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An ancient Ionian city of western Asia Minor in present-day Turkey. Occupied by Greeks c. 1000 B.C., it became an important trading and colonizing settlement and also flourished as a center of learning. The city declined after its harbor silted up early in the Christian era.
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The southernmost of the 12 colonies forming the Ionian confederacy on the west coast of Asia Minor, Miletus flourished as a commercial center specializing in woolen goods and furniture. During the 8th-6th centuries B.C. it established numerous colonies in the Black Sea region but was destroyed in 494 B.C. in the wake of the Ionian revolt against Persia and never regained its former glory as the harbor gradually silted up from deposits from the River Meander. During the Roman period the Jews of Miletus encountered opposition from the local inhabitants who objected to their observance of the Sabbath, religious rites and tithing (Josephus, Antiq. XIV, 244-6). An inscription in the ruins of the theater shows a place reserved for Jews and “god-fearing people”. On Paul’s final voyage to Jerusalem, he visited Miletus where he met with the Ephesian church leaders (Acts 20:15, 17).
Concordance
Acts 20:15, 17. II Tim 4:20
Mīlētus, Ionian Greek city with a fine harbour, on the coast of Asia Minor near the mouth of the river Maeander. During the seventh and sixth centuries BC Miletus founded many colonies on the Black Sea and was an important sea-power. It attained great brilliance at the end of the seventh century, under the tyrant Thrasybulus, and during the sixth century it produced the philosophers Thalēs, Anaximander, and Anaximenēs, and a little later Hecataeus the logographer and Phocylidēs the poet. Histiaeus was tyrant at the time of the first Persian expedition into Europe. Later his son-in-law Aristagoras ruled in his place, and both seem to have promoted from Miletus the Ionian Revolt of 499 against Persia (see PERSIAN WARS). Miletus was captured after a siege and burnt by the Persians in 494; its inhabitants were carried off to the Persian capital Susa (see PHRYNICHUS). It was refounded in 479, joined the Delian League, and revolted against Athens in 412. Famous Milesians of this period were Aspasia, the hetaera of Pericles, Hippodamus the townplanner of the Piraeus, and the poet Timotheus. In the fourth century Miletus came under the control of Mausolus, but in 334 it was captured and liberated by Alexander the Great. It was a manufacturing town and the centre of the wool industry, its wool being regarded in antiquity as the finest in the world.
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| Miletus(Μίλητος) Ancient City of Greece (Milet) |
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Miletus (Carian: Anactoria Hittite: Milawata or Millawanda, Greek: Μίλητος transliterated Miletos, Turkish: Milet) was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia (in what is now Aydin Province, Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria. The site first became inhabited in the Bronze age. The city was part of the Ionian League.
Homer records that during the time of the Trojan War, it was a Carian city (Iliad, book II). Other Greek myths relate that the city was founded by a hero named Miletus, who fled Crete to avoid being forced to become the eromenos of King Minos (according to Antoninus Liberalis, after Nicander (Metamorphoses XXX 1-2)). These myths further relate that the hero Miletus found the city only after slaying a giant named Asterius, son of Anax; and that the region known as Miletus was originally called 'Anactoria'.
Miletus is south of Soka. The ruin lies 5 km north of Akkoy. It is believed that Paul stopped by Great Harbour Monument and sat on its steps, on his way back to Jerusalem by boat. He may have met the Ephesian Elders there and then bid them farewell on the nearby beach, which was recorded in the book of Acts.
Miletus is first mentioned in the Hittite Annals of Mursili II as Millawanda. In ca. 1320 BC, Millawanda supported the rebellion of Uhha-Ziti of Arzawa. Mursili ordered his generals Mala-Ziti and Gulla to raid Millawanda, and they proceeded to burn parts of it (damage from LHIIIA:2 has been found on-site: Christopher Mee, Anatolia and the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age, p. 142). In addition the town was fortified according to a Hittite plan (ibid, p. 139).
Millawanda is then mentioned in the "Tawagalawa letter", part of a series including the Manapa-Tarhunta letter and the Milawata letter, all of which are less securely dated. The Tawagalawa letter notes that Milawata had a governor, Atpa, who was under Ahhiyawan (today known as Achaean) jurisdiction; and that the town of Atriya was under Milesian jurisdiction. The Manapa-Tarhunta letter also mentions Atpa. Together the two letters tell that the adventurer Piyama-Radu had humiliated Manapa-Tarhunta before Atpa (in addition to other misadventures); a Hittite king then chased Piyama-Radu into Millawanda and, in the Tawagalawa letter, requested Piyama-Radu's extradition to Hatti.
The Milawata letter mentions a joint expedition by the Hittite king and a Luwiyan vassal (probably Kupanta-Kurunta of Mira) against Milawata (apparently its new name), and notes that Milawata (and Atriya) were now under Hittite control.
In the last stage of LHIIIB, the citadel of Pylos counted among its female slaves "Mil[w]atiai", women from Miletus.
During the collapse of Bronze Age civilisation, Miletus was burnt again - presumably by the Sea Peoples.
During the Classical period, the women of Miletus retained a tradition of never sitting at table with their husbands. [citation needed]
Mythographers told that Neleus son of Codrus of Athens had come to Miletus after the return of the Heraclids (so, during the Greek Dark Age). The Ionians killed the men of Miletus and married their widows.
Miletus was one of the cities involved in the Lelantine War of the 8th century BCE. By the 6th century BC, Miletus had earned a maritime empire but brushed up against powerful Lydia at home.
When Cyrus of Persia defeated Croesus of Lydia, Miletus fell under Persian rule. In 502 BC, the Ionian Revolt began in Naxos; and when Miletus's tyrant Aristagoras failed to recapture the island, Aristagoras joined the revolt as its leader. Persia quashed this rebellion and punished Miletus in such a fashion that the whole of Greece mourned it. A year afterward, Phrynicus produced the tragedy The Capture of Miletus in Athens. The Athenians fined him for reminding them of their loss.
In 479 BC, the Greeks decisively defeated the Persians at the Greek mainland, and Miletus was freed of Persian rule. During this time several other cities were formed by Milesian settlers, spanning across what is now Turkey and even as far as Crimea.
Miletus was an important center of philosophy and science, producing such men as Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. The courtesan Aspasia, mistress of Pericles, was also born in Miletus.
In 334 BC, the city was liberated from Persian rule by Alexander the Great.
The New Testament mentions Miletus as the site where the apostle Paul met with the elders of the church of Ephesus before his capture and travel to Rome for trial, as well as the city where Trophimus, one of Paul's travelling companions, recovered while sick.
During the Byzantine age Miletus became a residence for archbishops. The small Byzantine castle called Castro Palation located on the hill beside the city, was built at this time.
Seljuk Turks settled into the city in the 12th century A.D. and used Miletus as a port to trade with Venice.
Finally, Ottomans utilized the city as a harbour during their rule in Anatolia. As the harbour became silted up, the city was abandoned. Today the ruins of city lie some 10 kilometres from the sea.
Important Pre-Socratic philosophers are said to originate from Miletus. These include Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. The noted historian Hecataeus of Miletus was native to the city, and was heavily involved during the Persian occupation of Anatolia.
Pliny the Elder mentions 90 colonies founded by Miletus in his Natural History (5.112).
The first excavations in Miletus were conducted by the French archaeologist Olivier Rayet in 1873, followed by the German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand. But these were interrupted several times by wars and various other events. Today, excavations are organized by the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany.
One remarkable artifact recovered from the city during the first excavations of the 19th century, the Market Gate of Miletus, was transported piece by piece to Germany and currently exhibited at the Pergamon museum in Berlin. The main collection of artifacts resides in the Miletus Museum in Didim, Aydın, serving since 1973.
Bălţi (2000)
| Third Journey of Paul of Tarsus |
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| 1. Galatia · 2. Phrygia · 3.
Ephesus · 4. Macedonia · 5.Corinth · 6. Cenchreae · 7. Macedonia (again) · 8. Troas · 9.
Assos · 10. Mytilene · 11. Chios · 12. Samos · 13. Miletus · 14. Cos · 15. Rhodes 16. Patara · 17. Tyre · 18. Ptolomais · 19. Caesarea · 20. Jerusalem |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Miletus". Read more |
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