Cimon

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Cimon
Persian Wars and Wars of the Delian League
:
ChildrenLacedaemonius
Oulius
Thessalus
Cimon
Miltiades
Peisianax[1]

Cimon or Kimon[

Athenian strategos
(general and admiral) and politician.

He was the son of

Siege of Eion
(476 BC).

In 466 BC, Cimon led a force to

Athenian Empire
.

Cimon took an increasingly prominent role in Athenian politics, generally supporting the aristocrats and opposing the popular party (which sought to expand the

ostracized
in 461 BC, exiling him for a period of ten years.

The

Cyprus, which was in revolt against the Persians. Cimon was placed in command of the fleet of 200 warships. He laid siege to the town of Kition
, but died (of unrecorded causes) around the time of the failure of the siege in 450 BC.

Life

Early years

Cimon was born into Athenian nobility in 510 BC. He was a member of the

Miltiades[3] and his mother was Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus and a relative of the historian Thucydides.[4]

While Cimon was a young man, his father was fined 50 

Callias took advantage of this situation by proposing to pay Cimon's debts for Elpinice's hand in marriage. Cimon agreed.[6][7][8]

Cimon in his youth had a reputation of being dissolute, a hard drinker, and blunt and unrefined; it was remarked that in this latter characteristic he was more like a Spartan than an Athenian.[9][10]

Marriage

Cimon is repeatedly said to have married or been otherwise involved with his sister or half-sister

Lacedaemonius
(who would become an Athenian commander) and Eleus. Their 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

Pausanias out of Byzantium
.

Cimon also captured

Herma statues were erected around Athens.[6]

Battle of the Eurymedon

Cimon takes command of the Greek Fleet.

Around 466 BC, Cimon carried the war against Persia into

Eurymedon River in Pamphylia. Cimon's land and sea forces captured the Persian camp and destroyed or captured the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes manned by Phoenicians. And he established an Athenian colony nearby called Amphipolis with 10,000 settlers.[11] Many new allies of Athens were then recruited 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

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".[6][11]

Thracian Chersonesus

After his successes in Asia Minor, Cimon moved to the Thracian colony

in his writings about this period in Greek history).

Trial for bribery

Despite these successes, Cimon 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.[6]

Helot revolt in Sparta

Cimon was Sparta's

Proxenos at Athens, he strongly advocated a policy of cooperation between the two states. He was known to be so fond of Sparta that he named one of his sons Lacedaemonius.[13][14] In 462 BC, Cimon sought the support of Athens' citizens to provide 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, fearing that the Athenians would end up siding with the helots, Sparta sent the force back to Attica.[15]

Exile

Pieces of broken pottery (Ostracon) as voting tokens for ostracism. The persons nominated are Pericles, Cimon and Aristides, each with his patronymic (top to bottom).

This insulting rebuff caused the collapse of Cimon's popularity in Athens. As a result, he was ostracised from Athens for ten years beginning in 461 BC.[16] The reformer Ephialtes then took the lead in running Athens and, with the support of Pericles, reduced the power of the Athenian Council of the Areopagus (filled with ex-archons and so a stronghold of oligarchy).

Power was transferred to the citizens, 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. Many ostraka bearing his name survive; one bearing the spiteful inscription: "Cimon, son of Miltiades, and Elpinice too" (his haughty sister).

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

Return

Eventually, around 451 BC, Cimon returned to Athens. Although he was 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. Later, with a Persian fleet moving against a rebellious Cyprus, Cimon proposed an expedition to fight the Persians. He gained Pericles' support and sailed to Cyprus with two hundred triremes of the Delian League. From there, he sent sixty ships under Admiral Charitimides to Egypt to help the Egyptian revolt of Inaros, in the Nile Delta. Cimon used the remaining ships to aid the uprising of the Cypriot Greek city-states.

Rebuilding Athens

From his many military exploits and money gained through the Delian League, Cimon funded many construction projects throughout Athens. These projects were greatly needed in order to rebuild after the Achaemenid destruction of Athens. He ordered the expansion of the Acropolis and the walls around Athens, and the construction of public roads, public gardens, and many political buildings.[17]

Death on Cyprus

Cimon laid siege to the

Battle of Salamis-in-Cyprus.[18] He was later buried in Athens,[19]
where a monument was erected in his memory.

Historical significance

During his period of considerable popularity and influence at Athens, Cimon's domestic policy was consistently antidemocratic, and this policy ultimately failed. His success and lasting influence came from his military accomplishments and his foreign policy, the latter being based on two principles: continued resistance to Persian aggression, and recognition that Athens should be the dominant sea power in Greece, and Sparta the dominant land power. The first principle helped to ensure that direct Persian military aggression against Greece had essentially ended; the latter probably significantly delayed the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.[10]

See also

  • Amphictyonic League
  • Long Walls
  • Battle of Salamis in Cyprus (450 BC)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Byrne, Sean G. "Κίμων of Lakiadai". Athenian Onomasticon. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b DGRB&M (1867), p. 749.
  3. ^ a b c EB (1878).
  4. ^ EB (1911), p. 368.
  5. ^ a b DGRB&M (1867), p. 750.
  6. ^ a b c d e Plutarch, Lives. Life of Cimon.(University of Calgary/Wikisource)
  7. ^ Cornelius Nepos, Lives of Eminent Commanders
  8. ^ Plutarch, Lives. Life of Themistocles. (University of Massachusetts/Wikisource)
  9. ^ a b Plutarch, Cimon 481.
  10. ^ a b Bury, J. B.; Meiggs, Russell (1956). A history of Greece to the death of Alexander the Great (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 343.
  11. ^ a b c Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War.
  12. ^ Herodotus, The History of Herodotus.
  13. ^ The Greek World: 479–323 BC, Simon Hornblower. Page 126.
  14. ISSN 2159-3159
    .
  15. .
  16. ^ Plutarch, Cimon, 19
  17. ^ EB (1911), p. 369.

References

Further reading

External links

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