Cleon

Cleon (klē`ən), d. 422 B.C., Athenian political leader. The son of a tanner, he had little education; nevertheless, he was a gifted speaker. He began his political career with a series of relentless attacks on Pericles. He was antagonistic to Sparta and successfully opposed (425 B.C.) Sparta's peace proposals. In the same year he was given command of the Athenian force blockading Sphacteria (an island at the mouth of the Bay of Pylos) and was brilliantly successful against the Spartans. Three years later he was given another command against the Spartans at Amphipolis, but he failed and was killed in action. His reputation as a vulgar and unprincipled demagogue is chiefly due to accounts by his enemies Thucydides and Aristophanes.

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Cleon

(died 422 BC, Amphipolis, Macedonia) Athenian politician. The first prominent representative of the merchant class in Athenian politics, he became leader of Athens in 429 BC after the death of his enemy Pericles. Advocating an offensive strategy in the Peloponnesian War, he proposed that all citizens of the rebellious Mytilene be put to death and its women and children enslaved; the measure passed but was reversed the next day. He reached the summit of his fame when he captured the Spartan island of Sphacteria, but he was killed by the Spartans while trying to retake Thrace.

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Cleon

died 422 bc, Athenian demagogue and military leader