Cimon, (born c. 510 bc —died c. 451, Cyprus), Athenian statesman and general who played an active part in building up the Athenian empire in the period following the Greco-Persian Wars and whose conservatism and policy of friendship with Sparta were opposed to the policy of Pericles. His greatest military victory was the defeat of a Persian fleet (manned by Phoenicians) at the mouth of the ...