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The vita Miltiadis of Cornelius Nepos

1915; De Gruyter; Volume: 14; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1524/klio.1915.14.14.69

2192-7669

Stanley Casson,

Historical and Architectural Studies

Kypselus by referring to the foraier the establishment of the colony in the Chersonese which was the work of the latter.But iievertheless it throws much light on the history of that tragic and desolate family, the Phüaidae, and on the career of its most ill-fated raember-the hero of Marathon.The connection of the Philaidae with Athenian international relations, though slight, seems to have been important, and an account of the family seems to have an important bearing on the investigation of the sources used by Nepos.At the outset the Philaidae incurred the unpopularity of the ruling families of Athens: for Kimon the son of Stesagoras and the father of Miltiades was first exiled under Peisistratus and was subsequently assassinated by the Peisistratidae Düring bis exile, however, he kept iip the traditions of bis house by entering for and winning prizes in the chariot races at Olympia, and there is a Story that by assigning the glory of one of bis victories to Peisistratus he was permitted to return to Athens vjinojtovöoii.Miltiades the ekler was the half-brother (by the same mother) of this Kimon, and he too incurred the hostility of Peisistratus, due, no doubt, to his excessive devotion to the older ideals of Attic aristocracy: for, as Herodotus says, he was oixirjg Tsd-QLjcjiotQ6(pov-a thing that was falling into disfavour under the democratic rule of Peisistratus, who, in addition, could boast himself of no very ancient ancestry.Little wonder then that Miltiades 'chafed under the Peisistratid domination and wished to emigrate', and it was not long before Peisistratus facilitated his 'wish' by getting for him the 'permission' of the Oracle to depart-a convenient form under which to exile disturbing Clements in the State.He arrived at the Chersonese and we hear how after heing seized by the men of Lampsakus he was released by order of Croesus, whose friendship he enjoyed, a friendship the more easily understood, when we remember the strong anti-Persian tendencies of his family.He died, however, shortly after, childless, and was succeeded by his nephewStesagoras who in turn was assassinated after a brief space of time.But the misfortunes of the family did not end with the luckless Stesagoras, for there is no more tragic career in Greek history than that of Miltiades the younger, and it is in the narrative of his life that the superiority of Nepos over Herodotus is demonstrated.Miltiades the son of Kimon, Herodotus says, was sent by the Peisistratidae in 513 to the Chersonese.Apparently it was a case of exile, as with his father and uncle before him, though Herodotus tries to obscure this issue by explaining how ol {nsiaiOTQcctidai) [uv xal ev 'Ad-^prjöL kjtoievv ev mq ov <jvvsiS6rsg drjd-ev xov jiaxQoq avrov rov ß-dvarov.On his voyage to the Chersonese, says Cornelius Nepos, he stopped at 1) Herodotus VI. 103.