Individuals and places
perish throughout the long span of history. Yet if one has made
significant contributions to the well-being of humanity, future
generations will remember these passengers of time. There was once a
city-state in ancient Greece worthy of such attention, as it is now
widely acknowledged as the origin of Western thought – Miletus!
Miletus
was an ancient Greek city of Ionia, which was the district at the
central part of the western coast of Asia Minor. The city-state
(polis in Greek) resided on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The
region of the long-gone Miletus of becomes part of present-day
Turkey.
 |
Taken
from McKirahan – Philosophy before Socrates (2nd Ed.).
Annotations
in red by E. L.
|
Because
of the location near the coastal area, Miletus was active in
commercial activities and soon prospered to become a wealthy polis at
the 6th century BC. Trading activities were as prominent as cultural
activities, knowledge and ideas were exchanged both inside and
outside of Miletus. Indeed, the intellectuals from the coastal
city-state has learnt a lot from the other civilizations, like
Babylonians, Egyptians and Mesopotamians, either through
communication of trade or traveling.
If
there was a key reason for Miletus to become the origin of Western
thought, it was because of the intellectual atmosphere that
encouraged discussion and expression of new ideas. The freedom of
thought encouraged the thinkers to propose their own viewpoints about
nature and practical issues, debated with each other and tolerated
the diversity of perspectives.
Thus
the philosophers from Miletus - Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes -
were known as 'Milesian philosophers', and with the other thinkers in
the Ionia area, they were collectively labeled as 'Ionian
philosophers'. The trinity of Milesian philosophers were common in
their doctrines of material monism – each of these thinkers
proposed a material substance as the origin of all things. That
reflected the first philosophers of ancient Greece have been
influenced by each other due to location proximity.
The
Fate of Miletus
Miletus
was an important city-state for ancient Greece, not only due to its
rich intellectual heritage, but also due to some political and
military conflicts that led to events shaping the history of the
Classical Greece era. At far as the 6th century BC, the
Persian Empire had a lot of control on a number of Greek
city-states. While the Persians assigned a number of tyrants to rule
the Greek city-states, the citizens from these polis soon felt a lot
of discontent regarding the Persian rule. With the action of two
defecting tyrants from Miletus, the people there joined forces with a
number of other city-states at the Ionia area, leading to the Ionian
Revolt. While the Ionian people met a few initial victories, soon the
Persians gained the upper hand and captured Miletus as a result. The
Greeks and the Persians would clash a few more times in the following
50 years, and the Ionian Revolt served as the prelude to the
Greco-Persian Wars. Eventually the Greeks emerged as the victor after
the half-century struggle, entering the golden age of Classical
Greece.
Miletus
proved to be an strategic city for diplomatic and commercial purposes
for the next 1800 years or so. The Turks have taken the city twice,
first in the 14th
century and second through the fall of Constantinople in 1453,
signifying the end of the Byzantine Empire. The Turks and later, the
Ottoman Empire, recognized the geographical advantage of Miletus and
used that as a harbour to facilitate commercial trade with the nearby
European countries. Miletus was abandoned in the 15th
century due to severe formation of silt and destruction through
erosion. Though the ancient city of Miletus has long gone for 500
years, the fact that it has witnessed the dawn of ἀλήθεια
(Aletheia, Greek for
'truth') will continue to leave a lasting impression on the lovers of
wisdom.
by Ed Law
Conatus Classics
