Cleon Cleon ( ; , , Kleon ) ( died 422 BCE ) was an Athenian statesman and a strategos during the Peloponnesian War . He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics , although he was an aristocrat himself . Contemporaries Thucydides and Aristophanes represented him as a warmonger and a demagogue . Public service . Opposition to Pericles . Cleon first came to notice as an opponent of Pericles in the late 430s through his opposition to Pericles ' strategy of refusing battle against the Peloponnesian League invaders in 431 BC . As a result , he found himself acting in concert with the Athenian aristocratic parties , who also had no liking for Pericles . During 430 BC , after the unsuccessful expedition by Pericles to the Peloponnesus , and when the city was devastated by the plague , Cleon headed the opposition to Pericles ' rule . At this time , Pericles was accused by Cleon of maladministration of public money , with the result that Pericles was found guilty and removed from office ( see Grote ' s " History of Greece " , abridged ed . , 1907 , p . 406 , note 1 ) . However , Pericles ' setback was temporary and he was soon reinstated . Rise in popularity . The death of Pericles from the plague in 429 BC left the field clear for new leadership in Athens . Hitherto Cleon had only been a vigorous opposition speaker , a trenchant critic and accuser of state officials , but he now came forward as the professed champion and leader of the democracy and , as a result , dominated Athenian politics . Although rough and unpolished , he was charismatic , being gifted with natural eloquence and a powerful voice , and he knew how to work upon the emotions of the Athenian populace . He strengthened his support amongst the poorer citizens of Athens by increasing the pay of the jurymen , which provided many of the poorer Athenians with a means of livelihood . The fondness of the Athenians for litigation increased his power ; and the practice of " sycophancy " ( raking up material for false charges ) , enabled him to remove those who were likely to endanger his ascendancy . In 426 BC , Cleon brought an unsuccessful prosecution against Laches based on his generalship in the unsuccessful first Sicilian expedition . This is one of the very few times that an Athenian general escaped civil punishment for a defeat . Having no further use for his former aristocratic associates , he broke off all connection with them , and thus felt at liberty to attack the secret combinations for political purposes , the oligarchical clubs to which they mostly belonged . Whether he also introduced a property - tax for military purposes , and even held a high position in connection with the treasury , is uncertain . War against Sparta , subsequent death . Cleon ' s ruling principles were an inveterate hatred of the nobility , and an equal hatred of Sparta . It was mainly through him that the opportunity of concluding an honourable peace ( in 425 ) was lost , and in his determination to see Sparta humbled he misled the people as to the extent of the resources of the state , and dazzled them by promises of future benefits . In 427 Cleon gained an evil notoriety by his proposal to put to death the whole male population of Mytilene , which had put itself at the head of a revolt . His proposal , though at first accepted , was soon rescinded , largely because of the clever oratory of Diodotus . Nonetheless about 1000 chief leaders and prominent men of Mytilene were executed . In 425 , he reached the summit of his fame by capturing and transporting to Athens the Spartans who had been blockaded at the Battle of Sphacteria . Much of the credit was probably due to the military skill of his colleague Demosthenes ( not the orator ) ; but it must be admitted that it was due to Cleon ' s determination that the Ecclesia sent out the additional force which was needed . It was almost certainly due to Cleon that the tribute of the " allies " was doubled in 425 . In 422 he was sent to recapture Amphipolis , but was outmaneuvered by the Spartan general Brasidas . However , both Brasidas and Cleon were killed at Amphipolis and their deaths removed the chief obstacle to peace . Thus , in 421 the peace of Nicias was signed . Aristophanes and Thucydides on Cleon . The character of Cleon is represented by Aristophanes and Thucydides in a very unfavourable light , justifiable considering he instilled a feeling of mistrust within Athens through a kind of Athenian " McCarthyism " caused by the excessive number of informants he employed to keep a watchful eye on the city . But both have been suspected of being prejudiced witnesses : The playwright had a grudge against Cleon , who may have accused him before the Council of having ridiculed ( in his lost play " Babylonians " ) the policy and institutions of his city in the presence of foreigners and at the time of a great national danger . Thucydides , a man of strong oligarchical inclinations , had also been prosecuted for military incapacity and exiled by a decree proposed by Cleon . It is therefore possible that Cleon has had injustice done to him in the portraits handed down by these two writers . His influence lay in his forceful and bullying style of oratory , anti - intellectual and anti - aristocratic in tone , and his populism . This might have brought him many enemies . He seems to have aimed at short - term goals , but Athens ' poor stood to benefit by his policies , at the expense of heavy taxes levied onto her allies . Authorities . For the literature on Cleon see Karl Friedrich Hermann , " Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitäten " , i . pt . 2 ( 6th ed . by V . Thumser , 1892 ) , p . 709 , and Georg Busolt , " Griechische Geschichte " , iii . pt . 2 ( 1904 ) , p . 988 , note 3 . The following are the chief authorities :