17.1
After he had given aid to the Lacedaemonians, he was going back home with his forces through the Isthmus of Corinth, when Lachartus upbraided him for having introduced his army before he had conferred with the citizens. People who knock at doors, said he, do not go in before the owner bids them; to which Cimon replied, And yet you Corinthians, O Lachartus, did not so much as knock at the gates of Cleonae and Megara, but hewed them down and forced your way in under arms, demanding that everything be opened up to the stronger. Such was his boldness of speech to the Corinthian in an emergency, and he passed on through with his forces.
17.2
Once more the Lacedaemonians summoned the Athenians to come to their aid against the Messenians and Helots in Ithome, and the Athenians went, but their dashing boldness awakened fear, and they were singled out from all the allies and sent off as dangerous conspirators. They came back home in a rage, and at once took open measures of hostility against the Laconizers, and above all against Cimon. Laying hold of a trifling pretext, they ostracised him for ten years. 461 B.C. That was the period decreed in all cases of ostracism.
17.3
It was during this period that the Lacedaemonians, after freeing the Delphians from the Phocians, encamped at Tanagra on their march back home. 457 B.C. Here the Athenians confronted them, bent on fighting their issue out, and here Cimon came in arms, to join his own Oeneid tribe, eager to share with his fellow-citizens in repelling the Lacedaemonians.
