The case of Cimon: the evolution of the meaning of philolaconism in Athens

The tradition depicts Cimon as a philo-Spartan aristocrat, associating this trait to a series of anecdotes and, ultimately, to his political demise. Unlike philolaconism in Athens during the following decades, however, that of Cimon does not appear linked to an ideological, political reform programme: it is rather a cultural issue, related to traditional, self-defining Greek aristocratic values such as xenia and philia. It is simplistic and methodologically incorrect to rate Cimon’s policy according to categories biased by later Athenian history, as related by sources (chiefly comedy and Stesimbrotus of Thasos) prone to rework political and sexual scandals. While sources deformed the tradition about Cimon’s policy, private life, and ambiguous ostracism, the Homeric poems instead reflect the cultural paradigms according to which he and his contemporaries established relations with other realities of the Greek world.