a Greek city of Ionia, in Asia Minor, was situated on the northern side of the peninsula of Mt. Grion, at the entrance of the Gulf of Latmus, nearly opposite the mouth of the Maeander, from which it was 80 stadia, or 10 miles distant. At the time of the Ionian emigration to Asia Minor, Miletus was a town peopled by Carians, in whose territory it stood. It is said to have belonged originally to the Leleges, and to have been afterwards occupied by a band of Cretans, under Sarpedon the brother of Minos. When the Ionians arrived in Asia, Neleus and a company of his followers seized Miletus, put to death all the men, and took the women for their wives. Miletus thus became one of the twelve cities of the Ionian league, and was the farthest S. of their number. The town possessed four separate harbours, large and commodious, one of which was capable of containing a large fleet; and Miletus was remarkable for naval and commercial activity, and for the number of its colonies in the most distant parts of the then known world. These are said to have been in number between seventy and eighty; and the most important of them were—Abydus, Lampascus, Parium, Proconnesus, Cyzicus, Heraclea, Sinope, Amisus, Phasis, Panticapaeum, on the Cimmerian Bosphorus; Obbia, at the mouth of the Borysthenes; Istria, at the mouth of the Danube; and Naucratis, in Egypt. And though their attention was chiefly turned towards the E. and N., their ships also navigated the Mediterranean, and even passed the Pillars of Hercules. Of the internal history of Miletus in early times but little is known. According to Herodotus, it seems to have been much distracted by factions, which rose to such a height, that after a contest which had lasted for two generations, the intervention of the Persians was necessary to allay the discord. The Milesians were frequently engaged in wars with other states, both in Greece and in Asia. They assisted Eretria against Chalcis, in the contest for the sovereignty of Eubœa; and they engaged in a war between Chios and Erythrae, on the side of the former. But their most important war was that against the Lydians, from 623 to 612 B.C., when Miletus was governed by Thrasybulus, a friend of Periander of Corinth, and during the reigns of Sadyattes and Alyattes, two successive kings of Lydia. A peace was at last concluded, which left Miletus independent; although in the reign of Croesus, the successor of Alyattes, the Milesians seem to have consented to pay tribute to Lydia; a concession which they transferred to Cyrus when he conquered that country. Miletus was afterwards governed in succession by Histirens and Aristagoras, who contributed greatly to excite the Ionians to cast off the Persian yoke. In this revolt, which began in 500 B.C., Miletus took part; but it was taken by the Persians in 494 B.C., and its inhabitants transported to the banks of the Tigris. The town was given to the Carians; and although it recovered its liberty after the battle of Mycale in 479 B.C., it never regained its former greatness and prosperity. The fall of Miletus gave so much concern to the Greeks, that when the poet Phrynicus made it the subject of a tragedy, the Athenians were affected to tears, forbade the piece to be represented, and imposed a heavy fine on the author. Miletus is celebrated as the birth-place of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, the principal philosophers of the Ionic school; and of Cadmus and Hecateus, two of the earliest chroniclers of Greece.