2. MILTIADES (died c. 488 B.c.), the victor of Marathon (q.v.), was another son of Cimon. On the death of Stesagoras, he was sent to the Chersonese ( ? about 518-516) by Hippias—no doubt to support Hegesistratus at Sigeum (see PEISISTRATUS). He entrapped and imprisoned the chief men of the Chersonese, which was then in a turbulent condition, and married Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian prince Olorus (Herod. vi. 39). He led a contingent in the Scythian expedition of Darius Hystaspes, but Herodotus' story of the subsequent event is improbable (see SCYTHIA) and is probably derived from Alcmaeonid tradition, hostile to Miltiades. According to Herodotus, he advised the de struction of the Danube bridge, which would have cut off Darius' retreat, and was subsequently driven out by Scythian invaders, being restored by the Doloncians; he then fled to Athens on the arrival of the Persian expedition under Datis and Artophernes 13.0, and was at once impeached for tyranny.
On the approach of the Persians Miltiades was made one of the ten Athenian generals, and it was on his advice that the pole march Callimachus decided to give battle at Marathon (q.v.). Subsequently he obtained a fleet of 7o ships from the Athenians, with a commission, according to Cornelius Nepos, to regain control over the Aegean. Herodotus says that, having besieged Paros
vainly for nearly a month, he made a secret visit to Timo, a priest ess of Demeter in Paros, with a view to the betrayal of the island, and being compelled to flee wounded himself severely in attempt ing to leap a fence (but see Ephorus in Fragm. hist. gr. 107). In any case, the siege was raised for some reason, and the Alcmae onidae had him impeached on some charge on his return. All that is known is that he died of his wound (489-488), without paying the fine, which was paid subsequently by his son Cimon (q.v.). He appears to have been a man of strong determination and great personal courage, of a type characteristic of the pre-Cleisthenic constitution. His absence in the Chersonese during the first years of the new democracy (508-493?) and his patrician lineage account naturally for the difference which existed between him and the popular leaders—Themistocles and Aristides.
See Herodotus, vi., and Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades, and histories of Greece. On the Parian expedition and the trial, R. W. Macan, Herodotus vol. 2, appendix xi. ; on the foreign policy of Miltiades see THEMISTOCLES.