Siege of aion

After the capture of Byzantium, the imperious habits of the Spartan commander Pausanias began to annoy the other Greeks even more, so they turned to the Athenians with a request to take over command. The Athenians accepted the offer.

Meanwhile, the Spartans recalled Pausanias for trial. He managed to justify himself from the main accusations (treason in favor of the Persians), but he was no longer given command.

After that, the Spartans appointed a new commander in chief, Dorkis , whom, however, the Allies did not recognize as commander in chief, and he was forced to return to Sparta.

At the same time (about 478 BC ), the Athenians created a new alliance to fight the Persians - Delos, or the first Athenian maritime alliance . It included mainly Greek maritime states, including those freed from Persian rule.

In 477 BC e. Cimon sailed to Thrace. He learned that several noble Persians, relatives of the king, took possession of the city of Aion on the Strimon River and disturbed the Greek population.

Cimon first defeated the Persians in battle and locked them in the city. Then he expelled the Thracians who lived across the Strimon River - so he cut off the supply routes for the Persians and put the Persians in a hopeless situation. Soon, the Persian military leader Bout ordered to set fire to the city and died in the fire along with his friends and property.

Cimon did not get any benefit from capturing Aion, since everything burned down along with the Persians, and gave the area to the Athenians for settlement. Cimon with the permission of the Athenian people put stone hermes. It was a great honor for Cimon, since no one before him from the famous Athenian figures was honored with this. On one of them was written:

I had to endure a lot with the fact that with the sons of the Medes

Meeting them in the land of Eion, they are at the river Strimon
They tormented us with a burning hunger and in the battles of Ares bloody

The first to cast enemies in grief and evil want ^[2] .

On the second it was written:

Here, the Athenian people are grateful to the leaders.

In memory of great merit, this germo gives them.
Let every descendant, looking at her,

Serving the common good, boldly go to battle ^[2] .

And on the third:

Once King Menespheus from here with Atrides together

A powerful army led to the Troy sacred fields.
Was he, Homer says, among the heavily armored Danians
He is famous for the art of building soldiers for battle.
That is why it is now fitting for the Athenians to call themselves

Glorious in military affairs, showing his valor ^[2] .

• Thucydides . Story
• Plutarch . Comparative Biographies : Kimon
• Surikov I.E. Chapter IV. Cimon: an aristocrat, but not an oligarch // Ancient Greece: politics in the context of the era. - M. :: Nauka, 2008 .-- S. 202-203. - 383 p. - ISBN 978-5-02-036984-9 .