MILETO
303
MILETUS
law was ill-suited to his temper of thought and to
bis literary talents, which had early evinced them-
selves in a tendency to turn many neat verses. His
first appearance in print was with an historical
tale, "Tne Truce of God", which appeared serially in
the "United States Catholic Magazine", followed
shortly by " The Governess ", and in 1849, by " Lor-
etto", which won a .$50 prize offered by the " Catholic
Mirror". The following year, when but twenty-six
years of age, with his tragedy of "Mahommed", he
won the $1000 prize offered lay Edwin Forrest. The
law was now definitely abandoned for the drama. In
1859 he scored his first success with the tragedy of
" De Soto ", produced at the Broadway Theatre, New
York City, and during the same season his comedy,
"Mary's Birthday", was performed. In 1859 "Senor
Valiente " earned the distinction of being presented in
New York, Boston, and Baltimore on the same night.
During the season IStjO-Ol the " Seven Sisters ", based
on the theme of Secession, was produced at Laura
Keene's Theatre, New York City. Other dramatic
ventures were not so successful, and his most preten-
tious effort, "Cromwell, a Tragedy", remains unfin-
ished. In 1851 he was despatched to Spain by President
Fillmore on official business. He was again in Europe
in 1864 and, on his return, published in the " Catholic
World " a series of charming sketches, " Glimpses of
Tuscany", and, in 1S66, "Christine: a Troubadour's
Song, and a volume of verse, "Christian Poems".
In 1859 he had been appointed professor of English
Literature at Mount St. Mary's, in which year he
married Adaline Tiers, of New York, and moved from
Baltimore to Thornbrook, a cottage near Emmitsburg,
where he lived until his death.
In afldition to works of creative fancy. Miles de- livered in 1847 a " Discourse in Commemoration of the Landing of the Pilgrims of Maryland", and, shortly before his death, contemplated a series of critical estimates on Shakespeare's characters. Only one, that upon " Hamlet ", was published (in the " Southern Review"), which won no mean measure of apprecia- tion from contemporary scholars in England.
Articles on Mahommed in Southern Quarterly Review, XVIII, .375: and Poems ol G. H. Miles, by Didier in Catholic World,
XXXIII, 145. Jakvis Keiley.
Mileto, Diocese op (Miletensis), in Calabria, in the province of Reggio, southern Italy. According to tradition, the city was founded, not far from the site of the ancient Medama, by fugitives from Miletus in Asia Minor, destroyed by Darius. It suffered much from earthquakes, especially from those of 1905 and 1906, and, although in a le.ss degree, from that of 28 December, 1908, which destroyed Reggio and Mes- sina. Mileto was made an episcopal see by Gregory VII in 1073. The earthquake of 1783 destroyed the cathedral, built by Count Roger, who also built the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity and St. Michael for Greek Basilian monks. Callistus II united this diocese with those of Tauriana and Vibona, the lat- ter destroyed by the Saracens. The first bishop was Arnolfo; after him were Godfrey (1094), under whom the see became immediately subject to Rome; Cardi- nal Corrado Caracciolo (1402); Carrlinal Astorgio Agnensi (1411); Antonio Sorbilli (1435), who founded the seminary in 1440; Felice Centini (1611), after- wards a cardinal; Gregorio Ponziani (1640), charged with a mission to England by Urban VIII. The pres- ent incumbent (since 1898), Mgr. Morabito, has been a charitable father to the sufferers from the recent earth- quakes. The diocese has 124 parishes, containing 220,000 souls: 2 convents of men, and 12 houses of nuns, 2 schools for boys, and 7 for girls.
Cappelletti, Le chiese d* Italia, XXI (Venice. 1870).
U. Benigni.
Miletopolis, a titular see of Asia Minor, suffragan of Cyzicus. Miletopolis was a town north of Mysia,
at the confluence of the Macestus and the Rhyndacus,
west of Lake MiletopoUtis Limne. There seems to
have been a tribe there, called Milatae, of which Mile-
topolis was the chief town and whose name was hel-
lenized m order to suggest a colony from Miletus.
Nothing is known of the history of Miletopolis e.\cept
that its inhabitants served to colonize the city of
Gargara. It has been identified with Bali-Kesser,
Manias, Mikhalitch; but the first two identifications
are certainly erroneous and the third doubtful. It
was more probably located at Haramamli, in the
vilayet of Brusa, where the remains of an ancient
town can be seen. Miletopohs figures in the " Notitiae
episcopatuum " among the suffragan sees of Cyzicus
until the twelfth or thirteenth century; toward the
end of the twelfth it was united with the See of
Lopadium, as an archbishopric and later as metrop-
olis. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 779) gives the
names of some twelve bishops of Miletopolis; the
finst is Philetus, a contemporary of St. Parthenius,
Bishop of Lampsacus, born at Miletopolis, in the be-
ginning of the fourth century.
H.VMILTOX, Researches, I, SI; II, 91; Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, s. v.; Ramsay, Asia Minor, 159. S. Petbides.
Miletus, a titular see of Asia Minor, suffragan of Aphrodisias, in Caria. Situated on the western coast of Caria near the Latmic Gulf at the mouth of the MiEander and the terminus of several of the great roads of Asia Minor, Miletus was for a long period one of the mosi prosperous cities of the ancient world. At first inhabited by the Leleges and called Lelegeis or Pityussa, it was rebuilt under the name of Miletus by the Cretans (Strabo, XIV, i, 3). It is mentioned by Homer (Iliad, II, S6S). About the tenth century b. c. the lonians occupied it, and made it a maritime and commercial power of the first rank. From it numer- ous colonies were founded along the Hellespont, the Propontis, and the Black Sea, among others Cyzicus and Sinope. Miletus also had its period of literary glory with the philosophers Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, the historians Hecatjcus and Cadmus, the rhetorician ^Eschines, and the writer of tales, Aristides. After the sixth century b. c, it passed successively* under the domination of the Persians, Alexander, the Seleucides, and the Romans, and finally lost its splen- dour to such an extent as to become for the Greeks and Romans the symbol of vanished prosperity. It is, nevertheless, often mentioned by Strabo (XII, viii, 16; XIV, i, 3, 6) and by Pliny (Hist, nat., IV, xi; V, xxxii etc.). St. Paul landed there from Samos, and there bade farewell to the ancients of the Church of Ephesus. On another occasion, doubtless after his first captivity, he left here his companion Trophimus, who was ill (II Tim., iv, 20). In the Acts of St. Thyr- sus and his companions, martyred at Miletus under Decius, mention is made of a Bishop Caesarim who gave them burial (.A.cta SS., Ill, Jan., 423). Euse- bius. Bishop of Miletus, assisted at the Council of Nic»a (325). For the list of the other known bishops see Le Quien (I, 917-20) and Gams (448). Mention may be here made of St. Nicephorus in the tenth cen- tury (Anal. Holland., XIV, 129-66). At fir.st a suffra- gan of Aphrodisias, Miletus afterwards became an autocephalous archdiocese and even a metropolis. Among those who brought fame to the city during Byzantine times must be mentioned the architect Isidore, who, with Anthemius of Tralles, built St. Sophia at Constantinople. The ancient city is now buriedunder the alluvium of the Ma-ander, which has also filled up the Latmic Gulf. Near its site, about four and a lialf miles from the sea, is the village which since the medieval times has been called Palatia or Palatscha. Recent excavations have brought to light other ruins, the remains of a temple of Apollo Didymseus. Greek Christian inscriptions have also been found there, among others one mentioning the
