Classical Age
(480 BC – 323 BC)
In the Persian Wars the Miliians fought together with the rest of the Greeks against the Persians.
They also participated in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC) and the Battle of Plataea (479 BC) by sending a group of soldiers to fight alongside the Spartans.
In the Peloponnesian War, however, they tried to maintain a neutral stance. In 426 BC the Athenians sent general Nicias with 60 triremes and 2000 hoplites, to force Milos to join the Alliance.
Despite the devastation, the island was not taken over this time.
However, 10 years later, at the urging of Alcibiades, a new Athenian campaign begins. After fruitless negotiations 3000 men besieged Milos for almost two years. They destroyed the city, killed most of the men and sold the women and children into slavery.
This campaign is described and chronicled in the best way by the work of Thucydides (book V’) in the famous Athenian-Milian dialogue.
In the Persian Wars the Miliians fought together with the rest of the Greeks against the Persians.
They also participated in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC) and the Battle of Plataea (479 BC) by sending a group of soldiers to fight alongside the Spartans.
In the Peloponnesian War, however, they tried to maintain a neutral stance. In 426 BC the Athenians sent general Nicias with 60 triremes and 2000 hoplites, to force Milos to join the Alliance.
Despite the devastation, the island was not taken over this time.
However, 10 years later, at the urging of Alcibiades, a new Athenian campaign begins. After fruitless negotiations 3000 men besieged Milos for almost two years. They destroyed the city, killed most of the men and sold the women and children into slavery.
This campaign is described and chronicled in the best way by the work of Thucydides (book V’) in the famous Athenian-Milian dialogue.