Cleon
historical figure · 7 works · 12 mentions · 27 anchored passages
Cleon son of Cleaenetus · Cleon, son of Cleaenetus · my adversary · my opponent · the Paphlagonian tanner · the cormorant Cleon
in the texts
History of the Peloponnesian War
The most influential popular leader at Athens, who argues for executing the Mytilenaeans as a lesson to deter revolt among the allies.
For they did not involuntarily hurt you, but wittingly plotted against you;
And so we shall presently have to risk both our money and our lives against each separate state.
and give a striking example to the rest of your allies, that whoever revolts will pay the penalty for it with his life.
Orations
Athenian demagogue cited alongside Hyperbolus.
For even among the Athenians, who were of all men the most democratic and assigned the most to the common and popular sort, no demagogue ever became so audacious — not even that Hyperbolus or Cleon — as to consider the Areopagus or the council of the six hundred less honourable than the people.
And after these, perhaps, you will say that certain others became daimones of the Athenians, such as Alcibiades the son of Cleinias, and Nicias and Cleon and Hyperbolus—some of them perhaps fair enough, others utterly base and harsh.
Clouds
The historical Athenian demagogue Cleon, repeatedly attacked in this window as a corrupt, tannery-born political figure.
who struck Cleon in the belly when at the height of his power, and could not bear to attack him afterward when he was down.
And then, when you were for choosing as your general the Paphlagonian tanner, hateful to the gods, we contracted our brows and were enraged;
If you should convict the cormorant Cleon of bribery and embezzlement, and then make fast his neck in the stocks, the affair will turn out for the state to the ancient form again, if you have mismanaged in any way, and to a prosperous issue.
Constitution of the Athenians
Popular leader accused of corrupting political discourse through impetuous abusive rhetoric
When Pericles died, Nicias, who died in Sicily, was at the head of the distinguished, and of the people Cleon son of Cleaenetus, who seems above all to have corrupted the people by his impetuosity, and who was the first to shout on the platform and to use abuse, and to gird up his cloak and make a speech, while the others spoke decorously.
On the Commonwealth
Athenian demagogue named as a target of comic invective.
Granted, it injured popular men, wicked, seditious in the commonwealth—Cleon, Cleophon, Hyperbolus.
Against Boeotus II
Father of Cleomedon, credited with capturing Lacedaemonians at Pylos.
Her father gave her in marriage to Cleomedon, son of Cleon, adding a talent as her marriage-portion;
Besides all this, my mother is shown to have been first given in marriage to Cleomedon, whose father Cleon, we are told, commanded troops among whom were your ancestors, and captured alive a large number of Lacedaemonians in Pylos, and won greater renown than any other man in the state;
On the Estate of Astyphilus
Astyphilus's first cousin on his father's side and the speaker's chief adversary, who produces a will claiming Astyphilus adopted Cleon's own son as heir.
There is little likelihood, however, gentlemen, of your paying any attention to his claim of kinship;
That Cleon did not bury Astyphilus, even he himself would not deny, and evidence of the fact has been given you.
On the death of Astyphilus a certain Cleon, his first cousin, produced a will, alleging that it had been made in favor of his own son.