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Ingratitude Was All These People Got For Doing the Right Thing

Khalid Elhassan August 28, 2023 32 min

Ingratitude - Ignaz Semmelweis washing his hands in chlorinated lime water before operating — Ignaz Semmelweis washing his hands in chlorinated lime water before operating. NPR

Ancient Athens Had a Track Record of Ingratitude Towards Her Heroes

Ingratitude - Miltiades — Miltiades. Wikimedia

Ancient Athens was notorious for ingratitude towards her heroes. The fate of Miltiades (550 – 489 BC) was an early example of such ingratitude. He was a general best known for his victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, a decade before the events of the movie 300. Marathon was an upset victory against a bigger force, which saved Athens from Persian conquest. Its victor was born into a wealthy family that owned a private kingdom in the Chersonese (today’s Gallipoli Peninsula), which Miltiades inherited in 516 BC.

When Darius I of Persia invaded the Chersonese in 513 BC, Miltiades surrendered and became a Persian vassal. In 499 BC, Asia Minor’s Ionian Greeks revolted against Persian rule. As a Persian vassal, Miltiades marched against the rebels. However, he secretly supported them and funneled them aid from Athens. Athens sent an expeditionary force that joined the rebels and put the Persian governor’s seat in Sardis to the torch. The Persians eventually crushed the revolt in 495 BC, and discovered Miltiades’ betrayal. That set in motion a chain of events that transformed Miltiades into a hero.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.