“Expect the same behavior from your own children that you showed your own parents.”
-Milesian Philosopher

“The skillful man is superior to the strong man.”
-Thales of Miletus

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Miletus was colonized by Cretan settlers between 1500-1400 BCE. Greek mainlanders, the Mycenaeans, took over this outpost and they fortified the city. They in turn were followed in 1000 BCE by the Ionians under Neileus. These conquerors killed the male population and took the women as their wives. It was the only Ionian city named by Homer in his epic poems.

From the 8th century BCE, Miletus established more than 90 colonies especially on the Black Sea. It flourished as a trading center through the 8th & 7th centuries BCE, and in the 6th century BCE it became known as a center for scholarship as well. Some of the philosophers produced by the city were Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander & Hecataeus. Throughout the Archaic Period (800-500 BCE) the city was a major center for the early development of Greek science and philosophy.

The Persians sacked the city in 494 BCE, after the Milesians helped begin a revolt against them by the Ionian Greeks. Miletus’s inhabitants were either enslaved or slaughtered by the conquerors. The sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma was plundered and destroyed at this time. Alexander the Great freed the city from Persian rule in 334 BCE, but Miletus never regained its earlier prominence and success in its sea trade due to the rise of the Athenian navy.

The last Attalid king presented Miletus to Rome in 188 BCE and it had “free city” status under Roman rule. It prospered and flourished until the end of the 4th century CE, at which time the harbors were closed due to silt filling them in.

• Take a tour of Miletus. (Note: the tour requires Apple's Quicktime in order to work properly.)
• Join the roleplay in Epyllion - The Captives of Olden Times

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