an Athenian captain, son of Cypselus. He obtained a victory in a chariot race at the Olympic games. He led a colony of Athenians to the Cheroneus. The causes of this appointment are striking and singular. The Thracian Dolonci, harassed by a long war with the Abysynthians, were directed by the oracle of Delphi to take for their king the first man they met in their return home, who invited them to come under his roof and partake his entertainments. This was Miltiades, whom the appearance of the Dolonci, with their strange arms and garments, had struck. 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 approved a second time the choice of the Dolonci, he departed for the Cheroneus, and was invested by the inhabitants with sovereign power. The first measures he took was to stop the further incursions of the Abysynthians, 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 Lampacus. His expedition was unsuccessful; he was taken in an ambush, and made prisoner. His friend Croesus king of Lydia was informed of his captivity, and procured his release. He lived 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, and they regularly celebrated festivals and exhibited shows in commemoration of a man to whom they owed their greatness and preservation.

son of Cimon, and brother of Stefagoras mentioned in the preceding article, was Miltiades, some time after the death of the latter, who died without issue, sent by the Athenians with one ship to take possession of the Cheroneus. At 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 console with him; but their confidence in his sincerity proved fatal to them. Miltiades seized their persons, and made himself absolute in Cheroneus. To strengthen himself, he married Hegesipyle, the daughter of Olorus the king of the Thracians. His triumph was short. 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. He fled before them; but as their hostilities were of short duration, he was soon restored to his kingdom. Three years after, he left Cheroneus; 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 their power to him, and left the event of the battle to depend upon his superior abilities. He obtained an important victory over the more numerous forces of his adversaries. Some time after, Miltiades was intrusted with a fleet of 70 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 falsity 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 retarded on the recollection of his great services to the Athenians, and he was put into prison till he had paid a fine of 50 talents to the state. His inability to discharge to great a sum detained him in confinement; and his wounds becoming 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 50 talents, 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 made himself absolute in Cheroneus; and in condemning the barbarity of the Athenians towards a general, who was the source of their military prosperity, we must remember the jealousy which ever reigns among 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 narration of Herodotus, whose veracity is confirmed, and who was indisputably better informed and more capable of giving an account of the the life and exploits of men who flourished in his age and of which he could see the living monuments. Herodotus was born about six years after the famous battle of Marathon; and C. Nepos, as a writer of the Augustan age, flourished about 450 years after the age of the father of history.