Miletus | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Miletus, a major Greek colony in Asia Minor, was established on a site known to the Hittites as Millawanda. The city was founded as a Mycenaean (early Greek) colony on the estuary of the Maeander (now Menderes) River, south of Izmir. After the fall of ancient Ilium, or Troy, around 1200 BCE, a fresh influx of Greeks made Miletus the foremost center in Ionia. The city enjoyed four harbors, and the inhabitants grew wealthy through sea trade; the city was famed for the fine textiles produced there. As the population expanded, colonists set out from Miletus to found many new colonies, from Egypt to the Black Sea, including Byzantium (later Constantinople).

In the seventh century BCE an ancient shrine at Didyma, twenty kilometers south of Miletus, was rededicated to Apollo, and the temple, although never finished, became one of the major oracles of ancient Greece. Visitors to Didyma, as well as Miletus's economic growth, stimulated the age of Ionian enlightenment, and Miletus became a center of philosophy and learning.

Thales of Miletus (c. 625–c. 547 BCE) taught that everything was made of water. Thales' disciple, Anaximander of Miletus (610–c. 547 BCE), was said to have discovered the obliquity of the ecliptic; Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 545 BCE) thought that air was the basic element from which everything was made. Hecataeus ofMiletus (sixth–fifth centuries BCE) wrote an account of his extensive travels, which Herodotus and other Greek travelers used. The architect Hippodamus of Miletus (fifth century BCE) invented the notion of city planning and designed the first town plans based on grid patterns. Aspasia (c. 470–410 BCE) was born in Miletus but traveled to Athens, where, famed for her beauty and intelligence, she became the lover of Pericles.

The kings of neighboring Lydia had led incursions against Miletus, but the city remained free until Croesus (d. c. 546 BCE), the last king of Lydia, conquered it. When Lydia fell to the Persians in the sixth century BCE, Miletus came under Achaemenid rule, but the city led neighboring cities in the so-called Ionian revolt against Persia around 500 BCE. The Ionian cities, however, could not defeat the powerful Persians. In the conflict Miletus lost eighty ships, the city was captured and burned, and the inhabitants enslaved.

Miletus was rebuilt on a new site, but its former glory was never recaptured. Alexander of Macedon besieged Miletus in 334 BCE, and a naval blockade forced its surrender. After his death the city changed hands among his generals, passed to the cultured Attalid dynasty based in Pergamon, and then in 133 BCE, became nominally free under Rome.

The Romans rebuilt the public buildings, but the harbor silted up with malarial marshes. The abolition of the oracle in favor of Christianity in 385 CE confirmed Miletus's decline; her last famous citizen was Isodorus, who built the great Saint Sophia cathedral in Constantinople. Under Turkish rule a caravansaray (trading inn) and a madrasah (religious school) temporarily revived the city.

German archaeologists have been excavating the site of Miletus for a century, and many finds are in Berlin or Istanbul. The theater, once on the water's edge, is the most striking monument, romantic when filled with wild irises in spring. The sacred way to Didyma, lined with an Ionic portico one hundred meters long, and a restored stoa, or colonnade, ran from the Lion Harbor. Places of worship included a temple to Athena (third century BCE), the Delphinion dedicated to Apollo (sixth century BCE), a synagogue from the late Roman period, two Byzantine churches (sixth century CE), and the delightfully marbled fifteenth-century mosque of Ilyas Bey in a shady grove.

Akurgal, Ekrem. (1969) Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey. Ankara, Turkey: Haslet Kitabevi.

Darke, Diana. (1989) Discovery Guide to Aegean and Mediterranean Turkey. London: Michael Haag.

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