Milon

(Μίλων).

1. Of Crotona, son of Diotimus, an athlete, famous for his extraordinary bodily strength. He was six times victor in wrestling at the Olympic games, and as often at the Pythian; but having entered the lists at Olympia a seventh time, he was worsted by the superior agility of his adversary. By these successes he obtained great distinction among his countrymen, so that he was even appointed to command the army, with which they took the field against the Sybarites under Telys, and bore an important part in the great battle at the Crathis, B. C. 511. Diodorus even goes so far as to attribute the memorable victory of the Crotoniats on that occasion almost wholly to the personal strength and prowess of Milon, who is said to have taken the field accoutred like Hercules, and wearing the chaplet of his Olympic victory. (Diod. 12.9.) This is the only instance in which he appears in any public capacity; but we learn from Herodotus that, so great was the reputation he enjoyed, that when the physician Democedes took refuge at Crotona, he hastened to obtain a daughter of Milon in marriage, trusting to the effect that his name would produce even upon the Persian king. (Hdt. 3.137.) Many stories are related by ancient writers of his extraordinary feats of strength, which are for the most part well known; such as his carrying a heifer of four years old on his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, and afterwards eating the whole of it in a single day. Some of the modes by which he displayed his gigantic powers before the assembled multitude appear to have been commemorated by the attitude of his statue at Olympia, at least if we may trust the account of it given by Philostratus; but Pausanias, while he relates the same anecdotes, does not give us to understand that the statue itself was so represented. (Paus. 6.14. §§ 6, 7; Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 4.28.)

The mode of his death is thus related: as he was passing through a forest when enfeebled by age, he saw the trunk of a tree which had been partially split open by woodcutters, and attempted to rend it further, but the wood closed upon his hands, and thus held him fast, in which state he was attacked and devoured by wolves. (Diod. 12.9; Paus. 6.14.5_8; Athen. 10.412; Aelian, Ael. VH 2.24; Gel. 15.16; V. Max. 9.12, ext. 9; Suid. s. v. Μίλων; Schol. ad Theocr. 4.6; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 55; Tzetz. Chil. 2.460; Cic. de Sen. 10.)

The age of Milon is clearly fixed by the passages above cited from Diodorus and Herodotus: Aulus Gellius, who states that he was victor in the 50th Olympiad, is certainly in error.

2. A general in the service of Pyrrhus king of Epeirus, who sent him forward with a body of troops to garrison the citadel of Tarentum, previous to his own arrival in Italy. (Zonar. 8.2.) He appears to have accompanied Pyrrhus throughout his campaigns in that country, and is mentioned as urging the king to continue the war after the battle of Heracleia in opposition to the pacific counsels of Cineas. When Pyrrhus went into Sicily, B. C. 278, lie left Milon to hold the command in Italy during his absence; ond when he finally quitted that country and withdrew into Epeirus, he still left him in charge of the citadel of Tarentum, together with his son Helenus. According to Justin, they were both recalled by Pyrrhus himself soon afterwards; but Zonaras states that he was hard pressed by the Tarentines themselves, assisted by a Carthaginian fleet, and was in consequence induced to surrender the citadel to the Romans, on condition of being allowed to withdraw his garrison in safety. (Zonar. 8.4, 5, 6; Justin 25.3.)

3. An Epeirot, who assassinated Deidameia, the daughter of Pyrrhus II., at the altar of Diana, to which she had fled for refuge [Deidameia]. For this sacrilege he was punished by a fit of frenzy, and put an end to his own life in a miserable manner. (Just. 28.3.)

4. Of Beroea, an officer in the army of Perseus, with which he opposed the Roman consul P. Licinius Crassus B. C. 171. (Liv. 42.58.) He is again mentioned as holding an important command under Perseus just before the battle of Pydna, B. C. 166. After that action he fled, with his two colleagues, Hippias and Pantauchus, to Beroea, where they were the first to set the example of defection, by surrendering that fortress into the hands of Aemilius Paullus. (Liv. 44.32, 45 Plut. Aemnil. 16.) [E.H.B]