CIMON (Kips"), the name of two Athenians, one the father (Herod. vi. 34) and the other the son of Miltiades. The memory of the elder Cimon lasts almost entirely on the fame of his son; scarcely anything is known of him except that be was remarkably stupid. Cimon, the son of Miltiades and Hegcsipyle, was born about B.C. 502. Miltiades died in prison, and Cimon had to pay the fine which bad been imposed on his father. Without the aid of the opulent Callias, who is said to hale assisted him, 6fty talents would probably have made a large and inconvenient inroad on his patrimony (Herod. vi. 136.) The anecdotes which remain of Cimon's early youth are not creditable either to his morals or to his intellect. The worst excesses are laid to his charge. Although little confidence can be given to the details of these numerous reports, so much seems to be clear, that he did not do as others of his rank did, or as it was expected that the son of Miltiades would do. He even neglected what in Athens were usually deemed the essential branches of a liberal education. On the other hand, the stupidity which is ascribed to him at this period, and the reputation for which fixed on him his grandfather's nickname Coalcmus (6 aodAspos, 'the idiot'), was probably nothing more than a natural tear acre, combined with a certain inaptitude to social vivacity or oreeorical display, which however may not have at all disqualified Una for the services of attire life. Ile seems to have excelled rather In doing, than in talking about doing. Aristides almost alone dhe awned in him the elements of a groat character; and it is probebly to hi. fostering charge and counsels that the gloriocia results which were aftereards developed are partly due.
Llama's entrance into public life may be pieced at the conquest of Eion oo the Strymon, Lc. 476. This town, which was very import ant to the Persian., was desperately defended by the garrison under the command ofwho at last, rather than surrender, raised a huge pile, placed wife and children, and servants, and all his treasure., and after throwing his gold and silver into the Strymon, cast himself Into the flames. (llerod. viL 107; Thucyd. L 93.) emotes next victory was at the island of Scyros, which be seized under the pretence that it had been guilty of piracy which called for punish meat. He planted a colony of Atbenisne, and divided the land amoogst them. (Thucyd. 1. 98.) But Cimon's most Important viotory was at the Eurymedon in Pamphylie, B.C. 466, where he sunk or took 200 Persian ships, and carried sway prodigious booty from their tests on the banks of the river. A squadron of Plimnician ships which was coming to the aid of the Persians was mot by Cimou, and wholly destroyed. The Persians were still in possession of the coast of Thrace. That Cimon should feel peculiar interest in wresting those peesesdons from their power is easy to be explained. Olorus, the father of Ilegesipyle, bad been king of Thrace. (Herod. vi 39.) Accordingly he sailed with a small force and dislodged them from his patrimony, and from a large extent of adjoining country. Twice he led a force to assist the Lacediemonians, rec. 464 and 461, at the siege of Ithome. The insulting manner in which the services of the Athenians were rejected by the lecedwmoniane (Thucyd. i. 101-2) on the latter occasion, seems to have put the people in ill humour with all the friends of Sparta; and this may have had some effect in bringing about Cituon'a exile. Toward,' the end of the same year (n.c. 461) in which they returned from lthome, Cimon was banished
for ten years by ostracism. (Clinton, ' Fast. Hel.,' vol. L p. 43.) In the year ac. 457 there was a battle between the Lacediemoniane and Athenians, at Tanagra In Bccotia. Cimon presented himself to fight on the aide of the Athenians, and took his stand among those of his own tribe. The council of 500 were consulted, and he was not allowed to remain: he left the army beseeching his friends to act like brave men, and to prove their attachment to their country by their deeds. The Athenians however were signally worsted ; and this, with other detente which they suffered during the exile of Cimon, seems to have led them to wish for his return. in the fifth year of his banishment ho wax recalled by a decree, of which Pericles himself was the mower. A five years' truce between the Athenians and Lacedienioniane was concluded through the intervention of Cimon itc. 450. In the followinj year, B.C. 449, he was appointed to the command of a fleet of 200 vessels, which sailed to twilit the Egyptian king Amyrtinne. He sent on a squadron of sixty galleys to the aid of Amyrticus, and with the red besieged Citium in Cyprus. Here he died, either from illness or from a wound. Just before ho died be forbade his men to report his death until they arrived at Athens; and Plutarch preserves the remark of Phanodemus, that the army was as it were conducted by Cimon thirty days after ho was dead. Though the Athenians were forced by want of provisions to raise the siege of Citium, they diet not return home without a victory : they wet with a fleet of Phceeician and Cilician ships near Salamis in Cyprus, and completely defeated them. They afterwards defeated a force on shore.
The slender private fortune to which Cimou succeeded had been considtrably augmented by his Persian victories, and especially by the recovery of his patrimonial estate* In Thrace. Ho did not use his for personal aggnindisement: his munificence was not only fully equal to his means, but was in many respects judiciously dispeneed : he preferred hospitality to luxury, and would rather provide a frugal entertainment for many, than • aumptuoui, banquet for a few. Many of the splendid Improvements which he made in Athens were effected at his own coat. The walls from tho city to the harbour, of 'Inoue and Phaleruin were commenced, and in great at Cimon's expense. He changed the Academy from a uncultivated field to a shady and pleasant grove, and planted the Agora with plane-trues. It is probable that his taste in these public decorations WU improved by his acquaintance with the painter Polygnotos.
111. great object of the policy of Cimon was unceasing war with the Pentane, and, in order to prosecute this the more effectually, he strove to maintain the unity of the Creeks. Himself of noble birth, be naturally Lelonged to the aristocratical party, and was anxious to the old institutions of his country, which time and usage rve eve sacred. Ile desired to see Sparta Independent, an ally, or even a rival, rather than a subject of Athens; and this circum stance exposed him to many odious charges, which, however ground. lass and often refuted, probably exerted an influence on the estimation in which be was held. While Chime was engaged in continual oxpe dittoes., and was nearly five years in exile, a line of politics, altogether different from his, came into vogue under the auspice. of Pericle