(Ancient Greek: Κίμων Μιλτιάδου Λακιάδης, romanized: Kimōn Miltiadou Lakiadēs; c. 510 – 450 BC)[1] was an Athenian strategos (general and admiral) and politician.

Cimon rose to prominence for his bravery fighting in the naval Battle of Salamis (480 BC), during the Second Persian invasion of Greece.

In 466 BC, Cimon led a force to Asia Minor, where he destroyed a Persian fleet and army at the Battle of the Eurymedon river.

In 462 BC, he convinced the Athenian Assembly to send military support to Sparta, where the helots were in revolt (the Third Messenian War).

The resulting embarrassment destroyed Cimon's popularity in Athens; he was ostracized in 461 BC, exiling him for a period of ten years.

At the end of his exile, Cimon returned to Athens in 451 BC and immediately negotiated a truce with Sparta; however it did not lead to a permanent peace.

His grandfather was Cimon Coalemos, who won three Olympic victories with his four-horse chariot and was assassinated by the sons of Peisistratus.

[2] His father was the celebrated Athenian general Miltiades[3] and his mother was Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus and a relative of the historian Thucydides.

Cimon inherited this debt and, according to Diodorus, some of his father's unserved prison sentence[3] in order to obtain his body for burial.

According to Plutarch, the wealthy Callias took advantage of this situation by proposing to pay Cimon's debts for Elpinice's hand in marriage.

[6][7][8] Cimon in his youth had a reputation of being dissolute, a hard drinker, and blunt and unrefined; it was remarked that in this latter characteristic he was more like a Spartan than an Athenian.

[9][10] Cimon is repeatedly said to have married or been otherwise involved with his sister or half-sister Elpinice (who herself had a reputation for sexual promiscuity) prior to her marriage with Callias, although this may be a legacy of simple political slander.

There is a view amongst some historians that while in Asia Minor, Cimon negotiated a peace between the League and the Persians after his victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon.

Although Ephialtes maintained that Sparta was Athens' rival for power and should be left to fend for itself, Cimon's view prevailed.

[16] The reformer Ephialtes then took the lead in running Athens and, with the support of Pericles, reduced the power of the Athenian Council of the Areopagus (filled with ex-archons and so a stronghold of oligarchy).

From his many military exploits and money gained through the Delian League, Cimon funded many construction projects throughout Athens.

[17] Cimon laid siege to the Phoenician and Persian stronghold of Citium on the southwest coast of Cyprus in 450 BC; he died during or soon after the failed attempt.

The first principle helped to ensure that direct Persian military aggression against Greece had essentially ended; the latter probably significantly delayed the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.