Cimon

Ere long Byzantium fell back again into the hands of Persia, but she was finally freed from the Oriental yoke seventeen years later, when the victorious Greeks, fresh from the triumph of Salamis and Mycale, sailed up to her walls and after a long leaguer starved out the obstinate garrison, B.C. 479.

The fleet wintered there, and it was at Byzantium that the first foundations of the naval empire of Athens were laid, when all the Greek states of Asia placed their ships at the disposal of the Athenian admirals Cimon and Aristides.

During the fifth century Byzantium twice declared war on Athens, now the mistress of the seas, and on each occasion fell into the hands of the enemy, once by voluntary surrender in 439 B.C., once by treachery from within in 408 B.C.

But the Athenians, except in one or two disgraceful cases, did not deal hardly with their conquered enemies, and the Byzantines escaped anything harder than the payment of a heavy war indemnity.

Besides, since he was rich, of brilliant lineage, and had friends of the greatest influence, he feared that he might be ostracized, and so at first had naught to do with politics, but devoted himself rather to a military career, where he was brave and enterprising.

However, when Aristides was dead, and Themistocles in banishment, and Cimon was kept by his campaigns for the most part abroad, then at last Pericles decided to devote himself to the people, espousing the cause of the poor and the many instead of the few and the rich, contrary to his own nature, which was anything but popular.

But he feared, as it would seem, to encounter a suspicion of aiming at tyranny, and when he saw that Cimon was very aristocratic in his sympathies, and was held in extraordinary affection by the party of the good and true, he began to court the favor of the multitude, thereby securing safety for himself, and power to wield against his rival.

Straightway, too, he made a different ordering in his way of life.

On one street only in the city was he seen to be walking, the one which took him to the marketplace and the council-chamber.

Whereupon Simon came back from banishment and made peace between the cities.

For the Lacedaemonians were as kindly disposed towards him as they were full of hatred towards Pericles and the other popular leaders.

Some, however, say that the decree for the restoration of Cimon was not drafted by Pericles until a secret compact had been made between them, through the agency of Elpinice, Cimon's sister, to the effect that Cimon should sail out with a fleet of two hundred ships, and have command in foreign parts, attempting to subdue the territory of the king, while Pericles should have supreme power in the city.

For instance, while he was still young and obscure, he prevailed upon Epicles of Hermione, a harpist who was eagerly sought after by the Athenians, to practise at his house because he was ambitious that many should seek out his dwelling and come often to see him.

Again, on going to Olympia he tried to rival Cimon in his banquets and booths and other brilliant appointments, so that he displeased the Hellenes.

For Cimon was young and of a great house, and they thought they must allow him in such extravagances; but Themistocles had not yet become famous, and was thought to be seeking to elevate himself unduly without adequate means, and so was charged with ostentation.

And still again, as choregus or theatrical manager, he won a victory with tragedies, although even at that early time this contest was conducted with great eagerness and ambition, and set up a tablet commemorating his victory with the following inscription: Themistocles the Phrearrhean was choregus, Phrynichus was poet, Adeimantus was archon.

However, he was on good terms with the common folk, partly because he could call off-hand the name of every citizen, and partly because he rendered the service of a safe and impartial arbitrator in cases of private obligation and settlement out of court.

Some, it is true, say that it was Phthia, the wife of the king, who suggested this form of supplication to Themistocles, and that she seated her son on the hearth with him.

And certain others that Admetus himself, in order that he might give a religious sanction to the necessity that was upon him of not surrendering the men, arranged beforehand and solemnly rehearsed with him the supplication scene.

Either his wife and children were privately removed from Athens and sent to him by Epikrates of the deme Acharnae, who, for this deed, was afterwards convicted by Cimon and put to death, as Ctesimbrotus relates.

Miltiades was off the hook because in no time he was dead from that gangrenous wound.

That left his son Kimon to pay off the fine.

But Xanthippus was not the only political enemy of Miltiades.

Themistocles' star was rising fast.

As you may remember from an earlier episode, ostracism was a form of temporary exile.

The assembly would vote each year on whether there was gonna be an ostracism, and if the vote was yes, the citizens would gather on an appointed day in the Agora to vote.

They'd scratch the name of the person they wanted to get rid of on an ostrakon, a potsherd, and put it into an urn to be counted.

If a minimum number of six thousand votes were cast, the person with the most votes had to stay away from Athens for 10 years, although they still kept their citizenship and their property.