Cimon

Cimon was an Athenian general and statesman, the son of Miltiades, who became a leading commander of the Delian League after the Persian Wars. He won victories against Persian forces, expanded Athenian influence and favoured cooperation with Sparta. His political opponents used the failure of a Spartan intervention to secure his ostracism, but he later returned and helped arrange peace between Athens and Sparta before dying during a campaign against Cyprus.

Cimon appears in historical fiction about the generation after Marathon and Salamis, including Christian Cameron’s Long War novels. Writers often contrast his aristocratic, pro-Spartan outlook with the democratic and naval policies associated with Themistocles and Pericles. His career allows fiction to show how the alliance created against Persia gradually became an Athenian empire.

In Conn Iggulden’s Lion, Living in the shadow of his father Xanthippus, he competes with Cimon for military distinction and political influence as the Delian League carries the war into the Aegean.

In non-fiction, Cimon is discussed in Plutarch’s The Rise and Fall of Athens. In Plutarch’s The Rise and Fall of Athens, this Plutarch collection gives biographical sources for Athens from legendary Theseus through Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades and Lysander.