Peripoltas, the soothsayer, after he had brought back King Opheltas
and the people under him to Bœotia, left a family which remained in
high repute for many generations, and chiefly settled in Chæronea,
which was the first city which they conquered when they drove out the
barbarians. As the men of this race were all brave and warlike, they
were almost reduced to extinction in the wars with the Persians, and
in later times with the Gauls during their invasion of Greece, so that
there remained but one male of the family, a youth of the name of
Damon, who was surnamed Peripoltas, and who far surpassed all the
youth of his time in beauty and spirit, although he was uneducated and
harsh-tempered. The commander of a detachment of Roman soldiers who
were quartered during the winter in Chæronea conceived a criminal
passion for Damon, who was then a mere lad, and as he could not effect
his purpose by fair means it was evident that he would not hesitate to
use force, as our city was then much decayed, and was despised, being
so small and poor. Damon, alarmed and irritated at the man's
behaviour, formed a conspiracy with a few young men of his own age,
not many, for secrecy's sake, but consisting of sixteen in all. These
men smeared their faces with soot, excited themselves by strong drink,
and assaulted the Roman officer just at daybreak, while he was
offering sacrifice in the market-place. They killed him and several of
his attendants, and then made their escape out of the city. During the
confusion which followed, the senate of the city of Chæronea assembled
and condemned the conspirators to death--a decree which was intended
to excuse the city to the Romans for what had happened. But that
evening, when the chief magistrates, as is their custom, were dining
together, Damon and his party broke into the senate-house, murdered
them all, and again escaped out of the city. It chanced that at this
time Lucius Lucullus was passing near Chæronea with an armed force. He
halted his troops, and, after investigating the circumstances,
declared that the city was not to blame, but had been the injured
party. As for Damon, who was living by brigandage and plunder of the
country, and who threatened to attack the city itself, the citizens
sent an embassy to him, and passed a decree guaranteeing his safety if
he would return. When he returned they appointed him president of the
gymnasium, and afterwards, while he was being anointed in the public
baths, they murdered him there.
Our ancestors tell us that as ghosts used to appear in that place, and
groans were heard there, the doors of the bath-room were built up; and
even at the present day those who live near the spot imagine that
shadowy forms are to be seen, and confused cries heard. Those of his
family who survive (for there are some descendants of Damon) live
chiefly in Phokis, near the city of Steiris. They call themselves
Asbolomeni, which in the Æolian dialect means "sooty-faced," in memory
of Damon having smeared his face with soot when he committed his
crimes.
II. Now the city of Orchomenus, which is next to that of Chæronea, was
at variance with it, and hired a Roman informer, who indicted the city
for the murder of those persons killed by Damon, just as if it were a
man. The trial was appointed to take place before the prætor of
Macedonia, for at that time the Romans did not appoint prætors of
Greece. When in court the representatives of Chæronea appealed to
Lucullus to testify to their innocence, and he, when applied to by the
prætor, wrote a letter telling the entire truth of the story, which
obtained an acquittal for the people of Chæronea. Thus narrowly did
the city escape utter destruction. The citizens showed their gratitude
to Lucullus by erecting a marble statue to him in the market-place,
beside that of Dionysus; and although I live at a much later period,
yet I think it my duty to show my gratitude to him also, as I too have
benefited by his intercession. I intend therefore to describe his
achievements in my Parallel Lives, and thus raise a much more glorious
monument to his memory by describing his real disposition and
character, than any statue can be, which merely records his face and
form. It will be sufficient for me if I show that his memory is held
in grateful remembrance, for he himself would be the first to refuse
to be rewarded for the true testimony which he bore to us by a
fictitious narrative of his exploits. We think it right that portrait
painters when engaged in painting a handsome face should neither omit
nor exaggerate its defects; for the former method would destroy the
likeness and the latter the beauty of the picture. In like manner, as
it is hard, or rather impossible, to find a man whose life is entirely
free from blame, it becomes our duty to relate their noble actions
with minute exactitude, regarding them as illustrative of true
character, whilst, whenever either a man's personal feelings or
political exigencies may have led him to commit mistakes and crimes,
we must regard his conduct more as a temporary lapse from virtue than
as disclosing any innate wickedness of disposition, and we must not
dwell with needless emphasis on his failings, if only to save our
common human nature from the reproach of being unable to produce a man
of unalloyed goodness and virtue.
III. It appears to me that the life of Lucullus furnishes a good
parallel to that of Kimon. Both were soldiers, and distinguished
themselves against the barbarians; both were moderate politicians and
afforded their countrymen a brief period of repose from the violence
of party strife, and both of them won famous victories. No Greek
before Kimon, and no Roman before Lucullus, waged war at such a
distance from home, if we except the legends of Herakles and Dionysus,
and the vague accounts which we have received by tradition of the
travels and exploits of Perseus in Ethiopia, Media, and Armenia, and
of the expedition of Jason to recover the Golden Fleece.
Another point in which they agree is the incomplete nature of the
success which they obtained, for they both inflicted severe losses on
their enemies, but neither completely crushed them. Moreover we find
in each of them the same generous hospitality, and the same luxurious
splendour of living. Their other points of resemblance the reader may
easily discover for himself by a comparison of their respective lives.
IV. Kimon was the son of Miltiades by his wife Hegesipyle, a lady of
Thracian descent, being the daughter of King Olorus, as we learn from
the poems addressed to Kimon himself by Archelaus and Melanthius.
Thucydides the historian also was connected with Kimon's family, as
the name of Olorus had descended to his father,[306] who also
inherited gold mines in Thrace from his ancestors there. Thucydides is
said to have died at Skapte Hyle, a small town in Thrace, near the
gold mines. His remains were conveyed to Athens and deposited in the
cemetery belonging to the family of Kimon, where his tomb is now to be
seen, next to that of Elpinike, Kimon's sister. However, Thucydides
belonged to the township of Halimus, and the family of Miltiades to
that of Lakia.
Miltiades was condemned by the Athenians to pay a fine of fifty
talents, and being unable to do so, died in prison, leaving Kimon and
his sister Elpinike, who were then quite young children. Kimon passed
the earlier part of his life in obscurity, and was not regarded
favourably by the Athenians, who thought that he was disorderly and
given to wine, and altogether resembled his grandfather Kimon, who was
called Koalemus because of his stupidity.
Stesimbrotus of Thasos, who was a contemporary of Kimon, tells us that
he never was taught music or any of the other usual accomplishments of
a Greek gentleman, and that he had none of the smartness and readiness
of speech so common at Athens, but that he was of a noble, truthful
nature, and more like a Dorian of the Peloponnesus than an Athenian,
"Rough, unpretending, but a friend in need,"
as Euripides says of Herakles, which line we may well apply to Kimon
according to the account of him given by Stesimbrotus. While he was
still young he was accused of incest with his sister. Indeed Elpinike
is not recorded as having been a respectable woman in other respects,
as she carried on an intrigue with Polygnotus the painter; and
therefore it is said that when he painted the colonnade which was then
called the Peisianakteum, which is now called the Painted Porch, he
introduced the portrait of Elpinike as Laodike, one of the Trojan
ladies. Polygnotus was a man of noble birth, and he did not execute
his paintings for money, but gratis, from his wish to do honour to his
city. This we learn from the historians and from the poet Melanthius,
who wrote--
"With deeds of heroes old,
He made our city gay,
In market-place and porch,
Himself the cost did pay."
Some historians tell us that Elpinike was openly married to Kimon and
lived as his wife, because she was too poor to obtain a husband worthy
of her noble birth, but that at length Kallias, one of the richest men
in Athens, fell in love with her, and offered to pay off the fine
which had been imposed upon her father, by which means he won her
consent, and Kimon gave her away to Kallias as his wife. Kimon indeed
seems to have been of an amorous temperament, for Asterie, a lady of
Salamis, and one Mnestra are mentioned by the poet Melanthius, in some
playful verses he wrote upon Kimon, as being beloved by him; and we
know that he was passionately fond of Isodike, the daughter of
Euryptolemus the son of Megakles, who was his lawful wife, and that he
was terribly afflicted by her death, to judge by the elegiac poem
which was written to console him, of which Panætius the philosopher
very reasonably conjectures Archelaus to have been the author.
V. All the rest that we know of Kimon is to his honour. He was as
brave as Miltiades, as clever as Themistokles, and more
straightforward than either. Nor was he inferior to either of them in
military skill, while he far surpassed them in political sagacity,
even when he was quite a young man, and without any experience of
war. For instance, when Themistokles, at the time of the Persian
invasion, urged the Athenians to abandon their city and territory, and
resist the enemy at Salamis, on board of their fleet, while the
greater part of the citizens were struck with astonishment at so
daring a proposal, Kimon was seen with a cheerful countenance walking
through the Kerameikus with his friends, carrying in his hand his
horse's bridle, which he was going to offer up to the goddess Athena
in the Acropolis, in token that at that crisis the city did not need
horsemen so much as sailors. He hung up the bridle as a votive
offering in the temple, and, taking down one of the shields which hung
there, walked with it down towards the sea, thereby causing many of
his countrymen to take courage and recover their spirits. He was not
an ill-looking man, as Ion the poet says, but tall, and with a thick
curly head of hair. As he proved himself a brave man in action he
quickly became popular and renowned in Athens, and many flocked round
him, urging him to emulate the glories won by his father at Marathon.
The people gladly welcomed him on his first entrance into political
life, for they were weary of Themistokles, and were well pleased to
bestow the highest honours in the state upon one whose simple and
unaffected goodness of heart had made him a universal favourite. He
was greatly indebted for his success to the support given him by
Aristeides, who early perceived his good qualities, and endeavoured to
set him up as an opponent to the rash projects and crooked policy of
Themistokles.
VI. When, after the repulse of the Persian invasion, Kimon was sent as
general of the Athenian forces to operate against the enemy in Asia,
acting under the orders of Pausanias, as the Athenians had not then
acquired their supremacy at sea, the troops whom he commanded were
distinguished by the splendour of their dress and arms, and the
exactness of their discipline. Pausanias at this time was carrying on
a treasonable correspondence with the king of Persia, and treated the
allied Greek troops with harshness and wanton insolence, the offspring
of unlimited power. Kimon, on the other hand, punished offenders
leniently, treated all alike with kindness and condescension, and
became in all but name the chief of the Greek forces in Asia, a
position which he gained, not by force of arms, but by amiability of
character. Most of the allies transferred their allegiance to Kimon
and Aristeides, through disgust at the cruelty and arrogance of
Pausanias. There is a tradition that Pausanias when at Byzantium
became enamoured of Kleonike, the daughter of one of the leading
citizens there. He demanded that she should be brought to his chamber,
and her wretched parents dared not disobey the tyrant's order. From
feelings of modesty Kleonike entreated the attendants at the door of
his bedchamber to extinguish all the lights, and she then silently in
the darkness approached the bed where Pausanias lay asleep. But she
stumbled and overset the lamp.[307] He, awakened by the noise,
snatched up his dagger, and imagining that some enemy was coming to
assassinate him, stabbed the girl with it, wounding her mortally. It
is said that after this her spirit would never let Pausanias rest, but
nightly appeared to him, angrily reciting the verse--
"Go, meet thy doom; pride leadeth men to sin."
The conduct of Pausanias in this matter so enraged the allied Greeks
that, under Kimon's command, they besieged him in Byzantium, which
they took by assault. He, however, escaped, and, it is said, fled for
refuge to the oracle of the dead at Heraklea, where he called up the
soul of Kleonike and besought her to pardon him. She appeared, and
told him that if he went to Sparta he would soon be relieved of all
his troubles, an enigmatical sentence alluding, it is supposed, to his
approaching death there.
VII. Kimon, who was now commander-in-chief, sailed to Thrace, as he
heard that the Persians, led by certain nobles nearly related to
Xerxes himself, had captured the city of Eion on the river Strymon,
and were making war upon the neighbouring Greek cities. His first act
on landing was to defeat the Persians, and shut them up in the city.
He next drove away the Thracian tribes beyond the Strymon, who
supplied the garrison with provisions, and by carefully watching the
country round he reduced the city to such straits that Boutes, the
Persian general, perceiving that escape was impossible, set it on
fire, and himself with his friends and property perished in the
flames. When Kimon took the city he found nothing in it of any value,
as everything had been destroyed in the fire together with the Persian
garrison; but as the country was beautiful and fertile, he made it an
Athenian colony. Three stone statues of Hermes at Athens were now set
up by a decree of the people, on the first of which is written:--
"Brave men were they, who, by the Strymon fair,
First taught the haughty Persians to despair;"
and on the second--
"Their mighty chiefs to thank and praise,
The Athenians do these columns raise;
That generations yet to come,
May fight as well for hearth and home;"
and on the third--
"Mnestheus from Athens led our hosts of yore,
With Agamemnon, to the Trojan shore;
Than whom no chief knew better to array,
The mail-clad Greeks, when mustering for the fray:
Thus Homer sung; and Athens now, as then,
Doth bear away the palm for ruling men."
VIII. These verses, although Kimon's name is nowhere mentioned in
them, appeared to the men of that time excessively adulatory. Neither
Themistokles nor Miltiades had ever been so honoured. When Miltiades
demanded the honour of an olive crown, Sophanes of Dekeleia rose up in
the public assembly and said,--"Miltiades, when you have fought and
conquered the barbarians alone, you may ask to be honoured alone, but
not before"--a harsh speech, but one which perfectly expressed the
feeling of the people.
Why, then, were the Athenians so charmed with Kimon's exploit? The
reason probably was because their other commanders had merely defended
them from attack, while under him they had been able themselves to
attack the enemy, and had moreover won territory near Eion, and
founded the colony of Amphipolis. Kimon also led a colony to Skyros,
which island was taken by Kimon on the following pretext.
The original inhabitants were Dolopes,[308] who were bad farmers, and
lived chiefly by piracy. Emboldened by success they even began to
plunder the strangers who came into their ports, and at last robbed
and imprisoned some Thessalian merchants whose ships were anchored at
Ktesium. The merchants escaped from prison, and laid a complaint
against the people of Skyros before the Amphiktyonic council. The
people refused to pay the fine imposed by the council, and said that
it ought to be paid by those alone who had shared the plunder. These
men, in terror for their ill-gotten gains, at once opened a
correspondence with Kimon, and offered to betray the island into his
hands if he would appear before it with an Athenian fleet. Thus Kimon
was enabled to make himself master of Skyros, where he expelled the
Dolopes and put an end to their piracies; after which, as he learned
that in ancient times the hero Theseus, the son of Ægeus, after he had
been driven out of Athens, took refuge at Skyros, and was murdered
there by Lykomedes, who feared him, he endeavoured to discover where
he was buried. Indeed there was an oracle which commanded the
Athenians to bring back the bones of Theseus to their city and pay
them fitting honours, but they knew not where they lay, as the people
of Skyros did not admit that they possessed them, and refused to allow
the Athenians to search for them. Great interest was now manifested in
the search, and after his sepulchre[309] had with great difficulty
been discovered, Kimon placed the remains of the hero on board of his
own ship and brought them back to Athens, from which they had been
absent four hundred years. This act made him very popular with the
people of Athens, one mark of which is to be found in his decision in
the case of the rival tragic poets. When Sophokles produced his first
play, being then very young, Aphepsion,[310] the archon, seeing that
party feeling ran high among the spectators, would not cast lots to
decide who were to be the judges, but when Kimon with the other nine
generals, his colleagues, entered to make the usual libation to the
god, he refused to allow them to depart, but put them on their oath,
and forced them to sit as judges, they being ten in number, one from
each of the ten tribes. The excitement of the contest was much
increased by the high position of the judges. The prize was adjudged
to Sophokles, and it is said that Æschylus was so grieved and enraged
at his failure that he shortly afterwards left Athens and retired to
Sicily, where he died, and was buried near the city of Gela.
IX. Ion tells us that when quite a boy he came from Chios to Athens,
and met Kimon at supper in the house of Laomedon. After supper he was
asked to sing, and he sang well. The guests all praised him, and said
that he was a cleverer man than Themistokles; for Themistokles was
wont to say that he did not know how to sing or to play the harp, but
that he knew how to make a state rich and great. Afterwards the
conversation turned upon Kimon's exploits, and each mentioned what he
thought the most important. Hereupon Kimon himself described what he
considered to be the cleverest thing he had ever done. After the
capture of Sestos and Byzantium by the Athenians and their allies,
there were a great number of Persians taken prisoners, whom the allies
desired Kimon to divide amongst them. He placed the prisoners on one
side, and all their clothes and jewellery on the other, and offered
the allies their choice between the two. They complained that he had
made an unequal division, but he bade them take whichever they
pleased, assuring them that the Athenians would willingly take
whichever part they rejected. By the advice of Herophytus of Samos,
who urged them to take the property of the Persians, rather than the
Persians themselves, the allies took the clothes and jewels. At this
Kimon was thought to have made a most ridiculous division of the
spoil, as the allies went swaggering about with gold bracelets,
armlets, and necklaces, dressed in Median robes of rich purple, while
the Athenians possessed only the naked bodies of men who were very
unfit for labour. Shortly afterwards, however, the friends and
relations of the captives came down to the Athenian camp from Phrygia
and Lydia, and ransomed each of them for great sums of money, so that
Kimon was able to give his fleet four months' pay, and also to remit a
large sum to Athens, out of the money paid for their ransom.
X. The money which Kimon had honourably gained in the war he spent yet
more honourably upon his countrymen. He took down the fences round his
fields, that both strangers and needy Athenians might help themselves
to his crops and fruit. He provided daily a plain but plentiful table,
at which any poor Athenian was welcome to dine, so that he might live
at his ease, and be able to devote all his attention to public
matters. Aristotle tells us that it was not for all the Athenians, but
only for the Lakiadæ, or members of his own township, that he kept
this public table. He used to be attended by young men dressed in rich
cloaks, who, if he met any elderly citizen poorly clothed, would
exchange cloaks with the old man; and this was thought to be a very
noble act. The same young men carried pockets full of small change and
would silently put money into the hands of the better class of poor in
the market-place. All this is alluded to by Kratinus, the comic poet,
in the following passage from his play of the Archilochi:
"I too, Metrobius, hoped to end
My days with him, my noblest friend,
Kimon, of all the Greeks the best,
And, richly feasting, sink to rest.
But now he's gone, and I remain unblest."
Moreover, Gorgias of Leontini says that Kimon acquired wealth in order
to use it, and used it so as to gain honour: while Kritias, who was
one of the Thirty, in his poems wishes to be
"Rich as the Skopads, and as Kimon great,
And like Agesilaus fortunate."
Indeed, Lichas the Spartan became renowned throughout Greece for
nothing except having entertained all the strangers who were present
at the festival of the Gymnopædia: while the profuse hospitality of
Kimon, both to strangers and his own countrymen, far surpassed even
the old Athenian traditions of the heroes of olden days; for though
the city justly boasts that they taught the rest of the Greeks to sow
corn, to discover springs of water, and to kindle fire, yet Kimon, by
keeping open house for all his countrymen, and allowing them to share
his crops in the country, and permitting his friends to partake of all
the fruits of the earth with him in their season, seemed really to
have brought back the golden age. If any scurrilous tongues hinted
that it was merely to gain popularity and to curry favour with the
people that he did these things, their slanders were silenced at once
by Kimon's personal tastes and habits, which were entirely
aristocratic and Spartan. He joined Aristeides in opposing
Themistokles when the latter courted the mob to an unseemly extent,
opposed Ephialtes when, to please the populace, he dissolved the
senate of the Areopagus, and, at a time when all other men except
Aristeides and Ephialtes were gorged with the plunder of the public
treasury, kept his own hands clean, and always maintained the
reputation of an incorruptible and impartial statesman. It is related
that one Rhœsakes, a Persian, who had revolted from the king, came to
Athens with a large sum of money, and being much pestered by the
mercenary politicians there, took refuge in the house of Kimon, where
he placed two bowls beside the door-posts, one of which he filled with
gold, and the other with silver darics.[311] Kimon smiled at this, and
inquired whether he wished him to be his friend, or his hired agent;
and when the Persian answered that he wished him to be a friend, he
said, "Then take this money away; for if I am your friend I shall be
able to ask you for it when I want it."
XI. When the allies of Athens, though they continued to pay their
contribution towards the war against Persia, refused to furnish men
and ships for it, and would not go on military expeditions any longer,
because they were tired of war and wished to cultivate their fields
and live in peace, now that the Persians no longer threatened them,
the other Athenian generals endeavoured to force them into performing
their duties, and by taking legal proceedings against the defaulters
and imposing fines upon them, made the Athenian empire very much
disliked. Kimon, on the other hand, never forced any one to serve, but
took an equivalent in money from those who were unwilling to serve in
person, and took their ships without crews, permitting them to stay at
home and enjoy repose, and by their luxury and folly convert
themselves into farmers and merchants, losing all their ancient
warlike spirit and skill, while by exercising many of the Athenians in
turn in campaigns and military expeditions, he rendered them the
masters of the allies by means of the very money which they themselves
supplied. The allies very naturally began to fear and to look up to
men who were always at sea, and accustomed to the use of arms, living
as soldiers on the profits of their own unwarlike leisure, and thus by
degrees, instead of independent allies, they sank into the position of
tributaries and subjects.
XII. Moreover, no one contributed so powerfully as Kimon to the
humbling of the king of Persia; for Kimon would not relax his pursuit
of him when he retreated from Greece, but hung on the rear of the
barbarian army and would not allow them any breathing-time for
rallying their forces. He sacked several cities and laid waste their
territory, and induced many others to join the Greeks, so that he
drove the Persians entirely out of Asia Minor, from Ionia to
Pamphylia. Learning that the Persian leaders with a large army and
fleet were lying in wait for him in Pamphylia, and wishing to rid the
seas of them as far as the Chelidoniæ, or Swallow Islands, he set sail
from Knidus and the Triopian Cape with a fleet of two hundred
triremes, whose crews had been excellently trained to speed and
swiftness of manœuvring by Themistokles, while he had himself improved
their build by giving them a greater width and extent of upper deck,
so that they might afford standing-room for a greater number of
fighting men. On reaching the city of Phaselis, as the inhabitants,
although of Greek origin, refused him admittance, and preferred to
remain faithful to Persia, he ravaged their territory and assaulted
the fortifications. However, the Chians who were serving in Kimon's
army, as their city had always been on friendly terms with the people
of Phaselis, contrived to pacify his anger, and by shooting arrows
into the town with letters wrapped round them, conveyed intelligence
of this to the inhabitants. Finally, they agreed to pay the sum of ten
talents, and to join the campaign against the Persians. We are told by
the historian Ephorus that the Persian fleet was commanded by
Tithraustes, and the land army by Pherendates. Kallisthenes, however,
says that the supreme command was entrusted to Ariomandes, the son of
Gobryas, who kept the fleet idle near the river Eurymedon, not wishing
to risk an engagement with the Greeks, but waiting for the arrival of
a reinforcement of eighty Phœnician ships from Cyprus. Kimon, wishing
to anticipate this accession of strength, put to sea, determined to
force the enemy to fight. The Persian fleet at first, to avoid an
engagement, retired into the river Eurymedon, but as the Athenians
advanced they came out again and ranged themselves in order of battle.
Their fleet, according to the historian Phanodemus, consisted of six
hundred ships, but, according to Ephorus, of three hundred and fifty.
Yet this great armament offered no effective resistance, but turned
and fled almost as soon as the Athenians attacked. Such as were able
ran their ships ashore and took refuge with the land army, which was
drawn up in battle array close by, while the rest were destroyed,
crews and all, by the Athenians. The number of the Persian ships is
proved to have been very great, by the fact that, although many
escaped, and many were sunk, yet the Athenians captured two hundred
prizes.
XIII. The land forces now moved down to the beach, and it appeared to
Kimon that it would be a hazardous undertaking to effect a landing,
and to lead his tired men to attack fresh troops, who also had an
immense superiority over them in numbers. Yet as he saw that the
Greeks were excited by their victory, and were eager to join battle
with the Persian army, he disembarked his heavy-armed troops, who,
warm as they were from the sea-fight, raised a loud shout, and charged
the enemy at a run. The Persian array met them front to front, and an
obstinate battle took place, in which many distinguished Athenians
fell. At length the Persians were defeated with great slaughter, and
the Athenians gained an immense booty from the plunder of the tents
and the bodies of the slain.
Kimon, having thus, like a well-trained athlete at the games, carried
off two victories in one day, surpassing that of Salamis by sea, and
that of Platæa by land, proceeded to improve his success by attacking
the Phœnician ships also. Hearing that they were at Hydrum, he sailed
thither in haste, before any news had reached the Phœnicians about the
defeat of their main body, so that they were in anxious suspense, and
on the approach of the Athenians were seized with a sudden panic. All
their ships were destroyed, and nearly all their crews perished with
them. This blow so humbled the pride of the king of Persia, that he
afterwards signed that famous treaty in which he engaged not to
approach nearer to the Greek seas than a horseman could ride in one
day, and not to allow a single one of his ships of war to appear
between the Kyanean[312] and Chelidonian Islands. Yet the historian
Kallisthenes tells us that the Persians never made a treaty to this
effect, but that they acted thus in consequence of the terror which
Kimon had inspired by his victory; and that they removed so far from
Greece, that Perikles with fifty ships, and Ephialtes with only
thirty, sailed far beyond the Chelidonian Islands and never met with
any Persian vessels. However, in the collection of Athenian decrees
made by Kraterus, there is a copy of the articles of this treaty,
which he mentions as though it really existed. It is said that on this
occasion the Athenians erected an altar to Peace, and paid great
honours to Kallias, who negotiated the treaty. So much money was
raised by the sale of the captives and spoils taken in the war, that
besides what was reserved for other occasions, the Athenians were able
to build the wall on the south side of the Acropolis from the treasure
gained in this campaign. We are also told that at this time the
foundations of the Long Walls were laid. These walls, which were also
called the Legs, were finished afterwards, but the foundations, which
had to be carried over marshy places, were securely laid, the marsh
being filled up with chalk and large stones, entirely at Kimon's
expense. He also was the first to adorn the city with those shady
public walks which shortly afterwards became so popular with the
Athenians, for he planted rows of plane-trees in the market-place, and
transformed the Academy from a dry and barren wilderness into a
well-watered grove, full of tastefully-kept paths and pleasant walks
under the shade of fine trees.
XIV. As some of the Persians, despising Kimon, who had set out from
Athens with a very small fleet, refused to leave the Chersonese, and
invited the Thracian tribes of the interior to assist them in
maintaining their position, he attacked them with four ships only,
took thirteen of the enemy's, drove out the Persians, defeated the
Thracians, and reconquered the Chersonese for Athens. After this he
defeated in a sea-fight the people of Thasos, who had revolted from
Athens, captured thirty-three of their ships, took their city by
storm, and annexed to Athens the district of the mainland containing
the gold mines, which had belonged to the Thasians. From Thasos he
might easily have invaded Macedonia and inflicted great damage upon
that country, but he refrained from doing so. In consequence of this
he was accused of having been bribed by Alexander, the king of
Macedonia, and his enemies at home impeached him on that charge. In
his speech in his own defence he reminded the court that he was the
_proxenus_,[313] or resident agent at Athens, not of the rich Ionians
or Thessalians, as some other Athenians were, with a view to their own
profit and influence, but of the Lacedæmonians, a people whoso frugal
habits he had always been eager and proud to imitate; so that he
himself cared nothing for wealth, but loved to enrich the state with
money taken from its enemies. During this trial, Stesimbrotus informs
us that Elpinike, Kimon's sister, came to plead her brother's cause
with Perikles, the bitterest of his opponents, and that Perikles
answered with a smile, "Elpinike, you are too old to meddle in affairs
of this sort." But for all that, in the trial he treated Kimon far
more gently than any of his other accusers, and spoke only once, for
form's sake.
XV. Thus was Kimon acquitted; and during the remainder of his stay in
Athens he continued to oppose the encroachments of the people, who
were endeavouring to make themselves the source of all political
power. When, however, he started again on foreign service, the
populace finally succeeded in overthrowing the old Athenian
constitution, and under the guidance of Ephialtes greatly curtailed
the jurisdiction of the Senate of the Areopagus, and turned Athens
into a pure democracy. At this time also Perikles was rising to power
as a liberal politician. Kimon, on his return, was disgusted at the
degradation of the ancient Senate of the Areopagus, and began to
intrigue with a view of restoring the aristocratic constitution of
Kleisthenes. This called down upon him a storm of abuse from the
popular party, who brought up again the old scandals about his sister,
and charged him with partiality for the Lacedæmonians. These
imputations are alluded to in the hackneyed lines of Eupolis:
"Not a villain beyond measure,
Only fond of drink and pleasure;
Oft he slept in Sparta's town,
And left his sister here alone."
If, however, he really was a careless drunkard, and yet took so many
cities and won so many battles, it is clear that if he had been sober
and diligent he would have surpassed the most glorious achievements of
any Greek, either before or since.
XVI. He was always fond of the Lacedæmonians, and named one of his
twin sons Lacedæmonius, and the other Eleius. These children were
borne to him by his wife Kleitoria, according to the historian
Stesimbrotus; and consequently Perikles frequently reproached them
with the low birth of their mother. But Diodorus the geographer says
that these two and the third, Thessalus, were all the children of
Kimon by Isodike, the daughter of Euryptolemus the son of Megakles.
Much of Kimon's political influence was due to the fact that the
Lacedæmonians were bitterly hostile to Themistokles, and wished to
make him, young as he was, into a powerful leader of the opposite
party at Athens. The Athenians at first viewed his Spartan
partialities without dissatisfaction, especially as they gained
considerable advantages by them; for during the early days of their
empire when they first began to extend and consolidate their power,
they were enabled to do so without rousing the jealousy of Sparta, in
consequence of the popularity of Kimon with the Lacedæmonians. Most
international questions were settled by his means, as he dealt
generously with the subject states, and was viewed with especial
favour by the Lacedæmonians.
Afterwards, when the Athenians became more powerful, they viewed with
dislike Kimon's excessive love for Sparta. He was never weary of
singing the praises of Lacedæmon to the Athenians, and especially, we
are told by Stesimbrotus, when he wished to reproach them, or to
encourage them to do bettor, he used to say, "That is not how the
Lacedæmonians do it." This habit caused many Athenians to regard him
with jealousy and dislike: but the most important ground of accusation
against him was the following. In the fourth year of the reign of king
Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, at Sparta, the Lacedæmonian
territory was visited by the greatest earthquake ever known there. The
earth opened in many places, some of the crags of Taygetus fell down,
and the whole city was destroyed, with the exception of five houses.
It is related that while the boys and young men were practising
gymnastics in the palæstra, a hare ran into the building, and that the
boys, naked and anointed as they were, immediately ran out in pursuit
of it, while the gymnasium shortly afterwards fell upon the young men
who remained and killed them all. Their tomb is at this day called
Seismatia, that is, the tomb of those who perished in the earthquake.
Archidamus, perceiving the great dangers with which this disaster
menaced the state, and observing that the citizens thought of nothing
but saving their most valuable property from the wreck, ordered the
trumpet to sound, as though the enemy were about to attack, and made
every Spartan get under arms and rally round him as quickly as
possible. This measure saved Sparta; for the helots had gathered
together from the country round about, and were upon the point of
falling upon the survivors. Finding them armed and drawn up in order,
they retreated to the neighbouring cities, and openly made war against
the Spartans, having won over no small number of the Periœki to their
side, while the Messenians also joined them in attacking their own old
enemies. At this crisis the Spartans sent Perikleides as an ambassador
to Athens to demand assistance. This is the man whom Aristophanes
ridiculed in his play as sitting by the altars as a suppliant, with a
pale face and a scarlet cloak, begging for an army.
We are told by Kritias that Ephialtes vigorously opposed his mission,
and besought the Athenians not to assist in restoring a state which
was the rival of Athens, but to let the pride of Sparta be crushed and
trampled in the dust. Kimon, on the other hand, postponing the
interests of his own country to those of the Lacedæmonians, persuaded
the people of Athens to march a numerous body of men to assist them.
The historian Ion has preserved the argument which had most effect
upon the Athenians, and says that Kimon besought them not to endure to
see Greece lame of one foot and Athens pulling without her
yoke-fellow.
XVII. When Kimon with his relieving force marched to help the
Lacedæmonians, he passed through the territory of Corinth. Lachartus
objected to this, saying that he had marched in before he had asked
leave of the Corinthians, and reminded him that when men knock at a
door, they do not enter before the master of the house invites them to
come in. Kimon answered, "Lachartus, you Corinthians do not knock at
the doors of the cities of Megara or of Kleonæ, but break down the
door and force your way in by the right of the stronger, just as we
are doing now." By this timely show of spirit he silenced the
Corinthians, and passed through the territory of Corinth with his
army.
The Lacedæmonians invited the aid of the Athenians a second time, to
assist in the reduction of the fortress of Ithomé, which was held by
the Messenians and revolted helots; but when they arrived the
Lacedæmonians feared so brilliant and courageous a force, and sent
them back, accusing them of revolutionary ideas, although they did not
treat any other of their allies in this manner. The Athenians retired,
in great anger at the treatment they had received, and no longer
restrained their hatred of all who favoured the Lacedæmonians. On some
trifling pretext they ostracised Kimon, condemning him to exile for
ten years, which is the appointed time for those suffering from
ostracism. During this time the Lacedæmonians, after setting Delphi
free from the Phokians, encamped at Tanagra, and fought a battle there
with the Athenians, who came out to meet them. On this occasion Kimon
appeared, fully armed, and took his place in the ranks among his
fellow-tribesmen. However, the senate of the five hundred hearing of
this, became alarmed, and, as his enemies declared that his only
object was to create confusion during the battle and so to betray his
countrymen to the Lacedæmonians, they sent orders to the generals,
forbidding them to receive him. Upon this he went away, after having
begged Euthippus the Anaphlystian and those of his friends who were
especially suspected of Laconian leanings, to fight bravely, and by
their deeds to efface this suspicion from the minds of their
fellow-citizens. They took Kimon's armour, and set it up in their
ranks; and then, fighting in one body round it with desperate courage,
they all fell, one hundred in number, causing great grief to the
Athenians for their loss, and for the unmerited accusation which had
been brought against them. This event caused a revulsion of popular
feeling in favour of Kimon, when the Athenians remembered how much
they owed him, and reflected upon the straits to which they were now
reduced, as they had been defeated in a great battle at Tanagra, and
expected that during the summer Attica would be invaded by the
Lacedæmonians. They now recalled Kimon from exile; and Perikles
himself brought forward the decree for his restoration. So moderate
were the party-leaders of that time, and willing to subordinate their
own differences to the common welfare of their country.
XVIII. On his return Kimon at once put an end to the war, and
reconciled the two states. After the peace had been concluded,
however, he saw that the Athenians were unable to remain quiet, but
were eager to increase their empire by foreign conquest. In order,
therefore, to prevent their quarrelling with any other Greek state, or
cruising with a large fleet among the islands and the Peloponnesian
coast, and so becoming entangled in some petty war, he manned a fleet
of two hundred triremes with the intention of sailing a second time to
Cyprus and Egypt, wishing both to train the Athenians to fight against
barbarians, and also to gain legitimate advantages for Athens by the
plunder of her natural enemies. When all was ready, and the men were
about to embark, Kimon dreamed that he saw an angry dog barking at
him, and that in the midst of its barking it spoke with a human voice,
saying,
"Go, for thou shalt ever be
Loved both by my whelps and me."
This vision was very hard to interpret. Astyphilus of Poseidonia, a
soothsayer and an intimate friend of Kimon's, told him that it
portended his death, on the following grounds. The dog is the enemy of
the man at whom he barks: now a man is never so much loved by his
enemies as when he is dead; and the mixture of the voice, being partly
that of a dog and partly that of a man, signifies the Persians, as
their army was composed partly of Greeks and partly of barbarians.
After this dream Kimon sacrificed to Dionysus. The prophet cut up the
victim, and the blood as it congealed was carried by numbers of ants
towards Kimon, so that his great toe was covered with it before he
noticed them. At the moment when Kimon observed this, the priest came
up to him to tell him that the liver of the victim was defective.
However, he could not avoid going on the expedition, and sailed
forthwith. He despatched sixty of his ships to Egypt, but kept the
rest with him. He conquered the Phœnician fleet in a sea-fight,
recovered the cities of Cilicia, and began to meditate an attack upon
those of Egypt, as his object was nothing less than the utter
destruction of the Persian empire, especially when he learned that
Themistokles had risen to great eminence among the Persians, and had
undertaken to command their army in a campaign against Greece. It is
said that one of the chief reasons which caused Themistokles to
despair of success was his conviction that he could not surpass the
courage and good fortune of Kimon. He therefore committed suicide,
while Kimon, who was now revolving immense schemes of conquest as he
lay at Cyprus with his fleet, sent an embassy to the shrine of Ammon
to ask something secret. What it was no one ever knew, for the god
made no response, but as soon as the messengers arrived bade them
return, as Kimon was already with him. On hearing this, they retraced
their steps to the sea, and when they reached the headquarters of the
Greek force, which was then in Egypt, they heard that Kimon was dead.
On counting back the days to that on which they received the response,
they perceived that the god had alluded to Kimon's death when he said
that he was with him, meaning that he was among the gods.
XIX. According to most authorities Kimon died of sickness during a
siege; but some writers say that he died of a wound which he received
in a battle with the Persians. When dying he ordered his friends to
conceal his death, but at once to embark the army and sail home. This
was effected, and we are told by Phanodemus that no one, either of the
enemy or of the Athenian allies conceived any suspicion that Kimon had
ceased to command the forces until after he had been dead for thirty
days. After his death no great success was won by any Greek general
over the Persians, but they were all incited by their popular orators
and the war-party to fight with one another, which led to the great
Peloponnesian war. This afforded a long breathing-time to the
Persians, and wrought terrible havoc with the resources of Greece.
Many years afterwards Agesilaus invaded Asia, and carried on war for a
short time against the Persian commanders who were nearest the coast.
Yet he also effected nothing of any importance, and being recalled to
Greece by the internal troubles of that country, left Persia drawing
tribute from all the Greek cities and friendly districts of the
sea-coast, although in the time of Kimon no Persian tax-gatherer or
Persian horseman was ever seen within a distance of four hundred
stades (fifty miles) from the sea.
His remains were brought back to Attica, as is proved by the monument
which to this day is known as the "Tomb of Kimon." The people of
Kitium,[314] also, however, pay respect to a tomb, said to be that of
Kimon, according to the tale of the orator Nausikrates, who informs us
that once during a season of pestilence and scarcity the people of
Kitium were ordered by an oracle not to neglect Kimon, but to pay him
honour and respect him as a superior being. Such a man as this was the
Greek general.