Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/768

Rh 7S0 CIMON. also from the poets of the time, Cratinus, Melan- thius, and Archelaus. He seems to have followed Thiicydides, though not very strictly, as a guide in general, while he filled up the details from the later historians, perhaps from Theopompus more than from Ephorus, whose account, as followed probably by Diodorus (xi. 60), differs materially. He appears to have also used Callisthenes, Cratinus, Phanodemus, Diodorus Periegetes, Gorgias, and Nausicrates ; Aristotle, Eupolis, Aristophanes, and Critias. On the death of Miltiades, probably in B. c. 489, Cimon, we are told by Diodorus (Excerpta, p. 255), in order to obtain the corpse for burial, took his father's place in prison till his fine of 50 talents should be paid. [Miltiades.] It ap- pears, however, certain (see Dem, c. Androt. p. 603) that the drifiia, if not the imprisonment, of the public debtor was legally inherited by the son, and Cornelius Nepos, whose life comes in many parts from Theopompus, states the con- finement to have been compulsory. The fine was eventually paid by Callias on his marriage with Elpinice, Cimon's sister. [Callias, No. 2, p. 567, b.] A more diflicult point is the previous connexion and even marriage of Cimon with this sister or half-sister, which was recorded by nume- rous writers, but after all was very probably the scandal of Stesimbrotus and the comedians. (Eupo- lis, ap. Plut. dm. 15, comp. 4 ; Nepos, Cim. 1 ; Athen. xiii. p. 589.) Nor, again, can we very much rely on the statement which Plutarch in- troduces at this time, that he and Themistocles vied with each other at the Olympian games in the splendour of their equipments and banquets. (Plut. Themist. 5.) It is more credible that his first occasion of attracting notice and admiration was the forwardness with which, when the city in B. c. 480 was to be deserted, he led up to the citadel a company of young men to offer to the goddess their now unserviceable bridles. (Plut. dm, 5.) After the battle of Plataea, Aristeides brought him forward. They were placed together in 477 at the head of the Athenian contingent to the Greek armament, under the supreme command of Pausanias. Cimon shared the glory of transferring that supremacy to Athens, and in the first employment of it reduced the Per^ sian garrison at Eion, and opened the important district in the neighbourhood for Athenian coloni- zation. (Plut. Cim^Q Herod, vii. 107 ; Thuc. i. 98; Nepos, Cim. 2 ; Schol. ad Aesch. de Feds. Leg. p. 755, &c., ed. Reiske ; Clinton, F. H. iL App. ix.) In honour of this conquest he received from his coun- trymen the distinction, at that time unprecedented, of having three busts of Hermes erected, inscribed with triumphal verses, but without mention of the names of the generals. (Plut. Cim. 6 ; Aesch. c. Ctesiph. p. 573, ed. Reiske.) In 476, apparently under his conduct, the piratical Dolopians were expelled from Scyros, and a colony planted in their room ; and the remains of Theseus discovered there, were thence transported, probably after some years' interval (b. c. 468) with great pomp to Athens. (Plut. Cim. 8 ; Paus. i. 17. § 6, iii. 3. § 6.) The reduction of Carystus and Naxos was, most likely, effected under his command (Thuc. i. 98) ; and at this period he was doubtless in war and politics his country's chief citizen. His co- adjutor at home would be Aristeides ; how far he contributed to the banishment of Themistocles may CIMON. be doubtfiil. (Comp. Plut. Arist. 25, Them. 24.) The year b. c 466 (according to Clinton ; Kriiger and others persist in placing it earlier) saw the completion of his glory. In the command of the allied forces on the Asiatic coast he met a Persian fleet of 350 ships, attacked them, captured 200, and following the fugitives to the shore, by the river Eurymedon, in a second and obstinate en- gagement on the same day, routed the land arma- ment ; indeed, according to Plutarch, he crowned his victory before night by the defeat of a rein- forcement of 80 Phoenician ships. (Plut. dm. 12 ; Thuc. i. 100 ; Diod. xi. 60, with Wesseling's note.) His next achievement was the expulsion of the Persians from the Chersonese, and the subjection of the territory to Athens, accompanied perhaps with the recovery of his own patrimony. The effect of these victories was doubtless very great ; they crushed perhaps a last aggressive movement, and fixed Persia finally in a defensive position. In later times it was believed, though on evidence, as was shewn by Callisthenes, quite insufficient, that they had been succeeded by a treaty (the famous peace of Cimon) negotiated through Callias, and containing in its alleged conditions the most humiliating concessions. They placed Cimon at the height of his power and glory, the chief of that empire which his character had gained for Athens, and which his policy towards the allies was ren- dering daily firmer and completer. Themistocles, a banished man, may perhaps have witnessed his Asiatic triumphs in sorrow ; the death of Aristeides had left him sole possessor of the influence they had hitherto jointly exercised : nor had time yet matured the opposition of Pericles. (Plut. Cim. 13, 14.) Still the loss of the old friend and the rar pidly increasing influence of the new opponent rendered his position precarious. The chronology of the events that follow is henceforth in most points disputed ; according to Clinton's view, which cannot hastily be de- serted, the revolt of Thasos took place in 465; in 463 Cimon reduced it; in the year interven- ing occurred the earthquake and insurrection at Sparta, and in consequence, upon Cimon's urgent appeal, one if not two (Plut. Cim. 16 ; comp. Aristoph. Lysistr. 1137) expeditions were sent from Athens, under his command, to assist the Spartans. In these occurrences were found the means for his humiliation. During the siege of Thasos, the Athenian colonists on the Strymon were cut off by the Thracians, and Cimon seems to have been expected, after his victory there, to retrieve this disaster : and, neglecting to do so, he was on his return brought to trial ; but the accu- sation of having taken bribes from Alexander of Macedon, was, by Pericles at any rate, not strongly urged, and the result was an acquittal. The ter- mination of his Lacedaemonian policy in the jea- lous and insulting dismissal of their Athenian auxiliaries by the Spartans, and the consequent rupture between the two states was a more serious blow to his popularity. And the victory of his opponents was decided when Ephialtes and Peri- cles, after a severe struggle, carried their measure for reducing the authority of the aristocratic Areio- pagus. Upon this it would seem his ostracism ensued. Soon after its commencement (b. c. 457) a Lacedaemonian army, probably to meet the views of a violent section of the defeated party in Athens, posted itself at Tanagra. The Athenians advanced