MILIO, a celebrated athlete of Crotona in Italy. His father's name was Diotimus. He early accustomed himself to carry the greatest burdens, and by degrees became a prodigy of strength. It is said that he carried on his shoulders a young bullock, four years old, for above forty yards; and afterwards killed it with one blow of his fist, and ate it up in one day. He was seven times crowned at the Pythian games, and six at the Olympian. He presented himself a seventh time; but no one had the courage or boldness to enter the lists again. Milo against him. He was one of the disciples of Pythagoras; and to his uncommon strength, it is said, the learned preceptor and his pupils owed their life: The pillar which supported the roof of the school suddenly gave way; but Milo supported the whole weight of the building, and gave the philosopher and his auditors time to escape. In his old age, Milo attempted to pull up a tree by the roots, and break it. He partly effected it; but his strength being gradually exhausted, the tree when half clefled re-united, and his hands remained pinched in the body of the tree. He was then alone; and, being unable to disentangle himself, he was devoured by the wild beasts of the place, about 500 years before the Christian era.

Milo, T. Aurinius, a native of Lanuvium, who attempted to obtain the consulship at Rome by intrigue and seditions tumults. Clodius the tribune opposed his views; yet Milo would have succeeded but for the following event: As he was going into the country, attended by his wife and a numerous retinue of gladiators and servants, he met on the Appian road his enemy Clodius, who was returning to Rome with three of his friends and some domestics completely armed.—A quarrel arose between the servants. Milo supported his attendants, and the dispute became general.—Clodius received many severe wounds, and was obliged to retire to a neighbouring cottage. Milo pursued his enemy in his retreat, and ordered his servants to despatch him. The body of the murdered tribune was carried to Rome, and exposed to public view. The enemies of Milo inveighed bitterly against the violence and barbarity with which the sacred person of a tribune had been treated. Cicero undertook the defence of Milo; but the continual clamours of the friends of Clodius, and the sight of an armed soldiery, which surrounded the seat of judgment, so terrified the orator, that he forgot the greatest part of his arguments, and the defence he made was weak and injudicious.—Milo was condemned, and banished to Massilia. Cicero soon after sent his exiled friend a copy of the oration which he had prepared for his defence, in the form in which we have it now; and Milo, after he had read it, exclaimed, O Cicero, hadst thou spoken before my accusers in these terms, Milo would not be now eating figs at Marseilles. The friendship and cordiality of Cicero and Milo were the fruits of long intimacy and familiar intercourse. It was to the successful labours of Milo that the orator was recalled from banishment, and restored to his friends.

Milo, (anciently Melos), an island in the Archipelago, about 50 miles in circumference, with a harbour, which is one of the largest in the Mediterranean. The principal town is of the same name as the island, and was prettily built, but abominably nasty: the houses are two stories high, with flat roofs; and are built with a fort of pumice stone, which is hard, blackish, and yet very light.

This island was formerly rich and populous. From the earliest times of antiquity it enjoyed pure liberty. The Athenians, not being able to persuade the Melians to declare in their favour in the Peloponnesian war, made a descent upon the island, and attacked them vigorously. In two different expeditions they failed of their purpose: but returning with more numerous forces, they laid siege to Melos; and obliging the besieged to surrender at discretion, put to the sword all the men who were able to bear arms. They spared only the women and children, and these they carried into captivity. This act of cruelty puts humanity to the blush, and disgraces the Athenian name. But war was then carried on with a degree of wild rage, unexampled in the present times. Republics know not how to pardon, and always carry their vengeance to an extravagant height. When Lygander, the Macedonian general, came to give law to the Athenians, he expelled the colony which they had sent to Melos, and re-established the unfortunate remains of its original inhabitants.

This island lost its liberty when Rome, aspiring to the empire of the world, conquered all the isles of the Archipelago. In the partition of the empire, it fell to the share of the eastern emperors, was governed by particular dukes, and was at last conquered by Soliman II. Since that period, it has groaned under the yoke of Turkish despotism, and has lost its opulence and splendour. At the commencement of the present century, it boasted of 17 churches and 11 chapels, and contained more than 20,000 inhabitants. It was very fertile in corn, wine, and fruits; and the whole space from the town to the harbour, which is nearly two miles, was laid out in beautiful gardens. M. Tournefort, who visited it in the year 1700, gives a fine description of it. "The earth, being constantly warmed by subterraneous fires, produced almost without interruption plenteous crops of corn, barley, cotton, exquisite wines, and delicious melons. St Elias, the finest monastery in the island, and situated on the most elevated spot, is inclosed with orange, citron, cedar, and fig trees. Its gardens are watered by a copious spring. Olive trees, of which there are but few in the other parts of the island, grow in great numbers around this monastery. The adjacent vineyards afford excellent wine. In a word, all the productions of the island are the very best of their kinds; its partridges, quails, kids, and lambs, are highly valued, and yet may be bought at a very cheap price."

Were M. Tournefort to return to Milo, M. Savary assures us, he would no longer see the fine island which he has described. "He might still see alum, in the form of feathers, and fringed with silver thread, hanging from the arches of the caverns; pieces of pure sulphur filling the cliffs of the rocks; a variety of mineral springs; hot baths (though these are now only a set of small dirty caves); the same subterraneous fires which in his days warmed the bosom of the earth, and were the cause of its extraordinary fertility; but instead of 5000 Greeks, all paying the capitation tax (A), he would now find no more than about 700 inhabitants.

(A) Grown-up men are the only persons who pay the capitation tax. Therefore, by adding to the number of 5000 who paid the tax, the women, boys, and girls, we find that Melos, in the days of Tournefort, contained at least 20,000 souls. inhabitants on an island 18 leagues in circumference. He would figh to behold the finest lands lying uncultivated, and the most fertile valleys converted into marshes; of the gardens scarcely a vestige is left; three-fourths of the town in ruins, and the inhabitants daily decreasing. In short, during the last 50 years, Melos has assumed a quite different appearance. The plague, which the Turks propagate everywhere, has cut off one part of its inhabitants; the injudicious administration of the Porte, and the oppressive extortions of the captain pacha, have destroyed the rest. At present, for want of hands, they cannot cut out a free channel for their waters, which stagnate in the valleys, corrupt, and infect the air with their putrid exhalations. The salt marshes, of which there are numbers in the island, being equally neglected, produce the same effects. Add to these inconveniences, those fulvous exhalations which arise all over the island, and by which the inhabitants of Melos are afflicted with dangerous fevers during three-fourths of the year. Perhaps they may be obliged to forfeit their country. Every countenance is yellow, pale, and livid; and none bears any marks of good health. The prudent traveller will be careful to spend but a very short time in this unwholesome country, unless he chooses to expose himself to the danger of catching a fever. To sleep over night, or to spend but one day in the island, is often enough to occasion his being attacked with that distemper.

"Yet (continues our author) a judicious and enlightened government might expel those evils which ravage Melos. Its first care would be to establish a lazaret, and to prohibit vessels whose crews or cargoes are infected with the plague from landing. Canals might next be cut, to drain the marshes, whose exhalations are so pernicious. The island would then be repeopled. The sulphurous vapours are not the most noxious. These prevailed equally in ancient times, yet the island was then very populous. M. Tournefort, who travelled through it at a time less distant from the period when it was conquered by the Turks, and when they had not yet had time to lay it waste, reckons the number of its inhabitants (as we have said) at about 20,000. The depopulation of Melos is therefore to be ascribed to the despotism of the Porte, and its defective police."

The women of Milo, once so celebrated for their beauty, are now fallow, unhealthy, and disgustingly ugly; and render themselves still more hideous by their drabs, which is a kind of loose jacket, with a white coat and petticoat, that scarcely covers two-thirds of their thighs, barely meeting the stocking above the knee. Their hind hair hangs down the back in a number of plaits; that on the fore part of the head is combed down each side of the face, and terminated by a small stiff curl, which is even with the lower part of the cheek. All the inhabitants are Greeks, for the Turks are not fond of trifling themselves in the small islands; but every summer the captain bawhaw goes round with a squadron to keep them in subjection, and to collect the revenue. When the Russians made themselves masters of the Archipelago, many of the islands declared in their favour; but being abandoned by the peace, they were so severely mulcted by the grand signior, that they have professed a determination to remain perfectly quiet in future. As the Turks, however, do not think them worth a garrison, and will not trust them with arms and ammunition, all those which the Russians may choose to invade will be obliged to submit. The two points which form the entrance of the harbour, crossing each other, render it imperceptible until you are close to it. Thus, while you are perfectly secure within it, you find great difficulty in getting out, particularly in a northerly wind; and as no trade is carried on except a little in corn and salt, Milo would scarcely ever be visited, were it not that, being the first island which one makes in the Archipelago, the pilots have chosen it for their residence. They live in a little town on the top of a high rock, which, from its situation and appearance, is called the Castle.—Partridges still abound in this island; and are so cheap, that you may buy one for a charge of powder only. The peasants get them by standing behind a portable screen, with a small aperture in the centre, in which they place the muzzle of their piece, and then draw the partridges by a call. When a sufficient number are collected, they fire among them, and generally kill from four to seven at a shot; but even this method of getting them is so expensive, from the scarcity of ammunition, that the people can never afford to shoot them, except when there are gentlemen in the island, from whom they can beg a little powder and shot.

Milo is 60 miles north of Candia; and the town is situated in E. Long. 25° 15', N. Lat. 36° 27'.