Miltiades the Elder and the Younger: Two Early Biographies
Journal: Athens Journal of History
Year: 2023

Claims that Herodotus reveals himself as a proto-biographer are not yet widely accepted. To advance this claim, I have selected two men, Miltiades the Elder and his nephew, Miltiades the Younger whose activities are recounted in the Histories. It is the latter, one of only a few Athenians with any battle experience, who taking refuge back in Athens, finds himself in a leadership role during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It is to a near contemporary to whom we attribute the maxim—characte