Kimon (Olympic Champion)

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Kimon , called Koalemos because of his innocence ( ancient Greek Κίμων Κοάλεμος , Kimon the dumb beard ' ; * around 585 BC; † after 528 BC in Athens ), son of Stesagoras, was an Attic aristocrat of the late Archaic period and father of the general Miltiades . Also Kimon's grandson , who bore the name of his grandfather, was a politician and military leader of the Athenians.

The only source for Kimon's life is a passage from Herodotus . As an opponent of the tyrant Peisistratus , Kimon lived temporarily in exile. Like his half-brother, the elder Miltiades , Kimon won the Olympic Games in chariot races, first in 536 BC. And a second time four years later. He announced that he had won this victory in the name of the Peisistratus, and was then able to return to Athens. With the same team of four as in the first two victories, he was 528 BC. Victorious a third time in Olympia. Soon afterwards, Peisistratus' sons and successors, Hippias and Hipparchus , had him murdered by hired assassins at Prytaneion in Athens , presumably because they perceived his great prestige as a threat to their still uncertain rule.

According to Herodotus, his racehorses were also buried near Kimon's grave just outside Athens. Kimon's sons Stesagoras and Miltiades went to the Thracian Chersonese , where they succeeded the older Miltiades as tyrants.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Plutarch , Kimon 4,3.
  2. ↑ Herodotus 6, 103 ( English translation ).
  3. ↑ Cf. Michael Stahl : Aristocrats and Tyrants in Archaic Athens . Steiner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-515-04501-5 , pp. 118-119 . Stahl explains that the return is not only to be understood as an “act of grace” by the Peisistratos, but an arrangement that guaranteed Kimon an aristocratic position while recognizing the tyranny of the Peisistratus.
  4. ↑ Cf. Michael Stahl: Aristocrats and Tyrants in Archaic Athens . Steiner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-515-04501-5 , pp. 119-120 .
personal data
SURNAME Kimon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Attic aristocrat, three-time Olympic champion
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 528 BC Chr.
Place of death Athens