ἐπεὶ δὲ τῶν Περσῶν τινες οὐκ ἐβούλοντο τὴν Χερρόνησον ἐκλιπεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς Θρᾷκας ἄνωθεν ἐπεκαλοῦντο καταφρονοῦντες τοῦ Κίμωνος μετʼ ὀλίγων παντάπασι τριήρων Ἀθήνηθεν ἐκπεπλευκότος, ὁρμήσας ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς τέσσαρσι μὲν ναυσὶ τρισκαίδεκα τὰς ἐκείνων ἔλαβεν, ἐξελάσας δὲ τοὺς Πέρσας καὶ κρατήσας τῶν Θρᾳκῶν πᾶσαν ᾠκειώσατο τῇ πόλει τὴν Χερρόνησον.
Now there were certain Persians who would not abandon the Chersonese, but called in Thracians from the North to help them, despising Cimon, who had sailed out from Athens with only a few triremes all told. But he sallied out against them with his four ships and captured their thirteen, drove out the Persians, overwhelmed the Thracians, and turned the whole Chersonese over to his city for settlement.
ἐκ δὲ τούτου Θασίους μὲν ἀποστάντας Ἀθηναίων καταναυμαχήσας τρεῖς καὶ τριάκοντα ναῦς ἔλαβε καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἐξεπολιόρκησε καὶ τὰ χρυσεῖα τὰ πέραν Ἀθηναίοις προσεκτήσατο καὶ χώραν, ἧς ἐπῆρχον Θάσιοι, παρέλαβεν.
ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ῥᾳδίως ἐπιβῆναι Μακεδονίας καὶ πολλὴν ἀποτεμέσθαι παρασχόν, ὡς ἐδόκει, μὴ θελήσας αἰτίαν ἔσχε δώροις ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως Ἀλεξάνδρου συμπεπεῖσθαι, καὶ δίκην ἔφυγε τῶν ἐχθρῶν συστάντων ἐπʼ αὐτόν.
And after this, when the Thasians were in revolt from Athens, he defeated them in a sea-fight, captured thirty-three of their ships, besieged and took their city, acquired their gold mines on the opposite mainland for Athens, and took possession of the territory which the Thasians controlled there. From this base he had a good opportunity, as it was thought, to invade Macedonia and cut off a great part of it, and because he would not consent to do it, he was accused of having been bribed to this position by King Alexander, and was actually prosecuted, his enemies forming a coalition against him.
ἀπολογούμενος δὲ πρὸς τοὺς δικαστὰς οὐκ Ἰώνων ἔφη προξενεῖν οὐδὲ Θεσσαλῶν, πλουσίων ὄντων, ὥσπερ ἑτέρους, ἵνα θεραπεύωνται καὶ λαμβάνωσιν, ἀλλὰ Λακεδαιμονίων, μιμούμενος καὶ ἀγαπῶν τὴν παρʼ αὐτοῖς εὐτέλειαν καὶ σωφροσύνην, ἧς οὐδένα προτιμᾶν πλοῦτον, ἀλλὰ πλουτίζων ἀπὸ τῶν πολεμίων τὴν πόλιν ἀγάλλεσθαι.
In making his defence before his judges he said he was no proxenus of rich Ionians and Thessalians, as others were, to be courted and paid for their services, but rather of Lacedaemonians, whose temperate simplicity he lovingly imitated, counting no wealth above it, but embellishing the city with the wealth which he got from the enemy.
μνησθεὶς δὲ τῆς κρίσεως ἐκείνης ὁ Στησίμβροτός φησι τὴν Ἐλπινίκην ὑπὲρ τοῦ Κίμωνος δεομένην ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας τοῦ Περικλέους (οὗτος γὰρ ἦν τῶν κατηγόρων ὁ σφοδρότατος), τὸν δὲ μειδιάσαντα γραῦς εἶ, φάναι, γραῦς, ὦ Ἐλπινίκη, ὡς τηλικαῦτα διαπράττεσθαι πράγματα· πλὴν ἔν γε τῇ δίκῃ πρᾳότατον γενέσθαι τῷ Κίμωνι καὶ πρὸς τὴν κατηγορίαν ἅπαξ ἀναστῆναι μόνον, ὥσπερ ἀφοσιούμενον.
In mentioning this famous trial Stesimbrotus says that Elpinice came with a plea for Cimon to the house of Pericles, since he was the most ardent accuser, and that he smiled and said, Too old, too old, Elpinice, to meddle with such business. But at the trial he was very gentle with Cimon, and took the floor only once in accusation of him, as though it were a mere formality.
ἐκείνην μὲν οὖν ἀπέφυγε τὴν δίκην· ἐν δὲ τῇ λοιπῇ πολιτείᾳ παρὼν μὲν ἐκράτει καὶ συνέστελλε τὸν δῆμον ἐπιβαίνοντα τοῖς ἀρίστοις καὶ περισπῶντα τὴν πᾶσαν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀρχὴν καὶ δύναμιν· ὡς δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ στρατείαν ἐξέπλευσε, τελέως ἀνεθέντες οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ συγχέαντες τὸν καθεστῶτα τῆς πολιτείας κόσμον τά τε πάτρια νόμιμα, οἷς ἐχρῶντο πρότερον,
Well then, Cimon was acquitted at this trial. And during the remainder of his political career, when he was at home, he mastered and constrained the people in its onsets upon the nobles, and in its efforts to wrest all office and power to itself; but when he sailed away again on military service, the populace got completely beyond control. They confounded the established political order of things and the ancestral practices which they had formerly observed,
Ἐφιάλτου προεστῶτος ἀφείλοντο τῆς ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου βουλῆς τὰς κρίσεις πλὴν ὀλίγων ἁπάσας, καὶ τῶν δικαστηρίων κυρίους ἑαυτοὺς ποιήσαντες εἰς ἄκρατον δημοκρατίαν ἐνέβαλον τὴν πόλιν, ἤδη καὶ Περικλέους δυναμένου καὶ τὰ τῶν πολλῶν φρονοῦντος. διὸ καὶ τοῦ Κίμωνος, ὡς ἐπανῆλθεν, ἀγανακτοῦντος ἐπὶ τῷ προπηλακίζεσθαι τὸ ἀξίωμα τοῦ συνεδρίου, καὶ πειρωμένου πάλιν ἄνω τὰς δίκας ἀνακαλεῖσθαι καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ Κλεισθένους ἐγείρειν ἀριστοκρατίαν, κατεβόων συνιστάμενοι καὶ τὸν δῆμον ἐξηρέθιζον,
and under the lead of Ephialtes they robbed the Council of the Areiopagus of all but a few of the cases in its jurisdiction. They made themselves masters of the courts of justice, and plunged the city into unmitigated democracy, Pericles being now a man of power and espousing the cause of the populace. And so when Cimon came back home, and in his indignation at the insults heaped upon the reverend council, tried to recall again its jurisdiction and to revive the aristocracy of the times of Cleisthenes, they banded together to denounce him, and tried to inflame the people against him,
ἐκεῖνά τε τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἀνανεούμενοι καὶ Λακωνισμὸν ἐπικαλοῦντες. εἰς ἃ καὶ τὰ Εὐπόλιδος διατεθρύληται περὶ Κίμωνος, ὅτι κακὸς μὲν οὐκ ἦν, φιλοπότης δὲ κἀμελής· / κἀνίοτʼ ἂν ἀπεκοιμᾶτʼ ἂν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι, / κἂν Ἐλπινίκην τήνδε καταλιπὼν μόνην. / εἰ δʼ ἀμελῶν καὶ μεθυσκόμενος τοσαύτας πόλεις εἷλε καὶ τοσαύτας νίκας ἐνίκησε, δῆλον ὅτι νήφοντος αὐτοῦ καὶ προσέχοντος οὐδεὶς ἂν οὔτε τῶν πρότερον οὔτε τῶν ὕστερον Ἑλλήνωνπαρῆλθε τὰς πράξεις.
renewing the old slanders about his sister and accusing him of being a Spartan sympathizer. It was to these calumnies that the famous and popular verses of Eupolis about Cimon had reference:— He was not base, but fond of wine and full of sloth, / and oft he’ld sleep in Lacedaemon, far from home, / And leave his Elpinicé sleeping all alone. / But if, though full of sloth and given to tippling, he yet took so many cities and won so many victories, it is clear that had he been sober and mindful of his business, no Hellene either before or after him would have surpassed his exploits.
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