The Milesians of Hellenic (Greek) civilization were the inhabitants of Miletus

Miletus

Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...

, a city in the Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

 province of modern-day Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 and at the mouth of the Meander River. Settlers from Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 moved to Miletus sometime in 16th century BC. By the 6th century BC, Miletus had become a maritime empire, and the Milesians spread out across Turkey and even as far as the Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

, founding new colonies.

Famous Milesians:

• Miletus (mythological founder)
• Thales
  Thales
  Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition...
  
   - "first" Greek natural philosopher; "the father of science".
• Anaximander
  Anaximander
  Anaximander was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales...
  
   - philosopher; pupil of Thales
• Anaximenes
  Anaximenes of Miletus
  Anaximenes of Miletus was an Archaic Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher active in the latter half of the 6th century BC. One of the three Milesian philosophers, he is identified as a younger friend or student of Anaximander. Anaximenes, like others in his school of thought, practiced material monism...
  
   - philosopher; friend or pupil of Anaximander
• Eubulides
  Eubulides of Miletus
  Eubulides of Miletus was a philosopher of the Megarian school, and a pupil of Euclid of Megara. He is famous for his paradoxes.-Life:Eubulides was a pupil of Euclid of Megara, the founder of the Megarian school. He was a contemporary of Aristotle, against whom he wrote with great bitterness...
  
   - philosopher; formulated the "liar paradox
  Liar paradox
  In philosophy and logic, the liar paradox or liar's paradox , is the statement "this sentence is false"...
  
  "
• Hecataeus of Miletus - historian
• Hesychius Illustrius
  Hesychius of Miletus
  Hesychius of Miletus, Greek chronicler and biographer, surnamed Illustrius, son of an advocate, flourished at Constantinople in the 6th century AD during the reign of Justinian.According to Photius he was the author of three important works:...
  
   - chronicler and biographer
• Aristides - writer
• Isidorus - architect
• Timotheus
  Timotheus of Miletus
  Timotheus of Miletus was a Greek musician and dithyrambic poet, an exponent of the "new music." He added one or more strings to the lyre, whereby he incurred the displeasure of the Spartans and Athenians...
  
   - poet
• Cadmus
  Cadmus of Miletus
  Cadmus of Miletus was, according to some ancient authorities, the oldest of the logographi. Modern scholars who accept this view, assign him to about 550 BC; others regard him as purely mythical...
  
   - historian, perhaps mythical
• Aeinautae
  Aeinautae
  Aeinautae or Aeinautai were magistrates at Miletus around 600 BC, consisting of the chief men in the state, who obtained the supreme power on the deposition of the tyrants, Thoas and Damasenor...
  
   - the "perpetual sailors"

Milesian tyrants under Persia:

• Histiaeus
  Histiaeus
  Histiaeus , the son of Lysagoras, was the tyrant of Miletus in the late 6th century BC.Histiaeus owed his status as tyrant of Miletus to Darius I, king of Persia, who had subjugated Miletus and the other Ionian states in Asia Minor....
  
  
• Aristagoras
  Aristagoras
  Aristagoras was the leader of Miletus in the late 6th century BC and early 5th century BC.- Background :Aristagoras served as deputy governor of Miletus, a polis on the western coast of Anatolia around 500 BC. He was the son of Molpagoras, and son-in-law of Histiaeus, whom the Persians had set up...