Cimon's Role Model

Hye Sun Lee
Professor T. Wesley Fleming
HIS 101 (048N)
June 7, 2015
Cimon
Cimon was an outstanding Athenian statesman and general in the first half of the 5th century B.C. (Blackwell). He was influential “in leading Athens to a dominant position in the Greek world after the Persian Wars” (Blackwell).
His distinct bravery in the triumphant naval battle with the Persians at Salamis (480 B.C.) led him to be elected as strategus – one of Athens’ 10 annual war generals - and he was reelected every year until his ostracism, which happened in 461 B.C. (“Cimon”).
Demosthenes, writing in the 4th century B.C., depicts that Cimon had a modest character, citing him as an example of how the rich and famous Athenians were no different from others who were typical citizens in the early 5th century (Blackwell). Cimon was tall and good-looking, open and friendly in manner, and straightforward in action; he was a natural leader and possibly, the best general Athens ever

had (“Cimon”).
In 480 B.C., Cimon became public prominence for the first time, when the Persian army was marching toward Attica (Blackwell). Cimon made a brilliant and effective gesture of support for the politician Themistocles’ proposal: “he marched up to the Acropolis and gave his horse’s bridle as a gift to the goddess Athene,”; thus demonstrating that he would not need his cavalry equipment, rather he would trust in the navy (Blackwell). In the naval battle of Salamis, he performed bravely, and from this battle, he became prominent in Athens (Blackwell).
In 478 B.C., the Delian League was formed in order to continue fighting Persia. By fair dealing and kindness, he became the principal commander of the Delian League (“Cimon”). He won over many of the Greek cities to support Athens rather than Sparta, whose leading position was weakened by Pausanias’ mismanagement of the other allies (Bingley).
Cimon’s greatest victory was in 467 B.C., when he commanded the Athenian-led Delian League fleet in a battle against the Persian fleet at the mouth of the River Eurymedon in Pamphylia in Asia Minor (Blackwell). He routed the much larger Persian fleet and afterward defeated the Persian forces on land (“Cimon”). The Persian navy, which held 350 Persian and 80 Phoenician warships, was completely destroyed in the naval battle (“Battle of the Eurymedon”). Cimon became well-known as “the one general who won a victory on land and on sea on the same day” (Blackwell). Since this victory, the cities of Caria and Lycia became allies of the Delian League (“Battle of the Eurymedon”). After this battle, “the Persians did not dare sail beyond the Chelidonian and Cyanean islands” (Bingley).
The Battle of the Eurymedon was not the defense of a Greek region; rather it was an offensive strike against the Persians, who have threatened the Delian League (Kasarda). Plutarch mentions in his Life of Cimon that “in order not to be compelled to fight, they [the Persians] anchored in the river [Eurymedon]” until the Athenians’ allies made the encounter unescapable (Kasarda). This clearly indicates the tactical offensive aspect of the Delian League (Kasarda).
The battle of the Eurymedon was derived from a campaign the Athenian-led Delian League launched against the Persians in Asia Minor in order to protect its possessions in the Aegean Sea from the Persian Empire (“Battles”). Two accounts of the battle are available, which are one by Plutarch and one by Diodorus Siculus (“Battles”). They both described that Athenian admiral Cimon led 250 Athenian ships against the Persians in Pamphylia in Asia Minor (“Battles”). According to Diodorus the 250 ships were combined with 100 more from Ionia and other cities of the Delian League (“Battles”). The Greek cities, which located near the coast of Caria, just surrendered without resistance, but some cities, which had mixed Greek and Persian culture and language resisted, were besieged by Cimon (“Battles”). The Greek-speaking city of Fasilida held out the longest (“Battles”). According to Plutarch, the contingent in the Athenian army from Chios, which was the Fasilides’ long-standing friend, persuaded them to surrender (“Battles”). The Fasilides accepted and joined the Athenians' campaign. Before long, Cimon had also conquered the majority cities of Lycia and added them to the Delian League (“Battles”).
After bringing the coastal Greek cities under his control, Cimon moved in on the Persian navy near Eurymedon River with his fleet (“Battles”). Two accounts of the battle that one by Diodorus and one by Plutarch both mention Tithrafstes, who was an illegitimate son of king Xerxes, as Persian naval commander (“Battles”). Supreme commander of the ground forces was Ferendatis, but Plutarch described Ariomandes as the most prominent leader (“Battles”). According to Plutarch, Ariomandes with the great part of the Persian naval force lay at anchor near the Eurymedon River, waiting to be covered by another 80 Phoenician ships from Cyprus with the Persian infantry camped nearby (“Battles”). Before the Phoenician ships could arrive, Cimon attacked Ariomande's fleet, and in the beginning, the Persian fleet tried to retreat, but when Cimon continued to defeat on the Persians, they engaged in the battle (“Battles”). According to Ephorus the Persian fleet was composed of 350 ships (“Battles”). The Athenian-led Delian League won the sea fight, sinking and capturing 200 Persian ships. When the Persians fled, Cimon and his forces followed them on land, and then made a night attack at their camp and won a second victory there (“Battles”). After winning this battle, the Greeks went after the Phoenician naval reinforcements, which in the meanwhile had fled to Hydra Island, and took them by surprise and destroyed most of their ships (“Battles”).
On the other hand, Diodorus Siculus gives us a quite different account of these events (“Battles”). He agrees that Cimon first attacked the Persian navy, but he says the location of the battle was near Cyprus instead of near the Eurymedon River (“Battles”). After winning the naval battle at the Eurymedon River, the Greeks chased the fleeing Persian forces to Cyprus, where the Persian soldiers abandoned their ships and took refuge in the countryside (“Battles”). This way Cimon captured a few of Persian ships, which he manned with Athenians disguised as the Persians (“Battles”). Cimon led his men in the captured Persian ships up the Eurymedon River where the unwary Persians let them into the camp. In the flowing surprise attack, the Greeks won easily, killing Ferendatis, the Persian general, in the fight (“Battles”).
These victories resulted in a treaty between the Greeks and the Persian king of Xerxes, which indicates ending the threat of Persian to the Greeks, at least for the moment (Blackwell).

The battle demonstrated that the Athenian-led Delian League could accomplish its objectives (“Battles”). In the Aegean Sea, the Persian fleet was no longer a real threat to the Greeks (“Battles”). A year after the battle, Cimon invaded and defeated the remaining Persian forces in the Thracian peninsula (“Battles”). This victory acquired the Greek fleet's definite control of the Aegean Sea and allowed the Athenians freely to follow their broader political motive; making the Delian League allies tributary states in an Athenian empire and challenging for the supremacy in the Greek world (“Battles”). This situation lasted until the annihilation of the Athenian expeditionary force in Egypt, probably between 460 BC - 456 BC, which contributed that the Persians became a major naval power in eastern Mediterranean again

(“Battles”).

Works Cited
Adam Casarda. “The Athenian Decadrachm and the Athenian Arkhē.” Sunoikisis Undergraduate Research Journal. 7 Dec. 2013. Web. 7 Jun. 2015. .
“Battles: Eurymedon” n.d. Web. 7 Jun. 2015. .
“Battle of Eurymedon.” The Latin Library. n.d. Web. 7 Jun. 2015.
< http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/notes/eurymedon.html>.
Bingley. “Cimon of Athens.” About. n.d. Web. 7 Jun. 2015.
Blackwell, Christopher W. “Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy: Cimon.” a Stoa Publication. 31 Jan. 2003. Web. 7 Jun. 2015. .
"Cimon". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 07 Jun. 2015.