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The Chersonese

The Thracian peninsula on the European shore of the Hellespont, ruled by Miltiades until 493 BCE

Im Spiel: Level 6: Die Schiffbrücke, Mykale

The Chersonese, the "land-island", is the long peninsula of Thrace that forms the European shore of the Hellespont, today Gallipoli. Athenian lords ruled it in the 6th century, Miltiades last of them, under the Persian King. Xerxes' bridges reached its shore in 480, and its strongest town, Sestos, fell to the Athenians in 479.

Im Spiel: The Chersonese is the ground of the Sestos field and its briefing, and its ridge shapes the map. The Marathon chatter recalls Miltiades fleeing it, and a house of Sestos stands there.

An Athenian lordship

Antiker Bericht

Herodotus says the Dolonci, a Thracian people of the peninsula, invited the elder Miltiades from Athens to rule them. He built a wall across the neck of the peninsula, from Cardia to Pactye, to keep out raiders from the north. His nephew, the younger Miltiades, later took over the rule.

Herodotus 6.34-39

Miltiades at the Ister

Umstritten

Miltiades served Darius with the other Greek lords in the Scythian campaign of 513. Herodotus says he urged them to break the Ister bridge and leave the King to the Scythians. Many historians doubt this, since he went on ruling under Persia for years; the tale may have grown when he was tried at Athens.

Herodotus 4.137, 6.104

Flight in 493

Antiker Bericht

When the Phoenician fleet arrived after the fall of Miletus, Miltiades loaded five ships with his goods and fled to Athens. The Phoenicians caught one, with his son Metiochus on board, and took him to Darius, who gave him a house, land and a Persian wife.

Herodotus 6.41

Where the bridges touched

Antiker Bericht

Xerxes' bridges ran from Abydos to the Chersonese shore between Sestos and Madytus, Herodotus says. The army crossed over seven days and nights, then marched up the peninsula and out across its neck into Thrace.

Herodotus 7.33, 7.56, 7.58

Sestos and Protesilaus

Antiker Bericht

In 479 the Athenians besieged Sestos, held by the governor Artayctes with the Persians of the peninsula. Herodotus says Artayctes had plundered the shrine of the hero Protesilaus at Elaeus, at the peninsula's tip. When the town fell, the Athenians put him to death near where the bridges had stood.

Herodotus 9.114-120