A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CLEON.
Orest'ide, pl. xxv. p. 130.) The inscriptions of four
statues in the collection of Wilton House are of a
very doubtful description. (Visconti, Oeuvres diverses, vol. iii. p. 11; Thiersch, Epoclhen, p. 288,
&c.) [L. U.]
CLEOMY'TTADES (KXEoguvr-'rds). 1. The
sixth of the family of the Asclepiadae, the son of
Ciisamis I. and the father of Theodorus I., who
lived probably in the tenth century B. c. (Jo.
Tzetzes, Chil. vii. Hist. 155, in Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
vol. xii. p. 680, ed. vet.)
2. The tenth in descent from Aesculapius, the
son of king Crisamis II., and the father of Theodorus II., who probably lived in the eighth century B. c. (Paeti Epist. ad Artax., in Hippocr.
Opera, vol. iii. p. 770.) [W. A. G.]
CLEON (KkCwv), the son of Cleaenetus, shortly
after the death of Pericles, succeeding, it is said
(Aristoph. Equit. 130, and Schol.), Eucrates the flaxseller, and Lysicles the sheep-dealer, became the
most trusted and popular of the people's favourites,
and for about six years of the Peloponnesian war
(B. c. 428-422) may be regarded as the head of"
the party opposed to peace.
He belonged by birth to the middling classes,
and was brought up to the trade of a tanner; how
long however he followed it may be doubtful; he
seems early to have betaken himself to a more
lucrative profession in politics. He became known
at the very beginning of the war. The latter days
of Pericles were annoyed by his impertinence.
IIHrmippus, in a fragment of a comedy probably
represented in the winter after the first invasion of
Attica, speaks of the home-keeping general as tortured by the sting of the fierce Cleon (6I(xels
afOnZw KhA(wvi, ap. Plut. Per. 33). And according
to Idomeneus (ibid. 35) Cleoi's name was attached to the accusation, to which in the miseries
of the second year Pericles was obliged to give
way. Cleon at this time was, we must suppose,
a violent opponent of the policy which declined
risking a battle; nay, it is possible he may also
have indulged freely in invectives against the war
in general.
In 427 the submission of the Mytileneans brings
him more prominently before us. He was now
established fairly as demagogue. ( Tq i8uy roapa'
tro\Va iv ry r6re rriOa.vcOraros, Thuc. iii. 36.) The
deliberations on the use to be made of the unconditional surrender of these revolted allies ended in
the adoption of his motion,- that the adult males
should be put to death, the women and children
sold for slaves. The morrow, however, brought a
cooler mind; and in the assembly held for reconsideration it was, after a long debate, rescinded.
The speeches which on this second occasion Thucydides ascribes to Cleon and his opponent give us
doubtless no grounds for any opinion on either as
a speaker, but at the same time considerable acquaintance with his own view of Cleon's position
and character. We see plainly the effort to keep
up a reputation as the straightfornward energetic
counsellor; the attempt by rude bullying to hide
from the people his slavery to them; the unscrupulous use of calumny to excite prejudice against
all rival advisers. " The people were only shewing
(what he himself had long seen) their incapacity
for governing, by giving way to a sentimental
unbusinesslike compassion: as for the orators who
excited it, they were, likely enough, paid for their
trouble." (Thuc. iii. 36-49.)

CLEON. 797
The following winter unmasked his boldest enemy. At the city Dionysia, B. c. 426, in the presence of the numerous visitors from the subject
states, Aristophanes represented his "Babylonians."
It attacked the plan of election by lot, and contained no doubt the first sketch of his subsequent portrait of the Athenian democracy. Cleon, it would
appear, if not actually named, at any rate felt himself reflected upon; and he rejoined by a legal suit
against the author or his representative. The Scholiasts speak of it as directed against his title to the
franchise (eviias ypa<pý), but it certainly also assailed him for insulting the government in the p-esence of its subjects. (Aristoph. Acharn. 377, 502.)
About the same time, however, before the next
winter's Lenaea, Cleon himself, by means of a combination among the nobler and wealthier (the
'InTrei), was brought to trial and condemned to
disgorge five talents, which he had extracted on
false pretences from some of the islanders. (Aristoph.
Acharn. 6, comp. Schol., who refers to Theopompus.)
Thirlwall, surely by an oversight, places this trial
after the representation of the Knights. (Hist. of
Greece, iii. p. 300.)
In 425 Cleon reappears in general history, still as
before the potent favourite. The occasion is the embassy sent by Sparta with proposals for peace, after
the commencement of the blockade of her citizens in
the island of Sphacteria. 'There was considerable
elevation at their success prevalent among the Athenians; yet numbers were truly anxious for peace.
Cleon, however, well aware that peace would greatly
curtail, if not annihilate, his power and his emoluments, contrived to work on his countrymen's
presumption, and insisted to the ambassadors on
the surrender, first of all, of the blockaded party
with their arms, and then the restoration in exchange for them of the losses of B. c. 445, Nisaea,
Pegae, Troezen, and Achaia. Such concessions it
was beyond Sparta's power to make good; it
was even dangerous for her to be known to have
so much as admitted a thought of them; and
when the ambassadors begged in any case to have
commissioners appointed them for private discussion, he availed himself of this to break off the
negotiation by loud outcries against what he professed to regard as evidence of double-dealing and
oligarchical caballing. (Thuc. iv. 21, 22.)
A short time however shewed the unsoundness
of his policy. Winter was approaching, the blockade
daily growing more difficult, and escape daily
easier; and there seemed no prospect of securing
the prize. Popular feeling now began to run
strongly against him, who had induced the rejection of those safe offers. Cleon, with the true
demagogue's tact of catching the feeling of the
people, talked of the false reports with which a
democracy let people deceive it, and when appointed himself to a board of commissioners for
inquiry on the spot, shifted his ground and began
to urge the expediency rather of sending a force to
decide it at once, adding, that if he had been general, he would have done it before. Nicias, at
whom the scoff was directed, took advantage of a
rising feeling in that direction among the people,
and replied by begging him to be under no restraint, but to take any forces he pleased and make
the attempt. What follows is highly characteristic. Cleon, not having a thought that the timid
Nicias was really venturing so unprecedented a
step, professed his acquiescence, but on finding the