1. Education

Discuss in my forum

Didyma - Sacred Precinct in Miletus

By , About.com Guide

Miletus from a map of Greek and Phoenician Settlements in the Mediterranean Basin.

Miletus from a map of Greek and Phoenician Settlements in the Mediterranean Basin.

Perry-Castañeda Library Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
Definition:

Didyma, a sacred precinct of Miletus rather than a city, had been a cult center for the Carians before it housed an oracle of Apollo with hereditary priests known as the Branchidae whom the famous Croesus once consulted.

In 479, Xerxes retaliated against the Greeks by destroying the temple in Didyma. Surrendering the treasury, the Branchidae fled to Sogdiana to escape the wrath of their fellow Ionians where, in 327, they suffered at the hand of Alexander the Great.

©2013 About.com. All rights reserved.