29 Facts About Cimon

Cimon rose to prominence for his bravery fighting in the naval Battle of Salamis, during the Second Persian invasion of Greece.

Cimon was then elected as one of the ten strategoi, to continue the Persian Wars against the Achaemenid Empire.

Cimon took an increasingly prominent role in Athenian politics, generally supporting the aristocrats and opposing the popular party.

Cimon personally commanded the force of 4,000 hoplites sent to Sparta.

Cimon then proposed an expedition to Cyprus, which was in revolt against the Persians.

Cimon was placed in command of the fleet of 200 warships.

Cimon was a member of the Philaidae clan, from the deme of Laciadae.

Cimon's grandfather was Cimon Coalemos, who won three Olympic victories with his four-horse chariot and was assassinated by the sons of Peisistratus.

Cimon's father was the celebrated Athenian general Miltiades and his mother was Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus and a relative of the historian Thucydides.

Cimon inherited this debt and, according to Diodorus, some of his father's unserved prison sentence in order to obtain his body for burial.

Cimon later married Isodice, Megacles' granddaughter and a member of the Alcmaeonidae family.

Cimon is mentioned as being a member of an embassy sent to Sparta in 479 BC.

Cimon captured Eion on the Strymon from the Persian general Boges.

Cimon conquered Scyros and drove out the pirates who were based there.

Around 466 BC, Cimon carried the war against Persia into Asia Minor and decisively defeated the Persians at the Battle of the Eurymedon on the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia.

Cimon had served Athens well during the Persian Wars and according to Plutarch: "In all the qualities that war demands he was fully the equal of Themistocles and his own father Miltiades".

Athens under Cimon laid siege to Thasos after the Athenian fleet defeated the Thasos fleet.

Cimon was Sparta's Proxenos at Athens, he strongly advocated a policy of cooperation between the two states.

Cimon was known to be so fond of Sparta that he named one of his sons Lacedaemonius.

In 462 BC, Cimon sought the support of Athens' citizens to provide help to Sparta.

Some of Cimon's policies were reversed including his pro-Spartan policy and his attempts at peace with Persia.

In 458 BC, Cimon sought to return to Athens to assist its fight against Sparta at Tanagra, but was rebuffed.

Later, with a Persian fleet moving against a rebellious Cyprus, Cimon proposed an expedition to fight the Persians.

Cimon gained Pericles' support and sailed to Cyprus with two hundred triremes of the Delian League.

Cimon used the remaining ships to aid the uprising of the Cypriot Greek city-states.

From his many military exploits and money gained through the Delian League, Cimon funded many construction projects throughout Athens.

Cimon ordered the expansion of the Acropolis and the walls around Athens, and the construction of public roads, public gardens, and many political buildings.

Cimon laid siege to the Phoenician and Persian stronghold of Citium on the southwest coast of Cyprus in 450BC; he died during or soon after the failed attempt.

Cimon was later buried in Athens, where a monument was erected in his memory.