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Cimon (c.510-451) was a major Athenian
commander during the Greco-Persian Wars and helped build up the power of Athens
after the defeat of Xerxes's invasion of Greece. Cimon was the son of
Miltiades, the Athenian commander at Marathon in 490, and a Thracian princess.
Athenian politics could be brutal, and in the year after Marathon Miltiades was
given a massive fine for misconduct on a later campaign. He died in disgrace in
489, leaving behind a large debt. Cimon arranged a marriage between his sister
and Callias, the richest man in Athens and was able to clear the debt and with
it the disgrace. In 480, as the Athenians prepared to abandon their city to the
Persians, Cimon led a group of young men who offered their bridles to the
goddess Athenian, as a sign of the sacrifice of their role as cavalry. He then
played a major part in the Greek victory at Salamis. This firmly established
him amongst the Athenian elite, and he was elected as one of the ten strategus
or generals from then until 461.
His first achievement was to help his fellow Athenian commander Aristides to
win control of the anti-Persian coalition from the Spartans, who had rapidly
alienated their allies. The eastern Greeks offered their support to Aristides,
and through him to Athens. This led to the formation of the Delian League, at
first an anti-Persian alliance, but soon to evolve into the Athenian Empire.
Although Cimon's activities in this period qwew partly at the expense of
Sparta, he represented a party in Athens that believed in a dual Athenian and
Spartan leadership in Greece. His first job as commander of the League was to
expel the Spartan commander Pausanias from Byzantium, where he was suspected of
dealing with the Persians. He then expelled the Persians from most of their
footholds on the Thracian coast, where they had been established since the
reign of Darius I. This campaign began with the siege of Eion. He then defeated
the pirates of Scyros, and was able to return in triumph to Athens with the
alleged remains of Theseus, king of Athens. A new shrine was built for them in
Athens, part of the rebuilding of the city after the Persian sack. In 466 Cimon
led a fleet along the Ionian coast, liberating a series of Greek cities. He
then defeated a large Persian fleet, manned by Phoenician sailors, at the mouth
of the Eurymedon River. The Persians had retreated up the river to take shelter
with their land forces, but Cimon followed and won a land and sea victory,
capturing the entire Persian fleet. This effectively expelled the Persians from
the Aegean, and removed any threat to mainland Greece. Next Cimon defeated the
Persians in the Thracian Chersonese (modern Gallipoli). The spoils of Eurymedon
were used to build a new south wall for the Acropolis, extending the area of
the monumental area.
Cimon's next exploit was a sign of the changing nature of the Delian League.
When the island of Thasos decided to leave the league the Athenians responded
with force. Cimon defeated their fleet and then conducted a two-year long
blockade of the island, which finally surrendered in 463. The voluntary league
was rapidly turning into an Empire. Although he was still a successful military
leader, Cimon's position in Athens was weakening. Pericles accused him of
accepting bribes not to attack the king of Macedonia. Although he was
acquitted, the accusation itself was a sign that his position was no longer
secure. His support for Sparta also cost him popularity. In 462 the Spartans
asked their allies, including Athens, for help against rebellious helots
defending Mt Ithome in Messenia. Cimon convinced the Athenians to send a
contingent of troops, and led 4,000 hoplites to join the siege. Soon after they
arrived the Spartans began to worry that the Athenians might side with the
helots and sent them home. This embarrassment destroyed Cimon's popularity, and
in 461 he was ostracised, or ordered to go into exile for ten years. It also
altered the balance of power in Athens, and helped the democrat Ephialtes
remove the powers from the aristocratic court (the Areopagus) and pass them to
the Popular Assembly (Ecclesia), the council (Boule) and the law courts. 460
marked the start of the First Peloponnesian War, a period of intermittent
conflict between Athens and Sparta. In 457 Cimon turned up at Tanagra in
Boeotia, where the two sides were about to fight a battle. He asked to be
allowed to fight as a normal hoplite, but this request was refused. He then
asked his supporters to fight bravely in the battle, and they were all killed
in the fighting. The battle ended with a Spartan victory. The sacrifice of his
supporters helped restore Cimon's popularity. Pericles proposed that his period
of exile should be shortened, and he was able to return home. He played a part
in negotiating peace with Sparta in 451 (a temporary peace and the war
didn’t really end until 446). The temporary peace allowed Athens to
concentrate on the war against Persia. A previous attempt to help anti-Persian
rebels in Egypt had ended in disaster (459-454) and the loss of the entire
army, but Cimon was now given command of a new naval expedition. He led 200
ships to Cyprus, and sent sixty to help the Egyptians. He then began a siege of
Citium, but died of either a wound or sickness.
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