Ancient Cities in Turkey
Miletus, Byzantine Palation, Turkish Balat, ancient Greek city of westernAnatolia, some 20 miles (30 km) south of the present city of Söke, Turkey. It lies near the mouth of the Büyükmenderes (Menderes) River.
Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. It was the natural outlet for products from the interior of Anatolia and had a considerable wool trade with Sybaris, in southern Italy. Miletus was important in the founding of the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt and founded more than 60 colonies on the shores of the Black Sea, including Abydos, Cyzicus, Sinope (now Sinop), Olbia, and Panticapaeum. In addition to its commerce and colonization, the city was distinguished for its literary and scientific-philosophical figures, among them Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Hecataeus. Together with the people of the other two Ioniancities of Caria, Myus and Priene, the Milesians spoke a distinctive Ioniandialect. Little is known about Milesian government before 500 BC. At the beginning and end of the 6th century BC, however, the city was ruled by the tyrants Thrasybulus and Histiaeus, respectively.
Miletus; Situated near to Soke, a town in Aydin province, Miletus earned its independence in the year 38 BC with the help of Roman emperors.
