Cimon

Cimon was an Athenian statesman and general who lived in the 5th century BCE. He was the son of Miltiades, the victor of the Battle of Marathon, and he became one of Athens’ leading political and military figures in the early decades of the Delian League, the alliance formed to oppose Persian power after the Persian Wars.

As a proponent of assertive imperial policy and close ties with Sparta, Cimon directed several campaigns against Persian forces in Asia Minor and helped consolidate the League’s naval and military strength. The most celebrated achievement attributed to him was the combined naval and land victory at the Eurymedon River (c. 466 BCE), which secured Athenian dominance in the region and reinforced the League’s prestige and resources.

Domestically, Cimon represented the aristocratic faction and favored restraint on democratic reforms associated with Ephialtes and later Pericles. His stance toward oligarchic elements and his willingness to align with Sparta brought him into conflict with the growing democratic movement in Athens. In 461 BCE, amid tensions over reforms and policy, he was ostracized from the city, removing a central rival to the new democratic leadership.

Cimon died in 450 BCE during a campaign in Cyprus, removing a key architect of Athenian foreign policy from the scene. His career left a lasting imprint on the development of the Delian League and the balance of power in Athens, illustrating the tensions between oligarchic and democratic forces that shaped the city’s trajectory prior to Periclean leadership.