Cimon
（
Κίμων).
1.
The son of Miltiades and of Hegesipylé, the daughter of Olorus, a Thracian
prince. His education, according to Plutarch, was very much neglected, and he himself
indulged, at first, in every species of excess. At his father's death he seems to have
succeeded to a very scanty fortune, and he would perhaps have found it very difficult to pay
the fine of fity talents which had been imposed upon his parent, and which the son was bound
to pay to the public treasury, had not Callias, one of the wealthiest men of Athens, struck
by the charms of his half-sister Elpinicé, undertaken to discharge the sum as the
price of her hand. (See
Elpinicé.)
Cimon, however, had attracted notice and gained reputation by the spirit which he displayed
on the occasion of leaving the city on the approach of the Persians, when he was the foremost
to hang up a bridle in the Acropolis, as a sign that he placed all his hopes in the fleet;
and also by the valour with which he fought at Salamis. Aristides, in particular, saw in him
a fit coadjutor to himself and antagonist to Themistocles, and exerted himself in his favour;
and the readiness with which the allied Greeks, when disgusted by the arrogance of Pausanias,
united themselves with Athens, was owing in a great measure to Cimon's mild temper and to his
frank and gentle manners. The popularity of Themistocles was already declining, while Cimon,
by a series of successful enterprises, was rapidly rising in public favour. He defeated the
Persians in Thrace, on the banks of the Strymon, took Eion, and made himself master of the
whole country. He conquered the island of Scyros, the inhabitants of which were addicted to
piracy; and brought thence to Athens what were deemed the bones of the national hero Theseus.
He next subdued all the cities on the coast of Asia Minor, and went against the Persian fleet
which lay at the mouth of the Eurymedon. The Persians, although superior in number, did not
dare to abide an engagement, but sailed up the river to place themselves under the protection
of their land forces. Cimon, however, provoked them to a battle, and, having defeated and
sunk or taken two hundred ships, landed his men, flushed with victory, and completely routed
the Persian army. Returning to Athens after these two victories thus achieved in a single
day, he employed the perquisites of his command, and the resources which he had acquired from
his successes over the barbarians, in the embellishment of his native city and in relieving
the wants of the indigent. He laid a part of the foundations of the Long Walls with
magnificent solidity at his own cost, and the southern wall of the citadel was built
with the treasures which he brought from Asia into the coffers of the State. He also set the
example of adorning the public places of the city with trees; and, by introducing a stream of
water, converted the Academy, a spot about two miles north of the city, from an arid waste
into a delightful grove. (See
Academia.) He threw
down the fences of his fields and orchards, that all who wished might enter and partake of
their fruits. He not only gave the usual entertainments expected from the rich to the members
of his own borough, but kept a table constantly open for them. He never appeared in public
without a number of persons attending him in good apparel, who, when they met with any
elderly citizen scantily clothed, would insist on exchanging their warm mantles for his
threadbare covering. It was the office of the same persons respectfully to approach any of
the poorer citizens of good character whom they might see standing in the market-place, and
silently to put some small pieces of money into their hands. This latter kind of expenditure
was certainly of a mischievous tendency; and was not the less that of a demagogue because
Cimon sought popularity not merely for his own sake, but for that of his order and his party.
About B.C. 466, Cimon was sent to the Thracian Chersonesus, of which the Persians still
kept possession, and having driven them out, next reduced the island of Thasus, and took
possession of the Thasian gold mines on the neighbouring continent. Scarcely, however, had he
returned to Attica, when an accusation was preferred against him of having been corrupted by
the king of Macedonia, because he had refrained, not, according to the common account, from
attacking the Macedonians then at peace with Athens, but from striking a blow at the Thracian
tribes on the frontier of that kingdom, who had recently cut off the Athenian settlers on the
banks of the Strymon. (See
Amphipolis.) From
this accusation Cimon had a very narrow escape. Having been sent, however, after this, with a
body of troops to aid the Spartans before Ithomé, and the latter having, after
some interval, sent back their Athenian allies, whom they suspected of not lending them any
effectual assistance, the irritation produced by this national insult fell principally upon
Cimon, who was known to be an admirer of the Spartan character and constitution, and he was
accordingly driven into exile. Subsequent events, however, made the Athenians feel the want
of this able commander, and he was recalled and sent on an expedition against Egypt and
Cyprus; but was carried off by illness, or the consequences of a wound, in the harbour of
Citium, which place he was besieging (B.C. 449). His spirit, however, still animated his
countrymen; for the fleet, when sailing home with his remains, gained a naval victory over a
large squadron of Phœnician and Cilician galleys near the Cyprian Salamis, and
followed up this victory by another which they gained on shore, either over the troops which
had landed from the enemy's ships, or over a land force by which they were supported.
Cimon was, beyond dispute, the ablest and most successful general of his day; and his
victories shed a lustre on the arms of Athens which almost dimmed the glories of Marathon and
Salamis.
2.
A famous painter, a native of Cleonae, who flourished about B.C. 460. He is said to have
been the first to paint in perspective. See
Pictura.
