opponents of Milo. In 53 b.c. he was a candidate for the consulship, but his career was cut short by the murder of Clodius, January, 52 b.c. Milo was brought to trial for this offence in April, 52 b.c., and though defended by Cicero, was condemned. He withdrew into exile to Marseilles. Here he remained until Cæsar's invasion of Italy, upon which he expected to be recalled from banishment. But he was especially exempted by Cæsar from the benefit of the amnesty to political exiles, published by him in 49 b.c. In 48 b.c. Cælius the prætor, who was trying to organize a revolution against Cæsar during his absence from Italy, invited Milo to join him. The latter, deeply offended with Cæsar, readily consented; and, having appeared in Campania, got together a small force of rustics and gladiators, with whom he professed to be acting on behalf of the sons of Pompey. Meeting with little success in Campania, he proceeded into Lucania, where he was slain in an attempt to seize the town of Cosa—G.
MILORADOVITCH, Michael, Count, a Russian general, was born at St. Petersburg in 1770. He entered the guards as a cadet at the age of ten, and went through various campaigns under Suwarrow and others until he attained the rank of major-general in 1799. He became lieutenant-general in 1805, and commanded a division at the battle of Austerlitz. In 1808 he forced the Turks to raise the siege of Bucharest. In the campaign of 1812 he held an important command, and did good service to his country. At the battle of Leipsic he commanded the Russian and Prussian reserves. On his return home he was appointed governor of Kieff, and in 1819 governor of St. Petersburg. In this latter capacity he was engaged in quelling the mutiny of the troops which broke out on the accession of the Emperor Nicholas in 1825, when he was killed by a pistol shot as he was addressing the mutineers and endeavouring to recall them to their allegiance.—R. H.
MILTIADES, the Athenian general, was a man of noble family, claiming descent from Æacus, and belonging to the high aristocracy of Athens. He is first mentioned in history as being sent out by Hippias, about 518 b.c. to the Thracian Chersonese, to govern the Athenian colony which had been established there by his uncle, also named Miltiades, with whom he is sometimes confounded. Here he married Hegesipyle, the daughter of Olorus, a Thracian prince, and took into his pay a body of Thracian mercenaries. He is said, moreover, to have acted despotically in regard to his fellow-citizens, as might indeed be expected from his connection with the Pisistratidæ. As governor of the Chersonese he was summoned to accompany the Persian king, Darius, in his Scythian expedition, and was with the other Ionians placed in charge of the bridge over the Danube by which the Persian host was to return from Scythia. According to Herodotus, Miltiades strongly urged the Greeks to break down the bridge, and thus leave the Persians to be destroyed by the Scythians, from whom they were flying. But Histiæus, the Ionian tyrant of Miletus, persuaded them to maintain the bridge for the Persians, lest, if the Persian power were destroyed, the authority of the Ionian despots in their own cities might be overthrown, since it was mainly dependent on Persian influence. His counsels prevailed, and the patriotic advice of Miltiades was rejected. Such is the statement of Herodotus, and it is supported by strong evidence. A doubt, however, has been thrown on it on the following ground:—The Scythian expedition of Darius seems to have taken place about 515 b.c., and Herodotus speaks of Miltiades as remaining in his government at the Chersonese till after the suppression of the Ionic revolt, about 496 b.c. Now it seems very unlikely that the Persians, who during the most of this time were supreme in Thrace, should allow Miltiades, after his conduct at the Danube, to remain unmolested in the Chersonese. Perhaps the most probable explanation is that of Mr. Grote, viz., that Herodotus is correct in the account which he gives of the conduct of Miltiades in the Scythian expedition, but that he is mistaken in supposing him to have subsequently continued for a long time undisturbed by the Persians in the Chersonese. However this may be, the only other circumstance of importance in the life of Miltiades known to us during this period is his conquest of Lemnos and Imbrus, which he reduced under the dominion of Athens at some time during the Ionic revolt. The extinction of that revolt threatened him with ruin; so that when the Phœnician fleet in the summer following the capture of Miletus made its conquering appearance in the Hellespont, he was forced to escape rapidly to Athens from the Chersonese, where he was then living, with his immediate friends and property, and a small squadron of five ships. One of his ships in which was his eldest son, Metiochus, fell into the hands of the Persians. At Athens he was brought to trial for his alleged despotism in the Chersonese, but was honourably acquitted; his reputation as conqueror of Lemnos having probably disposed the people in his favour. His return to Athens probably took place in 494 b.c. His son Metiochus was carried to Susa, and treated with liberality and kindness by Darius. In 490 b.c., the year of the invasion under Datis, Miltiades was chosen one of the ten Athenian generals. Pausanias charges him with having persuaded the Athenians to put to death the Persian heralds who came to demand their submission, but this is not supported by Herodotus. It was mainly through the urgency of Miltiades that the Athenian generals were induced to attack Datis, and that the victory of Marathon was gained. On that day Miltiades was first in command, and his name is inseparably connected with the glory of that memorable event. The Athenians and their allies numbered only about ten thousand men, while the barbarians were at least ten times as numerous. This, too, was the first decisive victory gained by the Greeks over the Persians, and first taught them to look with calm superiority on the vast numbers of an oriental army. The Persian fleet sailed round after this defeat to attack Athens; but Miltiades with great promptitude brought back the army at once to its defence, and the Persians, disappointed, sailed away to the Cyclades. Here the prosperity and glory of Miltiades is abruptly ended. He persuaded the Athenians soon after that victory to intrust to him a fleet of seventy ships, without their even knowing for what purpose the fleet was designed He proceeded to attack the island of Pares, for the object of gratifying a private enmity. His efforts were unsuccessful; and after receiving a dangerous injury in the leg, he was compelled to raise the siege and return to Athens, where he was impeached by Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, for having deceived the people as to the expedition. He was condemned to pay a fine of fifty talents, and not being able to raise the sum, was thrown into prison, where he soon after died of his wound. The fine was afterwards paid by his son, Cimon. After his death, a monument was erected to his memory by the Athenians on the field of Marathon.—G.
MILTON, John, the chief of our English poets, by universal admission, out of the drama, and the author of the first of christian if not of all epics, was born in London on the 9th of December, 1608, o.s., at the house of his father of the same names, distinguished by the sign of the Spread Eagle (which was the armorial bearing of his family), in Bread Street, then as now one of the openings leading down to the river from Cheapside, in the very heart, therefore, of the city, almost under Bow-bells and within the shadow of St. Paul's. In Bread Street, too, was the famous Mermaid tavern of Ben Jonson and Shakspeare. Miltons appear to have been sparingly scattered in the sixteenth and preceding centuries over all the country immediately to the west of Middlesex. The father of the poet is supposed to have been the elder of the two sons of a John, or perhaps rather Richard, Milton, under-ranger of the forest of Shotover, in the parish of Holton or Halton in Oxfordshire, about five miles to the east of the city of Oxford. He was probably born in or about 1564, the year in which Shakspeare was born. It is matter of dispute to which of the two religions, the old or the new, Milton's father belonged; but there is no doubt that the under-ranger, like one man in every three in England at that date, still held to the faith of his ancestors. He was, indeed, so zealous a Romanist, that upon finding an English Bible, we are told, in his eldest son's chamber, and ascertaining from him that he had become a convert to protestantism, he disinherited the young man. Upon this the latter, who is stated to have previously been at Christ Church, Oxford, proceeded to London, where by the help of a friend, who was perhaps of that profession, he was enabled without serving an apprenticeship to set up as what was then called a scrivener, that is, a sort of law stationer, who, however, in addition to the business of his shop, acted both as a conveyancer and as a banker. The company of scriveners, or writers of the court letter, of the city of London, we believe, no longer exists; but it was in so flourishing a state in the time of the elder Milton that in the year 1616 it obtained a new incorporation by royal charter, being then, the charter declares, more numerous than ever, and engaged in affairs of great moment and trust. It may be remembered that the poet Gray's father
