εὐθὺς μὲν οὖν ὁ Κίμων κατελθὼν ἔλυσε τὸν πόλεμον καὶ διήλλαξε τὰς πόλεις· γενομένης δʼ εἰρήνης ὁρῶν τοὺς Ἀθηναίους ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν μὴ δυναμένους, ἀλλὰ κινεῖσθαι καὶ αὐξάνεσθαι ταῖς στρατείαις βουλομένους, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς Ἕλλησι διοχλῶσι μηδὲ περὶ τὰς νήσους ἢ Πελοπόννησον ἀναστρεφόμενοι ναυσὶ πολλαῖς αἰτίας ἐμφυλίων πολέμων καὶ συμμαχικῶν ἐγκλημάτων ἀρχὰς ἐπισπάσωνται κατὰ τῆς πόλεως,
Well then, as soon as Cimon returned from exile he stopped the war and reconciled the rival cities. After peace was made, since he saw that the Athenians were unable to keep quiet, but wished to be on the move and to wax great by means of military expeditions; also because he wished that they should not exasperate the Hellenes generally, nor by hovering around the islands and the Peloponnesus with a large fleet bring down upon the city charges of intestine war, and initial complaints from the allies, he manned two hundred triremes.
ἐπλήρου διακοσίας τριήρεις ὡς ἐπʼ Αἴγυπτον καὶ Κύπρον αὖθις ἐκστρατευσόμενος, ἅμα μὲν ἐμμελετᾶν τοῖς πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους ἀγῶσι βουλόμενος τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, ἅμα δʼ ὠφελεῖσθαι δικαίως τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν φύσει πολεμίων εὐπορίας εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα κομίζοντας.
ἤδη δὲ παρεσκευασμένων ἁπάντων καὶ τοῦ στρατοῦ παρὰ ταῖς ναυσὶν ὄντος ὄναρ εἶδεν ὁ Κίμων.
His design was to make another expedition with them against Egypt and Cyprus. He wished to keep the Athenians in constant training by their struggles with Barbarians, and to give them the legitimate benefits of importing into Hellas the wealth taken from their natural foes. All things were now ready and the soldiery on the point of embarking, when Cimon had a dream.
ἐδόκει κύνα θυμουμένην ὑλακτεῖν πρὸς αὐτόν, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ὑλακῆς μεμιγμένον ἀφεῖσαν ἀνθρώπου φθόγγον εἰπεῖν· στεῖχε· φίλος γὰρ ἔσῃ καὶ ἐμοὶ καὶ ἐμοῖς σκυλάκεσσιν. / οὕτω δὲ δυσκρίτου τῆς ὄψεως οὔσης Ἀστύφιλος ὁ Ποσειδωνιάτης, μαντικὸς ἀνὴρ καὶ συνήθης τῷ Κίμωνι, φράζει θάνατον αὐτῷ προσημαίνειν τὴν ὄψιν, οὕτω διαιρῶν· κύων ἀνθρώπῳ, πρὸς ὃν ὑλακτεῖ, πολέμιος· πολεμίῳ δʼ οὐκ ἄν τις μᾶλλον ἢ τελευτήσας φίλος γένοιτο· τὸ δὲ μῖγμα τῆς φωνῆς Μῆδον ἀποδηλοῖ τὸν ἐχθρόν·
He thought an angry bitch was baying at him, and that mingled with its baying it uttered a human voice, saying:— Go thy way, for a friend shalt thou be both to me / and my puppies. / The vision being hard of interpretation, Astyphilus of Posidonia, an inspired man and an intimate of Cimon’s, told him that it signified his death. He analyzed the vision thus: a dog is a foe of the man at whom it bays; to a foe, one cannot be a friend any better than by dying; the mixture of speech indicates that the enemy is the Mede, for the army of the Medes is a mixture of Hellenes and Barbarians.
ὁ γὰρ Μήδων στρατὸς Ἕλλησιν ὁμοῦ καὶ βαρβάροις μέμικται. μετὰ δὲ ταύτην τὴν ὄψιν αὐτοῦ τῷ Διονύσῳ θύσαντος ὁ μὲν μάντις ἀπέτεμε τὸ ἱερεῖον, τοῦ δʼ αἵματος τὸ πηγνύμενον ἤδη μύρμηκες πολλοὶ λαμβάνοντες κατὰ μικρὸν ἔφερον πρὸς τὸν Κίμωνα καὶ τοῦ ποδὸς περὶ τὸν μέγαν δάκτυλον περιέπλαττον, ἐπὶ πολὺν χρόνον λανθάνοντες. ἅμα δέ πως ὅ τε Κίμων τῷ γινομένῳ προσέσχε καὶ παρῆν ὁ θύτης ἐπιδεικνύμενος αὐτῷ τὸν λοβὸν οὐκ ἔχοντα κεφαλήν.
ἄλλʼ οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀνάδυσις τῆς στρατείας ἐξέπλευσε, καὶ τῶν νεῶν ἑξήκοντα μὲν ἀπέστειλεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ταῖς δʼ ἄλλαις πάλιν […] ἔπλει.
After this vision, when Cimon had sacrificed to Dionysus and the seer was cutting up the victim, swarms of ants took the blood as it congealed, brought it little by little to Cimon, and enveloped his great toe therewith, he being unconscious of their work for some time. Just about at the time when he noticed what they were doing, the ministrant came and showed him the liver of his victim without a head. But since he could not get out of the expedition, he set sail, and after detailing sixty of his ships to go to Egypt, with the rest he made again for Cyprus.
καὶ καταναυμαχήσας Φοινισσῶν νεῶν καὶ Κιλισσῶν βασιλικὸν στόλον ἀνεκτᾶτο τε τὰς ἐν κύκλῳ πόλεις καὶ τοῖς περὶ Αἴγυπτον ἐφήδρευεν, οὐδὲν μικρόν, ἀλλʼ ὅλης ἐπινοῶν τῆς βασιλέως ἡγεμονίας κατάλυσιν, καὶ μάλιστα ὅτι τοῦ Θεμιστοκλέους ἐπυνθάνετο δόξαν εἶναι καὶ δύναμιν ἐν τοῖς βαρβάροις μεγάλην, ὑποδεδεγμένου βασιλεῖ κινοῦντι τὸν Ἑλληνικὸν πόλεμον στρατηγήσειν.
After defeating at sea the royal armament of Phoenician and Cilician ships, he won over the cities round about, and then lay threatening the royal enterprise in Egypt, and not in any trifling fashion,—nay, he had in mind the dissolution of the King’s entire supremacy, and all the more because he learned that the reputation and power of Themistocles were great among the Barbarians, who had promised the King that when the Hellenic war was set on foot he would take command of it.
Θεμιστοκλῆς μὲν οὖν οὐχ ἥκιστα λέγεται τὰς Ἑλληνικὰς πράξεις ἀπογνούς, ὡς οὐκ ἂν ὑπερβαλόμενος τὴν Κίμωνος εὐτυχίαν καὶ ἀρετήν, ἑκὼν τελευτῆσαι, Κίμων δὲ μεγάλων ἐπαιρόμενος ἀρχὰς ἀγώνων καὶ περὶ Κύπρον συνέχων τὸ ναυτικὸν ἔπεμψεν εἰς Ἄμμωνος ἄνδρας ἀπόρρητόν τινα μαντείαν ποιησομένους παρὰ τῷ θεῷ· γινώσκει γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐπέμφθησαν,
At any rate, it is said that it was most of all due to Themistocles’ despair of his Hellenic undertakings, since he could not eclipse the good fortune and valor of Cimon, that he took his own life. But Cimon, while he was projecting vast conflicts and holding his naval forces in the vicinity of Cyprus, sent men to the shrine of Ammon to get oracular answer from the god to some secret question.
οὐδὲ χρησμὸν αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς ἐξήνεγκεν, ἀλλʼ ἅμα τῷ προσελθεῖν ἐκέλευσεν ἀπιέναι τοὺς θεοπρόπους· αὐτὸν γὰρ ἤδη τὸν Κίμωνα παρʼ ἑαυτῷ τυγχάνειν ὄντα. ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες οἱ θεοπρόποι κατέβαινον ἐπὶ θάλασσαν· γενόμενοι δὲ ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ὃ τότε περὶ Αἴγυπτον ἦν, ἐπύθοντο τεθνάναι τὸν Κίμωνα· καὶ τὰς ἡμέρας πρὸς τὸ μαντεῖον ἀνάγοντες ἔγνωσαν ᾐνιγμένην τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ ἀνδρός, ὡς ἤδη παρὰ θεοῖς ὄντος.
No one knows what they were sent to ask, nor did the god vouchsafe them any response, but as soon as the enquirers drew nigh, he bade them depart, saying that Cimon himself was already with him. On hearing this, the enquirers went down to the sea-coast, and when they reached the camp of the Hellenes, which was at that time on the confines of Egypt, they learned that Cimon was dead, and on counting the days back to the utterance of the oracle, they found that it was their commander’s death which had been darkly intimated, since he was already with the gods.
ἀπέθανε δὲ πολιορκῶν Κίτιον, ὡς οἱ πλεῖστοι λέγουσι, νοσήσας· ἔνιοι δέ φασιν ἐκ τραύματος, ὃ πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους ἀγωνιζόμενος ἔσχε. τελευτῶν δὲ τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν ἐκέλευσεν εὐθὺς ἀποπλεῖν ἀποκρυψαμένους τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ· καὶ συνέβη μήτε τῶν πολεμίων μήτε τῶν συμμάχων αἰσθομένων ἀσφαλῶς αὐτοὺς ἀνακομισθῆναι στρατηγουμένους ὑπὸ Κίμωνος, ὥς φησι Φανόδημος, τεθνηκότος ἐφʼ ἡμέρας τριάκοντα.
He died while besieging Citium, of sickness, as most say. But some say it was of a wound which he got while fighting the Barbarians. As he was dying he bade those about him to sail away at once and to conceal his death. And so it came to pass that neither the enemy nor the allies understood what had happened, and the force was brought back in safety under the command of Cimon, as Phanodemus says, who had been dead for thirty days.
μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκείνου τελευτὴν πρὸς μὲν τοὺς βαρβάρους οὐδὲν ἔτι λαμπρὸν ὑπʼ οὐδενὸς ἐπράχθη στρατηγοῦ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ἀλλὰ τραπέντες ὑπὸ δημαγωγῶν καὶ πολεμοποιῶν ἐπʼ ἀλλήλους, οὐδενὸς τὰς χεῖρας ἐν μέσῳ διασχόντος, συνερράγησαν εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, ἀναπνοὴ μὲν τοῖς βασιλέως πράγμασι γενόμενοι, φθόρον δʼ ἀμύθητον τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς δυνάμεως ἀπεργασάμενοι.
After his death no further brilliant exploit against the Barbarians was performed by any general of the Hellenes, who were swayed by demagogues and partisans of civil war, with none to hold a mediating hand between them, till they actually clashed together in war. This afforded the cause of the King a respite, but brought to pass an indescribable destruction of Hellenic power.
ὀψὲ δʼ οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἀγησίλαον εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐξενεγκάμενοι τὰ ὅπλα βραχέος ἥψαντο πολέμου πρὸς τοὺς ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ βασιλέως στρατηγούς· καὶ λαμπρὸν οὐδὲν οὐδὲ μέγα δράσαντες, αὖθις δὲ ταῖς Ἑλληνικαῖς στάσεσι καὶ ταραχαῖς ἀφʼ ἑτέρας ἀρχῆς ὑπενεχθέντες, ᾤχοντο τοὺς Περσῶν φορολόγους ἐν μέσαις ταῖς συμμάχοις καὶ φίλαις πόλεσιν ἀπολιπόντες, ὧν οὐδὲ γραμματοφόρος κατέβαινεν οὐδʼ ἵππος πρὸς θαλάσσῃ τετρακοσίων σταδίων ἐντὸς ὤφθη στρατηγοῦντος Κίμωνος.
It was not until long afterwards that Agesilaus carried his arms into Asia and prosecuted a brief war against the King’s generals along the sea-coast. And even he could perform no great and brilliant deeds, but was over- whelmed in his turn by a flood of Hellenic disorders and seditions and swept away from a second empire. So he withdrew, leaving in the midst of allied and friendly cities the tax-gatherers of the Persians, not one of whose scribes, nay, nor so much as a horse, had been seen within four hundred furlongs of the sea, as long as Cimon was general.
ὅτι μὲν οὖν εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἀπεκομίσθη τὰ λείψανα αὐτοῦ, μαρτυρεῖ τῶν μνημάτων τὰ μέχρι νῦν Κιμώνεια προσαγορευόμενα· τιμῶσι δὲ καὶ Κιτιεῖς τάφον τινὰ Κίμωνος, ὡς Ναυσικράτης ὁ ῥήτωρ φησίν, ἐν λοιμῷ καὶ γῆς ἀφορίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ προστάξαντος αὐτοῖς μὴ ἀμελεῖν Κίμωνος, ἀλλʼ ὡς κρείττονα σέβεσθαι καὶ γεραίρειν. τοιοῦτος μὲν ὁ Ἑλληνικὸς ἡγεμών.
That his remains were brought home to Attica, there is testimony in the funeral monuments to this day called Cimonian. But the people of Citium also pay honors to a certain tomb of Cimon, as Nausicrates the rhetorician says, because in a time of pestilence and famine the god enjoined upon them not to neglect Cimon, but to revere and honor him as a superior being. Such was the Greek leader.
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