{{Short description|6th century BC Greek tyrant of the Chersonese}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Miltiades the Elder | image = | caption = | office = Tyrant of the Chersonese | term = {{circa|556 BC{{snd}}525 BC}} | successor = Stesagoras | birth_date = {{circa|590 BC}} | birth_place = Athens | death_date = {{circa|525 BC}} (aged c. 65) | relations = Miltiades the Younger (nephew) }} '''Miltiades the Elder''' (ca. 590 – 525 BC) was an Athenian politician from the Philaid family. He is most famous for travelling to the Thracian Chersonese (now Gallipoli) where, at the behest of the local peoples, he ruled as a tyrant. During his reign, Miltiades' best-attested action was the construction of a defensive wall across the peninsula.
Miltiades was the uncle of Miltiades the Younger, who was a prominent commander in the Battle of Marathon.
== Early life and family == Miltiades the Elder was born in Athens in around 590 BC.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Hammond|first=N. G. L.|date=July–October 1956|title=The Philiads and the Chersonese|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=6|issue=3/4|pages=113–129|jstor=636904|doi=10.1017/S0009838800020085|s2cid=170767435 }}</ref> His father was Cypselus the archon; Miltiades also claimed descent from the mythological king Aeacus.<ref name=":1">Hammond, 117.</ref> During this time, the Philaids were one of the wealthiest families in the city.
While living in Athens, Miltiades was a successful athlete. He owned a four-horse chariot,<ref name=":2">Herodotus, ''Histories,'' 6.35.</ref> and won an Olympic victory in the chariot race in 560 BC.<ref name=":1" />
== In the Thracian Chersonese == thumb|Map of the Thracian Chersonese in antiquity. The cities that Miltiades is credited with founding are visible in the northeast. During this period, the Dolonci (a tribe from the Thracian Chersonese) suffered several military defeats against their rivals, the Apsinthians.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 6.34.</ref> They travelled to the Oracle of Delphi for advice, and were told to return to Thrace with a Greek colonist as their commander.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Ancient Thrace|last1=Valeva|first1=Julia|last2=Nankov|first2=Emil|last3=Graninger|first3=Denver|publisher=Wiley Blackwell|year=2015|location=West Sussex|pages=300}}</ref> The Dolonci asked Miltiades to take on this role, due to the hospitality he showed them on their return trip through Athens.<ref name=":2" /> Miltiades accepted this offer, although his motivations are ambiguous. The traditional view holds that Miltiades was dissatisfied with Peisistratus' rule and wanted to make his fortune elsewhere, but some scholars argue that Miltiades was actually participating in a Peisistratid foreign policy that sought to exert its influence in the region.<ref name=":3">Valeva et al., 309.</ref>
Miltiades arrived in the Thracian Chersonese with a group of Athenian settlers, probably between 556 BC and 550 BC,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> and these followers populated and fortified the city of Cardia.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015-12-22|title=Cardia|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-1367|journal=Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th Ed.|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.1367|last1=Borza|first1=Eugene N.|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Miltiades was also credited with the founding of several other Thracian cities, including Pactye, Agora, and Crithote.<ref>Hammond, 122.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria: their relations to Greece from the earliest times down to the time of Philip, son of Amyntas|last=Casson|first=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Casson| publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1971|location=Westport, CT|pages=217}}</ref> Miltiades' most famous construction was the Long Wall stretching from Cardia to Pactye.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 6.36.</ref> This wall was completed relatively early in Miltiades' reign, most likely prior to 546 BC,<ref>Casson, 227.</ref> and was designed to keep the Apsinthians out of the peninsula.
During his reign, Miltiades also went to war against the city of Lampsacus. This war was largely unsuccessful, and Miltiades was briefly taken captive in a Lampsacene ambush.<ref name=":4">Herodotus, ''Histories'', 6.37.</ref> However, Croesus of Lydia interceded on behalf of Miltiades, compelling the Lampsacenes to release him unharmed.<ref name=":4" />
Miltiades died, childless, around 525 BC.<ref name=":3" /> He was succeeded as tyrant by his nephew, Stesagoras, who was killed shortly afterwards by the Lampsacenes.<ref name=":5">Herodotus, ''Histories'', 6.38.</ref> In the Thracian Chersonese, an annual contest in horse-racing and gymnastics was then inaugurated in Miltiades' memory;<ref name=":5" /> after Stesagoras' murder, Lampsacenes were barred from these games.<ref>Hammond, 118.</ref>
== The three-Miltiades theory == N. G. L. Hammond has argued that the figure of Miltiades the Elder is actually a conflation of two statesmen of the same name: Miltiades I, who led the first Athenian settlers to the Thracian Chersonese, and Miltiades II, who founded the city of Chersonesus (also called Agora) there. In Hammond's reckoning, Miltiades II was the son of Miltiades I, born around 560 BC; it was after Miltiades II that Stesagoras came to power. He also holds Miltiades II to be the ruler in whose honour the games were held.<ref>Hammond, 113–121.</ref>
== References == <references />
== Sources == * Borza, Eugene N. "Cardia." In ''Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition'', edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. [http://classics.oxfordre.com/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-1367?rskey=ueed6P&result=1 Link]. * Casson, Stanley. ''Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria: their relations to Greece from the earliest times down to the time of Philip, son of Amyntas''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971. * Hammond, N. G. L. "The Philiads and the Chersonese." In ''The Classical Quarterly'' 6, no. 3/4 (Jul. – Oct. 1956), 113–129. * Herodotus. ''Histories''. Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126 Link]. * {{cite EB1911|author=Mitchell, John Malcolm|wstitle=Miltiades|volume=18|pages=479–480|short=1}} * Valeva, Julia, Emil Nankov, and Denver Graninger, eds. ''A Companion to Ancient Thrace.'' Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
Category:6th-century BC Athenians Category:Ancient Thracian Greeks Category:Ancient Greek monarchs Category:Ancient Greek political refugees Category:Philaidae Category:520s BC deaths