1ST SOURCE. Basics on Miletus: Miletus was one of the great Ionian cities in southwestern Asia Minor.

Homer refers to the people of Miletus as Carians. They fought against the Achaeans (Greeks) in the Trojan War. Later traditions have Ionian settlers taking the land from the Carians. Miletus itself sent off settlers to the Black Sea area, as well as the Hellespont. In 499 Miletus led the Ionian revolt that was a contributing factor in the Persian Wars. Miletus was destroyed 5 years later. Then in 479, Miletus joined the Delian League, and in 412 Miletus revolted from Athenian control offering a naval base to the Spartans. Alexander the Great conquered Miletus in 334 B.C.; then in 129, Miletus became part of the Roman province of Asia. In the 3rd Century A.D., Goths attacked Miletus, but the city continued, waging an ongoing fight against the silting of its harbor. Source: Percy Neville Ure, John Manuel Cook, Susan Mary Sherwin-White, and Charlotte Rouech "Miletus" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press (2005). Early Inhabitants of Miletus: Sally Goetsch (of Didaskalia) provided notes for this article. Her references are in the parentheses.

The Minoans abandoned their colony in Miletus by 1400 BC. Mycenaean Miletus was a dependency or ally of Ahhiwaya (Achaea[?]) though its population was mostly Carian. Shortly after 1300 BC the settlement was destroyed by fire -- probably at the instigation of the Hittites who knew the city as Millawanda. The Hittites fortified the city against possible naval attacks by the Greeks. (Huxley 16-18) Age of the Settlement at Miletus: Miletus was regarded as the oldest of the Ionian settlements, though this claim was disputed by Ephesus. Unlike its near neighbors, Ephesus and Smyrna, Miletus was protected from landward assaults by a mountain range and developed early as a sea power. During the 6th century Miletus contested (unsuccessfully) with Samos for possession of Priene. In addition to producing philosophers and historians, the city was famous for its purple dye, its furniture, and the quality of its wool. The Milesians made their own terms with Cyrus during his conquest of Ionia, though they joined in the rebellion of 499. The city did not fall to the Persians until 494 at which time the Ionian Revolt was considered to be well and truly over. (Emlyn-Jones 17-18)

Rule of Miletus: Though Miletus was originally ruled by a king the monarchy was overthrown early on. Around 630 BCE a tyranny evolved from its elected (but oligarchic) chief magistracy the prytaneia. The most famous Milesian tyrant was Thrasybulus who bluffed Alyattes out of attacking his city. After the fall of Thrasybulus there came a period of bloody stasis and it was during this period that Anaximander formulated his theory of opposites. (Emlyn-Jones 29-30) When the Persians finally sacked Miletus in 494 they enslaved most of the population and deported them to the Persian Gulf, but there were enough survivors to play a decisive part in the battle of Mycale in 479 (Cimon's liberation of Ionia). The city itself however was completely razed. (Emlyn-Jones 34-5) The Port of Miletus: Miletus, though one of the most famous ports of antiquity is now 'marooned in an alluvial delta'. By the middle of the 5th century it had recovered from Xerxes' attack and was a contributing member of the Delian League. The 5th century city was designed by the architect Hippodamas, a native of Miletus, and some of the extant remains date from that period. The present form of the theatre dates to 100 A.D., but it had existed in an earlier form. It seats 15,000 and faces what used to be the harbor.

2ND SOURCE. Neolithic The earliest available archaeological evidence indicates that the islands on which Miletus was originally placed were inhabited by a Neolithic population in the 2nd half of the 4th millennium BCE (35003000 BCE).[5] Pollen in core samples from Lake Bafa in the Latmus region inland of Miletus suggests that a lightly grazed climax forest prevailed in the Maeander valley, otherwise untenanted. Sparse Neolithic settlements were made at springs, numerous and sometimes geothermal in this karst, rift valley topography. The islands offshore were settled perhaps for their strategic significance at the mouth of the Maeander, a route inland protected by escarpments. The grazers in the valley may have belonged to them, but the location looked to the sea. [edit]Bronze Age Recorded history at Miletus begins with the records of the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age. The prehistoric archaeology of the Early and Middle Bronze Age portrays a city heavily influenced by society and events elsewhere in the Aegean, rather than inland.

Cretan period Beginning at about 1900 BCE artifacts of the Minoan civilization acquired by trade arrived at Miletus.[5] For some centuries the location received a strong impulse from that civilization, an archaeological fact that tends to support but not necessarily confirm the founding legendthat is, a population influx, from Crete. According to Strabo:[6] Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city after that Miletus, the place formerly being in possession of the Leleges. The legends recounted as history by the ancient historians and geographers are perhaps the strongest; the late mythographers have nothing historically significant to relate.[7] Luwian and Greek period 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 the jurisdiction of "Ahhiyawa" (a growing state probably in LHIIIB Mycenaean Greece); and that the town of Atriya was under Milesian jurisdiction. The ManapaTarhunta 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. Homer records that during the time of the Trojan War, it was a Carian city (Iliad, book II). In the last stage of LHIIIB, the citadel of bronze age Pylos counted among its female slaves a mi-ra-ti-ja, Mycenaean Greek for "women from Miletus", written in Linear b syllabic script.[8]

During the collapse of Bronze Age civilisation, Miletus was burnt again, presumably by the Sea Peoples. Dark Age Mythographers told that Neleus, a son of Codrus the last King of Athens, had come to Miletus after the "Return of the Heraclids" (so, during the Greek Dark Ages). The Ionians killed the men of Miletus and married their widows. This is the mythical commencement of the enduring alliance between Athens and Miletus, which played an important role in the subsequent Persian Wars. Archaic period

Map of Miletus and Other Cities within the Lydian Empire The city of Miletus became one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor. Miletus was one of the cities involved in the Lelantine War of the 8th century BCE. Miletus was an important center of philosophy and science, producing such men as Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. By the 6th century BCE, Miletus had earned a maritime empire with many colonies, but brushed up against powerful Lydia at home, and the tyrant Polycratesof its neighbour to the west, Samos. 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 tyrantAristagoras 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.

Classical period

The Ionic Stoa on the Sacred Way Its gridlike layout, planned by Hippodamos, became the basic layout for Roman cities. 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. The eponymous founder of the bawdy Miletian school of literature Aristides of Miletus taught here. Alexandrian period In 334 BC, the city was liberated from Persian rule by Alexander the Great. Roman period The New Testament mentions Miletus as the site where the Apostle Paul in 57 CE met with the elders of the church of Ephesus near the close of his Third Missionary Journey, as recorded in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 20:1538). It is believed that Paul stopped by the Great Harbour Monument and sat on its steps. He may have met the Ephesian elders there and then bid them farewell on the nearby beach. Miletus is also the city where Paul left Trophimus, one of his travelling companions, to recover from an illness (2 Timothy 4:20). Because this cannot be the same visit as Acts 20 (in which Trophimus accompanied Paul all the way to Jerusalem, according to Acts 21:29), Paul must have made at least one additional visit to Miletus, perhaps as late as 65 or 66 CE. Paul's previous successful three-year ministry in nearby Ephesus resulted in the evangelization of the entire province of Asia (see Acts 19:10, 20; 1 Corinthians 16:9). It is safe to assume that at least by the time of the apostle's second visit to Miletus, a fledgling Christian community was established in Miletus.

Byzantine period 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. From Miletus came the famous merchant family of Mauros, one of their members became judge of the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Miletus was headed by a curator.[9][10] Turkish rule

Illustration of Miletus Seljuk Turks conquered the city in the 14th century AD 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. Archaeological excavations The first excavations in Miletus were conducted by the French archaeologist Olivier Rayet in 1873, followed by the German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand. [11] [12] [13] between 1899 and 1931. Excavations, however, were interrupted several times by wars and various other events. Carl Weickart excavated for a short season in 1938 and again between 1955 and 1957. He was followed by Gerhard Kleiner and then by Wolfgang Muller-Wiener. 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 reassembled. It is currently exhibited at the Pergamon museum in Berlin. The main collection of artifacts resides in the Miletus Museum in Didim, Aydn, serving since 1973.

3RD SOURCE. Miletus, near the coast of western Turkey, was one of the most important cities in the ancient Greek world, but eventually declined due to the silting up of its harbors. St. Paul stopped at Miletus on his Third Missionary Journey, on his way back to Jerusalem. There are many well-preserved ruins to be seen at the site, including a Temple of Apollo, a Byzantine church, and an important inscription relating to Jews. History In ancient times, Miletus was located on the coast at the mouth of the River Meander. Its four harbors and strategic location on the west coast of Asia Minor made it a major player in the commerce of the ancient world. It was also repeatedly captured by envious invaders. But eventually, Miletus met its fate not at the hands of foreign powers but the gentle Meander River, which silted up over the centuries. Miletus was first occupied in 1400 BC by Minoans from Crete, then Mycenaeans from the Peloponnese, then by refugees from Greece during the Dorian invasion. It prospered and grew wealthy from colonies on the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and even in Egypt. Miletus became the most important of the 12 cities of Ionia, and was one of the first cities in the ancient world to mint coins. It was mentioned by Homer in The Iliad (II.868). Miletus was destroyed (along with Didyma) by the Persians in 499 BC, and Ephesus surpassed Miletus as the the most important city in the region. But Miletus was rebuilt, and its streets were laid out according to the plan of Miletus native Hippodamus, inventor of the "Hippodamian grid." His plan was first applied in Piraeus and Rhodes, and later in the northern part of his native city. Other famous citizens of ancient Miletus included Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, all philosophers of nature and the universe; the historian and geographer Hekataios, who first used the word "history" in its modern sense; and Isidorus, one of the designers of the Hagia Sophia. About 499 BC the Milesians led the Ionian revolt that sparked the Greco-Persian Wars; Miletus was stormed and sacked by the Persians in 494. After the Greeks defeated the Persians in 479, Miletus joined the Athenian-dominated Delian League, but in 412 BC Miletus sided with Sparta against Athens. Miletus was weakened by internal divisions when Alexander the Great seized it in a great battle (c.334 BC), ushering in a new era of trade and prosperity. After Alexander's death, Miletus was ruled by his general Lysimachus, who made generous donations to the city.

The Romans annexed the area in 133 BC and added several monumental structures to the city. The Emperor Trajan (2nd century AD) built the Sacred Way from Miletus to Didyma. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the Romans intervened to guarantee freedom of religion to Jews in Miletus; an inscription that seems to relate to this has been found in the theater. In Hellenistic and Roman times, the people of Miletus made an annual pilgrimage along the Sacred Way that led from Miletus to the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, a distance of 12 miles (20 km). Miletus had a Christian bishop by the time of Decius, when St. Thyrsus and his companions were martyred at Miletus. Eusebius, Bishop of Miletus, attended the Council of Nicea in 325. After the 3rd century, Miletus began to decline. By the 6th century, the silting of the Meander River had destroyed the city's harbors and attracted malaria. By the Ottoman period, the once-proud city was just a small village. The site was finally abandoned in the 17th century. In 1899, excavations began by the Berlin Museum and have since been conducted mainly by German teams. Some artifacts, including the massive Market Gate, can be seen in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.