MILETUS, an ancient city on the southern shore of the Latmic Gulf opposite the mouth of the Maeander. Before the Ionic migration it was inhabited by the Carians (Iliad ii. 876; Herod, i. 146); other authorities call the original people Leleges, who are always hard to distinguish from Carians. The Greek settlers from Pylus under Neleus massacred all the men in the city, and built for themselves a new city on the coast. It occupied a very favourable situation at the mouth of the rich valley of the Maeander, and was the natural outlet for the trade of southern Phrygia (Hipponax, Fr. 45); it had four harbours, one of considerable size. Its power extended inland for some distance up the valley of the Maeander, and along the coast to the south, where it founded the city of Iasus. The trade with the Black Sea, however, was the greatest source of wealth to the Ionian cities. Miletus like the rest turned its attention chiefly to the north, and after a time it succeeded in almost monopolizing the traffic. Along the Hellespont, the Propontis, and the Black Sea coasts it founded more than sixty cities—among them Abydus, Cyzicus, Sinope, Dioscurias, Panticapaeum, and Olbia. All these cities were founded before the middle of the 7th century; and before 500 b.c. Miletus was decidedly the greatest Greek city. During the time when the enterprise and energy of the seafaring population, the d∈ιu<wται, raised Miletus to such power and wealth, nothing is known of its internal history. The analogy of all Greek cities, and some casual statements in later writers, suggest that the usual bloody struggles took place between the oligarchy and the democracy, and that tyrants sometimes raised themselves to supreme power in the city; but no details are known. Miletus was equally ...

a city on the continent of Asia Minor, and in the province of Caria, memorable for being the birthplace of Thales, one of the seven wise men of Greece, of Anaximander and Anaximines, the philosophers, and of Timotheus, the musician. It was about thirty-six miles south of Ephesus, and the capital of both Caria and Ionia. The Milesians were subdued by the Persians, and the country passed successively into the power of the Greeks and Romans. At present the Turks call it Molas, and it is not far distant from the true Meander, which encircles all the plain with many mazes, and innumerable windings. It was to this place that St. Paul called the elders of the church of Ephesus, to deliver his last charge to them, Acts xx, 15, &c. There was another Miletus in Crete, mentioned 2 Tim. iv, 20.