Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1101

MILON. adversary. By these successes he oT)tained great distinction among his countrymen, so that he was even appointed to command the army, with which they took the field against the Sybarites under Telys, and bore an important part in the great battle at the Crathis, B.C. 511. Diodorus even goes so far as to attribute the memorable victory of the Crotoniats on that occasion almost wholly to the personal strength and prowess of Milon, who is said to have taken the field accoutred like Hercules, and wearing the chaplet of his Olympic victory. (Diod. xii. 9.) This is the only instance in which he appears in any public capacity ; but we learn from Herodotus that, so great was the '•eputation he enjoyed, that when the physician Democedes took refuge at Crotona, he hastened to obtain a daughter of Milon in marriage, trusting to the effect that his name would produce even upon the Persian king. (Herod, iii. 137.) Many stories are related by ancient writers of his extraordinary feats of strength, which are for the most part well known; such as bis carrying a heifer of four years old on his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, and afterwards eating the whole of it in a single day. Some of the modes by which he displayed his gigantic powers before the assembled multitude appear to have been commemorated by the attitude of his statue at Olympia, at least if we may trust the account of it given by Philostratus ; but Pausanias, while he relates the same anecdotes, does not give us to understand that the statue itself was so represented. (Pans. vi. 14. §§ 6, 7 ; Philostr. Vit. ApolL iv. 28.) The mode of his death is thus related: as he was passing through a forest when enfeebled by age, he saw the trunk of a tree which had been partially split open by woodcutters, and attempted to rend it further, but the wood closed upon his hands, and thus held him fast, in which state he was attacked and devoured by wolves. (Diod. xii. 9 ; Paus. vi. 14, § 5 — 8; Athen. x. p. 412; Aelian, V. H. ii. 24; Gell. xv. 16; Val. Max. ix. 12, ext. 9; Suid. s.v. Miwv; Schol. ad Theocr. iv, 6 ; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 55 ; Tzetz. Ckil. ii. 460 ; Ck.de Sefi. 10.) The age of Milon is clearly fixed by the passages above cited from Diodorus and Herodotus : Aulus Gellius, who states that he was victor in the 50th Olympiad, is certainly in error. 2. A general in the service of Pyrrhus king of Epeirus, who sent him forward with a body of troops to garrison the citadel of Tarentum, pre- vious to his own arrival in Italy. (Zonar. viii. 2.) He appears to have accompanied Pyrrhus through- out his campaigns in that country, and is men- tioned as urging the king to continue the war after the battle of Heracleia in opposition to the pacific counsels of Cineas. When Pyrrhus went into Sicily, B. c. 278, he left Milon to hold the com- mand in Italy during his absence ; and when he finally quitted that country and withdrew into Epeirus, he still left him in charge of the citadel of Tarentum, together with his son Helenas. Ac- cording to Justin, they were both recalled by Pyrrhus himself soon afterwards ; but Zonaras states that he was hard pressed by the Tarentines themselves, assisted by a Carthaginian fleet, and was in consequence induced to surrender the citadel to the Romans, on condition of being allowed to withdraw his garrison in safety. (Zonar. viii. 4, 5, 6 ; Justin, xxv. 3.) MILTIADES. 1087 3. An Epeirot, who assassinated Deidaraeia, the daughter of Pyrrhus II., at the altar of Diana, to which she had fled for refuge [Deidameia], For this sacrilege he was punished by a fit of frenzy, and put an end to his own life in a miser- able manner. (Justin, xxviii. 3.) 4. Of Beroea, an officer in the army of Perseus, with which he opposed the Roman consul P. Lici- nius Crassus B.C. 171. (Liv. xlii. 58.) He is again mentioned as holding an important command under Perseus just before the battle of Pydna, B. c. 166. After that action he fled, with his two colleagues, Hippias and Pantauchus, to Beroeii, where they were the first to set the example of defection, by surrendering that fortress into the hands of Aemilius Paulkis. (Liv. xliv. 32, 45 , Plut. Aeinil. 16.) [E. H. B.] MILO'NIA CAESO'NIA. [Caesonia.] MILTAS (MtAras), a Thessalian soothsayer, who accompanied Dion on his expedition against Dionysius. He was also attached to the Platonic philosophy. (Plut. Dio?i., p. 967, c ; Fabric. Bibl. G^raec. vol. iii. p. 179.) [C. P. M.] MILTIADES (MtATzaSrjs), a name borne by at least three of the family of the Cimonidae. [See the stemraa in the article Cimon.] The family sprang from Aegina, and traced their descent to Aeacus. In the genealogy of the family given in the life of Thucydides which bears the name of Marcellinus, mention is made of a Miltiades, son of Tisander ; but it is very questionable whether even the text is correct. The two following are celebrated: — 1. The son of Cypselus, who was a man of considerable distinction in Athens in the time of Peisistratus. The Doloncians, a Thraciau tribe dwelling in the Chersonesus, being hard pressed in- war by the Absinthians, applied to the Delphic oracle for advice, and were directed to admit a colony led by the man who should be the first to entertain them after they left the temple. This was Miltiades, who, eager to escape from the rule of Peisistratus, gladly took the lead of a colony under the sanction of the oracle, and became tyrant of the Chei'sonese, which he fortified by a wall built across its isthmus. In a war with the people of Lampsacus he was taken prisoner, but was set at liberty on the demand of Croesus. He died without leaving any children, and his sove- reignty passed into the hands of Stesagoras, the son of his half-brother Cimon. Sacrilices and games were instituted in his honour, in which no Lamp- sacene was suffered to take part. (Herod, vi. 34, 38, 103, 36—38.) Both Cornelius Nepos {Milt. i. 1) and Pausanias (vi. 19. § 6) confound this Miltiades with the following. 2. The son of Cimon and brother of Stesagoras, became tyrant of the Chersonesus on the death of the latter, being sent out by Peisistratus from Athens to take possession of the vacant inherit- ance. By a stratagem he got the chief men of the Chersonesus into his power and threw them into prison, and took a force of mercenaries into his pay. In order probably to strengthen his position still more he married Hegesipyla, the daughter of a Thracian prince named Olorus. (Herod, vi. 39.) He joined Dareius Hystaspis on his expedition against the Scythians, and was left with the other Greeks in charge of the bridge over the Danube. (Herod, iv. 137.) That when the appointed time had expired and Dareius had not returned, Mil- tiades recommended the Greeks to destroy the