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Historical person
c. 510–450 BCE
Cimon was an Athenian general and statesman, the son of Miltiades, who became a leading commander of the Delian League after the Persian Wars. He won victories against Persian forces, expanded Athenian influence and favoured cooperation with Sparta.
His political opponents used the failure of a Spartan intervention to secure his ostracism, but he later returned and helped arrange peace between Athens and Sparta before dying during a campaign against Cyprus. Cimon was born in Athens and died in Kition (modern Larnaca), Cyprus.
In Plutarch’s The Rise and Fall of Athens, this Plutarch collection gives biographical sources for Athens from legendary Theseus through Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades and Lysander. In Conn Iggulden’s Lion, Pericles comes of age in an Athens transformed by victory over Persia but divided over how its new power should be used. Living in the shadow of his father Xanthippus, he competes with Cimon for military distinction and political influence as the Delian League carries the war into the Aegean. Cimon is treated fictionally in Conn Iggulden’s Empire.
Series
The Golden Age series follows Pericles from the generation after the Persian invasions into the period of Athenian naval empire and intensifying rivalry with Sparta. Political competition, military command and the costs of Athenian power shape both novels.
All books in this series
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
