Greek Texts & Translations

Cimon, ^note the son of Miltiades, when his father had died in the state prison because he was unable to pay in full the fine, ^note in order that he might receive his father's body for burial, delivered himself up to prison and assumed the debt.

10.30.2Cimon, who was ambitious to take part in the conduct of the state, at a later time became an able general and performed glorious deeds by virtue of his personal bravery.Const. Exc. 2 (1), pp. 227-228.

ch. 31 10.31.1

Cimon, as certain writers say, was the son of Miltiades, but according to others his father was known as Stesagoras. ^note And he had a son Callias by Isodice. ^note And this Cimon was married to his own sister Elpinice ^note as Ptolemy was at a later time to Berenice, ^note and Zeus to Hera before them, and as the Persians do at the present time. And Callias pays a fine of fifty talents, in order that his father Cimon may not suffer punishment because of his disgraceful marriage, that, namely, of brother with sister. The number of those who write about this it would be a long task for me to recount; for the multitude of those who have written about it is boundless, such as the comic poets and orators and Diodorus and others.Tzetzes, Hist.
1. 582-593.

ch. 32 10.32.1

Themistocles, the son of Neocles, when a certain wealthy person ^note approached him to find out where he could find a wealthy son-in-law, advised him not to seek for money which lacked a man, but rather a man who was lacking in money. And when the inquirer agreed with this advice, Themistocles counselled him to marry his daughter to Cimon. This was the reason, therefore, for Cimon becoming a wealthy man, and he was released from prison, and calling to account the magistrates who had shut him up he secured their condemnation.Const. Exc. 4, p. 301.

[The preceding Book, which is the tenth of our narrative, closed with the events of the year ^note just before the crossing of Xerxes into Europe and the formal deliberations which the general assembly of the Greeks held in Corinth on the alliance between Gelon and the Greeks.]Diod. Sic. 11.1.1

ch. 33 10.33.1

When all the Greeks, at the time Xerxes was about to cross over into Europe, ^note dispatched an embassy to Gelon to discuss an alliance, and when he answered that he would ally himself with them and supply them with grain, provided that they would grant him the supreme command either on the land or on the sea, the tyrant's ambition for glory in his demanding the supreme command thwarted the alliance; and yet the magnitude of the aid he could supply and the fear of the enemy were impelling them to share the glory with Gelon. ^note

ch. 34 10.34.1For though the supremacy which the Persians enjoy entails, for the satisfaction of cupidity, the gifts they require, yet a tyrant's greed does not overlook even any small gain. ^note

10.34.2For the surest guardian of safety is mistrust.

10.34.3Now children, when they are being ill treated, turn for aid to their parents, but states turn to the peoples who once founded them. ^note

10.34.4A tyrant's greed does not rest satisfied with what he possesses, but it yearns after the property of others and is never sated.

10.34.5As for those whose character will oppose his domination, he will not, when the opportunity offers, allow them to become powerful.

10.34.6For you are descendants of those men who have bequeathed to glory their own virtues, deathless after their death.

10.34.7For as the reward for the alliance it is not money he requires, which one can often see despised by even the lowest man in private life when he has once gained wealth, but praise and glory, to gain which noble men do not hesitate to die; for the reward which glory offers is to be preferred above silver.

10.34.8For the inheritance which the Spartans receive from their fathers is not wealth, as is the case with all other men, but an eagerness to die for the sake of liberty, so that they set all the good things which life can offer second to glory.