Cimon sailed to Cyprus with two hundred triremes of the Delian League. From there, he sent sixty ships to Egypt to help the Egyptians under Amyrtaeus, who were fighting the Persians in the Nile Delta. Cimon used the remaining ships to aid the uprising of the Cypriot Greek city-states.

Cyprus and Death of Cimon

Cimon laid siege to the Persian stronghold of Citium on the south west coast of Cyprus. However, the siege failed with Cyprus remaining under Phoenician (and Persian) control. It is during the siege that Cimon died or is killed. He was buried in Athens where a monument was erected in his memory.

External links

• Cimon of Athens, in About.com.

See also

• Pericles
• Aristides
• Themistocles
• Miltiades
• Battle of Salamis
• Pausanias
• Amphictyonic League
• Theseus
• Long Walls
• Ostracism
• Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (450 BC)

Notes