After the fall of the great Athenian Themistocles,--who was banished by
ostracism in 469 B. C., at the instance of the aristocratic party,--the
rich, able, and popular Cimon, son of Miltiades, the victor at Marathon,
was at the head of affairs. In 466 B. C. he gained a great victory, by
land and sea, over the Persians, at the mouth of the river Eurymedon, in
Pamphylia, on the south coast of Asia Minor. A part of the value of the
plunder taken was devoted to the adornment of the city of Athens, which
Themistocles had rebuilt and fortified. Cimon spent large sums of his
own on the city, and under his direction the defenses of the famous
Acropolis (the citadel of Athens) were completed. In 461 B. C. the
democratic party at Athens banished Cimon by the ostracism, and the
illustrious Pericles, for some years his rival, came to the front.