Cimon of Athens, the son of General Miltiades, was an ancient Greek general and statesman who died while winning Cyprus from the Persians. However, his men abandoned the siege of the island so they could have a proper burial for him.
Cimon (Greek: Κίμων) was born c. 510- 506 BC to an aristocratic family. His father was the glorified general who beat the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC. Following in his father’s footsteps, he rose to admiral after his role in the naval Battle of Salamis and played quite a crucial role in the creation of Athenians’ naval power and hegemony.
However, the first years of his life were difficult, as his father had left him with debt when he passed away. It was a dire fine of fifty talents that had been imposed on him for the failed campaign against Paros and Naxos.
According to Plutarch’s Life of Cimon, the wealthy Athenian Callias took advantage of Cimon’s precarious position and offered to supply him with the money for the hand of Cimon’s sister, Elpinice, with whom he was in love. Cimon accepted.
Cimon left his mark on ancient Greek history as a general and statesman despite later being ostracized by the Athenians.
A skillful general
It was during the Persian Wars that Cimon demonstrated martial virtues comparable to those of Themistocles and Miltiades. He was successful in several conquests on behalf of the Athenians and defeated the Persians at the Battle of Eurymedon in Asia Minor, where he destroyed two hundred Persian ships.
The magnitude of the victory encouraged additional city-states to join the Delian League, led by Athens, and cemented the Peace of Cimon, a treaty between the league and the Persians that ensured, among other things, the autonomy of the cities of Ionia, the removal of the Persians from the Aegean, and even the restriction of the Persian satrapies to a distance of three days’ march from the Aegean coast.
Cimon was influential in persuading the naval forces of other city-states to join the Delian League, and between 476 and 463 BC, he was frequently elected general and commander-in-chief of the Athenian fleet as well as the entire league. Among his notable victories was the removal of the Dolopian pirates from the island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea around 475 BC. He gained fame for this feat by bringing the bones of the city’s legendary king Theseus back to Athens and conquering the island on behalf of Athens.
Between 465 and 463 BC, he suppressed the rebellion of Thasos, which had revolted from the Delian League. The revolt was over a rivalry with the Thracians for the ownership of a gold mine. The Athenian navy defeated the Thasos fleet and sieged the island for two years. Following the Thasians’ surrender, Athens seized their ships, land, and gold mine, returning Thasos to the Delian League once again.
Cimon was also sent to Chersonesus (present-day Amphipolis) to assist in the settlement of Athenians in the gold mines and punish Thasos, which had defected from the league. In general, the Athenians enforced their alliance in many cases and punished those who backed out in the process. This aggressive tactic against their allies was one of the most significant causes of the collapse of the Delian League in the Peloponnesian Wars.
Cimon’s political career
Cimon was impressively attractive, particularly friendly towards everyone, and especially persuasive. Throughout his political career, he managed to normalize relations between Athens and Sparta, mainly because he admired the Laconians’ lifestyle. The Spartans trusted him and as long as he was in charge, and they sought peaceful relations with Athens.
Cimon aligned himself with Aristides the Just and the conservative faction, aiming to reorganize the city following the Persian Wars. His association with Aristides strengthened his position, and he promoted stability and cooperation in the region. Then, when the Delian League was formed in 478 BC, Cimon advocated for equality among all allies, though he was unsuccessful in this endeavor, as Athens acquired the upper hand in the league.
His conservative ideals resonated with the majority of Athenians that valued traditional structures of power and opposed the growing influence of figures such as Themistocles, who pushed for democratic expansion and an aggressive naval power. In Athens, Cimon succeeded Aristides the Just in the Conservative faction, which went up against the Democrats of Themistocles from 476 BC to 462 BC.
As a statesman, his policies favored ordinary Athenians, and he rebuilt many public spaces, restored the southern walls of the acropolis, ensured there was a consistent water supply to the Academy, and added trees to the market as well as to the Academy gymnasium. Moreover, he financed public liturgies, provided benefits for the needy, and personally financed a program to strengthen the fortification of the Long Walls that connected Athens with its port, Piraeus.
Pericles accuses Cimon of bribery
Cimon’s great political opponent was Pericles, who accused him of accepting bribes from Alexander I of Macedon. In response, Cimon spoke of his admiration for Spartan society and applauded them for their attitude on wealth, which didn’t take precedence over everything else. He was, thus, rather indifferent about monetary gain and open about his belief in the cooperation between Athens and Sparta, even naming one of his sons Lacedaemonius and finally convincing the Athenians to join the Spartans in suppressing one of many helot uprisings on Ithomia.
As a general, however, this was a costly mistake for Cimon, as the campaign of four thousand hoplites sent by Athens was politely sent away, along with Cimon himself, by the Spartans, who wanted nothing to do with the democratic ideals of the Athenians and feared they’d be brainwashed. It was a humiliating moment for Athens.
Cimon’s popularity in Athens therefore decreased, and he was ostracized for ten years in 461 BC. Ephialtes, an early leader of the democratic movement in Athens, along with the support of Pericles, limited the power of the Areopagites, who were composed of former rulers and oligarchs, and transferred power to the House of 500, or the Boule.
In 458 BC, the ancient Greek general attempted to return to assist the Athenians in their efforts against the Spartans at Tanagra, but this did not come to fruition, returning instead in 451 BC upon the completion of his ostracization sentence. He was neither allowed to claim any office or acquire great power upon his return, but he was ultimately assigned to negotiate a five-year truce with the Spartans, whereby Cimon successfully restored his reputation.
Cyprus and the glorified end
When Cyprus revolted and the Persians sent their navy to suppress the Cypriots, Cimon proposed that the Athenians send an army to the island to expel the Persians. Pericles agreed and sent an army under Cimon. At the time, Cyprus was ruled by the Persians and the Phoenicians.
The Greek force arrived to Cyprus in 450 BC and besieged Citium. During the siege, the ancient Greek general died. He was either killed or died due to disease.
Plutarch describes the death of General Cimon and his wish to his men as such (Cim. 19):
“He died while besieging Citium, of sickness, as most say. But some say it was of a wound which he got while fighting the Barbarians. As he was dying he bade those about him to sail away at once and to conceal his death. And so it came to pass that neither the enemy nor the allies understood what had happened, and the force was brought back in safety ‘under the command of Cimon,’ as Phanodemus says, ‘who had been dead for thirty days.’’
Plutarch praises the exploits of Cimon
Cimon’s men granted their general’s wish and abandoned the siege to return his body to Athens. As Plutarch writes, the reception of the Athenians was worthy of a great general and statesman who served the city to the best of his ability. This is attested by the funeral monuments called Cimonian erected in his honor. Furthermore, the people of Citium honored Cimon with a tomb.
Plutarch wrote of the ancient Greek general and these events:
“As Nausicrates the rhetorician says, because in a time of pestilence and famine the god enjoined upon them not to neglect Cimon, but to revere and honor him as a superior being. Such was the Greek leader.”
In his book Cimon, Plutarch further praises the achievements of the brilliant general:
“After his death no further brilliant exploit against the Barbarians was performed by any general of the Hellenes, who were swayed by demagogues and partisans of civil war, with none to hold a mediating hand between them, till they actually clashed together in war.”
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
