ἤδη δʼ εὐπορῶν ὁ Κίμων ἐφόδια τῆς στρατηγίας ἃ καλῶς ἀπὸ τῶν πολεμίων ἔδοξεν ὠφελῆσθαι κάλλιον ἀνήλισκεν εἰς τοὺς πολίτας. τῶν τε γὰρ ἀγρῶν τοὺς φραγμοὺς ἀφεῖλεν, ἵνα καὶ τοῖς ξένοις καὶ τῶν πολιτῶν τοῖς δεομένοις ἀδεῶς ὑπάρχῃ λαμβάνειν τῆς ὀπώρας, καὶ δεῖπνον οἴκοι παρʼ αὐτῷ λιτὸν μέν, ἀρκοῦν δὲ πολλοῖς, ἐποιεῖτο καθʼ ἡμέραν, ἐφʼ ὃ τῶν πενήτων ὁ βουλόμενος εἰσῄει καὶ διατροφὴν εἶχεν ἀπράγμονα, μόνοις τοῖς δημοσίοις σχολάζων.
And since he was already wealthy, Cimon lavished the revenues from his campaign, which he was thought to have won with honor from the enemy, to his still greater honor, on his fellow-citizens. He took away the fences from his fields, that strangers and needy citizens might have it in their power to take fearlessly of the fruits of the land; and every day he gave a dinner at his house—simple, it is true, but sufficient for many, to which any poor man who wished came in, and so received a maintenance which cost him no effort and left him free to devote himself solely to public affairs.
ὡς δʼ Ἀριστοτέλης φησίν, οὐχ ἁπάντων Ἀθηναίων, ἀλλὰ τῶν δημοτῶν αὐτοῦ Λακιαδῶν παρεσκευάζετο τῷ βουλομένῳ τὸ δεῖπνον. αὐτῷ δὲ νεανίσκοι παρείποντο συνήθεις ἀμπεχόμενοι καλῶς, ὧν ἕκαστος, εἴ τις συντύχοι τῷ Κίμωνι τῶν ἀστῶν πρεσβύτερος ἠμφιεσμένος ἐνδεῶς, διημείβετο πρὸς αὐτὸν τὰ ἱμάτια· καὶ τὸ γινόμενον ἐφαίνετο σεμνόν.
But Aristotle says that it was not for all Athenians, but only for his own demesmen, the Laciadae, that he provided a free dinner. He was constantly attended by young comrades in fine attire, each one of whom, whenever an elderly citizen in needy array came up, was ready to exchange raiment with him. The practice made a deep impression.
οἱ δʼ αὐτοὶ καὶ νόμισμα κομίζοντες ἄφθονον παριστάμενοι τοῖς κομψοῖς τῶν πενήτων ἐν ἀγορᾷ σιωπῇ τῶν κερματίων ἐνέβαλλον εἰς τὰς χεῖρας. ὧν δὴ καὶ Κρατῖνος ὁ κωμικὸς ἐν Ἀρχιλόχοις ἔοικε μεμνῆσθαι διὰ τούτων·
These same followers also carried with them a generous sum of money, and going up to poor men of finer quality in the market-place, they would quietly thrust small change into their hands. To such generosity as this Cratinus seems to have referred in his Archilochi, with the words:—
κἀγὼ γὰρ ηὔχουν Μητρόβιος ὁ γραμματεὺς / σὺν ἀνδρὶ θείῳ καὶ φιλοξενωτάτῳ / καὶ πάντʼ ἀρίστῳ τῶν Πανελλήνων πρὸ τοῦ / Κίμωνι λιπαρὸν γῆρας εὐωχούμενος / αἰῶνα πάντα συνδιατρίψειν. ὁ δὲ / λιπὼν βέβηκε πρότερος. /
Yes, I too hoped, Metrobius, I, the public scribe, / Along with man divine, the rarest host that lives, / In every way the best of all Hellenic men, / With Cimon, feasting out in joy a sleek old age, / To while away the remnant of my life. But he / Has gone before and left me. /
ἔτι τοίνυν Γοργίας μὲν ὁ Λεοντῖνός φησι τὸν Κίμωνα τὰ χρήματα κτᾶσθαι μὲν ὡς χρῷτο, χρῆσθαι δὲ ὡς τιμῷτο, Κριτίας δὲ τῶν τριάκοντα γενόμενος ἐν ταῖς ἐλεγείαις εὔχεται· πλοῦτον μὲν Σκοπαδῶν, μεγαλοφροσύνην δὲ Κίμωνος, / νίκας δʼ Ἀρκεσίλα τοῦ Λακεδαιμονίου. /
καίτοι Λίχαν γε τὸν Σπαρτιάτην ἀπʼ οὐδενὸς ἄλλου γινώσκομεν ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ὀνομαστὸν γενόμενον ἢ ὅτι τοὺς ξένους ἐν ταῖς γυμνοπαιδίαις ἐδείπνιζεν· ἡ δὲ Κίμωνος ἀφθονία καὶ τὴν παλαιὰν τῶν Ἀθηναίων φιλοξενίαν καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν ὑπερέβαλεν.
And again, Georgias the Leontine says that Cimon made money that he might spend it, and spent it that he might he honored for it. And Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, prays in his elegies that he may have the wealth of the Scopadae, the great-mindedness of Cimon, / and the victories of Arcesilaus of Lacedaemon. / And yet we know that Lichas the Spartan became famous among the Hellenes for no other reason than that he entertained the strangers at the boys’ gymnastic festival; but the generosity of Cimon surpassed even the hospitality and philanthropy of the Athenians of olden time.
οἱ μὲν γάρ, ἐφʼ οἷς ἡ πόλις μέγα φρονεῖ δικαίως, τό τε σπέρμα τῆς τροφῆς εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐξέδωκαν ὑδάτων τε πηγαίων […] καὶ πυρὸς ἔναυσιν χρῄζουσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐδίδαξαν,ὁ δὲ τὴν μὲν οἰκίαν τοῖς πολίταις πρυτανεῖον ἀποδείξας κοινόν, ἐν δὲ τῇ χώρᾳ καρπῶν ἑτοίμων ἀπαρχὰς καὶ ὅσα ὧραι καλὰ φέρουσι χρῆσθαι καὶ λαμβάνειν ἅπαντα τοῖς ξένοις παρέχων, τρόπον τινὰ τὴν ἐπὶ Κρόνου μυθολογουμένην κοινωνίαν εἰς τὸν βίον αὖθις κατῆγεν.
For they—and their city is justly very proud of it—spread abroad among the Hellenes the sowing of grain and the lustral uses of spring waters, and taught mankind who knew it not the art of kindling fire. But he made his home in the city a general public residence for his fellow citizens, and on his estates in the country allowed even the stranger to take and use the choicest of the ripened fruits, with all the fair things which the seasons bring. Thus, in a certain fashion, he restored to human life the fabled communism of the age of Cronus,—the golden age.
οἱ δὲ ταῦτα κολακείαν ὄχλου καὶ δημαγωγίαν εἶναι διαβάλλοντες ὑπὸ τῆς ἄλλης ἐξηλέγχοντο τοῦ ἀνδρὸς προαιρέσεως ἀριστοκρατικῆς καὶ Λακωνικῆς οὔσης, ὅς γε καὶ Θεμιστοκλεῖ πέρα τοῦ δέοντος ἐπαίροντι τὴν δημοκρατίαν ἀντέβαινε μετʼ Ἀριστείδου, καὶ πρὸς Ἐφιάλτην ὕστερον χάριτι τοῦ δήμου καταλύοντα τὴν ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου βουλὴν διηνέχθη,
Those who slanderously said that this was flattery of the rabble and demagogic art in him, were refuted by the man’s political policy, which was aristocratic and Laconian. He actually opposed Themistocles when he exalted the democracy unduly, as Aristides also did. Later on he took hostile issue with Ephialtes, who, to please the people, tried to dethrone the Council of the Areiopagus;
λημμάτων δὲ δημοσίων τοὺς ἄλλους πλὴν Ἀριστείδου καὶ Ἐφιάλτου πάντας ἀναπιμπλαμένους ὁρῶν, αὑτὸν ἀδέκαστον καὶ ἄθικτον ἐκ τῇ πολιτείᾳ δωροδοκίας καὶ πάντα προῖκα καὶ καθαρῶς πράττοντα καὶ λέγοντα διὰ τέλους παρέσχε.
λέγεταί γέ τοι Ῥοισάκην τινὰ βάρβαρον ἀποστάτην βασιλέως ἐλθεῖν μετὰ χρημάτων πολλῶν εἰς Ἀθήνας, καὶ σπαραττόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν συκοφαντῶν καταφυγεῖν πρὸς Κίμωνα, καὶ θεῖναι παρὰ τὴν αὔλειον αὐτοῦ φιάλας δύο, τὴν μὲν ἀργυρείων ἐμπλησάμενον Δαρεικῶν, τὴν δὲ χρυσῶν· ἰδόντα δὲ τὸν Κίμωνα καὶ μειδιάσαντα πυθέσθαι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου,
and though he saw all the rest except Aristides and Ephialtes filling their purses with the gains from their public services, he remained unbought and unapproached by bribes, devoting all his powers to the state, without recompense and in all purity, through to the end. It is told, indeed, that one Rhoesaces, a Barbarian who had deserted from the King, came to Athens with large moneys, and being set upon fiercely by the public informers, fled for refuge to Cimon, and deposited at his door two platters, one filled with silver, the other with golden Darics. Cimon, when he saw them, smiled,
πότερον αἱρεῖται Κίμωνα μισθωτὸν ἢ φίλον ἔχειν· τοῦ δὲ φήσαντος φίλον οὐκοῦν, φάναι, ταῦτʼ ἄπιθι μετὰ σεαυτοῦ κομίζων· χρήσομαι γὰρ αὐτοῖς ὅταν δέωμαι φίλος γενόμενος.
and asked the man whether he preferred to have Cimon as his hireling or his friend, and on his replying, As my friend, Well then, said Cimon, Take this money with thee and go thy way, for I shall have the use of it when I want it if I am thy friend.
ἐπεὶ δʼ οἱ σύμμαχοι τοὺς φόρους μὲν ἐτέλουν, ἄνδρας δὲ καὶ ναῦς ὡς ἐτάχθησαν οὐ παρεῖχον, ἀλλʼ ἀπαγορεύοντες ἤδη πρὸς τὰς στρατείας, καὶ πολέμου μὲν οὐδὲν δεόμενοι, γεωργεῖν δὲ καὶ ζῆν καθʼ ἡσυχίαν ἐπιθυμοῦντες, ἀπηλλαγμένων τῶν βαρβάρων καὶ μὴ διοχλούντων, οὔτε τὰς ναῦς ἐπλήρουν οὔτʼ ἄνδρας ἀπέστελλον, οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι στρατηγοὶ τῶν Ἀθηναίων προσηνάγκαζον αὐτοὺς ταῦτα ποιεῖν καὶ τοὺς ἐλλείποντας ὑπάγοντες δίκαις καὶ κολάζοντες ἐπαχθῆ τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ λυπηρὰν ἐποίουν,
The allies continued to pay their assessments, but did not furnish men and ships according to allotment, since they were soon weary of military service, and had no need of war, but a great desire to till their land and live at their ease. The Barbarians were gone and did not harass them, so they neither manned their ships nor sent out soldiers. The rest of the Athenian generals tried to force them to do this, and by prosecuting the delinquents and punishing them, rendered their empire burdensome and vexatious.
Κίμων δὲ τὴν ἐναντίαν ὁδὸν ἐν τῇ στρατηγίᾳ πορευόμενος βίαν μὲν οὐδενὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων προσῆγε, χρήματα δὲ λαμβάνων παρὰ τῶν οὐ βουλομένων στρατεύεσθαι καὶ ναῦς κενάς, ἐκείνους εἴα δελεαζομένους τῇ σχολῇ περὶ τὰ οἰκεῖα διατρίβειν, γεωργοὺς καὶ χρηματιστὰς ἀπολέμους ἐκ πολεμικῶν ὑπὸ τρυφῆς καὶ ἀνοίας γινομένους, τῶν δʼ Ἀθηναίων ἀνὰ μέρος πολλοὺς ἐμβιβάζων καὶ διαπονῶν ταῖς στρατείαις ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ τοῖς παρὰ τῶν συμμάχων μισθοῖς καὶ χρήμασι δεσπότας αὐτῶν τῶν διδόντων ἐποίησε.
But Cimon took just the opposite course when he was general, and brought no compulsion to bear on a single Hellene, but accepted money from those who did not wish to go out on service, and ships without crews, and so suffered the allies, caught with the bait of their own ease, to stay at home and become tillers of the soil an unwarlike merchants instead of warriors, and all through their foolish love of comfort. On the other hand, he made great numbers of the Athenians man their ships, one crew relieving another, and imposed on them the toil of his expeditions, and so in a little while, by means of the very wages which they got from the allies, made them lords of their own paymasters.
πλέοντας γὰρ αὐτοὺς συνεχῶς καὶ διὰ χειρὸς ἔχοντας ἀεὶ τὰ ὅπλα καὶ τρεφομένους καὶ ἀσκοῦντας ἐκ τῆς αὐτῶν ἀστρατείαςἐθισθέντες φοβεῖσθαι καὶ κολακεύειν, ἔλαθον ἀντὶ συμμάχων ὑποτελεῖς καὶ δοῦλοι γεγονότες.
For those who did no military service became used to fearing and flattering those who were continually voyaging, and for ever under arms and training, and practising, and so, before they knew it, they were tributary subjects instead of allies.
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