Miltiades the Younger

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Helmet consecrated by Miltiades in Olympia

Miltiades (* around 550 BC; † around 489 BC), son of Kimon , was an Athens- born general and politician from the Philaiden family , known through Herodotus , who made him the victor in the battle of Marathon explained.

Tyrant on the Chersonese

Genealogy of the Philaids according to Herodotus and Markellinos

After he was in Athens as early as 524/3 BC. He had held the office of archon , supported by the Attic tyrants from the family of Peisistratos , about 520 BC. The successor of a relative of the same name, Miltiades the Elder , as the tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese (now the Gallipoli peninsula ), which was under Persian rule. Upon arrival, he imprisoned the local aristocrats and raised a private mercenary force to keep him in power. 514/3 BC He took part in the campaign of the Persian great king Dareios I against the Scythians . Miltiades appears in Herodotus in this context - even before the Ionian uprising - indirectly as an advocate of the freedom of the Ionians and as an opponent of the Persians. In 498 BC He conquered the island of Lemnos and added it to Athenian rule.

Battle of Marathon

After the end of the Ionian Rebellion in 493 BC BC Miltiades returned to Athens, where he was accused by his enemies, but acquitted. He is considered a driving force in the defense against the Persians. On the victory of the Athenians over a Persian force at Marathon in 490 BC. According to Herodotus, he played a decisive role as strategos . Herodotus also writes, however, that Miltiades did not hold the high command, but had to share the authority with nine other strategists. The chairmanship of the college was held by the Polemarch Callimachus, who had fallen in battle. As there are no contemporary written sources on the battle, the exact role of the Miltiades is controversial. Herodotus writes that Miltiades convinced Callimachus to attack and that he then gave the order to attack. It is questionable here, however, whether the polemarch superordinate to the strategists was only the nominal commander-in-chief at that time or whether he had more authority than the other strategists. It is also astonishing that Miltiades is no longer mentioned in the description of the battle of Herodotus. Callimachos, on the other hand, is mentioned once again with his position in the order of battle; his death in battle is also mentioned. The position of the Miltiades or its possible influence on the order and tactics of the battle are not found out.

Parexpedition

Around 490/89, Miltiades convinced the Athenians to take command of an operation against some Cycladic islands in order to free them from the Persian influence they had come under during the Mardonios' march , and if necessary by force. For this he was equipped with 70 ships by the Athenians. Before the naval armor of Athens under Themistocles, 70 ships were probably all that the Athenian fleet had to offer. In the course of the attacks on the islands, some surrendered without resistance, but not Paros . Subsequently, Paros was apparently successfully besieged and negotiations on surrender took place. A glow of fire in the distance (possibly on Mykonos ), which the Pariers took to be a sign of the Persians, led to the breach of the agreements. Miltiades interpreted the firelight similarly, broke off the siege, and sailed quickly back to Athens. There he was charged with high treason, bribery by the Persians, and unauthorized demolition of the company in the popular assembly. Xanthippos , the father of Pericles , may have been the main plaintiff and advocated the death penalty. Miltiades was unable to defend himself personally as he suffered from a leg wound received during the expedition that had become infected. He suffered this wound near a Demeter shrine (and possibly interpreted it as a divine sign). Miltiades was acquitted of high treason, but held responsible for the failed expedition and sentenced to a fine of 50 Attic talents , the amount of which was based on government spending on the company. Miltiades was likely held in prison until the money was paid. There he died as a result of his wounding. The debt was paid by his son Kimon . This played an important role in Athens' politics in the following decades. Miltiades' daughter Elpinike is also known .

Archaeological finds

During the excavations of the German Archaeological Institute in Olympia in 1940 a fragment of a bronze helmet from the beginning of the 5th century BC was found. After the excavations in Olympia were resumed in the early 1950s under the direction of Emil Kunze , Hans-Volkmar Herrmann discovered the dedicatory inscription while cleaning the helmet:

Μιλτιάδες ἀνέ [θ] εκεν [⋮ τ] ο̑ι Δί ( Miltiades anetheken toi Di "Miltiades consecrated (this helmet) to Zeus ").

The consecration of weapons is linked by research to both the conquest of Lemnos and the Battle of Marathon, but it has not been possible to clearly prove that the helmet in question was the helmet of Miltiades the Younger.

Sources

The main source for Miltiades is the Herodotus Histories . As a contemporary witness, Herodotus reports on the events of that time and probably strives for exact historical reports. For this purpose, he uses sources that he checks for reliability, and also conducts research while traveling. He also tries to “explore human existence in further dimensions”. However, anti-Philaid tendencies can be found in Herodotus as well as prejudices regarding the Athenian demos. Numbers and personal information in Herodotus should be questioned critically, as this specific information is often not adequately substantiated by sources. The work of the historian Ephoros von Kyme emerged from the histories . However, only fragments of his work have survived. The work of Ephoros probably served Cornelius Nepos , Stephanos Byzantios and the Aristeidesscolia as a template. Some of these texts allow a reconstruction of the work of Ephorus.
Overall, Herodotus paints a very multifaceted picture of Miltiades. He appears as a powerful and rich aristocrat who suffers from the Peisistratiden, as an autonomous tyrant on the Hellespont and as an enemy of the Persians; he creates the prerequisites for victory at marathon and finally appears as a powerful politician, a failed general and a fateful hybrist . Herodotus 'depiction of Miltiades' role in the Battle of Marathon is believed to have been strongly, directly and indirectly, influenced by the architecture and works of art of the Kimonic era, in particular the marathon painting in the Stoa Poikile and the expanded Phylenheroenmonument in Delphi, which heroized and heroized Miltiades which steered the general memories of the marathon battle, which can be read from the later literary sources. Through his literary formation of the material and the different weighting of various aspects, Herodotus also contributed a lot to the Miltiades picture that ultimately emerged. He has also changed the image of Miltiades through fictional speeches, personal evaluations and, above all, the focus of the narrative on certain motifs.

reception

Jean-François-Pierre Peyron (1744–1814): The Burial of Miltiades, oil on canvas, 1782, 98 × 136 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre , inv. 7179.
Print after Jean-François-Pierre Peyron (1744–1814): The reading is given to the viewer, unlike in the original, even more clearly by a standard with the words Marathon held over the body of the strategist .
Window with scenes from the life of Miltiades, who is imprisoned in the dungeon after years of faithful service; Published as an engraving in 1791.

1782 created the classical painter Pierre Peyron (1744-1814) in Rome, the history painting The Burial of Miltiades on behalf of the Comte d'Angiviller . It shows an episode that Cornelius Nepos handed down in his Vita Kimons the Younger and according to which the son had himself chained up instead of his father in order to free his body. Anatole Devosge (1770–1850) also dealt with this subject in a drawing in 1806. It is an anti-republican fable, which denounces the ingratitude of the demos towards the savior from the Persian invasion. In the early modern period, the episode could be used as an allegory of the unjust fate of deserving contemporary statesmen. For example, a Dutch glass window with the Miltiadesvita alludes to the imprisonment of Rombout Hogerbeets and (indirectly) Hugo Grotius .

The poet and philhellene Johann Gottfried Seume created the tragedy Miltiades in 1808 , in which he depicts the strategist as a republican alternative to Napoleon .

literature

  • Helmut Berve : Miltiades. Berlin 1937.
  • Peter J. Bicknell: The Command Structure and Generals of the Marathon Campaign. In: L'Antiquité classique . Volume 39, 1970, pp. 427-439.
  • Peter J. Bicknell: The Date of Miltiades' Parian Expedition. In: L'Antiquité classique. Volume 41, 1972, pp. 225-227.
  • Edwin M. Carawan: Eisangelia and Euthyna: The Trials of Miltiades, Themistocles, and Cimon. In: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. Volume 28, 1987, pp. 167-209.
  • Alessandra Coppola: Milziade ei tirannicidi. In: Historia . Volume 52, 2003, pp. 283-299.
  • Lloyd W. Daly: Miltiades, Aratus and Compound Fractures. In: The American Journal of Philology. Volume 101, 1980, pp. 59-60.
  • Robert Develin: Miltiades and the Parian expedition. In: L'Antiquité classique. Volume 46, 1977, pp. 571-577.
  • James AS Evans: Herodotus and Marathon. In: Florilegium. Volume 6, 1984, pp. 1-27.
  • Martin Flashar : The winners of marathon. In: Martin Flashar, Hans Joachim Gehrke, Ernst Heinrich (eds.): Retrospective. Concepts of the past in Greco-Roman antiquity. Munich 1996, pp. 63-83.
  • Konrad Kinzl : Miltiades' Parosexpedition in historiography. In: Hermes . Volume 104, 1976, pp. 280-307.
  • Konrad Kinzl: Miltiades 2. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 .
  • Stefan Link: The Paros Adventure of Miltiades. In: Klio . Volume 82, 2000, pp. 40-53.
  • Fritz Schachermeyr : The winners of the Persian Wars. Great personalities between applause and disapproval (= On the problem of historical success. Personality and history. Volume 82). Göttingen et al. 1974.
  • Lionel Scott: Miltiades' Expedition to Paros and 'Other Islands?' In: The Ancient History Bulletin. Volume 6, 2002, pp. 111-126.
  • Benjamin Shimron: Miltiades on the Danube Bridge and in the Chersonese. In: Vienna Studies. Volume 100, 1987, pp. 23-34.

Web links

Commons : Miltiades the Younger  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae I³ 1031 .
  2. ↑ a b Konrad H. Kinzl: Miltiades' Parosexpedition in the historiography. In: Journal for Classical Philology. Wiesbaden, 1976. pp. 280-307. P. 284.
  3. ↑ a b Peter Karavites: Realities and Appearances, 490-480 BC In: Historia: Journal of Ancient History . tape 26 , no. 2 . Franz Steiner Verlag, 1977, p. 129-147 .
  4. ↑ Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum 14, 351 . Discussion of the state of research: Holger Baitinger: Consecrations of weapons in Greek sanctuaries (= monographs of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum. Volume 94), Mainz 2011, p. 153.
  5. ↑ Reinhold Bichler and Robert Rollinger: Herodot. (Study books antiquity, vol. 3). Hildesheim (et al.) 2000. pp. 130f.
  6. ↑ Reinhold Bichler and Robert Rollinger: Herodot. (Study books antiquity, vol. 3). Hildesheim (et al.) 2000. p. 111ff.
  7. ↑ Stefan Link: The Paros Adventure of Miltiades. In: Klio 2000 82 (1): pp. 40-53.
  8. ^ Konrad H. Kinzl: Miltiades' Parosexpedition in the historiography. In: Journal for Classical Philology. Wiesbaden, 1976. pp. 280-307. P. 283f.
  9. ^ Konrad Kinzl: Miltiades [2]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000.
  10. ^ Konrad H. Kinzl: Miltiades' Parosexpedition in the historiography. In: Journal for Classical Philology. Wiesbaden, 1976. pp. 280-307. Pp. 293-303.
  11. ^ Project Utpictura18: Center Interdisciplinaire d'Étude des Littératures d'Aix-Marseille (CIELAM, EA4235) . Cimon et Miltiade. Le dévouement de Cimon - Rude d'après Devosge
  12. ↑ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-T-2013-2
  13. ↑ Inge Stephan: Johann Gottfried Seume. A political writer of the German Late Enlightenment, Stuttgart 1973, p. 53. Digital copy of the work: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.088260896 (Hathi Trust digital library)
personal data
SURNAME Miltiades the Younger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Miltiades
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 550 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH around 489 BC Chr.