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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

The Ingratitude of Athens

Miltiades descended from the heights, assembled the army with reinforced flanks and a weakened center, and advanced. Once within Persian archery range, Miltiades ordered his men to charge at a full run. They rapidly closed the distance, and smashed into the more lightly armed Persians. The Athenians’ reinforced flanks pushed back their opposition, then wheeled inwards to attack the Persian center. It panicked, broke, and fled in a rout to the beached ships. It was a stunning victory: the Athenians and their allies lost about 200, the Persians 6400.

Ingratitude - 'Helmet of Miltiades', given by him as an offering to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia — ‘Helmet of Miltiades’, given by him as an offering to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Touch of Modern

Miltiades returned to Athens in glory, but it did not last. He felt Athens’s ingratitude the following year, when he led a strong expedition against some Greek islands that had supported the Persians. He bungled it badly, and suffered a severe leg wound while at it. His defeat seemed so absurd, that the Athenians figured he must have lost on purpose.

The people whom he had so recently saved tried him for treason. He was convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to a heavy fine. He was sent to prison, where he died when his leg wound became infected. The Athenians’ ingratitude towards their savior shocked contemporaries.

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.