Passing on from Ephesus we come to the scarcely less celebrated city of MILETUS, the parent, according to Pliny, of more than 80 colonies.[25] Situated at the mouth and, on the left bank, of the Mæander, Miletus more strictly belongs to Caria; but it was, also, one of the most conspicuous members of the Ionian confederacy. It is believed that it was originally founded by a colony from Crete, under the leadership of Sarpedon, the brother of Minos; an idea, in some degree, confirmed by a notice in Homer (Il. ii. 867). Herodotus (ix. 97) only mentions Sarpedon’s establishing himself in Lycia. The advantageous position of the town, with a harbour capable of holding a large fleet, naturally gave it, from the earliest times, the lead in maritime affairs. Its most important colonies were Abydus, Lampsacus, and Parium on the Hellespont; Proconnesus and Cyzicus on the Propontis; Sinope and Amisus on the Euxine; with several more on the coast of Thrace and Tauris, and on the Borysthenes. The period, however, of Miletus’s chief power was comprised between its Ionian colonization and its conquest by the Persians in 494 B.C. After that period, it did not maintain the same lead among the seaports of the Asiatic Greeks; indeed, during the time of its greatest fame, peace was practically unknown among its people, who were constantly distracted by factions aristocratic or democratic. Footnote 25: Rambach—De Mileto ejusque coloniis (Hal. Sax. 1790)—has attempted, not without success, to identify the larger number of them.