VII.  Kimon, who was now commander-in-chief, sailed to Thrace, as he heard that the Persians, led by certain nobles nearly related to Xerxes himself, had captured the city of Eion on the river Strymon, and were making war upon the neighbouring Greek cities.  His first act on landing was to defeat the Persians, and shut them up in the city.  He next drove away the Thracian tribes beyond the Strymon, who supplied the garrison with provisions, and by carefully watching the country round he reduced the city to such straits that Boutes, the Persian general, perceiving that escape was impossible, set it on fire, and himself with his friends and property perished in the flames.  When Kimon took the city he found nothing in it of any value, as everything had been destroyed in the fire together with the Persian garrison; but as the country was beautiful and fertile, he made it an Athenian colony.  Three stone statues of Hermes at Athens were now set up by a decree of the people, on the first of which is written:—­

    “Brave men were they, who, by the Strymon fair,
    First taught the haughty Persians to despair;”

and on the second—­

    “Their mighty chiefs to thank and praise,
    The Athenians do these columns raise;
    That generations yet to come,
    May fight as well for hearth and home;”

and on the third—­

    “Mnestheus from Athens led our hosts of yore,
    With Agamemnon, to the Trojan shore;
    Than whom no chief knew better to array,
    The mail-clad Greeks, when mustering for the fray: 
    Thus Homer sung; and Athens now, as then,
    Doth bear away the palm for ruling men.”

VIII.  These verses, although Kimon’s name is nowhere mentioned in them, appeared to the men of that time excessively adulatory.  Neither Themistokles nor Miltiades had ever been so honoured.  When Miltiades demanded the honour of an olive crown, Sophanes of Dekeleia rose up in the public assembly and said,—­“Miltiades, when you have fought and conquered the barbarians alone, you may ask to be honoured alone, but not before”—­a harsh speech, but one which perfectly expressed the feeling of the people.

Why, then, were the Athenians so charmed with Kimon’s exploit?  The reason probably was because their other commanders had merely defended them from attack, while under him they had been able themselves to attack the enemy, and had moreover won territory near Eion, and founded the colony of Amphipolis.  Kimon also led a colony to Skyros, which island was taken by Kimon on the following pretext.