Cleon

Biography

Cleon was Athens's most powerful politician after Pericles' death — and everything Pericles was not. A tanner's son who made his fortune in trade, he rose to leadership through inflammatory popular oratory, personal attacks on opponents, and a willingness to make democratic assemblies vote for the most brutal options available. Thucydides, who despised him, is our main source — and even Thucydides admits that Cleon's most unpopular policies sometimes worked. His greatest triumph was the capture of the Spartan hoplites at Sphacteria in 425 BC — a coup he had boasted was easy and then delivered on, shaming the generals who doubted him. With 120 full Spartiate prisoners in Athenian hands, Cleon wielded extraordinary leverage and probably could have negotiated a favourable peace at the moment of Athens's greatest strength. He refused, preferring to continue the war toward total victory. His death at Amphipolis in 422 BC — killed while fleeing when Brasidas's surprise sortie routed his force — was almost comically humiliating for a man who had presented himself as the people's warrior. Yet his death, combined with Brasidas's death in the same battle, removed both sides' war hawks and opened the Peace of Nicias. The man who prevented peace for years died simultaneously with his opposite number, making peace possible at last.

Key Battles