Miletos was a Greek city in the area that was called Ionia in antiquity, and which is today part of Turkey. The ruins can be visited near the village of Balat, which lies approximately halfway between the holiday islands of Samos and Rhodes.

Like so many other cities in the area, Miletos was founded in prehistoric times, when the Greek tribe called the Ionians colonized the area around 1000 BC. The period from around 1100 BC to 800 BC is often called “The Greek Dark Ages” - and it was indeed a dark time following the total collapse of the Mycenaean civilization.

But after darkness comes light, and from 800 BC and henceforth the Greek cities of Anatolia were very successful in at least one thing; they had children and the children survived. It is believed that the population increased by a minimum of 4% each year.

Let’s go somewhere nice…

All those people needed a place to live, and for the Greeks the solution was clear; colonization. From the 8th to the 6th century BC the Greek peoples - the Ionians, Dorians, Achaeans & Aeolians - founded thousands of cities around the Mediterranean (Fig. 1).

More city-states means more trade, and with more trade comes prosperity. And with prosperity comes the energy and time for other pursuits than toiling for your daily bread.

The birth Thales - and philosophy

And so, in Miletos around 624 BC, Thales was born - a man who can without exaggeration be called one of the most important people who ever lived.

You see, Thales had a theory:

Everything - EVERYTHING - is made of water!

The earth obviously floats on water, and earthquakes are when the earth is moved by waves. Blood is water, and without blood you die, trees are water, because they grow when they are watered. If you burn off gas, it turns into water, and fog condenses into water. Metal is also a type of water, because when it is heated it melts, and water can clearly condense into earth - you could see this in real time when you looked at the river Meander and how the water over the years condensed and created new earth.

To our modern minds, it seems absurd, of course.

But you need to understand that Thales is the first (at least in the Western tradition) to even consider explaining nature without referring to gods and mythology. Who tried to explain nature with nature, so to speak. And he attempted to do this without having a single scientific or philosophical concept at his disposal.

What an intellectual effort

In that sense, he is the first philosopher - and the first scientist. And by the way, he is also considered to be the first Greek mathematician.

The Coin

The coin here is a small 9mm silver coin from Miletos, a diobol, with a roaring lion on the front and a sort of star pattern on the back. It weighs only 1.16 grams.

Obverse: Forepart of lion left, head to right

Reverse: Stellate pattern within incuse square

It was struck somewhere between the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC. - that is, while Thales was alive.

SNG Kayhan 462-75