MILTIADES, son of Cypselus, an Athenian captain, who obtained a victory in a chariot race at the Olympic games. He led a colony of Athenians to the Chersonesus. The causes of this appointment are striking and singular. The Thracian Dolonci, harassed by a long war with the Absynthiaus, were directed by the oracle of Delphi to take for their king the first man they met in their return home, who should invite them to come under his roof and partake of his entertainments. This was Miltiades, who was very much struck at the appearance of the Dolonci, and with their strange arms and garments. He invited them to his house, and was made acquainted with the commands of the oracle. He obeyed; and when the oracle of Delphi had a second time approved the choice of the Dolonci, he departed for the Chersonesus, and was invested by the inhabitants with sovereign power. The first measures he took were to stop the further incursions of the Absynthians, by building a strong wall across the isthmus. When he had established himself at home, and fortified his dominions against foreign invasion, he turned his arms against Lampsacus. But his expedition proved unsuccessful; he was taken in an ambuscade, and made prisoner. His friend Croesus, king of Lydia, informed of his captivity, procured his release. He lived a few years after he had recovered his liberty. As he had no issue, he left his kingdom and possessions to Stefagoras the son of Cimon, who was his brother by the same mother. The memory of Miltiades was greatly honoured by the Dolonci, who regularly celebrated festivals and exhibited shows in commemoration of a man to whom they owed their greatness and preservation.

Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and brother of Stefagoras mentioned in the preceding article, was, some time after the death of the latter, who died without issue, sent by the Athenians with one ship to take possession of the Chersonesus. On his arrival Miltiades appeared mournful, as if lamenting the recent death of his brother. The principal inhabitants of the country visited the new governor to condole with him; but their confidence in his sincerity proved fatal to them. Miltiades seized their persons, and made himself absolute in Chersonesus. To strengthen himself, he married Hegesipyla, the daughter of Olorus, the king of the Thracians. But his triumph was short-lived. In the third year of his government, his dominions were threatened by an invasion of the Scythian Nomades, whom Darius had some time before irritated by entering their country. Miltiades fled before them; but as their hostilities were of short duration, he was soon restored to his kingdom. Three years afterwardshe left Chersonesus, and set sail for Athens, where he was received with great applause. He was present at the celebrated battle of Marathon, in which all the chief officers ceded the power to him, and left the event of the battle to depend upon his superior abilities. He obtained an important victory over the numberless forces of his adversaries. Some time afterwards Miltiades was intrusted with a fleet of seventy ships, and ordered to punish those islands which had revolted to the Persians. He was successful at first, but a sudden report that the Persian fleet was coming to attack him, changed his operations as he was besieging Paros. He raised the siege, and returned to Athens. He was accused of treason, and particularly of holding correspondence with the enemy. The falsehood of these accusations might have appeared, if Miltiades had been able to come into the assembly. But a wound which he had received before Paros detained him at home; and his enemies, taking advantage of his absence, became more eager in their accusations, and louder in their clamours. He was condemned to death; but the rigour of his sentence was mitigated on the recollection of his great services to the Athenians, and he was imprisoned till he should pay a fine of fifty talents to the state. His inability to discharge so great a sum detained him in confinement; and his wounds having become incurable, he died a prisoner about 489 years before the Christian era. His body was ransomed by his son Cimon, who was obliged to borrow and pay the fifty talents, in order to give his father a decent burial. The accusations against Miltiades were probably the more readily believed by his countrymen, when they remembered how he had made himself absolute in Chersonesus. In condemning the barbarity of the Athenians towards a general who was the source of their military prosperity, we must also remember the jealousy which ever reigns amongst a free and independent people, and how watchful they are in defence of the natural rights which they see wrested from others by violence. Cornelius Nepos has written the life of Miltiades the son of Cimon; but his history is incongruous and unintelligible, from his confounding the actions of the son of Cimon with those of the son of Cypselus. Greater reliance is to be placed on the narrative of Herodotus, who was indisputably better informed and more capable of giving an account of the life and exploits of men who flourished in his age, and of which he could sec the living monuments. Herodotus was born about six years after the battle of Marathon; and Cornelius Nepos, as a writer of the Augustan age, flourished about 450 years after the age of the father of history.