Miltiades the Elder (died ca.

524 BCE) is a member of an immensely wealthy Athenian noble family, the Philaids.

He is said to have opposed the tyrant Peisistratus, which may explain why he left Athens around 550 BCE to found a colony in the Thracian Chersonese (now the Gallipoli Peninsula).

The colony is semi-independent of Athens and is ruled by Miltiades until his death around 524 BCE.

He dies childless, leaving his lands to Stesagoras, the son of his half-brother Cimon the Elder.

Before his death he fortified the peninsula, building a wall across it to defend against incursions by hostile native peoples.

His step-nephew, Miltiades the Younger, later became tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese.