men among the Persians, of the king's kindred,
being in possession of Eion, a city situated upon the river Strymon,
infested the neighboring Greeks. First he defeated these Persians in
battle, and shut them up within the walls of their town. Then he fell
upon the Thracians of the country beyond the Strymon, because they
supplied Eion with victuals, and driving them entirely out of the
country, took possession of it as conqueror, by which means he reduced
the besieged to such straits, that Butes, who commanded there for the
king, in desperation set fire to the town, and burned himself, his
goods, and all his relations, in one common flame. By this means,
Cimon got the town, but no great booty; as the barbarians had not only
consumed themselves in the fire, but the richest of their effects.
However, he put the country into the hands of the Athenians, a most
advantageous and desirable situation for a settlement. For this action,
the people permitted him to erect the stone Mercuries, upon the first of
which was this inscription:--

Of bold and patient spirit, too, were those Who, where the Strymon under
Eion flows, With famine and the sword, to utmost need Reduced at last
the children of the Mede.

Upon the second stood this:--

The Athenians to their leaders this reward For great and useful service
did accord; Others hereafter, shall, from their applause, Learn to be
valiant in their country's cause.

And upon the third, the following:--

With Atreus' sons, this city sent of yore Divine Menestheus to the
Trojan shore; Of all the Greeks, so Homer's verses say, The ablest man
an army to array; So old the title of her sons the name Of chiefs and
champions in the field to claim.

Though the name of Cimon is not mentioned in these inscriptions, yet his
contemporaries considered them to be the very highest honors to him;
as neither Miltiades nor Themistocles ever received the like. When
Miltiades claimed a garland, Sochares of Decelea stood up in the midst
of the assembly and opposed it, using words which, though ungracious,
were received with applause by the people. "When you have gained a
victory by yourself, Miltiades, then you may ask to triumph so too."

One mark of Cimon's great favor with the people, was the judgment,
afterwards so famous upon the tragic poets. Sophocles, still a young
man, had just brought forward his first plays; opinions were much
divided, and the spectators had taken sides with some heat. So,