ABSTRACT
Herodotos reports (6.136) that it was Miltiades' son Kimon who paid his father's 50-talent fine in the suit brought against him by Xanthippos after the battle of Marathon. 1 Plutarch in reporting this incident at Kim. 4.4 uses the word meirakion, which suggests someone about or just under 20 years old, and so Kimon will have been born a little after 510 BeE. The later tradition recorded a profusion of detail, little of which appears to be based on anything more than gossip and speculation, of how Kimon raised the 50 talents. In one version - the most complete account is in Cornelius Nepos (who also reports that when Miltiades died in prison Kimon was incarcerated in his place until such time as he might pay his father's fine),z but it clearly goes back to an earlier source, possibly Stesimbrotos - the sum was obtained through the marriage of Kimon's half-sister Elpinike with one of the wealthiest men in Athens, Kallias, nicknamed 'Lakkoploutos', 'Pitwealthy', probably because his wealth came from mining.3 A somewhat different version, for which Ephoros appears to have been responsible, had it that Kimon himself married wealth and according to one source (Diodoros 10.32, perhaps also drawing on Ephoros [FGH 70 F 64}), he was acting on the advice of Themistokles. Although some details remain unclear, the story implies that the allegedly wealthy woman in question was none other than a member of the Alkmeonid family, a certain Isodike by name, who is mentioned by Plutarch.4 The story is probably without foundation, but it is clear that Kimon did, at some stage in his career, marry into the family of Perikles' mother. What cannot be determined, however, is when this took place, nor who the woman in question was. There has been much speculation about her exact placement in the Alkmeonid family: Plutarch simply calls her 'daughter of Euryptolemos and granddaughter of Megakles' (Kim. 16.1). About this Euryptolemos nothing further is known, although the name recurs in Perikles' family.s He was either the son or grandson of the Megakles who was Peisistratos' rival and (for a time, at least) father-in-law (Herodotos 1.61). In discussing Kimon's offspring at Kim. 16, Plutarch remarks that there was disagreement in the ancient authorities about the identity of the mother of Kimon's sons, but he cites respectable evidence
A PERSONAL RIVALRY: KIMON
We may be inclined to disbelieve many, perhaps all, of the recorded details about how Kimon scraped together the money to discharge his father's very large debt, but the basic fact remains of a rivalry (not to say animosity) that sprang up between the two individuals in the 480s and was carried on by their sons. Even though Kimon was older than Perikles by perhaps as much as 20 years, I believe that our sources are in the main trustworthy when they make him Perikles' first serious political opponent. From archaeological evidence, namely, ostraka broken off from the same pot, which bear the names of Kimon and Themistokles, as well as of the Alkmeonid Megakles, it seems very likely that Kimon was himself a candidate for ostracism in the year in which Megakles was ostracized, 486 BeE.7 In Chapter 5 of his Life of Kimon Plutarch tells one of those stories in which he so delights (because they illustrate what he takes to be a salient point of his subject's character) of how magnanimously Kimon behaved on the eve of the battle of Salamis. Themistokles' plan to evacuate Athens and risk everything on a resistance to the Persians by sea had caused widespread apprehension, and strong opposition, at Athens. In order to unite public opinion behind the evacuation scheme, Kimon reportedly performed a gesture as theatrical as it was effective. He
was seen with his companions leading the way through the Kerameikos up to the Akropolis, his face lit up with confidence. In his hands he carried a horse's bridle to dedicate to Athena since, in its hour of crisis, the city needed not the prowess of knights on horseback but men to fight on ships. Kimon dedicated his bridle, took down one of the shields which hung about the temple's walls, offered prayers to the goddess, and made his way down to the sea. Many rook heart from his example.
