A classical dictionary / containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table

by John Lemprière

M

Macæ, a people of Arabia Felix. Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8. They are placed in Africa near the larger Syrtis by Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 175.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 275; bk. 5, li. 194.

Macar, a son of Criasius or Crinacus, the first Greek who led a colony to Lesbos. His four sons took possession of the four neighbouring islands, Chios, Samos, Cos, and Rhodes, which were called the seats of the Macares, or the blessed (μακαρ, beatus). Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 24.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 7.

Măcăreus, an ancient historian.——A son of Æolus, who debauched his sister Canace, and had a son by her. The father being informed of the incest, ordered the child to be exposed, and sent a sword to his daughter, and commanded her to destroy herself. Macareus fled to Delphi, where he became priest of Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses; Heroides, poem 11; Ibis, li. 562.——One of the companions of Ulysses, left at Caieta in Italy, where Æneas found him. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 159.——A son of Lycaon. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 3.

Măcăria, a daughter of Hercules and Dejanira. After the death of Hercules, Eurystheus made war against the Heraclidæ, whom the Athenians supported, and the oracle declared, that the descendants of Hercules should obtain the victory if any one of them devoted him self to death. This was cheerfully accepted by Macaria, who refused to endanger the life of the children of Hercules by suffering the victim to be drawn by lot, and the Athenians obtained a victory. Great honours were paid to the patriotic Macaria, and a fountain of Marathon was called by her name. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 32.——An ancient name of Cyprus.

Macăris, an ancient name of Crete.

Macednus, a son of Lycaon. Apollodorus.

Măcēdo, a son of Osiris, who had a share in the divine honours which were paid to his father. He was represented clothed in a wolf’s skin, for which reason the Egyptians held that animal in great veneration. Diodorus, bk. 1.—Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.——A man who gave his name to Macedonia. Some supposed him to be the same as the son or general of Osiris, whilst others consider him as the grandson of Deucalion by the mother’s side. Diodorus, bk. 1.

Măcēdŏnia, a celebrated country, situated between Thrace, Epirus, and Greece. Its boundaries have been different at different periods. Philip increased it by the conquest of Thessaly and of part of Thrace, and according to Pliny it contained no less than 150 different nations. The kingdom of Macedonia, first founded B.C. 814, by Caranus, a descendant of Hercules, and a native of Argos, continued in existence 646 years, till the battle of Pydna. The family of Caranus remained in possession of the crown until the death of Alexander the Great, and began to reign in the following order: Caranus, after a reign of 28 years, was succeeded by Cœnus, who ascended the throne 786 B.C.; Thurimas, 774; Perdiccas, 729; Argæus, 678; Philip, 640; Æropas, 602; Alcetas or Alectas, 576; Amyntas, 547; Alexander, 497; Perdiccas, 454; Archelaus, 413; Amyntas, 399; Pausanias, 398; Amyntas II., 397; Argæus the tyrant, 390; Amyntas restored, 390; Alexander II., 371; Ptolemy Alorites, 370; Perdiccas III., 366; Philip son of Amyntas, 360; Alexander the Great, 336; Philip Aridæus, 323; Cassander, 316; Antipater and Alexander, 298; Demetrius king of Asia, 294; Pyrrhus, 287; Lysimachus, 286; Ptolemy Ceraunus, 280; Meleager, two months; Antipater the Etesian, 45 days; Antigonus Gonatas, 277; Demetrius, 243; Antigonus Doson, 232; Philip, 221; Perseus, 179; conquered by the Romans 168 B.C. at Pydna. Macedonia has been severally called Æmonia, Mygdonia, Pæonia, Edonia, Æmathia, &c. The inhabitants of Macedonia were naturally warlike, and though in the infancy of their empire they were little known beyond the borders of their country, yet they signalized themselves greatly in the reign of Philip, and added the kingdom of Asia to their European dominions by the valour of Alexander. The Macedonian phalanx, or body of soldiers, was always held in the highest repute, and it resisted and subdued the repeated attacks of the bravest and most courageous enemies. Livy, bk. 44.—Justin, bk. 6, ch. 9; bk. 7, ch. 1, &c.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 3, &c.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10, &c.—Curtius, bks. 3 & 4.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 7.

Macedonĭcum bellum, was undertaken by the Romans against Philip king of Macedonia, some few months after the second Punic war, B.C. 200. The cause of this war originated in the hostilities which Philip had exercised against the Achæans, the friends and allies of Rome. The consul Flaminius had the care of the war, and he conquered Philip on the confines of Epires, and afterwards in Thessaly. The Macedonian fleets were also defeated; Eubœa was taken; and Philip, after continual losses, sued for peace, which was granted him in the fourth year of the war. The ambition and cruelty of Perseus, the son and successor of Philip, soon irritated the Romans. Another war was undertaken, in which the Romans suffered two defeats. This, however, did not discourage them; Paulus Æmilius was chosen consul in the 60th year of his age, and entrusted with the care of the war. He came to a general engagement near the city of Pydna. The victory sided with the Romans, and 20,000 of the Macedonian soldiers were left on the field of battle. This decisive blow put an end to the war, which had already continued for three years, 168 years before the christian era. Perseus and his sons Philip and Alexander were taken prisoners, and carried to Rome to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. About 15 years after, new seditions were raised in Macedonia, and the false pretensions of Andriscus, who called himself the son of Perseus, obliged the Romans to send an army to quell the commotions. Andriscus at first obtained many considerable advantages over the Roman forces, till at last he was conquered and delivered to the consul Metellus, who carried him to Rome. After these commotions, which are sometimes called the third Macedonian war, Macedonia was finally reduced into a Roman province, and governed by a regular proconsul, about 148 years before the christian era.

Macedonĭcus, a surname given to Metellus, from his conquests in Macedonia. It was also given to such as had obtained any victory in that province.

Macella, a town of Sicily, taken by the consul Duillius. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 21.

Macer Æmylius, a Latin poet of Verona, intimate with Tibullus and Ovid, and commended for his genius, his learning, and the elegance of his poetry. He wrote some poems upon serpents, plants, and birds, mentioned by Ovid. He also composed a poem upon the ruins of Troy, to serve as a supplement to Homer’s Iliad. His compositions are now lost. He died B.C. 16. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 44; ex Ponto, bk. 2, ltr. 10.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.——Lucius Claudius, a propretor of Africa in the reign of Nero. He assumed the title of emperor, and was put to death by order of Galba.

Machæra, a river of Africa.——A common crier at Rome. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 9.

Machanĭdas, a man who made himself absolute at Sparta. He was killed by Philopœmen, after being defeated at Mantinea, B.C. 208. Nabis succeeded him. Plutarch.—Livy, bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 28, chs. 5 & 7.

Măchāon, a celebrated physician, son of Æsculapius and brother to Podalirus. He went to the Trojan war with the inhabitants of Trica, Ithome, and Œchalia. According to some he was king of Messenia. As physician to the Greeks, he healed the wounds which they received during the Trojan war, and was one of those concealed in the wooden horse. Some suppose that he was killed before Troy by Eurypylus the son of Telephus. He received divine honours after death, and had a temple in Messenia. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, &c.—Ovid ex Ponto, bk. 3, ltr. 4.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 6, li. 409.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, lis. 263 & 426.

Macra, a river flowing from the Apennines, and dividing Liguria from Etruria. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 426.—Livy, bk. 39, ch. 32.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Macri campi, a plain in Cisalpine Gaul, near the river Gabellus. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 18; bk. 45, ch. 12.——A plain near Mutina bears the same name. Columella, bk. 7, ch. 2.

Macriānus Titus Fulvius Julius, an Egyptian of obscure birth, who, from a private soldier, rose to the highest command in the army, and proclaimed himself emperor when Valerian had been made prisoner by the Persians, A.D. 260. His liberality supported his usurpation; his two sons Macrianus and Quietus were invested with the imperial purple, and the enemies of Rome were severely defeated, either by the emperors or their generals. When he had supported his dignity for a year in the eastern parts of the world, Macrianus marched towards Rome, to crush Gallienus, who had been proclaimed emperor. He was defeated in Illyricum by the lieutenant of Gallienus, and put to death with his son, at his own expressive request, A.D. 262.

Macrīnus Marcus Opilius Severus, a native of Africa, who rose from the most ignominious condition to the rank of prefect of the pretorian guards, and at last of emperor, after the death of Caracalla, whom he inhumanly [♦]sacrificed to his ambition, A.D. 217. The beginning of his reign was popular; the abolition of the taxes, and an affable and complaisant behaviour, endeared him to his subjects. These promising appearances did not long continue, and the timidity which Macrinus betrayed in buying the peace of the Persians by a large sum of money, soon rendered him odious; and while he affected to imitate the virtuous Aurelius without possessing the good qualities of his heart, he became contemptible and insignificant. This affectation irritated the minds of the populace, and when severe punishments had been inflicted on some of the disorderly soldiers the whole army mutinied; and their tumult was increased by their consciousness of their power and numbers, which Macrinus had the imprudence to betray, by keeping almost all the military force of Rome encamped together in the plains of Syria. Heliogabalus was proclaimed emperor, and Macrinus attempted to save his life by flight. He was, however, seized in Cappadocia, and his head was cut off and sent to his successor, June 7th, A.D. 218. Macrinus reigned about two months and three days. His son, called Diadumenianus, shared his father’s fate.——A friend of the poet Persius, to whom his second satire is inscribed.

[♦] ‘sacrified’ replaced with ‘sacrificed’

Macro, a favourite of the emperor Tiberius, celebrated for his intrigues, perfidy, and cruelty. He destroyed Sejanus, and raised himself upon the ruins of that unfortunate favourite. He was accessary to the murder of Tiberius, and conciliated the good opinion of Caligula, by prostituting to him his own wife called Ennia. He soon after became unpopular, and was obliged by Caligula to kill himself together with his wife, A.D. 38.

Macrŏbii, a people of Æthiopia, celebrated for their justice and the innocence of their manners. They generally lived to their 120th year, some say 1000 years; and indeed from that longevity they have obtained their name (μακρος βιος, long life), to distinguish them more particularly from the other inhabitants of Æthiopia. After so long a period spent in virtuous actions, and freed from the [♦]indulgences of vice, and from maladies, they dropped into the grave as to sleep, without pain and without terror. Orpheus, Argonautica, li. 1105.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 17.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 9.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 48.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 3.

[♦] ‘induligencies’ replaced with ‘indulgences’

Macrobius, a Latin writer, who died A.D. 415. Some suppose that he was chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius II.; but this appears groundless, when we observe that Macrobius was a follower of paganism, and that none were admitted to the confidence of the emperor, or to the enjoyment of high stations, except such as were of the christian religion. Macrobius has rendered himself famous for a composition called Saturnalia, a miscellaneous collection of antiquities and criticism, supposed to have been the result of a conversation of some of the learned Romans during the celebration of the Saturnalia. This was written for the use of his son, and the bad latinity which the author has often introduced, proves that he was not born in a part of the Roman empire where the Latin tongue was spoken, as he himself candidly confesses. The Saturnalia are useful for the learned reflections which they contain, and particularly for some curious observations on the two greatest epic poets of antiquity. Besides this, Macrobius wrote a commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis, which was likewise composed for the improvement of the author’s son, and dedicated to him. The best editions are that of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1670, and that of Lipscomb, 8vo, 1777.

Macrŏchir, a Greek name of Artaxerxes, the same as Longimanus. This surname arises from his having one hand longer than the other. Cornelius Nepos, Kings.

Macrōnes, a nation of Pontus, on the confines of Colchis and Armenia. Flaccus, bk. 5, li. 153.—Herodotus.

Mactorium, a town of Sicily at the south, near Gela.

Măcŭlōnus, a rich and penurious Roman, &c. Juvenal, satire 7, li. 40.

Madaura, a town on the borders of Numidia and Gætulia, of which the inhabitants were called Madaurenses. It was the native place of Apuleius. Apuleius, Metamorphoses, bk. 11.

Madestes, a town of Thrace.

Madetes, a general of Darius, who bravely defended a place against Alexander. The conqueror resolved to put him to death, though 30 orators pleaded for his life. Sisygambis prevailed over the almost inexorable Alexander, and Madetes was pardoned. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 3.

Maduatēni, a people of Thrace. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 40.

Madyes, a Scythian prince who pursued the Cimmerians in Asia, and conquered Cyaxares, B.C. 623. He held for some time the supreme power of Asia Minor. Herodotus, bk. 8, ch. 103.

Mæander, a son of Oceanus and Tethys.——A celebrated river of Asia Minor, rising near Celænæ, and flowing through Caria and Ionia into the Ægean sea between Miletus and Priene, after it has been increased by the waters of the Marsyas, Lycus, Eudon, Lethæus, &c. It is celebrated among the poets for its windings, which amount to no less than 600, and from which all obliquities have received the name of Mæanders. It forms in its course, according to the observations of some travellers, the Greek letters ε, ζ, ξ, ς, and ω, and from its windings Dædalus had the first idea of his famous labyrinth. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 145, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 254.—Lucan, bk. 5, li. 208; bk. 6, li. 471.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 29.—Cicero, Piso, ch. 22.—Strabo, bk. 12, &c.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.

Mæandria, a city of Epirus.

Mæatæ, a people at the south of Scotland. Dio Cassius, bk. 76, ch. 12.

Mæcenas. See: [Mecænas].

Mædi, a people of Mædica, a district of Thrace, near Rhodope. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 25; bk. 40, ch. 21.

Mælius, a Roman, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, for aspiring to tyranny at Rome in the early ages of the republic.

Mæmacteria, sacrifices offered to Jupiter at Athens in the winter month Mæmacterion. The god surnamed Mæmactes was intreated to send mild and temperate weather, as he presided over the seasons, and was the god of the air.

Mænădes, a name of the Bacchantes, or priestesses of Bacchus. The word is derived from μαινομαι, to be furious, because in the celebration of their festivals, their gestures and actions were those of mad women. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 458.

Mænăla, a town of Spain.

Mænălus (plural, Mænala), a mountain of Arcadia sacred to the god Pan, and greatly frequented by shepherds. It received its name from Mænalus, a son of Lycaon. It was covered with pine trees, whose echo and shade have been greatly celebrated by all the ancient poets. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 216.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 17; Eclogues poem 8, li. 24.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 3.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.——A town of Arcadia.——A son of Lycaon.——The father of Atalanta.

Mænius, a Roman consul.——A dictator accused and honourably acquitted, &c.——A spendthrift at Rome. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 15, li. 26.

Mænon, a tyrant of Sicily, B.C. 285.

Mænus, a river of Germany, now called the Mayne, falling into the Rhine at Mayence.

Mæŏnia, a country of Asia Minor, the same as Lydia. It is to be observed, that only part of Lydia was known by the name of Mæonia, that is, the neighbourhood of mount Tmolus, and the country watered by the Pactolus. The rest on the sea coast was called Lydia. Strabo, bk. 12.—Ovid, Metamorphoses.——The Etrurians, as being descended from a Lydian colony, are often called Mæonidæ (Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 759), and even the lake Thrasymenus in their country is called Mæonius lacus. Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 35.

Mæŏnĭdes, a name given to the Muses, because Homer, their greatest and worthiest favourite, was supposed to be a native of Mæonia.

Mæŏnĭdes, a surname of Homer, because, according to the opinion of some writers, he was born in Mæon. Ovid.——The surname is also applied to Bacchus, as he was worshipped in Mæonia.

Mæŏnis, an epithet applied to Omphale, as queen of Lydia or Mæonia. Ovid.——The epithet is also applied to Arachne, as a native of Lydia. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6.

Mæōtæ, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia.

Mæōtis Palus, a large lake, or part of the sea between Europe and Asia, at the north of the Euxine, to which it communicates by the Cimmerian Bosphorus, now called the sea of Azof or Zaback. It was worshipped as a deity by the Massagetæ. It extends about 390 miles from south-west to north-east, and is about 600 miles in circumference. The Amazons are called Mæotides, as living in the neighbourhood. Strabo.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 1.—Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Lucan, bk. 2, &c.—Ovid, [♦]Tristia, bk. 3, poem 12; epistles of Sabinus, ltr. 2, li. 9.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 739.

[♦] ‘Fasti’ replaced with ‘Tristia’

Mæsia sylva, a wood in Etruria, near the mouth of the Tiber. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 33.

Mævia, an immodest woman. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 22.

Mævius, a poet of inferior note in the Augustan age, who made himself known by his illiberal attacks on the character of the first writers of his time, as well as by his affected compositions. His name would have sunk in oblivion if Virgil had not ridiculed him in his third eclogue, and Horace in his 10th epode.

Magas, a king of Cyrene, in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He reigned 50 years, and died B.C. 257. Polyænus, bk. 2.

Magella, a town of Sicily about the middle of the island.

Magetæ, a people of Africa.

Magi, a religious sect among the eastern nations of the world, and particularly in Persia. They had great influence in the political as well as religious affairs of the state, and a monarch seldom ascended the throne without their previous approbation. Zoroaster was founder of their sect. They paid particular homage to fire, which they deemed a deity, as pure in itself, and the purifier of all things. In their religious tenets they had two principles, one good, the source of everything good; and the other evil, from whence sprang all manner of ills. Their professional skill in the mathematics and philosophy rendered everything familiar to them, and from their knowledge of the phenomena of the heavens, the word Magi was applied to all learned men; and in process of time, the Magi, from their experience and profession, were confounded with the magicians who impose upon the superstitious and credulous. Hence the word Magi and Magicians became synonymous among the vulgar. Smerdis, one of the Magi, usurped the crown of Persia after the death of Cambyses, and the fraud was not discovered till the seven noble Persians conspired against the usurper, and elected Darius king. From this circumstance there was a certain day on which none of the Magi were permitted to appear in public, as the populace had the privilege of murdering whomsoever of them they met. Strabo.—Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 62, &c.

Magius, a lieutenant of Piso, &c.——A man in the interest of Pompey, grandfather to the historian Velleius Paterculus, &c. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 115.

Magna Græcia, a part of Italy. See: [Græcia Magna].

Magna Mater, a name given to Cybele.

Magnentius, an ambitious Roman, who distinguished himself by his cruelty and perfidy. He conspired against the life of Constans, and murdered him in his bed. This cruelty was highly resented by Constantius; and the assassin, unable to escape from the fury of his antagonist, murdered his own mother and the rest of his relations, and afterwards killed himself by falling upon a sword, which he had thrust against a wall. He was the first of the followers of christianity who ever murdered his lawful sovereign, A.D. 353.

Magnes, a young man who found himself detained by the iron nails which were under his shoes as he walked over a stone mine. This was no other than the magnet, which received its name from the person who had been first sensible of its powers. Some say that Magnes was a slave of Medea, whom that enchantress changed into a magnet. Orphic Lithica, bk. 10, li. 7.——A son of Æolus and Anaretta, who married Nais, by whom he had Pierus, &c. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.——A poet and musician of Smyrna, in the age of Gyges king of Lydia.

Magnēsia, a town of Asia Minor on the Mæander, about 15 miles from Ephesus, now called Guzelhizar. It is celebrated for the death of Themistocles, and for a battle which was fought there 187 years before the christian era, between the Romans and Antiochus king of Syria. The forces of Antiochus amounted to 70,000 men, according to Appian, or 70,000 foot and 12,000 horse, according to Livy, which have been exaggerated by [♦]Florus to 300,000 men; the Roman army consisted of about 28,000 or 30,000 men, 2000 of which were employed in guarding the camp. The Syrians lost 50,000 foot and 4000 horse, and the Romans only 300 killed, with 25 horse. It was founded by a colony from Magnesia in Thessaly, and was commonly called Magnesia ad Mæandrum, to distinguish it from another called Magnesia ad Sipylum in Lydia, at the foot of mount Sipylus. This last was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius.——A country on the eastern parts of Thessaly, at the south of Ossa. It was sometimes called Æmonia and Magnes Campus. The capital was also called Magnesia.——A promontory of Magnesia in Thessaly. Livy, bk. 37.—Florus, bk. 2.—Appian.

[♦] ‘Florius’ replaced with ‘Florus’

Mago, a Carthaginian general sent against Dionysius tyrant of Sicily. He obtained a victory, and granted peace to the conquered. In a battle which soon after followed this treaty of peace, Mago was killed. His son, of the same name, succeeded to the command of the Carthaginian army, but he disgraced himself by flying at the approach of Timoleon, who had come to assist the Syracusans. He was accused in the Carthaginian senate, and he prevented by suicide the execution of the sentence justly pronounced against him. His body was hung on a gibbet, and exposed to public ignominy.——A brother of Annibal the Great. He was present at the battle of Cannæ, and was deputed by his brother to carry to Carthage the news of the celebrated victory which had been obtained over the Roman armies. His arrival at Carthage was unexpected, and more powerfully to astonish his countrymen on account of the victory of Cannæ, he emptied in the senate-house the three bushels of golden rings which had been taken from the Roman knights slain in battle. He was afterwards sent to Spain, where he defeated the two Scipios, and was himself, in another engagement, totally ruined. He retired to the Baleares, which he conquered; and one of the cities there still bears his name, and is called Portus Magonis, Port Mahon. After this he landed in Italy with an army, and took possession of part of Insubria. He was defeated in a battle by Quintilius Varus, and died of a mortal wound 203 years before the christian era. Livy, bk. 30, &c. Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal, ch. 8, gives a very different account of his death, and says he either perished in a shipwreck, or was murdered by his servants. Perhaps Annibal had two brothers of that name.——A Carthaginian, more known by the excellence of his writings than by his military exploits. He wrote 28 volumes upon husbandry; these were preserved by Scipio, at the taking of Carthage, and presented to the Roman senate. They were translated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica, and into Latin by order of the Roman senate, though Cato had already written so copiously upon the subject; and the Romans, as it has been observed, consulted the writings of Mago with greater earnestness than the books of the Sybilline verses. Columella.——A Carthaginian sent by his countrymen to assist the Romans against Pyrrhus and the Tarentines, with a fleet of 120 sail. This offer was politely refused by the Roman senate. This Mago was father of Asdrubal and Hamilcar. Valerius Maximus.

Magon, a river of India falling into the Ganges. Arrian.

Māgrontiăcum, or Magontea, a large city of Germany, now called Mentz. Tacitus, bk. 4, Histories, bks. 15 & 23.

Magus, an officer of Turnus, killed by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 522.

Maherbal, a Carthaginian who was at the siege of Saguntum, and who commanded the cavalry of Annibal at the battle of Cannæ. He advised the conqueror immediately to march to Rome, but Annibal required time to consider on so bold a measure; upon which Maherbal observed, that Annibal knew how to conquer, but not how to make a proper use of victory.

Maīa, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, mother of Mercury by Jupiter. She was one of the Pleiades, the most luminous of the seven sisters. See: [Pleiades]. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 301.——A surname of Cybele.

Majestas, a goddess among the Romans, daughter of Honour and Reverence. Ovid, bk. 5; Fasti, li. 25.

Majoriānus Julius Valerius, an emperor of the western Roman empire, raised to the imperial throne A.D. 457. He signalized himself by his private as well as public virtues. He was massacred, after a reign of 37 years, by one of his generals, who envied in his master the character of an active, virtuous, and humane emperor.

Majorca, the greatest of the islands called Baleares, on the coast of Spain, in the Mediterranean. Strabo.

Mala Fortuna, the goddess of evil fortune, was worshipped among the Romans. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3.

Malēa, a promontory of Lesbos.——Another in Peloponnesus, at the south of Laconia. The sea is so rough and boisterous there, that the dangers which attended a voyage round it gave rise to the proverb of Cum ad Maleam deflexeris, obliviscere quæ sunt domi. Strabo, bks. 8 & 9.—Lucan, bk. 6, li. 58.—Plutarch, Aratus.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 193.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Livy, bk. 21, ch. 44.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 2, poem 16, li. 24; poem 11, li. 20.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 23.

Maleventum, the ancient name of Beneventum. Livy, bk. 9, ch. 27.

Malho, or Matho, a general of an army of Carthaginian mercenaries, 258 B.C.

Malia, a city of Phthiotis, near mount Œta and Thermopylæ. There were in its neighbourhood some hot mineral waters which the poet Catullus has mentioned. From Malia a gulf or small bay in the neighbourhood, at the western extremities of the island of Eubœa, has received the name of the gulf of Malia, Maliacum Fretum, or Maliacus Sinus. Some call it the gulf of Lamia, from its vicinity to Lamia. It is often taken for the Sinus Pelasgicus of the ancients. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Herodotus.

Malii, a people of Mesopotamia.

Malis, a servant-maid of Omphale, beloved by Hercules.

Mallea, or Mallia aqua. See: [Malia].

Malleŏlus, a man who murdered his mother, &c. Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, bk. 1, ch. 13.

Mallius, a Roman consul defeated by the Gauls, &c.

Mallophŏra (lanam ferens), a surname under which Ceres had a temple at Megara, because she had taught the inhabitants the utility of wool, and the means of tending sheep to advantage. This temple is represented as so old in the age of Pausanias, that it was falling to decay. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 44.

Mallos, a town of Cilicia. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 227.

Malthīnus, a name under which Horace has lashed some of his friends or enemies. Bk. 1, satire 2, li. 27.

Mamaus, a river of Peloponnesus.

Mamercus, a tyrant of Catana, who surrendered to Timoleon. His attempts to speak in a public assembly at Syracuse were received with groans and hisses, upon which he dashed his head against a wall, and endeavoured to destroy himself. The blows were not fatal, and Mamercus was soon after put to death as a robber, B.C. 340. Polyænus, bk. 5.—Cornelius Nepos, Timoleon.——A dictator at Rome, B.C. 437.——A consul with Decimus Brutus.

Mamerthes, a Corinthian who killed his brother’s son in hopes of reigning, upon which he was torn to pieces by his brother. Ovid, Ibis.

Mamertīna, a town of Campania, famous for its wines.——A name of Messana in Sicily. Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 117.—Strabo, bk. 7.

Mamertīni, a mercenary band of soldiers which passed from Campania into Sicily, at the request of Agathocles. When they were in the service of Agathocles, they claimed the privilege of voting at the election of magistrates at Syracuse, and had recourse to arms to support their unlawful demands. The sedition was appeased by the authority of some leading men, and the Campanians were ordered to leave Sicily. In their way to the coast they were received with great kindness by the people of Messana, and soon returned perfidy for hospitality. They conspired against the inhabitants, murdered all the males in the city, and married their wives and daughters, and rendered themselves masters of the place. After this violence they assumed the name of Mamertini, and called their city Mamertina, from a provincial word, which in their language signified martial or warlike. The Mamertines were afterwards defeated by Hiero, and totally disabled from repairing their ruined affairs. Plutarch, Pyrrhus, &c.

Mamilia lex, de limitibus, by the tribune Mamilius. It ordained that in the boundaries of the lands five or six feet of land should be left uncultivated, which no person could convert into private property. It also appointed commissioners to see it carried into execution.

Mamilii, a plebeian family at Rome, descended from the Aborigines. They first lived at Tusculum, from whence they came to Rome. Livy, bk. 3, ch. 29.

Mamilius Octavius, a son-in-law of Tarquin, who behaved with uncommon bravery at the battle of Regillæ. He is also called Manilius. See: [Manilius].

Mammea, the mother of the emperor Severus, who died A.D. 235.

Mamŭrius Veturius, a worker in brass in Numa’s reign. He was ordered by the monarch to make a number of ancylia or shields, like that one which had fallen from heaven, that it might be difficult to distinguish the true one from the others. He was very successful in his undertaking, and he asked for no other reward, but that his name might be frequently mentioned in the hymns which were sung by the Salii in the feast of the Ancylia. This request was granted. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 392.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5, ch. 6.

Mamurra, a Roman knight born at Formiæ. He followed the fortune of Julius Cæsar in Gaul, where he greatly enriched himself. He built a magnificent palace on mount Cœlius, and was the first who incrusted his walls with marble. Catullus has attacked him in his epigrams. Formiæ is sometimes called Mamurrarum urbs. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 6.

Manastăbal, son of Masinissa, who was father to the celebrated Jugurtha. Sallust, Jugurthine War.

Caius Mancīnus, a Roman general, who, though at the head of an army of 30,000 men, was defeated by 4000 Numantians, B.C. 138. He was dragged from the senate, &c. Cicero, Orator, bk. 1, ch. 40.

Mandāne, a daughter of king Astyages, married by her father to Cambyses, an ignoble person of Persia. The monarch had dreamed that his daughter’s urine had drowned all his city, which had been interpreted in an unfavourable manner by the soothsayers, who assured him that his daughter’s son would dethrone him. The marriage of Mandane with Cambyses would, in the monarch’s opinion, prevent the effects of the dream, and the children of this connection would, like their father, be poor and unnoticed. The expectations of Astyages were frustrated. He was dethroned by his grandson. See: [Cyrus]. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 107.

Mandānes, an Indian prince and philosopher, whom Alexander invited by his ambassador, on pain of death, to come to his banquet, as being the son of Jupiter. The philosopher ridiculed the threats and promises of Alexander, &c. Strabo, bk. 15.

Mandēla, a village in the country of the Sabines, near Horace’s country seat. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 105.

Mandonius, a prince of Spain, who for some time favoured the cause of the Romans. When he heard that Scipio the Roman commander was ill, he raised commotions in the provinces, for which he was severely reprimanded and punished. Livy, bk. 29.

Mandrŏcles, a general of Artaxerxes, &c. Cornelius Nepos, Datames.

Mandron, a king of the Bebryces, &c. Polyænus, bk. 8.

Mandubii, a people of Gaul (now Burgundy), in Cæsar’s army, &c. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 7, ch. 78.

Mandubratius, a young Briton who came over to Cæsar in Gaul. His father Immanuentius was king in Britain, and had been put to death by order of Cassivelaunus. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 20.

Manduria, a city of Calabria near Tarentum, whose inhabitants were famous for eating dog’s flesh. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 103.—Livy, bk. 27, ch. 15.

Manes, a son of Jupiter and Tellus, who reigned in Mæonia. He was father of Cotys, by Callirrhoe the daughter of Oceanus.

Mānes, a name generally applied by the ancients to the souls when separated from the body. They were reckoned among the infernal deities, and generally supposed to preside over the burying places and the monuments of the dead. They were worshipped with great solemnity, particularly by the Romans. The augurs always invoked them when they proceeded to exercise their sacerdotal offices. Virgil introduces his hero as sacrificing to the infernal deities, and to the Manes, a victim whose blood was received in a ditch. The word manes is supposed to be derived from Mania, who was by some reckoned the mother of those tremendous deities. Others derive it from manare, quod per omnia ætherea terrenaque manabant, because they filled the air, particularly in the night, and were intent to molest and disturb the peace of mankind. Some say that manes comes from manis, an old Latin word which signified good or propitious. The word manes is differently used by ancient authors; sometimes it is taken for the infernal regions, and sometimes it is applied to the deities of Pluto’s kingdom, whence the epitaphs of the Romans were always superscribed with D. M., Dîs Manibus, to remind the sacrilegious and profane not to molest the monuments of the dead, which were guarded with such sanctity. Propertius, bk. 1, poem 19.—Virgil, bk. 4, Georgics, li. 469; Æneid, bk. 3, &c.—Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 28.——A river of Locris.

Manētho, a celebrated priest of Heliopolis in Egypt, surnamed the Mendesian, B.C. 261. He wrote in Greek a history of Egypt, which has been often quoted and commended by the ancients, particularly by Josephus. It was chiefly collected from the writings of Mercury, and from the journals and annals which are preserved in the Egyptian temples. This history has been greatly corrupted by the Greeks. The author supported that all the gods of the Egyptians had been mere mortals, and had all lived upon earth. This history, which is now lost, had been epitomized, and some fragments of it are still extant. There is extant a Greek poem ascribed to Manetho, in which the power of the stars, which preside over the birth and fate of mankind, is explained. The Apotelesmata of this author were edited in 4to, by Gronovious, Leiden, 1698.

Mania, a goddess, supposed to be the mother of the Lares and Manes.——A female servant of queen Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy.——A mistress of Demetrius Poliorcetes, called also Demo, and Mania, from her folly. Plutarch, Demetrius.

Manilia lex, by Manilius the tribune, A.U.C. 678. It required that all the forces of Lucullus and his province, together with Bithynia, which was then under the command of Glabrio, should be delivered to Pompey, and that this general should, without any delay, declare war against Mithridates, and still retain the command of the Roman fleet, and the empire of the Mediterranean, as before.——Another, which permitted all those whose fathers had not been invested with public offices, to be employed in the management of affairs.——A woman famous for her debaucheries. Juvenal, satire 6, li. 242.

Mānīlius, a Roman who married the daughter of Tarquin. He lived at Tusculum, and received his father-in-law in his house, when banished from Rome, &c. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 15.——Caius, a celebrated mathematician and poet of Antioch, who wrote a poetical treatise on astronomy, of which five books are extant, treating of the fixed stars. The style is not elegant. The age in which he lived is not known, though some suppose that he flourished in the Augustan age. No author, however, in the age of Augustus has made mention of Manilius. The best editions of Manilius are those of Bentley, 4to, London, 1739, and Stoeberus, 8vo, Strasbourg, 1767.——Titus, a learned historian in the age of Sylla and Marius. He is greatly commended by Cicero, pro Roscio.——Marcus, another mentioned by Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 48, as supporting the character of a great lawyer, and of an eloquent and powerful orator.

Manĭmi, a people in Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 43.

Manlia lex, by the tribune Publius Manlius, A.U.C. 557. It revived the office of treviri epulones, first instituted by Numa. The epulones were priests, who prepared banquets for Jupiter and the gods at public festivals, &c.

Manlius Torquātus, a celebrated Roman, whose youth was distinguished by a lively and cheerful disposition. These promising talents were, however, impeded by a difficulty of speaking; and the father, unwilling to expose his son’s rusticity at Rome, detained him in the country. The behaviour of the father was publicly censured, and Marius Pomponius the tribune cited him to answer for his unfatherly behaviour to his son. Young Manlius was informed of this, and with a dagger in his hand he entered the house of the tribune, and made him solemnly promise that he would drop the accusation. This action of Manlius endeared him to the people, and soon after he was chosen military tribune. In a war against the Gauls, he accepted the challenge of one of the enemy, whose gigantic stature and ponderous arms had rendered him terrible and almost invincible in the eyes of the Romans. The Gaul was conquered, and Manlius stripped him of his arms, and from the collar (torquis) which he took from the enemy’s neck, he was ever after surnamed Torquatus. Manlius was the first Roman who was raised to the dictatorship without having been previously consul. The severity of Torquatus to his son has been deservedly censured. This father had the courage and heart to put to death his son, because he had engaged one of the enemy, and obtained an honourable victory, without his previous permission. This uncommon rigour displeased many of the Romans; and though Torquatus was honoured with a triumph, and commended by the senate for his services, yet the Roman youth showed their disapprobation of the consul’s severity, by refusing him at his return the homage which every other conqueror received. Some time after the censorship was offered to him, but he refused it, observing that the people could not bear his severity, nor he the vices of the people. From the rigour of Torquatus, all edicts and actions of severity and justice have been called Manliana edicta. Livy, bk. 7, ch. 10.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 9.——Marcus, a celebrated Roman, whose valour was displayed in the field of battle, even at the early age of 16. When Rome was taken by the Gauls, Manlius with a body of his countrymen fled into the Capitol, which he defended when it was suddenly surprised in the night by the enemy. This action gained him the surname of Capitolinus, and the geese, which by their clamour had awakened him to arm himself in his own defence, were ever after held sacred among the Romans. A law which Manlius proposed to abolish the taxes on the common people, raised the senators against him. The dictator Cornelius Cossus seized him as a rebel, but the people put on mourning, and delivered from prison their common father. This did not in the least check his ambition; he continued to raise factions, and even secretly to attempt to make himself absolute, till at last the tribunes of the people themselves became his accusers. He was tried in the Campius Martius; but when the distant view of the Capitol which Manlius had saved seemed to influence the people in his favour, the court of justice was removed, and Manlius was condemned. He was thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, A.U.C. 371, and to render his ignominy still greater, none of his family were afterwards permitted to bear the surname of Marcus, and the place where his house had stood was deemed unworthy to be inhabited. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 31; bk. 6, ch. 5.—Florus, bk. 1, chs. 13 & 26.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 3.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 825.——Imperiosus, father of Manlius Torquatus. He was made dictator. He was accused of detaining his son at home. See: [Manlius Torquatus].——Volsco, a Roman consul who received an army of Scipio in Asia, and made war against the Gallo-grecians, whom he conquered. He was honoured with a triumph at his return, though it was at first strongly opposed. Florus, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Livy, bk. 38, ch. 12, &c.——Caius, or Aulus, a senator sent to Athens to collect the best and wisest laws of Solon, A.U.C. 300. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 54; bk. 3, ch. 31.——Another, called also Cincinnatus. He made war against the Etrurians and Veientes with great success, and he died of a wound which he had received in a battle.——Another, who in his pretorship reduced Sardinia. He was afterwards made dictator.——Another, who was defeated by a rebel army of slaves in Sicily.——A pretor in Gaul, who fought against the Boii, with very little success.——Another, called Attilius, who defeated a Carthaginian fleet, &c.——Another, who conspired with Catiline against the Roman republic.——Another, in whose consulship the temple of Janus was shut.——Another, who was banished under Tiberius for his adultery.——A Roman appointed judge between his son Silanus and the province of Macedonia. When all the parties had been heard, the father said, “It is evident that my son has suffered himself to be bribed, therefore I deem him unworthy of the republic and of my house, and I order him to depart from my presence.” Silanus was so struck at the rigour of his father, that he hanged himself. Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 5.——A learned man in the age of Cicero.

Mannus, the son of Thiasto, both famous divinities among the Germans. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 2.

Julius Mansuētus, a friend of Vitellius, who entered the Roman armies, and left his son, then very young, at home. The son was promoted by Galba, and soon after met a detachment of the partisans of Vitellius in which his father was. A battle was fought, and Mansuetus was wounded by the hand of his son, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 25.

Mantinea, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus. It was taken by Aratus and Antigonus, and, on account of the latter, it was afterwards called Antigonia. The emperor Adrian built there a temple in honour of his favourite Alcinous. It is famous for the battle which was fought there between Epaminondas at the head of the Thebans, and the combined forces of Lacedæmon, Achaia, Elis, Athens, and Arcadia, about 363 years before Christ. The Theban general was killed in the engagement, and from that time Thebes lost its power and consequence among the Grecian states. Strabo, bk. 8.—Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas.—Diodorus, bk. 15.—Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 16.

Mantineus, the father of Ocalea, who married Abas the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 9.

Mantinōrum oppidum, a town of Corsica, now supposed to be Bastia.

Mantius, a son of Melampus.

Manto, a daughter of the prophet Tiresias, endowed with the gift of prophecy. She was made prisoner by the Argives when the city of Thebes fell into their hands, and as she was the worthiest part of the booty, the conquerors sent her to Apollo the god of Delphi, as the most valuable present they could make. Manto, often called Daphne, remained for some time at Delphi, where she officiated as priestess, and where she gave oracles. From Delphi she came to Claros in Ionia, where she established an oracle of Apollo. Here she married Rhadius the sovereign of the country, by whom she had a son called Mopsus. Manto afterwards visited Italy, where she married Tiberinus the king of Alba, or, as the poets mention, the god of the river Tiber. From this marriage sprang Ocnus, who built a town in the neighbourhood, which, in honour of his mother, he called Mantua. Manto, according to a certain tradition, was so struck at the misfortunes which afflicted Thebes, her native country, that she gave way to her sorrow, and was turned into a fountain. Some suppose her to be the same who conducted Æneas into hell, and who sold the Sibylline books to Tarquin the Proud. She received divine honours after death. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 199; bk. 10, li. 199.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 157.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 7.—Strabo, bks. 14 & 16.—Pausanias, bk. 9, chs. 10 & 33; bk. 7, ch. 3.

Mantua, a town of Italy beyond the Po, founded about 300 years before Rome, by Bianor or Ocnus the son of Manto. It was the ancient capital of Etruria. When Cremona, which had followed the interest of Brutus, was given to the soldiers of Octavius, Mantua also, which was in the neighbourhood, shared the common calamity, though it had favoured the party of Augustus, and many of the inhabitants were tyrannically deprived of their possessions. Virgil, who was among them, and a native of the town, and from thence often called Mantuanus, applied for redress to Augustus, and obtained it by means of his poetical talents. Strabo, bk. 5.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 1, &c.; Georgics, ch. 3, li. 12; Æneid, bk. 10, li. 180.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 3, poem 15.

Maracanda, a town of Sogdiana.

Mărătha, a village of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 28.

Mărăthon, a village of Attica, 10 miles from Athens, celebrated for the victory which the 10,000 Athenians and 1000 Platæans, under the command of Miltiades, gained over the Persian army, consisting of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, or, according to Valerius Maximus, of 300,000, or, as Justin says, of 600,000, under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, on the 28th of Sept. 490, B.C. In this battle, according to Herodotus, the Athenians lost only 192 men, and the Persians 6300. Justin has raised the loss of the Persians in this expedition and in the battle to 200,000 men. To commemorate this immortal victory of their countrymen, the Greeks raised small columns, with the names inscribed on the tombs of the fallen heroes. It was also in the plains of Marathon that Theseus overcame a celebrated bull, which ravaged the neighbouring country. Erigone is called Marathonia virgo, as being born at Marathon. Statius, bk. 5, Sylvæ, poem 3, li. 74.—Cornelius Nepos, Miltiades.—Herodotus, bk. 6, &c.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 9.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 3.—Plutarch, Parallela minora——A king of Attica, son of Epopeus, who gave his name to a small village there. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 1.——A king of Sicyon.

Marăthos, a town of Phœnicia. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 12.

Marcella, a daughter of Octavia the sister of Augustus by Marcellus. She married Agrippa.

Marcellīnus Ammiānus, a celebrated historian who carried arms under Constantius, Julian, and Valens, and wrote a history of Rome from the reign of Domitian, where Suetonius stops, to the emperor Valens. His style is neither elegant nor laboured, but it is greatly valuable for its veracity, and in many of the actions he mentions, the author was nearly concerned. This history was composed at Rome, where Ammianus retired from the noise and troubles of the camp, and does not betray that severity against the christians which other writers have manifested, though the author was warm in favour of paganism, the religion which for a while was seated on the throne. It was divided into 31 books, of which only the 18 last remain, beginning at the death of Magnentius. Ammianus has been liberal in his encomiums upon Julian, whose favours he enjoyed and who so eminently patronised his religion. The negligence with which some facts are sometimes mentioned, has induced many to believe that the history of Ammianus has suffered much from the ravages of time, and that it has descended to us mutilated and imperfect. The best editions of Ammianus are those of Gronovius, folio, and 4to, Leiden, 1693, and of Ernesti, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1773.——An officer under Julian.

Marcellus Marcus Claudius, a famous Roman general, who, after the first Punic war, had the management of an expedition against the Gauls, where he obtained the Spolia opima, by killing with his own hand Viridomarus the king of the enemy. Such success rendered him popular, and soon after he was entrusted to oppose Annibal in Italy. He was the first Roman who obtained some advantage over this celebrated Carthaginian, and showed his countrymen that Annibal was not invincible. The troubles which were raised in Sicily by the Carthaginians at the death of Hieronymus, alarmed the Romans, and Marcellus, in his third consulship, was sent with a powerful force against Syracuse. He attacked it by sea and land, but his operations proved ineffectual, and the invention and industry of a philosopher [See: [Archimedes]] were able to baffle all the efforts, and to destroy all the great and stupendous machines and military engines of the Romans during three successive years. The perseverance of Marcellus at last obtained the victory. The inattention of the inhabitants during their nocturnal celebration of the festivals of Diana, favoured his operations; he forcibly entered the town, and made himself master of it. The conqueror enriched the capital of Italy with the spoils of Syracuse, and when he was accused of rapaciousness, for stripping the conquered city of all its paintings and ornaments, he confessed that he had done it to adorn the public buildings of Rome, and to introduce a taste for the fine arts and elegance of the Greeks among his countrymen. After the conquest of Syracuse, Marcellus was called upon by his country to oppose a second time Annibal. In this campaign he behaved with greater vigour than before; the greatest part of the towns of the Samnites, which had revolted, were recovered by force of arms, and 3000 of the soldiers of Annibal made prisoners. Some time after an engagement with the Carthaginian general proved unfavourable; Marcellus had the disadvantage; but on the morrow a more successful skirmish vindicated his military character, and the honour of the Roman soldiers. Marcellus, however, was not sufficiently vigilant against the snares of his adversary. He imprudently separated himself from his camp, and was killed in an ambuscade in the 60th year of his age, in his fifth consulship, A.U.C. 546. His body was honoured with a magnificent funeral by the conqueror, and his ashes were conveyed in a silver urn to his son. Marcellus claims our commendation for his private as well as public virtues; and the humanity of the general will ever be remembered who, at the surrender of Syracuse, wept at the thought that many were going to be exposed to the avarice and rapaciousness of an incensed soldiery, which the policy of Rome and the laws of war rendered inevitable. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 855.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 38.—Plutarch, Lives, &c.——One of his descendants, who bore the same name, signalized himself in the civil wars of Cæsar and Pompey, by his firm attachment to the latter. He was banished by Cæsar, but afterwards recalled at the request of the senate. Cicero undertook his defence in an oration which is still extant.——The grandson of Pompey’s friend rendered himself popular by his universal benevolence and affability. He was son of Marcellus, by Octavia the sister of Augustus. He married Julia, that emperor’s daughter, and was publicly intended as his successor. The suddenness of his death, at the early age of 18, was the cause of much lamentation at Rome, particularly in the family of Augustus, and Virgil procured himself great favours by celebrating the virtues of this amiable prince. See: [Octavia]. Marcellus was buried at the public expense. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 883.—Suetonius, Augustus.—Plutarch, Marcellus.—Seneca, de Consolatione ad Marciam.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 93.——The son of the great Marcellus who took Syracuse, was caught in the ambuscade which proved fatal to his father, but he forced his way from the enemy and escaped. He received the ashes of his father from the conqueror. Plutarch, Marcellus.——A man who conspired against Vespasian.——The husband of Octavia the sister of Augustus.——A conqueror of Britain.——An officer under the emperor Julian.——A man put to death by Galba.——A man who gave Cicero information of Catiline’s conspiracy.——A colleague of Cato in the questorship.——A native of Pamphylia, who wrote an heroic poem on physic, divided into 42 books. He lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.——A Roman drowned in a storm, &c.

Marcia lex, by Marcius Censorinus. It forbade any man to be invested with the office of censor more than once.

Marcia, the wife of Regulus. When she heard that her husband had been put to death at Carthage in the most excruciating manner, she retorted the punishment, and shut up some Carthaginian prisoners in a barrel, which she had previously filled with sharp nails. The senate was obliged to stop the wantonness of her cruelty. Diodorus, bk. 24.——A favourite of the emperor Commodus, whom he poisoned.——A vestal virgin, punished for her incontinence.——A daughter of Philip, who married Cato the censor. Her husband gave her to his friend Hortensius for the sake of procreating children, and after his death he took her again to his own house.——An ancient name of the island of Rhodes.——A daughter of Cato of Utica.——A stream of water. See: [Martia aqua].

Marciāna, a sister of the emperor Trajan, who, on account of her public and private virtues and her amiable disposition, was declared Augusta and empress by her brother. She died A.D. 113.

Marcianopŏlis, the capital of Lower Mœsia in Greece. It receives its name in honour of the empress Marciana.

Marciānus, a native of Thrace, born of an obscure family. After he had for some time served in the army as a common soldier, he was made private secretary to one of the officers of Theodosius. His winning address and uncommon talents raised him to higher stations; and on the death of Theodosius II., A.D. 450, he was invested with the imperial purple in the east. The subjects of the Roman empire had reason to be satisfied with their choice. Marcianus showed himself active and resolute, and when Attila, the barbarous king of the Huns, asked of the emperor the annual tribute, which the indolence and cowardice of his predecessors had regularly paid, the successor of Theodosius firmly said that he kept his gold for his friends, but that iron was the metal which he had prepared for his enemies. In the midst of universal popularity Marcianus died, after a reign of six years, in the 69th year of his age, as he was making warlike preparations against the barbarians that had invaded Africa. His death was lamented, and indeed his merit was great, since his reign has been distinguished by the appellation of the golden age. Marcianus married Pulcheria, the sister of his predecessor. It is said, that in the years of his obscurity he found a man who had been murdered, and that he had the humanity to give him a private burial, for which circumstance he was accused of the homicide and imprisoned. He was condemned to lose his life, and the sentence would have been executed, had not the real murderer been discovered, and convinced the world of the innocence of Marcianus.——Capella, a writer. See: [Capella].

Marcus Marcius Sabīnus, was the progenitor of the Marcian family at Rome. He came to Rome with Numa, and it was he who advised Numa to accept of the crown which the Romans offered to him. He attempted to make himself king of Rome, in opposition to Tullus Hostilius, and when his efforts proved unsuccessful he killed himself. His son, who married a daughter of Numa, was made high priest by his father-in-law. He was father of Ancus Marcius. Plutarch, Numa.——A Roman who accused Ptolemy Auletes king of Egypt of misdemeanour in the Roman senate.——A Roman consul, defeated by the Samnites. He was more successful against the Carthaginians, and obtained a victory, &c.——Another consul, who obtained a victory over the Etrurians.——Another, who defeated the Hernici.——A Roman who fought against Asdrubal.——A man whom Catiline hired to assassinate Cicero.

Marcius Saltus, a place in Liguria, &c.

Marcomanni, a people of Germany, who originally dwelt on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube. They proved powerful enemies to the Roman emperors. Augustus granted them peace, but they were afterwards subdued by Antoninus and Trajan, &c. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 109.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, chs. 46 & 62; Germania, ch. 42.

Marcus, a prænomen common to many of the Romans. See: [Æmilius], [Lepidus], &c.——A son of Cato, killed at Philippi, &c.——Caryensis, a general of the Achæan league, 255 B.C.

Mardi, a people of Persia, on the confines of Media. They were very poor, and generally lived upon the flesh of wild beasts. Their country, in later times, became the residence of the famous assassins destroyed by Hulakou the grandson of Zingis Khan. Herodotus, bks. 1 & 3.—Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 16.

Mardia, a place of Thrace, famous for a battle between Constantine and Licinius, A.D. 315.

Mardonius, a general of Xerxes, who, after the defeat of his master at Thermopylæ and Salamis, was left in Greece with an army of 300,000 chosen men, to subdue the country, and reduce it under the power of Persia. His operations were rendered useless by the courage and vigilance of the Greeks; and in a battle at Platæa, Mardonius was defeated and left among the slain, B.C. 479. He had been commander of the armies of Darius in Europe, and it was chiefly by his advice that Xerxes invaded Greece. He was son-in-law of Darius. Plutarch, Aristotle.—Herodotus, bks. 6, 7, & 8.—Diodorus, bk. 11.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 13, &c.

Mardus, a river of Media, falling into the Caspian sea.

Mare Mortuum, called also, from the bitumen which it throws up, the lake Asphaltites, is situate in Judæa, and is near 100 miles long and 25 broad. Its waters are [♦]saltier than those of the sea, but the vapours exhaled from them are not so pestilential as have been generally represented. It is supposed that the 13 cities, of which Sodom and Gomorrah, as mentioned in the Scriptures, were the capital, were destroyed by a volcano, and on the site a lake formed. Volcanic appearances now mark the face of the country, and earthquakes are frequent. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 6.—Josephus, Jewish War, bk. 4, ch. 27.—Strabo, bk. 16, p. 764.—Justin, bk. 36, ch. 3.

[♦] ‘salter’ replaced with ‘saltier’

Măreōtis, now Siwah, a lake in Egypt near Alexandria. Its neighbourhood is famous for wine, though some make the Mareoticum vinum grow in Epirus, or in a certain part of Libya, called also Mareotis, near Egypt. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 91.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 38, li. 14.—Lucan, bks. 3 & 10.—Strabo, bk. 17.

Marginia and Margiania, a town and country near the river Oxus, at the east of Hyrcania, celebrated for its wines. The vines are so uncommonly large that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk of one of them. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 10.—Ptolemy, bk. 5.

Margītes, a man against whom, as some suppose, Homer wrote a poem, to ridicule his superficial knowledge, and to expose his affectation. When Demosthenes wished to prove Alexander an inveterate enemy to Athens, he called him another Margites.

Margus, a river of Mœsia falling into the Danube, with a town of the same name, now Kastolatz.

Mariăba, a city in Arabia, near the Red sea.

Maria lex, by Caius Marius the tribune, A.U.C. 634. It ordered the planks called pontes, on which the people stood up to give their votes in the comitia, to be narrower, that no other might stand there to hinder the proceedings of the assembly by appeal, or other disturbances.——Another, called also Porcia, by Lucius Marius and Porcius, tribunes, A.U.C. 691. It fined a certain sum of money such commanders as gave a false account to the Roman senate of the number of the slain in a battle. It obliged them to swear to the truth of their return when they entered the city, according to the best computation.

Mariamna, a Jewish woman, who married Herodes, &c.

Mariānæ fossæ, a town of Gaul Narbonensis, which received its name from the dyke (fossa) which Marius opened from thence to the sea. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Strabo, bk. 4.

Mariandynum, a place near Bithynia, where the poets feign that Hercules dragged Cerberus out of hell. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—Ptolemy, bk. 5, ch. 1.—Mela, bk. 1, chs. 2 & 19; bk. 2, ch. 7.

Mariānus, a surname given to Jupiter from a temple built to his honour by Marius. It was in this temple that the Roman senate assembled to recall Cicero, a circumstance communicated to him in a dream. Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 7.

Marīca, a nymph of the river Liris, near Minturnæ. She married king Faunus, by whom she had king Latinus, and she was afterwards called Fauna and Fatua, and honoured as a goddess. A city of Campania bore her name. Some suppose her to be the same as Circe. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 47.—Livy, bk. 27, ch. 37.——A wood on the borders of Campania bore also the name of Marica, as being sacred to the nymph. Livy, bk. 27, ch. 37.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 17, li. 7.

Marīcus, a Gaul thrown to lions, in the reign of Vitellius, who refused to devour him, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 61.

Marīna, a daughter of Arcadius, &c.

Marīnis, a friend of Tiberius, put to death, &c.

Marion, a king of Tyre in the age of Alexander the Great.

Marissa, an opulent town of Judæa.

Marīta lex. See: [Julia de Maritandis].

Maris, a river of Scythia.——A son of Armisodares, who assisted Priam against the Greeks, and was killed by Antilochus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 317.

Marisus, a river of Dacia.

Caiaus Marius, a celebrated Roman, who, from a peasant, became one of the most powerful and cruel tyrants that Rome ever beheld during her consular government. He was born at Arpinum, of obscure and illiterate parents. His father bore the same name as himself, and his mother was called Fulcinia. He forsook the meaner occupations of the country for the camp, and signalized himself under Scipio at the siege of Numantia. The Roman general saw the courage and intrepidity of young Marius, and foretold the era of his future greatness. By his seditions and intrigues at Rome, while he exercised the inferior offices of the state, he rendered himself known; and his marriage with Julia, who was of the family of the Cæsars, contributed in some measure to raise him to consequence. He passed into Africa as lieutenant to the consul Metellus against Jugurtha, and after he had there ingratiated himself with the soldiers, and raised enemies to his friend and benefactor, he returned to Rome, and canvassed for the consulship. The extravagant promises he made to the people, and his malevolent insinuations about the conduct of Metellus, proved successful. He was elected, and appointed to finish the war against Jugurtha. He showed himself capable in every degree to succeed Metellus. Jugurtha was defeated and afterwards betrayed into the hands of the Romans by the perfidy of Bocchus. No sooner was Jugurtha conquered, than new honours and fresh trophies awaited Marius. The provinces at Rome were suddenly invaded by an army of 300,000 barbarians, and Marius was the only man whose activity and boldness could resist so powerful an enemy. He was elected consul, and sent against the Teutones. The war was prolonged, and Marius was a third and fourth time invested with the consulship. At last two engagements were fought, and not less than 200,000 of the barbarian forces of the Ambrones and Teutones were slain in the field of battle, and 90,000 made prisoners. The following year was also marked by a total overthrow of the Cimbri, another horde of barbarians, in which 140,000 were slaughtered by the Romans, and 60,000 taken prisoners. After such honourable victories, Marius, with his colleague Catulus, entered Rome in triumph, and for his eminent services, he deserved the appellation of the third founder of Rome. He was elected consul a sixth time; and, as his intrepidity had delivered his country from its foreign enemies, he sought employment at home, and his restless ambition began to raise seditions and to oppose the power of Sylla. This was the cause and the foundation of a civil war. Sylla refused to deliver up the command of the forces with which he was empowered to prosecute the Mithridatic war, and he resolved to oppose the authors of a demand which he considered as arbitrary and improper. He advanced to Rome, and Marius was obliged to save his life by flight. The unfavourable winds prevented him from seeking a safer retreat in Africa, and he was left on the coasts of Campania, where the emissaries of his enemy soon discovered him in a marsh, where he had plunged himself in the mud, and left only his mouth above the surface for respiration. He was violently dragged to the neighbouring town of Minturnæ, and the magistrates, all devoted to the interest of Sylla, passed sentence of immediate death on their magnanimous prisoner. A Gaul was commanded to cut off his head in the dungeon, but the stern countenance of Marius disarmed the courage of the executioner, and, when he heard the exclamation of Tune, homo, audes occidere Caium Marium, the dagger dropped from his hand. Such an uncommon adventure awakened the compassion of the inhabitants of Minturnæ. They released Marius from prison, and favoured his escape to Africa, where he joined his son Marius, who had been arming the princes of the country in his cause. Marius landed near the walls of Carthage, and he received no small consolation at the sight of the venerable ruins of a once powerful city, which, like himself, had been exposed to calamity, and felt the cruel vicissitude of fortune. This place of his retreat was soon known, and the governor of Africa, to conciliate the favours of Sylla, compelled Marius to fly to a neighbouring island. He soon after learned that Cinna had embraced his cause at Rome, when the Roman senate had stripped him of his consular dignity and bestowed it upon one of his enemies. This intelligence animated Marius; he set sail to assist his friend, only at the head of 1000 men. His army, however, gradually increased, and he entered Rome like a conqueror. His enemies were inhumanly sacrificed to his fury. Rome was filled with blood, and he who had once been called the father of his country, marched through the streets of the city, attended by a number of assassins, who immediately slaughtered all those whose salutations were not answered by their leader. Such were the signals for bloodshed. When Marius and Cinna had sufficiently gratified their resentment, they made themselves consuls, but Marius, already worn out with old age and infirmities, died 16 days after he had been honoured with the consular dignity for the seventh time, B.C. 86. His end was probably hastened by the uncommon quantities of wine which he drank when labouring under a dangerous disease, to remove, by intoxication, the stings of a guilty conscience. Such was the end of Marius, who rendered himself conspicuous by his victories, and by his cruelty. As he was brought up in the midst of poverty and among peasants, it will not appear wonderful that he always betrayed rusticity in his behaviour, and despised in others those polished manners and that studied address which education had denied him. He hated the conversation of the learned only because he was illiterate, and if he appeared an example of sobriety and temperance, he owed these advantages to the years of obscurity which he had passed at Arpinum. His countenance was stern, his voice firm and imperious, and his disposition untractable. He always betrayed the greatest timidity in the public assemblies, as he had not been early taught to make eloquence and oratory his pursuit. He was in the 70th year of his age when he died, and Rome seemed to rejoice at the fall of a man whose ambition had proved fatal to so many of her citizens. His only qualifications were those of a great general, and with these he rendered himself the most illustrious and powerful of the Romans, because he was the only one whose ferocity seemed capable to oppose the barbarians of the north. The manner of his death, according to some opinions, remains doubtful, though some have charged him with the crime of suicide. Among the instances which are mentioned of his firmness this may be recorded: A swelling in the leg obliged him to apply to a physician, who urged the necessity of cutting it off. Marius gave it, and saw the operation performed without a distortion of the face, and without a groan. The physician asked the other, and Marius gave it with equal composure. Plutarch, Lives.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 9.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 3.—Juvenal, satire 8, li. 245, &c.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 69.——Caius, the son of the great Marius, was as cruel as his father, and shared his good and his adverse fortune. He made himself consul in the 25th year of his age, and murdered all the senators who opposed his ambitious views. He was defeated by Sylla, and fled to Præneste, where he killed himself. Plutarch, Caius Marius.——Priscus, a governor of Africa, accused of extortion in his province by Pliny the younger, and banished from Italy. Pliny, bk. 2, ltr. 11.—Juvenal, satire 1, li. 48.——A lover, &c. See: [Hellas].——One of the Greek fathers of the fifth century, whose works were edited by Garner, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1673; and by Baluzius, Paris, 1684.——Marcus Aurelius, a native of Gaul, who, from the mean employment of a blacksmith, became one of the generals of Gallienus, and at last caused himself to be saluted emperor. Three days after this elevation, a man who had shared his poverty without partaking of his more prosperous fortune, publicly assassinated him, and he was killed by a sword which he himself had made in the time of his obscurity. Marius has been often celebrated for his great strength, and it is confidently reported that he could stop, with one of his fingers only, the wheel of a chariot in its most rapid course.——Maximus, a Latin writer, who published an account of the Roman emperors from Trajan to Alexander, now lost. His compositions were entertaining, and executed with great exactness and fidelity. Some have accused him of inattention, and complain that his writings abounded with many fabulous and insignificant stories.——Celsus, a friend of Galba, saved from death by Otho, &c. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 45.——Sextus, a rich Spaniard, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, on account of his riches, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 6, ch. 19.

Marmăcus, the father of Pythagoras. Diogenes Laërtius.

Marmărenses, a people of Lycia.

Marmărĭca. See: [Marmaridæ].

Marmărĭdæ, the inhabitants of that part of Lybia called Marmarica, between Cyrene and Egypt. They were swift in running, and pretended to possess some drugs or secret power to destroy the poisonous effects of the bite of serpents. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 300; bk. 11, li. 182.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 680; bk. 9, li. 894.

Marmărion, a town of Eubœa, whence Apollo is called Marmarinus. Strabo, bk. 10.

Maro. See: [Virgilius].

Marobodui, a nation of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 42.

Maron, a son of Evanthes, high priest of Apollo in Africa, when Ulysses touched upon the coast. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 9, li. 179.——An Egyptian who accompanied Osiris in his conquests, and built a city in Thrace, called from him Maronea. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Diodorus, bk. 1.

Maronēa, a city of the Cicones, in Thrace, near the Hebrus, of which Bacchus is the chief deity. The wine has always been reckoned excellent, and with it, it was supposed that Ulysses intoxicated the Cyclops Polyphemus. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 4.—Herodotus.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2,—Tibullus, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 57.

Marpĕsia, a celebrated queen of the Amazons, who waged a successful war against the inhabitants of mount Caucasus. The mountain was called Marpesius Mons from its female conqueror. Justin, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6.

Marpessa, a daughter of the Evenus, who married Idas, by whom she had Cleopatra the wife of Meleager. Marpessa was tenderly loved by her husband; and when Apollo endeavoured to carry her away, Idas followed the ravisher with a bow and arrows, resolved on revenge. Apollo and Idas were separated by Jupiter, who permitted Marpessa to go with that of the two lovers whom she most approved of. She returned to her husband. Homer, Iliad, bk. 9, li. 549.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 305.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 2; bk. 5, ch. 18.

Marpesus, a town of Mysia.——A mountain of Paros, abounding in white marble, whence Marpesia cautes. The quarries are still seen by modern travellers. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 471.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 36, ch. 5.

Marres, a king of Egypt, who had a crow which conveyed his letters wherever he pleased. He raised a celebrated monument to this faithful bird near the city of crocodiles. Ælian, de Natura Animalium, bk. 6, ch. 7.

Marrucīni, a people of Picenum. Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 564.

Marrŭvium, or Marrubium, now San Benedetto, a place near the Liris, in Italy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 750.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 497.

Mars, the god of war among the ancients, was the son of Jupiter and Juno, according to Hesiod, Homer, and all the Greek poets, or of Juno alone, according to Ovid. This goddess, as the poet mentions, wished to become a mother without the assistance of the other sex, like Jupiter, who had produced Minerva all armed from his head, and she was shown a flower by Flora in the plains near Olenus, whose very touch made women pregnant. See: [Juno]. The education of Mars was entrusted by Juno to the god Priapus, who instructed him in dancing and in every manly exercise. His trial before the celebrated court of the Areopagus, according to the authority of some authors, for the murder of Hallirhotius, forms an interesting epoch in history. See: [Areopagitæ]. The amours of Mars and Venus are greatly celebrated. The god of war gained the affection of Venus, and obtained the gratification of his desires; but Apollo, who was conscious of their familiarities, informed Vulcan of his wife’s debaucheries, and awakened his suspicions. Vulcan secretly laid a net around the bed, and the two lovers were exposed in each other’s arms, to the ridicule and satire of all the gods, till Neptune prevailed upon the husband to set them at liberty. This unfortunate discovery so provoked Mars, that he changed into a cock his favourite Alectryon, whom he had stationed at the door to watch against the approach of the sun [See: [Alectryon]], and Venus also showed her resentment by persecuting with the most inveterate fury the children of Apollo. In the wars of Jupiter and the Titans, Mars was seized by Otus and Ephialtes, and confined for 15 months, till Mercury procured him his liberty. During the Trojan war Mars interested himself on the side of the Trojans, but whilst he defended these favourites of Venus with uncommon activity, he was wounded by Diomedes, and hastily retreated to heaven to conceal his confusion and his resentment, and to complain to Jupiter that Minerva had directed the unerring weapon of his antagonist. The worship of Mars was not very universal among the ancients; his temples were not numerous in Greece, but in Rome he received the most unbounded honours, and the warlike Romans were proud of paying homage to a deity whom they esteemed as the patron of their city, and the father of the first of their monarchs. His most celebrated temple at Rome was built by Augustus after the battle of Philippi. It was dedicated to Mars ultor, or the avenger. His priests among the Romans were called Salii; they were first instituted by Numa, and their chief office was to guard the sacred Ancylia, one of which, as was supposed, had fallen down from heaven. Mars was generally represented in the naked figure of an old man, armed with a helmet, a pike, and a shield. Sometimes he appeared in a military dress, and with a long flowing beard, and sometimes without. He generally rode in a chariot drawn by furious horses, which the poets called Flight and Terror. His altars were stained with the blood of the horse, on account of his warlike spirit, and of the wolf, on account of his ferocity. Magpies and vultures were also offered up to him, on account of their greediness and voracity. The Scythians generally offered him asses, and the people of Caria dogs. The weed called dog-grass was sacred to him, because it grows, as it is commonly reported, in places which are fit for fields of battle, or where the ground has been stained with the effusion of human blood. The surnames of Mars are not numerous. He was called Gradivus, Mavors, Quirinus, Salisubsulus, among the Romans. The Greeks called him Ares, and he was the Enyalus of the Sabines, the Camulus of the Gauls, and the Mamers of Carthage. Mars was father of Cupid, Anteros, and Harmonia, by the goddess Venus. He had Ascalaphus and Ialmenus by Astyoche; Alcippe by Agraulos; Molus, Pylus, Evenus, and Thestius, by Demonice the daughter of Agenor. Besides these, he was the reputed father of Romulus, Œnomaus, Bythis, Thrax, Diomedes of Thrace, &c. He presided over gladiators, and was the god of hunting, and of whatever exercises or amusements have something manly and warlike. Among the Romans it was usual for the consul, before he went on an expedition, to visit the temple of Mars, where he offered his prayers, and in a solemn manner shook the spear which was in the hand of the [♦]statue of the god, at the same time exclaiming, “Mars vigila! god of war, watch over the safety of this city.” Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 231; Tristia, bk. 2, li. 925.—Hyginus, fable 148.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 346; Æneid, bk. 8, li. 701.—Lucian, Electrum.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 10.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 1; Iliad, bk. 5.—Flaccus, bk. 6.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, &c.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Pindar, ode 4, Pythian.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 14.—Pausanias, bk. 1, chs. 21 & 28.—Juvenal, satire 9, li. 102.

[♦] ‘staute’ replaced with ‘statue’

Marsala, a town of Sicily.

Marsæus, a Roman, ridiculed by Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 35, for his prodigality to courtesans.

Marse, a daughter of Thespius. Apollodorus.

Marsi, a nation of Germany, who afterwards came to settle near the lake Fucinus in Italy, in a country chequered with forests, abounding with wild boars and other ferocious animals. They at first proved very inimical to the Romans, but in process of time they became their firmest supporters. They are particularly celebrated for the civil war in which they were engaged, and which from them has received the name of the Marsian war. The large contributions which they made to support the interest of Rome, and the number of men which they continually supplied to the republic, rendered them bold and aspiring, and they claimed, with the rest of the Italian states, a share of the honours and privileges which were enjoyed by the citizens of Rome, B.C. 91. This petition, though supported by the interest, the eloquence, and the integrity of the tribune Drusus, was received with contempt by the Roman senate; and the Marsi, with their allies, showed their dissatisfaction by taking up arms. Their resentment was increased when Drusus, their friend at Rome, had been basely murdered by the means of the nobles; and they erected themselves into a republic, and Corfinium was made the capital of their new empire. A regular war was now begun, and the Romans led into the field an army of 100,000 men, and were opposed by a superior force. Some battles were fought in which the Roman generals were defeated, and the allies reaped no inconsiderable advantages from their victories. A battle, however, near Asculum, proved fatal to their cause: 4000 of them were left dead on the spot; their general, Francus, a man of uncommon experience and abilities, was slain, and such as escaped from the field perished by hunger in the Apennines, where they had sought a shelter. After many defeats, and the loss of Asculum, one of their principal cities, the allies, grown dejected and tired of hostilities which had already continued for three years, sued for peace one by one, and tranquillity was at last re-established in the republic, and all the states of Italy were made citizens of Rome. The armies of the allies consisted of the Marsi, the Peligni, the Vestini, the Hirpini, Pompeiani, Marcini, Picentes, Venusini, Ferentani, Apuli, Lucani, and Samnites. The Marsi were greatly addicted to magic. Horace, epode 5, li. 76; epode 27, li. 29.—Appian.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8.—Paterculus, bk. 2.—Plutarch, Sertorius, Caius Marius, &c.—Cicero, For Cornelius Balbus.—Strabo.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 1, chs. 50 & 56; Germania, ch. 2.

Marsigni, a people of Germany. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 43.

Marsus Domitius, a Latin poet.

Marsyaba, a town of Arabia.

Marsyas, a celebrated piper of Celænæ, in Phrygia, son of Olympus, or of Hyagnis, or Œagrus. He was so skilful in playing on the flute, that he is generally deemed the inventor of it. According to the opinion of some, he found it when Minerva had thrown it aside on account of the distortion of her face when she played upon it. Marsyas was enamoured of Cybele, and he travelled with her as far as Nysa, where he had the imprudence to challenge Apollo to a trial of his skill as a musician. The god accepted the challenge, and it was mutually agreed that he who was defeated should be flayed alive by the conquerer. The Muses, or according to Diodorus, the inhabitants of Nysa, were appointed umpires. Each exerted his utmost skill, and the victory, with much difficulty, was adjudged to Apollo. The god, upon this, tied his antagonist to a tree, and flayed him alive. The death of Marsyas was universally lamented; the Fauns, Satyrs, and Dryads wept at his fate, and from their abundant tears, arose a river of Phrygia, well known by the name of Marsyas. The unfortunate Marsyas is often represented on monuments as tied, his hands behind his back, to a tree, while Apollo stands before him with his lyre in his hand. In independent cities among the ancients the statue of Marsyas was generally erected in the forum, to represent the intimacy which subsisted between Bacchus and Marsyas, as the emblems of liberty. It was also erected at the entrance of the Roman forum, as a spot where usurers and merchants resorted to transact business, being principally intended in terrorem litigatorum; a circumstance to which Horace seems to allude, bk. 1, satire 6, li. 120. At Celænæ, the skin of Marsyas was shown to travellers for some time; it was suspended in the public place in the form of a bladder, or a foot-ball. Hyginus, fable 165.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 707; Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fable 7.—Diodorus, bk. 3.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 503.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29; bk. 7, ch. 56.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 30.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 4.——The sources of the Marsyas were near those of the Mæander, and those two rivers had their confluence a little below the town of Celænæ. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 13.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 265.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 208.——A writer who published a history of Macedonia, from the first origin and foundation of that empire till the reign of Alexander, in which he lived.——An Egyptian who commanded the armies of Cleopatra against her brother Ptolemy Physcon, whom she attempted to dethrone.——A man put to death by Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily.

Martha, a celebrated prophetess of Syria, whose artifice and fraud proved of the greatest service to Caius Marius in the numerous expeditions which he undertook. Plutarch, Caius Marius.

Martia, a vestal virgin, put to death for her incontinence.——A daughter of Cato. See: [Marcia].

Martia aqua, water at Rome, celebrated for its clearness and salubrity. It was conveyed to Rome, at the distance of above 30 miles, from the lake Fucinus, by Ancus Martius, whence it received its name. Tibullus, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 26.—Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 3; bk. 36, ch. 15.

Martiāles ludi, games celebrated at Rome in honour of Mars.

Martiālis Marcus Valerius, a native of Bilbilis, in Spain, who came to Rome about the 20th year of his age, where he recommended himself to notice by his poetical genius. As he was the panegyrist of the emperors, he gained the greatest honours, and was rewarded in the most liberal manner. Domitian gave him the tribuneship; but the poet, unmindful of the favours he received, after the death of his benefactor, exposed to ridicule the vices and cruelties of a monster, whom in his lifetime he had extolled as the pattern of virtue, goodness, and excellence. Trajan treated the poet with coldness, and Martial, after he had passed 35 years in the capital of the world, in the greatest splendour and affluence, retired to his native country, where he had the mortification to be the object of malevolence, satire, and ridicule. He received some favours from his friends, and his poverty was alleviated by the [♦]liberality of Pliny the younger, whom he had panegyrized in his poems. Martial died about the 104th year of the christian era, in the 75th year of his age. He is now well known by the 14 books of epigrams which he wrote, and whose merit is now best described by the candid confession of the author in this line,

Sunt bona, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt mala plura.

But the genius which he displays in some of his epigrams deserves commendation, though many critics are liberal in their censure upon his style, his thoughts, and particularly upon his puns, which are often low and despicable. In many of his epigrams the poet has shown himself a declared enemy to decency, and the book is to be read with caution which can corrupt the purity of morals, and initiate the votaries of virtue in the mysteries of vice. It has been observed of Martial, that his talent was epigrams. Everything which he did was the subject of an epigram. He wrote inscriptions upon monuments in the epigrammatical style, and even a new year’s gift was accompanied with a distich, and his poetical pen was employed in begging a favour as well as in satirizing a fault. The best editions of Martial are those of Rader, folio, Mogunt. 1627; of Schriverius, 12mo, Leiden, 1619; and of Smids, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1701.——A friend of Otho.——A man who conspired against Caracalla.

[♦] ‘liberalty’ replaced with ‘liberality’

Martiānus. See: [Marcianus].

Martīna, a woman skilled in the knowledge of poisonous herbs, &c. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 79, &c.

Martiniānus, an officer, made Cæsar by [♦]Licinius, to oppose Constantine. He was put to death by order of Constantine.

[♦] ‘Linicius’ replaced with ‘Licinius’

Martius, a surname of Jupiter in Attica, expressive of his power and valour. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 14.——A Roman consul sent against Perseus, &c.——A consul against the Dalmatians, &c.——Another, who defeated the Carthaginians in Spain.——Another, who defeated the Privernates, &c.

Marullus, a tribune of the people, who tore the garlands which had been placed upon Cæsar’s statues, and who ordered those that had saluted him king to be imprisoned. He was deprived of his consulship by Julius Cæsar. Plutarch.——A governor of Judæa.——A Latin poet in the age of Marcus Aurelius. He satirized the emperor with great licentiousness, but his invectives were disregarded, and himself despised.

Marus (the Morava), a river of Germany, which separates modern Hungary and Moravia. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 63.

Massa Bæbius, an informer at the court of Domitian. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 35.

Masæsylii, a people of Libya, where Syphax reigned. See: [Massyla].

Masinissa, son of Gala, was king of a small part of Africa, and assisted the Carthaginians in their wars against Rome. He proved a most indefatigable and courageous ally, but an act of generosity rendered him amicable to the interests of Rome. After the defeat of Asdrubal, Scipio, the first Africanus who had obtained the victory, found, among the prisoners of war, one of the nephews of Masinissa. He sent him back to his uncle loaded with presents, and conducted him with a detachment for the safety and protection of his person. Masinissa was struck with the generous action of the Roman general; he forgot all former hostilities, and joined his troops to those of Scipio. This change of sentiments was not the effect of a wavering or unsettled mind, but Masinissa showed himself the most attached and the firmest ally the Romans ever had. It was to his exertions they owed many of their victories in Africa, and particularly in that battle which proved fatal to Asdrubal and Syphax. The Numidian conqueror, charmed with the beauty of Sophonisba, the captive wife of Syphax, carried her to his camp and married her; but when he perceived that this new connection displeased Scipio, he sent poison to his wife, and recommended her to destroy herself, since he could not preserve her life in a manner which became her rank, her dignity, and fortune, without offending his Roman allies. In the battle of Zama, Masinissa greatly contributed to the defeat of the great Annibal, and the Romans, who had been so often spectators of his courage and valour, rewarded his fidelity with the kingdom of Syphax, and some of the Carthaginian territories. At his death Masinissa showed the confidence which he had in the Romans, and the esteem he entertained for the rising talents of Scipio Æmilianus, by entrusting him with the care of his kingdom, and empowering him to divide it among his sons. Masinissa died in the 97th year of his age, after a reign of above 60 years, 149 years before the christian era. He experienced adversity as well as prosperity, and in the first years of his reign he was exposed to the greatest danger, and obliged often to save his life by seeking a retreat among his savage neighbours. But his alliance with the Romans was the beginning of his greatness, and he ever after lived in the greatest affluence. He is remarkable for the health which he long enjoyed. In the last years of his life he was seen at the head of his armies behaving with the most indefatigable activity, and he often remained for many successive days on horseback without a saddle under him, or a covering upon his head, and without showing the least mark of fatigue. This strength of mind and body he chiefly owed to the temperance which he observed. He was seen eating brown bread at the door of his tent like a private soldier the day after he had obtained an immortal victory over the armies of Carthage. He left 54 sons, three of whom were legitimate, Micipsa, Gulussa, and Manastabal. The kingdom was fairly divided among them by Scipio, and the illegitimate children received, as their portion, very valuable presents. The death of Gulussa and Manastabal soon after left Micipsa sole master of the large possessions of Masinissa. Strabo, bk. 17.—Polybius.—Appian, Lybica [Punic Wars].—Cicero, de Senectute.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.—Livy, bk. 25, &c.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 769.—Justin, bk. 33, ch. 1; bk. 38, ch. 6.

Maso, a name common to several persons mentioned by Cicero.

Massăga, a town of India, taken by Alexander the Great.

Massăgĕte, a people of Scythia, who had their wives in common, and dwelt in tents. They had no temples, but worshipped the sun, to whom they offered horses, on account of their swiftness. When their parents had come to a certain age, they generally put them to death, and ate their flesh mixed with that of cattle. Authors are divided with respect to the place of their residence. Some place them near the Caspian sea, others at the north of the Danube, and some confound them with the Getæ and the Scythians. Horace, bk. 1, ode 35, li. 40.—Dionysius Periegeta, li. 738.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 204.—Strabo, bk. 1.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 50.—Justin, bk. 1, ch. 8.

Massāna. See: [Messana].

Massāni, a nation at the mouth of the Indus.

Massĭcus, a mountain of Campania near Minturnæ, famous for its wine, which even now preserves its ancient character. Pliny, bk. 14, ch. 6.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 1, li. 19.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 143.——An Etrurian prince, who assisted Æneas against Turnus with 1000 men. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 166, &c.

Massilia, a maritime town of Gaul Narbonensis, now called Marseilles, founded B.C. 539, by the people of Phocæa, in Asia, who quitted their country to avoid the tyranny of the Persians. It is celebrated for its laws, its fidelity for the Romans, and for its being long the seat of literature. It acquired great consequence by its commercial pursuits during its infancy, and even waged war against Carthage. By becoming the ally of Rome, its power was established; but in warmly espousing the cause of Pompey against Cæsar, its views were frustrated, and it was so much reduced by the insolence and resentment of the conqueror, that it never after recovered its independence and warlike spirit. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 164.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Justin, bk. 37, &c.—Strabo, bk. 1.—Livy, bk. 5, ch. 3.—Horace, epode 16.—Florus, bk. 4, ch. 2.—Cicero, For Flaccus, ch. 26; De Officiis, bk. 2, [♦]ch. 28.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 44; Agricola, ch. 4.

[♦] ‘8’ replaced with ‘28’

Massȳla, an inland part of Mauritania near mount Atlas. When the inhabitants, called Massyli, went on horseback, they never used saddles or bridles, but only sticks. Their character was warlike, their manners simple, and their love of liberty unconquerable. Some suppose them to be the same as the Masæylii, though others say half the country belonged only to this last-mentioned people. Livy, bk. 24, ch. 48; bk. 28, ch. 17; bk. 29, ch. 32.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 282; bk. 16, li. 171.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 682.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 132.

Mastramela, a lake near Marseilles, now mer de Martegues. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Măsŭrius, a Roman knight under Tiberius, learned, but poor. Persius, bk. 5, li. 90.

Masus Domitius, a Latin poet. See: [Domitius].

Matho, an infamous informer, patronized by Domitian. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 32.

Matiēni, a people in the neighbourhood of Armenia.

Matĭnus, a mountain of Apulia, abounding in yew trees and bees. Lucan, bk. 9, li. 184.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 2, li. 27; epode 16, li. 28.

Matisco, a town of the Ædui in Gaul, now called Macon.

Matrālia, a festival at Rome, in honour of Matuta or Ino. Only matrons and freeborn women were admitted. They made offerings of flowers, and carried their relations’ children in their arms, recommending them to the care and patronage of the goddess whom they worshipped. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5, ch. 22.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 47.—Plutarch, Camillus.

Matrōna, a river of Gaul, now called the Marne, falling into the Seine. Ausonius, Mosella, li. 462.——One of the surnames of Juno, because she presided over marriage and over child-birth.

Matronālia, festivals at Rome in honour of Mars, celebrated by married women, in commemoration of the rape of the Sabines, and of the peace which their intreaties had obtained between their fathers and husbands. Flowers were then offered in the temples of Juno. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, li. 229.—Plutarch, Romulus.

Mattiăci, a nation of Germany, now Marpurg, in Hesse. The Mattiacæ aquæ was a small town, now Wisbaden, opposite Mentz. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 29; Annals, bk. 1, ch. 56.

Mātūta, a deity among the Romans, the same as the Leucothoe of the Greeks. She was originally Ino, who was changed into a sea deity [See: [Ino] and [Leucothoe]], and she was worshipped by sailors as such, at Corinth, in a temple sacred to Neptune. Only married women and freeborn matrons were permitted to enter her temples at Rome, where they generally brought the children of their relations in their arms. Livy, bk. 5, &c.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, li. 19.

Mavors, a name of Mars. See: [Mars].

Mavortia, an epithet applied to every country whose inhabitants were warlike, but especially to Rome, founded by the reputed son of Mavors. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 280, and to Thrace, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 13.

Mauri, the inhabitants of Mauritania. This name is derived from their black complexion (μαυροι). Everything among them grew in greater abundance and greater perfection than in other countries. Strabo, bk. 17.—Martial, bk. 5, ltr. 29; bk. 12, ltr. 67.—Silius Italicus, bk. 4, li. 569; bk. 10, li. 402.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 5; bk. 3, ch. 10.—Justin, bk. 19, ch. 2.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 206.

Mauritānia, a country on the western part of Africa, which forms the modern kingdom of Fez and Morocco. It was bounded on the west by the Atlantic, south by Gætulia, and north by the Mediterranean, and is sometimes called Maurusia. It became a Roman province in the reign of the emperor Claudius. See: [Mauri].

Maurus, a man who flourished in the reign of Trajan, or, according to others, of the Antonini. He was governor of Syene, in Upper Egypt. He wrote a Latin poem upon the rules of poetry and versification.

Maurūsii, the people of Maurusia, a country near the columns of Hercules. It is also called Mauritania. See: [Mauritania]. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 206.

Mausōlus, a king of Caria. His wife Artemisia was so disconsolate at his death, which happened B.C. 353, that she drank up his ashes, and resolved to erect one of the grandest and noblest monuments of antiquity, to celebrate the memory of a husband whom she tenderly loved. This famous monument, which passed for one of the seven wonders of the world, was called Mausoleum, and from it all other magnificent sepulchres and tombs have received the same name. It was built by four different architects. Scopas erected the side which faced the east, Timotheus had the south, Leochares had the west, and Bruxis the north. Pithis was also employed in raising a pyramid over this stately monument, and the top was adorned by a chariot drawn by four horses. The expenses of this edifice were immense, and this gave an occasion to the philosopher Anaxagoras to exclaim, when he saw it, “How much money changed into stones!” See: [Artemisia]. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 99.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Diodorus, bk. 16.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 16.—Florus, bk. 4, ch. 11.—Aulus Gellius, bk. 10, ch. 18.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 2, li. 21.—Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 100.

Maxentius Marcus Aurelius Valerius, a son of the emperor Maximianus Hercules. Some suppose him to have been a supposititious child. The voluntary abdication of Diocletian, and of his father, raised him in the state, and he declared himself independent emperor, or Augustus, A.D. 306. He afterwards incited his father to reassume his imperial authority, and in a perfidious manner destroyed Severus, who had delivered himself into his hands and relied upon his honour for the safety of his life. His victories and successes were impeded by Galerius Maximianus, who opposed him with a powerful force. The defeat and voluntary death of Galerius soon restored peace to Italy, and Maxentius passed into Africa, where he rendered himself odious by his cruelty and oppression. He soon after returned to Rome, and was informed that Constantine was come to dethrone him. He gave his adversary battle near Rome, and, after he had lost the victory, he fled back to the city. The bridge over which he crossed the Tiber was in a decayed state, and he fell into the river and was drowned, on the 24th of September, A.D. 317. The cowardice and luxuries of Maxentius are as conspicuous as his cruelties. He oppressed his subjects with heavy taxes to gratify the cravings of his pleasures, or the avarice of his favourites. He was debauched in his manners, and neither virtue nor innocence were safe whenever he was inclined to voluptuous pursuits. He was naturally deformed, and of an unwieldy body. To visit a pleasure ground, or to exercise himself under a marble portico, or to walk on a shady terrace, was to him a Herculean labour, which required the greatest exertions of strength and resolution.

Cornelius Maximiliāna, a vestal virgin, buried alive for incontinency, A.D. 92.

Maximiānus Herculius Marcus Aurelius Valerius, a native of Sirmium, in Pannonia, who served as a common soldier in the Roman armies. When Diocletian had been raised to the imperial throne, he remembered the valour and courage of his fellow-soldier Maximianus, and rewarded his fidelity by making him his colleague in the empire, and by ceding to him the command of the provinces of Italy, Africa, and Spain, and the rest of the western territories of Rome. Maximianus showed the justness of the choice of Diocletian by his victories over the barbarians. In Britain success did not attend his arms; but in Africa he defeated and put to death Aurelius Julianus, who had proclaimed himself emperor. Soon after Diocletian abdicated the imperial purple, and obliged Maximianus to follow his example on the 1st of April, A.D. 304. Maximianus reluctantly complied with the command of a man to whom he owed his greatness, but before the first year of his resignation had elapsed, he was roused from his indolence and retreat by the ambition of his son Maxentius. He reassumed the imperial dignity, and showed his ingratitude to his son by wishing him to resign the sovereignty, and to sink into a private person. This proposal was not only rejected with the contempt which it deserved, but the troops mutinied against Maximianus, and he fled for safety to Gaul, to the court of Constantine, to whom he gave his daughter Faustina in marriage. Here he again acted a conspicuous character, and reassumed the imperial power, which his misfortunes had obliged him to relinquish. This offended Constantine. But, when open violence seemed to frustrate the ambitious views of Maximianus, he had recourse to artifice. He prevailed upon his daughter Faustina to leave the doors of her chamber open in the dead of night; and when she promised faithfully to execute his commands, he secretly introduced himself to her bed, where he stabbed to the heart the man who slept by the side of his daughter. This was not Constantine; Faustina, faithful to her husband, had apprised him of her father’s machinations, and a eunuch had been placed in his bed. Constantine watched the motions of his father-in-law, and when he heard the fatal blow given to the eunuch, he rushed in with a band of soldiers, and secured the assassin. Constantine resolved to destroy a man who was so inimical to his nearest relations, and nothing was left to Maximianus but to choose his own death. He strangled himself at Marseilles, A.D. 310, in the 60th year of his age. His body was found fresh and entire in a leaden coffin about the middle of the 11th century.——Galerius Valerius, a native of Dacia, who, in the first years of his life, was employed in keeping his father’s flocks. He entered the army, where his valour and bodily strength recommended him to the notice of his superiors, and particularly to Diocletian, who invested him with the imperial purple in the east, and gave him his daughter Valeria in marriage. Galerius deserved the confidence of his benefactor. He conquered the Goths and Dalmatians, and checked the insolence of the Persians. In a battle, however, with the king of Persia, Galerius was defeated; and, to complete his ignominy, and render him more sensible of his disgrace, Diocletian obliged him to walk behind his chariot arrayed in his imperial robes. This humiliation stung Galerius to the quick; he assembled another army, and gave battle to the Persians. He gained a complete victory, and took the wives and children of his enemy. This success elated Galerius to such a degree, that he claimed the most dignified appellations, and ordered himself to be called the son of Mars. Diocletian himself dreaded his power, and even, it is said, abdicated the imperial dignity by means of his threats. This resignation, however, is attributed by some to a voluntary act of the mind, and to a desire of enjoying solitude and retirement. As soon as Diocletian had abdicated, Galerius was proclaimed Augustus, A.D. 304, but his cruelty soon rendered him odious, and the Roman people, offended at his oppression, raised Maxentius to the imperial dignity the following year, and Galerius was obliged to yield to the torrent of his unpopularity, and to fly before his more fortunate adversary. He died in the greatest agonies, A.D. 311. The bodily pains and sufferings which preceded his death were, according to the christian writers, the effects of the vengeance of an offended providence for the cruelty which he had exercised against the followers of Christ. In his character Galerius was wanton and tyrannical, and he often feasted his eyes with the sight of dying wretches, whom his barbarity had delivered to bears and other wild beasts. His aversion to learned men arose from his ignorance of letters; and, if he was deprived of the benefits of education, he proved the more cruel and the more inexorable. Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum, ch. 33.—Eusebius, bk. 8, ch. 16.

Maximīnus Caius Julius Verus, the son of a peasant in Thrace. He was originally a shepherd, and, by heading his countrymen against the frequent attacks of the neighbouring barbarians and robbers, he inured himself to the labours and to the fatigues of a camp. He entered the Roman armies, where he gradually rose to the first offices; and on the death of Alexander Severus he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, A.D. 235. The popularity which he had gained when general of the armies, was at an end when he ascended the throne. He was delighted with acts of the greatest barbarity, and no less than 400 persons lost their lives on the false suspicion of having conspired against the emperor’s life. They died in the greatest torments, and, that the tyrant might the better entertain himself with their sufferings, some were exposed to wild beasts, others expired by blows, some were nailed on crosses, while others were shut up in the bellies of animals just killed. The noblest of the Roman citizens were the objects of his cruelty; and, as if they were more conscious than others of his mean origin, he resolved to spare no means to remove from his presence a number of men whom he looked upon with an eye of envy, and who, as he imagined, hated him for his oppression, and despised him for the poverty and obscurity of his early years. Such is the character of the suspicious and tyrannical Maximinus. In his military capacity he acted with the same ferocity; and, in an expedition in Germany, he not only cut down the corn, but he totally ruined and set fire to the whole country, to the extent of 450 miles. Such a monster of tyranny at last provoked the people of Rome. The Gordians were proclaimed emperors, but their innocence and pacific virtues were unable to resist the fury of Maximinus. After their fall, the Roman senate invested 20 men of their number with the imperial dignity and entrusted into their hands the care of the republic. These measures so highly irritated Maximinus, that at the first intelligence, he howled like a wild beast, and almost destroyed himself by knocking his head against the walls of his palace. When his fury was abated he marched to Rome, resolved on slaughter. His bloody machinations were stopped, and his soldiers, ashamed of accompanying a tyrant whose cruelties had procured him the name of Busiris, Cyclops, and Phalaris, assassinated him in his tent before the walls of Aquileia, A.D. 236, in the 65th year of his age. The news of his death was received with the greatest rejoicings at Rome; public thanksgivings were offered, and whole hecatombs flamed on the altars. Maximinus has been represented by historians as of a gigantic stature; he was eight feet high, and the bracelets of his wife served as rings to adorn the fingers of his hand. His voracity was as remarkable as his corpulence; he generally ate 40 pounds of flesh every day, and drank 18 bottles of wine. His strength was proportionable to his gigantic shape; he could alone draw a loaded waggon, and, with a blow of his fist, he often broke the teeth in a horse’s mouth; he also broke the hardest stones between his fingers, and cleft trees with his hand. Herodian.—Jornandes, Getica.—Capitol. Maximinus made his son, of the same name, emperor, as soon as he was invested with the purple, and his choice was unanimously approved by the senate, by the people, and by the army.——Galerius Valerius, a shepherd of Thrace, who was raised to the imperial dignity by Diocletian, A.D. 305. He was nephew to Galerius Maximianus, by his mother’s side, and to him he was indebted for his rise and consequence in the Roman armies. As Maximinus was ambitious and fond of power, he looked with an eye of jealousy upon those who shared the dignity of emperor with himself. He declared war against Licinius, his colleague on the throne, but a defeat, which soon after followed, on the 30th of April, A.D. 313, between Heraclea and Adrianopolis, left him without resources and without friends. His victorious enemy pursued him, and he fled beyond mount Taurus, forsaken and almost unknown. He attempted to put an end to his miserable existence, but his efforts were ineffectual, and though his death is attributed by some to despair, it is more universally believed that he expired in the greatest agonies of a dreadful distemper, which consumed him, day and night, with inexpressible pains, and reduced him to a mere skeleton. This miserable end, according to the ecclesiastical writers, was the visible punishment of heaven, for the barbarities which Maximinus had exercised against the followers of christianity, and for the many blasphemies which he had uttered. Lactantius.—Eusebius.——A minister of the emperor Valerian.——One of the ambassadors of young Theodosius to Attila king of the Huns.

Maxĭmus Magnus, a native of Spain, who proclaimed himself emperor, A.D. 383. The unpopularity of Gratian favoured his usurpation, and he was acknowledged by his troops. Gratian marched against him, but he was defeated, and soon after assassinated. Maximus refused the honours of a burial to the remains of Gratian; and, when he had made himself master of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, he sent ambassadors into the east, and demanded of the emperor Theodosius to acknowledge him as his associate on the throne. Theodosius endeavoured to amuse and delay him, but Maximus resolved to support his claim by arms, and crossed the Alps. Italy was laid desolate, and Rome opened her gates to the conqueror. Theodosius now determined to revenge the audaciousness of Maximus, and had recourse to artifice. He began to make a naval armament, and Maximus, not to appear inferior to his adversary, had already embarked his troops, when Theodosius, by secret and hastened marches, fell upon him, and besieged him at Aquileia. Maximus was betrayed by his soldiers, and the conqueror, moved with compassion at the sight of his fallen and dejected enemy, granted him life, but the multitude refused him mercy, and instantly struck off his head, A.D. 388. His son Victor, who shared the imperial dignity with him, was soon after sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers.——Petronius, a Roman, descended of an illustrious family. He caused Valentinian III. to be assassinated, and ascended the throne; and, to strengthen his usurpation, he married the empress, to whom he had the weakness and imprudence to betray that he had sacrificed her husband to his love for her person. This declaration irritated the empress; she had recourse to the barbarians to avenge the death of Valentinian, and Maximus was stoned to death by his soldiers, and his body thrown into the Tiber, A.D. 455. He reigned only 77 days.——Pupianus. See: [♦]Pupianus.——A celebrated cynic philosopher and magician of Ephesus. He instructed the emperor Julian in magic; and according to the opinion of some historians, it was in the conversation and company of Maximus that the apostacy of Julian originated. The emperor not only visited the philosopher, but he even submitted his writings to his inspection and censure. Maximus refused to live in the court of Julian, and the emperor, not dissatisfied with the refusal, appointed him high pontiff in the province of Lydia, an office which he discharged with the greatest moderation and justice. When Julian went into the east, the philosopher promised him success, and even said that his conquests would be more numerous and extensive than those of the son of Philip. He persuaded his imperial pupil that, according to the doctrine of metempsychosis, his body was animated by the soul which once animated the hero whose greatness and victories he was going to eclipse. After the death of Julian, Maximus was almost sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers, but the interposition of his friends saved his life, and he retired to Constantinople. He was soon after accused of magical practices before the emperor Valens, and beheaded at Ephesus, A.D. 366. He wrote some philosophical and rhetorical treatises, some of which were dedicated to Julian. They are all now lost. Ammianus.——Tyrius, a Platonic philosopher in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This emperor, who was naturally fond of study, became one of the pupils of Maximus, and paid great deference to his instructions. There are extant of Maximus 41 dissertations on moral and philosophical subjects, written in Greek, the best editions of which are that of Davis, 8vo, Cambridge, 1703; and that of Reiske, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774.——One of the Greek fathers of the seventh century, whose works were edited by Combesis, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1675.——Paulus Fabius, a consul with Marcus Antony’s son. Horace speaks of him, bk. 4, ode 1, li. 10, as of a gay, handsome youth, fond of pleasure, yet industrious and indefatigable.——An epithet applied to Jupiter, as being the greatest and most powerful of all the gods.——A native of Sirmium, in Pannonia. He was originally a gardener, but, by enlisting in the Roman army, he became one of the military tribunes, and his marriage with a woman of rank and opulence soon rendered him independent. He was father to the emperor Probus.——A general of Trajan, killed in the eastern provinces.——One of the murderers of Domitian, &c.——A philosopher, native of Byzantium, in the age of Julian the emperor.

[♦] Reference not found.

Mazăca, a large city of Cappadocia, the capital of the province. It was called Cæsarea by Tiberius, in honour of Augustus.

Mazāces, a Persian governor of Memphis. He made a sally against the Grecian soldiers of Alexander, and killed great numbers of them. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 1.

Mazæus, a satrap of Cilicia, under Artaxerxes Ochus.——A governor of Babylon, son-in-law to Darius. He surrendered to Alexander, &c. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Mazāres, a satrap of Media, who reduced Priene under the power of Cyrus. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 161.

Mazaxes (singular, Mazax), a people of Africa, famous for shooting arrows. Lucan, bk. 4, li. 681.

Mazĕras, a river of Hyrcania, falling into the Caspian sea. Plutarch.

Mazīces and Mazȳges, a people of Libya, very expert in the use of missile weapons. The Romans made use of them as couriers, on account of their great swiftness. Suetonius, Nero, ch. 30.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 684.

Mecænas, or Mecœnas Caius [♦]Cilnius, a celebrated Roman knight, descended from the kings of Etruria. He has rendered himself immortal by his liberal patronage of learned men and of letters; and to his prudence and advice Augustus acknowledged himself indebted for the security which he enjoyed. His fondness for pleasure removed him from the reach of ambition, and he preferred to die, as he was born, a Roman knight, to all the honours and dignities which either the friendship of Augustus or his own popularity could heap upon him. It was from the result of his advice, against the opinion of Agrippa, that Augustus resolved to keep the supreme power in his hands, and not by a voluntary resignation to plunge Rome into civil commotions. The emperor received the private admonitions of Mecœnas in the same friendly manner as they were given, and he was not displeased with the liberty of his friend, who threw a paper to him with these words, “Descend from the tribunal, thou butcher!” while he sat in the judgment-seat, and betrayed revenge and impatience in his countenance. He was struck with the admonition, and left the tribunal without passing sentence of death on the criminals. To the interference of Mecœnas, Virgil owed the restitution of his lands, and Horace was proud to boast that his learned friend had obtained his forgiveness from the emperor, for joining the cause of Brutus at the battle of Philippi. Mecœnas was himself fond of literature, and, according to the most received opinion, he wrote a history of animals, a journal of the life of Augustus, a treatise on the different natures and kinds of precious stones, besides the two tragedies of Octavia and Prometheus, and other things, all now lost. He died eight years before Christ; and, on his death-bed, he particularly recommended his poetical friend Horace to the care and confidence of Augustus. Seneca, who has liberally commended the genius and abilities of Mecœnas, has not withheld his censure from his dissipation, indolence, and effeminate luxury. From the patronage and encouragement which the princes of heroic and lyric poetry among the Latins received from the favourite of Augustus, all patrons of literature have ever since been called Mecœnates. Virgil dedicated to him his Georgics, and Horace his odes. Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 66, &c.—Plutarch, Augustus.—Herodian, bk. 7.—Seneca, ltrs. 19 & 92.

[♦] ‘Cilnus’ replaced with ‘Cilnius’

Mechaneus, a surname of Jupiter, from his patronizing undertakings. He had a statue near the temple of Ceres at Argos, and there the people swore, before they went to the Trojan war, either to conquer or to perish. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.

Mecisteus, son of Echius, or Talaus, was one of the companions of Ajax. He was killed by Polydamus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 28, &c.——A son of Lycaon. Apollodorus.

Mecrida, the wife of Lysimachus. Polyænus, bk. 6.

Mēdēa, a celebrated magician, daughter of Æetes king of Colchis. Her mother’s name, according to the more received opinion of Hesiod and Hyginus, was Idyia, or, according to others, Ephyre, Hecate, Asterodia, Antiope, or Neræa. She was the niece of Circe. When Jason came to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, Medea became enamoured of him, and it was to her well-directed labours that the Argonauts owed their preservation. See: [Jason] and [Argonautæ]. Medea had an interview with her lover in the temple of Hecate, where they bound themselves by the most solemn oaths, and mutually promised eternal fidelity. No sooner had Jason overcome all the difficulties which Æetes had placed in his way, than Medea embarked with the conquerors for Greece. To stop the pursuit of her father, she tore to pieces her brother Absyrtus, and left his mangled limbs in the way through which Æetes was to pass. This act of barbarity some have attributed to Jason, and not to her. When Jason reached Iolchos, his native country, the return and victories of the Argonauts were celebrated with universal rejoicings; but Æson the father of Jason was unable to assist at the solemnity, on account of the infirmities of his age. Medea, at her husband’s request, removed the weakness of Æson, and by drawing away the blood from his veins, and filling them again with the juice of certain herbs, she restored to him the vigour and sprightliness of youth. This sudden change in Æson astonished the inhabitants of Iolchos, and the daughters of Pelias were also desirous to see their father restored, by the same power, to the vigour of youth. Medea, willing to revenge the injuries which her husband’s family had suffered from Pelias, increased their curiosity, and by cutting to pieces an old ram and making it again, in their presence, a young lamb, she totally determined them to try the same experiment upon their father’s body. They accordingly killed him of their own accord, and boiled his flesh in a cauldron; but Medea refused to perform the same friendly offices to Pelias which she had done to Æson, and he was consumed by the heat of the fire, and even deprived of a burial. This action greatly irritated the people of Iolchos, and Medea, with her husband, fled to Corinth to avoid the resentment of an offended populace. Here they lived for 10 years with much conjugal tenderness; but the love of Jason for Glauce, the king’s daughter, soon interrupted their mutual harmony, and Medea was divorced. Medea revenged the infidelity of Jason by causing the death of Glauce, and the destruction of her family. See: [Glauce]. This action was followed by another still more atrocious. Medea killed two of her children in their father’s presence, and when Jason attempted to punish the barbarity of the mother, she fled through the air upon a chariot drawn by winged dragons. From Corinth Medea came to Athens, where, after she had undergone the necessary purification of her murder, she married king Ægeus, or, according to others, lived in an adulterous manner with him. From her connection with Ægeus, Medea had a son, who was called Medus. Soon after, when Theseus wished to make himself known to his father [See: [Ægeus]], Medea, jealous of his fame, and fearful of his power, attempted to poison him at a feast which had been prepared for his entertainment. Her attempts, however, failed of success, and the sight of the sword which Theseus wore by his side, convinced Ægeus that the stranger against whose life he had so basely conspired was no less than his own son. The father and the son were reconciled, and Medea, to avoid the punishment which her wickedness deserved, mounted her fiery chariot, and disappeared through the air. She came to Colchis, where, according to some, she was reconciled to Jason, who had sought her in her native country after her sudden departure from Corinth. She died at Colchis, as Justin mentions, when she had been restored to the confidence of her family. After death she married Achilles in the Elysian fields, according to the traditions mentioned by Simonides. The murder of Mermerus and Pheres, the youngest of Jason’s children by Medea, is not attributed to their mother according to Ælian, but the Corinthians themselves assassinated them in the temple of Juno Acræa. To avoid the resentment of the gods, and deliver themselves from the pestilence which visited their country after so horrid a massacre, they engaged the poet Euripides, for five talents, to write a tragedy, which cleared them of the murder, and represented Medea as the cruel assassin of her own children. And besides, that this opinion might be the better credited, festivals were appointed, in which the mother was represented with all the barbarity of a fury murdering her own sons. See: [Heræa]. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fables 21, 22, 23, &c.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Dionysius Periegetes.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 5, ch. 21.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 8, ch. 11.—Euripides, Medea.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, fable 1; Medicamina Faciei Femineæ.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 19.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 3, &c.—Orpheus.—Flaccus.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 556.

Medesicaste, a daughter of Priam, who married Imbrius son of Mentor, who was killed by Teucer during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, ch. 172.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.

Media, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the north by the Caspian sea, west by Armenia, south by Persia, and east by Parthia and Hyrcania. It was originally called Aria, till the age of Medus the son of Medea, who gave it the name of Media. The province of Media was first raised into a kingdom by its revolt from the Assyrian monarchy, B.C. 820; and after it had for some time enjoyed a kind of republican government, Deioces, by his artifice, procured himself to be called king, 700 B.C. After a reign of 53 years he was succeeded by Phraortes, B.C. 647; who was succeeded by Cyaxares, B.C. 625. His successor was Astyages, B.C. 585, in whose reign Cyrus became master of Media, B.C. 551; and ever after the empire was transferred to the Persians. The Medes were warlike in the primitive ages of their power; they encouraged polygamy, and were remarkable for the homage which they paid to their sovereigns, who were styled kings of kings. This title was afterwards adopted by their conquerors the Persians, and it was still in use in the age of the Roman emperors. Justin, bk. 1, ch. 5.—Herodotus, bk. 1, &c.—Polybius, bks. 5 & 10.—Curtius, bk. 5, &c.—Diodorus Siculus, bk. 13.—Ctesias.

Medias, a tyrant of Mysia, &c.

Medĭcus, a prince of Larissa, in Thessaly, who made war against Lycophron tyrant of Pheræ. Diodorus, bk. 14.

Mediolānum, now Milan, the capital of Insubria at the mouth of the Po. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 34, ch. 46.——Aulercorum, a town of Gaul, now Evreux, in Normandy.——Santŏnum, another, now Saintes, in Guienne.

Mediomatrices, a nation that lived on the borders of the Rhine, now Metz. Strabo, bk. 4.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 4, ch. 10.

Mediterraneum mare, a sea which divides Europe and Asia Minor from Africa. It receives its name from its situation, medio terræ, situate in the middle of the land. It has a communication with the Atlantic by the columns of Hercules, and with the Euxine through the Ægean. The word Mediterraneum does not occur in the classics; but it is sometimes called internum, nostrum, or medius liquor, and is frequently denominated in Scripture the Great sea. The first naval power that ever obtained the command of it, as recorded in the fabulous epochs of the writer Castor, was Crete, under Minos. Afterwards it passed into the hands of the Lydians, B.C. 1179; of the Pelasgi, 1058; of the Thracians, 1000; of the Rhodians, 916; of the Phrygians, 893; of the Cyprians, 868; of the Phœnicians, 826; of the Egyptians, 787; of the Milesians, 753; of the Carians, 734; and of the Lesbians, 676, which they retained for 69 years. Horace, bk. 3, ode 3, li. 46.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 668.—Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 17.—Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 5, ch. 1.—Livy, bk. 26, ch. 42.

Meditrīna, the goddess of medicines, whose festivals, called Meditrinalia, were celebrated at Rome the last day of September, when they made offerings of fruits. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5, ch. 3.

Medoacus, or Meduacus, a river in the country of the Veneti, falling into the Adriatic sea. Livy, bk. 10, ch. 2.

Medobithyni, a people of Thrace.

Medobriga, a town of Lusitania, now destroyed. Hirtius, ch. 48.

Medon, son of Codrus, the seventeenth and last king of Athens, was the first Archon that was appointed with regal authority, B.C. 1070. In the election Medon was preferred to his brother Neleus, by the oracle of Delphi, and he rendered himself popular by the justice and moderation of his administration. His successors were called from him Medontidæ, and the office of archon remained for above 200 years in the family of Codrus under 12 perpetual archons. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 2.——A man killed in the Trojan war. Æneas saw him in the infernal regions. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 483.——A statuary of Lacedæmon, who made a famous statue of Minerva, seen in the temple of Juno at Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 17.——One of the Centaurs, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 303.——One of the Tyrrhene sailors changed into dolphins by Bacchus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 671.——A river of Peloponnesus.——An illegitimate son of Ajax Oileus. Homer.——One of Penelope’s suitors. Ovid, Heroides, poem 1.——A man of Cyzicus, killed by the Argonauts.——A king of Argos, who died about 990 years B.C.——A son of Pylades by Electra. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 16.

Medontias, a woman of Abydos, with whom Alcibiades cohabited as with a wife. She had a daughter, &c. Lysias.

Meduacus, two rivers (Major, now Brenta, and Minor, now Bachilione), falling, near Venice, into the Adriatic sea. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 16.—Livy, bk. 10, ch. 2.

Meduana, a river of Gaul, flowing into the Ligeris, now the Mayne. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 438.

Medullīna, a Roman virgin ravished by her father, &c. Plutarch, Parallela minora.——An infamous courtesan in Juvenal’s age, satire 6, li. 321.

Medus, now Kur, a river of Media, falling into the Araxes. Some take Medus adjectively, as applying to any of the great rivers of Media. Strabo, bk. 15.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 21.——A son of Ægeus and Medea, who gave his name to a country of Asia. Medus, when arrived to years of maturity, went to seek his mother, whom the arrival of Theseus in Athens had driven away. See: [Medea]. He came to Colchis, where he was seized by his uncle Perses, who usurped the throne of Æetes, his mother’s father, because the oracle had declared that Perses should be murdered by one of the grandsons of Æetes. Medus assumed another name, and called himself Hippotes son of Creon. Meanwhile Medea arrived in Colchis, disguised in the habit of a priestess of Diana, and when she heard that one of Creon’s children was imprisoned, she resolved to hasten the destruction of a person whose family she detested. To effect this with more certainty, she told the usurper that Hippotes was really a son of Medea, sent by his mother to murder him. She begged Perses to give her Hippotes, that she might sacrifice him to her resentment. Perses consented. Medea discovered that it was her own son, and she instantly armed him with the dagger which she had prepared against his life, and ordered him to stab the usurper. He obeyed, and Medea discovered who he was, and made her son Medus sit on his grandfather’s throne. Hesiod, Theogony.—Pausanias, bk. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 1.—Justin, bk. 42.—Seneca, Medea.—Diodorus.

Medūsa, one of the three Gorgons, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She was the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. She is celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her locks. Neptune became enamoured of her, and obtained her favours in the temple of Minerva. This violation of the sanctity of the temple provoked Minerva, and she changed the beautiful locks of Medusa, which had inspired Neptune’s love, into serpents. According to Apollodorus and others, Medusa and her sisters came into the world with snakes on their heads, instead of hair, with yellow wings and brazen hands. Their bodies were also covered with impenetrable scales, and their very looks had the power of killing or turning to stones. Perseus rendered his name immortal by his conquest of Medusa. He cut off her head, and the blood that dropped from the wound produced the innumerable serpents that infest Africa. The conqueror placed Medusa’s head on the ægis of Minerva, which he had used in his expedition. The head still retained the same petrifying power as before, as it was fatally known in the court of Cepheus. See: [Andromeda]. Some suppose that the Gorgons were a nation of women, whom Perseus conquered. See: [Gorgones]. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 618.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 624.—Apollonius, bk. 4.—Hyginus fable 151.——A daughter of Priam.——A daughter of Sthenelus. Apollodorus.

Megabizi, certain priests in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. They were all eunuchs. Quintilian, bk. 5, ch. 12.

Megabyzus, one of the noble Persians who conspired against the usurper Smerdis. He was set over an army in Europe by king Darius, where he took Perinthus and conquered all Thrace. He was greatly esteemed by his sovereign. Herodotus, bk. 3, &c.——A son of Zopyrus, satrap to Darius. He conquered Egypt, &c. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 160.——A satrap of Artaxerxes. He revolted from his king, and defeated two large armies that had been sent against him. The interference of his friends restored him to the king’s favour, and he showed his attachment to Artaxerxes by killing a lion which threatened his life in hunting. This act of affection in Megabyzus was looked upon with envy by the king. He was discarded and afterwards reconciled to the monarch by means of his mother. He died in the 76th year of his age, B.C. 447, greatly regretted. Ctesias.

Megăcles, an Athenian archon, who involved the greatest part of the Athenians in the sacrilege which was committed in the conspiracy of Cylon. Plutarch, Solon.——A brother of Dion, who assisted his brother against Dionysius, &c.——A son of Alcmæon, who revolted with some Athenians after the departure of Solon from Athens. He was ejected by Pisistratus.——A man who exchanged dress with Pyrrhus, when assisting the Tarentines in Italy. He was killed in that disguise.——A native of Messana in Sicily, famous for his inveterate enmity to Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse.——A man who destroyed the leading men of Mitylene, because he had been punished.——A man who wrote an account of the lives of illustrious persons.——The maternal grandfather of Alcibiades.

Megaclides, a peripatetic philosopher in the age of Protagoras.

Megæra, one of the furies, daughter of Nox and Acheron. The word is derived from μεγαιρειν, invidere, odisse, and she is represented as employed by the gods, like her sisters, to punish the crimes of mankind, by visiting them with diseases, with inward torments, and with death. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 846. See: [Eumenides].

Megăle, the Greek name of Cybele the mother of the gods, whose festivals were called Megalesia.

Megaleas, a seditious person of Corinth. He was seized for his treachery to king Philip of Macedonia, upon which he destroyed himself to avoid punishment.

Megalesia, games in honour of Cybele, instituted by the Phrygians, and introduced at Rome in the second Punic war, when the statue of the goddess was brought from Pessinus. Livy, bk. 29, ch. 14.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 337.

Megalia, a small island of Campania, near Neapolis. Statius, bk. 2, Sylvæ, [♦]poem 3, li. 80.

[♦] omitted from text

Megalŏpŏlis, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus, built by Epaminondas. It joined the Achæan league, B.C. 232, and was taken and ruined by Cleomenes king of Sparta. The inhabitants were called Megalopolitæ, or Megalopolitani. Strabo, bk. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 14.—Livy, bk. 28, ch. 8.

Megamēde, the wife of Thestius, mother by him of 50 daughters. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Meganīra, the wife of Celeus king of Eleusis in Attica. She was mother of Triptolemus, to whom Ceres, as she travelled over Attica, taught agriculture. She received divine honours after death, and she had an altar raised to her, near the fountain where Ceres had first been seen when she arrived in Attica. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 39.——The wife of Arcas. Apollodorus.

Megapenthes, an illegitimate son of Menelaus, who, after his father’s return from the Trojan war, was married to a daughter of Alector, a native of Sparta. His mother’s name was Teridae, a slave of Menelaus. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.

Megāra, a daughter of Creon king of Thebes, given in marriage to Hercules, because he had delivered the Thebans from the tyranny of the Orchomenians. See: [Erginus]. When Hercules went to hell by order of Eurystheus, violence was offered to Megara by Lycus, a Theban exile, and she would have yielded to her ravisher had not Hercules returned that moment and punished him with death. This murder displeased Juno, and she rendered Hercules so delirious, that he killed Megara and the three children he had by her, in a fit of madness, thinking them to be wild beasts. Some say that Megara did not perish by the hand of her husband, but that he afterwards married her to his friend Iolas. The names of Megara’s children by Hercules were Creontiades, Therimachus, and Deicoon. Hyginus, fable 82.—Seneca, Hercules.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Diodorus, bk. 4.

Megāra (æ, and plural, orum), a city of Achaia, the capital of a country called Megaris, founded about 1131 B.C. It is situate nearly at an equal distance from Corinth and Athens, on the Sinus Saronicus. It was built upon two rocks, and is still in being, and preserves its ancient name. It was called after Megareus the son of Neptune, who was buried there, or from Megareus, a son of Apollo. It was originally governed by 12 kings, but became afterwards a republic, and fell into the hands of the Athenians, from whom it was rescued by the Heraclidæ. At the battle of Salamis the people of Megara furnished 20 ships for the defence of Greece, and at Platæa they had 300 men in the army of Pausanias. There was here a sect of philosophers called the Megaric, who held the world to be eternal. Cicero, Academica, bk. 4, ch. 42; On Oratory, bk. 3, ch. 17; Letters to Atticus, bk. 1, ltr. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 39.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.——A town of Sicily, founded by a colony from Megara in Attica, about 728 years before the christian era. It was destroyed by Gelon king of Syracuse; and before the arrival of the Megarean colony it was called Hybla. Strabo, [♦]bk. 6, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 689.

[♦] ‘26’ replaced with ‘6’

Megareus, the father of Hippomenes, was son of Onchestus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 605.——A son of Apollo.

Megāris, a small country of Achaia, between Phocis on the west and Attica on the east. Its capital city was called Megara. See: [Megara]. Strabo, bk. 8.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 7.

Megarsus, a town of Sicily,——of Cilicia.——A river of India.

Megasthĕnes, a Greek historian in the age of Seleucus Nicanor, about 300 years before Christ. He wrote about the oriental nations, and particularly the Indians. His history is often quoted by the ancients. What now passes as his composition is spurious.

Meges, one of Helen’s suitors, governor of Dulichium and of the Echinades. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.

Megilla, a native of Locris, remarkable for beauty, and mentioned by Horace, bk. 1, ode 27, li. 11.

Megista, an island of Lycia, with a harbour of the same name. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 22.

Megistias, a soothsayer, who told the Spartans that defended Thermopylæ, that they all should perish, &c. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 219, &c.——A river. See: [Mella].

Mela Pomponius, a Spaniard, who flourished about the 45th year of the christian era, and distinguished himself by his geography divided into three books, and written with elegance, with great perspicuity and brevity. The best editions of this book, called De Situ Orbis, are those of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1722, and of Reinhold, 4to, Eton, 1761.

Melænæ, a village of Attica. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 12, li. 619.

Melampus, a celebrated soothsayer and physician of Argos, son of Amythaon and Idomenea, or Dorippe. He lived at Pylos in Peloponnesus. His servants once killed two large serpents, which had made their nests at the bottom of a large oak, and Melampus paid so much regard to these two reptiles, that he raised a burning pile and burned them upon it. He also took particular care of their young ones, and fed them with milk. Some time after this the young serpents crept to Melampus as he slept on the grass near the oak, and, as if sensible of the favours of their benefactor, they wantonly played around him, and softly licked his ears. This awoke Melampus, who was astonished at the sudden change which his senses had undergone. He found himself acquainted with the chirping of the birds, and with all their rude notes, as they flew around him. He took advantage of this supernatural gift, and soon made himself perfect in the knowledge of futurity, and Apollo also instructed him in the art of medicine. He had soon after the happiness of curing the daughters of Prœtus, by giving them hellebore, which from this circumstance has been called melampodium, and as a reward for his trouble he married the eldest of these princesses. See: [Prœtides]. The tyranny of his uncle Neleus king of Pylos obliged him to leave his native country, and Prœtus, to show himself more sensible of his services, gave him part of his kingdom, over which he established himself. About this time the personal charms of Pero the daughter of Neleus had gained many admirers, but the father promised his daughter only to him who brought into his hands the oxen of Iphiclus. This condition displeased many; but Bias, who was also one of her admirers, engaged his brother Melampus to steal the oxen, and deliver them to him. Melampus was caught in the attempt and imprisoned, and nothing but his services as a soothsayer and physician to Iphiclus would have saved him from death. All this pleaded in favour of Melampus, but when he had taught the childless Iphiclus how to become a father, he not only obtained his liberty, but also the oxen, and with them he compelled Neleus to give Pero in marriage to Bias. A severe distemper, which had rendered the women of Argos insane, was totally removed by Melampus, and Anaxagoras, who then sat on the throne, rewarded his merit by giving him part of his kingdom, where he established himself, and where his posterity reigned during six successive generations. He received divine honours after death, and temples were raised to his memory. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11, li. 287; bk. 15, li. 225.—Herodotus, bks. 2 & 9.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18; bk. 4, ch. 3.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 550.——The father of Cisseus and Gyas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10.——A son of Priam. Apollodorus, bk. 3.——One of Actæon’s dogs. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.

Melampyges, a surname of Hercules, from the black and hairy appearance of his back, &c.

Melanchætes, one of Actæon’s dogs, so called from his black hair. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.

Melanchlæni, a people near the Cimmerian Bosphorus.

Melanchrus, a tyrant of Lesbos, who died about 612 B.C.

Melane, the same as Samothrace.

Melaneus, a son of Eurytus, from whom Eretria has been called Melaneis.——A centaur. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12.——One of Actæon’s dogs. Metamorphoses, bk. 3.——An Æthiopian, killed at the nuptials of Perseus. Metamorphoses, bk. 5.

Melanida, a surname of Venus.

Melanion, the same as Hippomenes, who married Atalanta, according to some mythologists. Apollodorus, bk. 3.

Melanippe, a daughter of Æolus, who had two children by Neptune, for which her father put out both her eyes, and confined her in a prison. Her children, who had been exposed and preserved, delivered her from confinement, and Neptune restored to her her eye-sight. She afterwards married Metapontus. Hyginus, fable 186.——A nymph who married Itonus son of Amphictyon, by whom she had Bœotus, who gave his name to Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 1.

Melanippĭdes, a Greek poet about 520 years before Christ. His grandson, of the same name, flourished about 60 years after at the court of Perdiccas II. of Macedonia. Some fragments of their poetry are extant.

Melanippus, a priest of Apollo at Cyrene, killed by the tyrant Nicocrates. Polyænus, bk. 8.——A son of Astacus, one of the Theban chiefs who defended the gates of Thebes against the army of Adrastus king of Argos. He was opposed by Tydeus, whom he slightly wounded, and at last was killed by Amphiaraus, who carried his head to Tydeus. Tydeus, to take revenge of the wound he had received, bit the head with such barbarity, that he swallowed the brains, and Minerva, offended with his conduct, took away the herb which she had given him to cure his wound, and he died. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8.—Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 18.——A son of Mars, who became enamoured of Cometho, a priestess of Diana Triclaria. He concealed himself in the temple, and ravished his mistress, for which violation of the sanctity of the place the two lovers soon after perished by a sudden death, and the country was visited by a pestilence, which was stopped only after the offering of a human sacrifice by the direction of the oracle. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 19.——A Trojan, killed by Antilochus in the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 15.——Another, killed by Patroclus.——Another, killed by Teucer.——A son of Agrius.——Another, son of Priam.——A son of Theseus.

Melanosyri, a people of Syria.

Melanthii, rocks near the island of Samos.

Melanthius, a man who wrote a history of Attica.——A famous painter of Sicyon. Pliny, bk. 35.——A tragic poet of a very malevolent disposition in the age of Phocion. Plutarch.——A Trojan, killed by Eurypylus in the Trojan war. Homer, Odyssey.——A shepherd in Theocritus, Idylls.——A goat-herd, killed by Telemachus after the return of Ulysses. Ovid, ltr. 1, Heroides.——An elegiac poet.

Melantho, a daughter of Proteus, ravished by Neptune under the form of a dolphin. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 12.——One of Penelope’s women, sister to Melanthius. Homer, Iliad, bk. 18, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 18.

Melanthus, Melanthes, or Melanthius, a son of Andropompus, whose ancestors were kings of Pylos. He was driven from his paternal kingdom by the Heraclidæ, and came to Athens, where king Thymœtes resigned the crown to him, provided he fought a battle against Xanthus, a general of the Bœotians, who made war against him. He fought and conquered [See: [Apaturia]], and his family, surnamed the Neliadæ, sat on the throne of Athens, till the age of Codrus. He succeeded to the crown 1128 years B.C., and reigned 37 years. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 18.——A man of Cyzicus. Flaccus.——A river of European Sarmatia, falling into the Borysthenes. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, ltr. 10, li. 55.

Melas (æ), a river of Peloponnesus.——Of Thrace, at the west of the Thracian Chersonesus.——Another in Thessaly,——in Achaia,——in Bœotia,——in Sicily,——in Ionia,——in Cappadocia.——A son of Neptune.——Another, son of Proteus.——A son of Phryxus, who was among the Argonauts, and was drowned in that part of the sea which bore his name. Apollodorus, bk. 1.

Meldæ, or Meldorum urbs, a city of Gaul, now Meaux, in Champagne.

Mĕleāger, a celebrated hero of antiquity, son of Œneus king of Ætolia, by Althæa daughter of Thestius. The Parcæ were present at the moment of his birth, and predicted his future greatness. Clotho said that he would be brave and courageous, Lachesis foretold his uncommon strength, and Atropos declared that he should live as long as that fire-brand, which was on the fire, remained entire and unconsumed. Althæa no sooner heard this, than she snatched the stick from the fire, and kept it with the most jealous care, as the life of her son was destined to depend upon its preservation. The fame of Meleager increased with his years; he signalized himself in the Argonautic expedition, and afterwards delivered his country from the neighbouring inhabitants, who made war against his father, at the instigation of Diana, whose altars Œneus had neglected. See: [Œneus]. No sooner were they destroyed than Diana punished the negligence of Œneus by a greater calamity. She sent a huge wild boar, which laid waste all the country, and seemed invincible on account of its immense size. It became soon a public concern; all the neighbouring princes assembled to destroy this terrible animal, and nothing became more famous in mythological history than the hunting of the Calydonian boar. The princes and chiefs who assembled, and who are mentioned by mythologists, are Meleager son of Œneus, Idas and Lynceus sons of Aphareus, Dryas son of Mars, Castor and Pollux sons of Jupiter and Leda, Pirithous son of Ixion, Theseus son of Ægeus, Anceus and Cepheus sons of Lycurgus, Admetes son of Pheres, Jason son of Æson, Peleus and Telamon sons of Æacus, Iphicles son of Amphitryon, Eurytryon son of Actor, Atalanta daughter of Schœneus, Iolas the friend of Hercules, the sons of Thestius, Amphiaraus son of Oileus, Protheus, Cometes, the brothers of Althæa, Hippothous son of Cercyon, Leucippus, Adrastus, Ceneus, Phileus, Echeon, Lelex, Phœnix son of Amyntor, Panopeus, Hyleus, Hippasus, Nestor, Menœtius the father of Patroclus, Amphicides, Laertes the father of Ulysses, and the four sons of Hippocoon. This troop of armed men attacked the boar with unusual fury, and it was at last killed by Meleager. The conqueror gave the skin and the head to Atalanta, who had first wounded the animal. This partiality to a woman irritated the others, and particularly Toxeus and Plexippus the brothers of Althæa, and they endeavoured to rob Atalanta of the honourable present. Meleager defended a woman, of whom he was enamoured, and killed his uncles in the attempt. Meantime the news of this celebrated conquest had already reached Calydon, and Althæa went to the temple of the gods to return thanks for the victory which her son had gained. As she went she met the corpses of her brothers that were brought from the chase, and at this mournful spectacle she filled the whole city with her lamentations. She was upon this informed that they had been killed by Meleager, and in the moment of resentment, to revenge the death of her brothers, she threw into the fire the fatal stick on which her son’s life depended, and Meleager died as soon as it was consumed. Homer does not mention the fire-brand, whence some have imagined that this fable is posterior to that poet’s age. But he says that the death of Toxeus and Plexippus so irritated Althæa, that she uttered the most horrible curses and imprecations upon the head of her son. Meleager married Cleopatra the daughter of Idas and Marpessa, as also Atalanta, according to some accounts. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1, li. 997; bk. 3, li. 518.—Flaccus, bks. 1 & 6.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 31.—Hyginus, fable 14.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 9.——A general who supported Aridæus when he had been made king, after the death of his brother Alexander the Great.——A brother of Ptolemy, made king of Macedonia B.C. 280 years. He was but two months invested with the regal authority.——A Greek poet in the reign of Seleucus, the last of the Seleucidæ. He was born at Tyre, and died at Cos. It is to his well-directed labours that we are indebted for the Anthologia, or collection of Greek epigrams, which he selected from 46 of the best and most esteemed poets. The original collection of Meleager has been greatly altered by succeeding editors. The best edition of the Anthologia is that of Brunck, in three vols., 4to and 8vo, Strasbourg, 1772.

Mĕleāgrĭdes, the sisters of Meleager, daughters of Œneus and Althæa. They were so disconsolate at the death of their brother Meleager, that they refused all aliments, and were, at the point of death, changed into birds called Meleagrides, whose feathers and eggs, as it is supposed, are of a different colour. The youngest of the sisters, Gorge and Dejanira, who had been married, escaped this metamorphosis. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 540.—Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 26.

Melesander, an Athenian general, who died B.C. 414.

Meles (ētis), a river of Asia Minor, in Ionia, near Smyrna. Some of the ancients supposed that Homer was born on the banks of that river, from which circumstance they call him Melisigènes, and his compositions Meletææ chartæ. It is even supported that he composed his poems in a cave near the source of that river. Strabo, bk. 12.—Statius, bk. 2, Sylvæ, poem 7, li. 34.—Tibullus, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 201.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 5.——A beautiful Athenian youth, greatly beloved by Timagoras, whose affections he repaid with the greatest coldness and indifference. He even ordered Timagoras to leap down a precipice, from the top of the citadel of Athens, and Timagoras, not to disoblige him, obeyed, and was killed in the fall. This token of true friendship and affection had such an effect upon Meles, that he threw himself down from the place, to atone by his death for the ingratitude which he had shown to Timagoras. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 30.——A king of Lydia, who succeeded his father Alyattes, about 747 years before Christ. He was father to Candaules.

Melesigĕnes, or Melesigĕna, a name given to Homer. See: [Meles].

Melia, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Inachus.——A nymph, &c. Apollodorus.——A daughter of Oceanus, sister to Caanthus. She became mother of Ismarus and Tenerus by Apollo. Tenerus was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and the river Ladon in Bœtia assumed the name of Ismarus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 10.——One of the Nereides.——A daughter of Agenor.

Mĕlĭbœa, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Pelasgus.——A daughter of Amphion and Niobe. Apollodorus.——A maritime town of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the foot of mount Ossa, famous for dyeing wool. The epithet of Melibœus is applied to Philoctetes, because he reigned there. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 401; bk. 5, li. 251.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 188.——Also an island at the mouth of the Orontes in Syria, whence Melibœa purpura. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.

Melibœus, a shepherd introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.

Mĕlĭcerta, Melicertes, or Melicertus, a son of Athamas and Ino. He was saved by his mother from the fury of his father, who prepared to dash him against the wall as he had done his brother Learchus. The mother was so terrified that she threw herself into the sea, with Melicerta in her arms. Neptune had compassion on the misfortunes of Ino and her son, and changed them both into sea deities. Ino was called Leucothoe or Matuta, and Melicerta was known among the Greeks by the name of Palæmon, and among the Latins by that of Portumnus. Some suppose that the Isthmian games were in honour of Melicerta. See: [Isthmia]. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 44.—Hyginus, fables 1 & 2.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 529, &c.—Plutarch de Convivium Septem Sapientium.

Meligūnis, one of the Æolian islands near Sicily.

Melīna, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Laomedon by Hercules.

Melīsa, a town of Magna Græcia.

Melissa, a daughter of Melissus king of Crete, who, with her sister Amalthæa, fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. She first found out the means of collecting honey; whence some have imagined that she was changed into a bee, as her name is the Greek word for that insect. Columella.——One of the Oceanides, who married Inachus, by whom she had Phoroneus and Ægialus.——A daughter of Procles, who married Periander the son of Cypselus, by whom, in her pregnancy, she was killed with a blow of his foot, by the false accusation of his concubines. Diogenes Laërtius.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.——A woman of Corinth, who refused to initiate others in the festivals of Ceres, after she had received admission. She was torn to pieces upon this disobedience, and the goddess made a swarm of bees rise from her body.

Melissus, a king of Crete, father to Melissa and Amalthæa. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 13.—Lactantius [Placidus], bk. 1, ch. 22.——An admiral of the Samian fleet, B.C. 441. He was defeated by Pericles, &c. Plutarch, Pericles.——A philosopher of Samos, who maintained that the world was infinite, immovable, and without a vacuum. According to his doctrines, no one could advance any argument upon the power or attributes of Providence, as all human knowledge was weak and imperfect. Themistocles was among his pupils. He flourished about 440 years before the christian era. Diogenes Laërtius.——A freedman of Mecænas, appointed librarian to Augustus. He wrote some comedies. Ovid, ex Ponto, bk. 4, ltr. 16, li. 30.—Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.

Melĭta, an island in the Libyan sea, between Sicily and Africa, now called Malta. The soil was fertile, and the country famous for its wool. It was first peopled by the Phœnicians. St. Paul was shipwrecked there, and cursed all venomous creatures, which now are not to be found in the whole island. Some, however, suppose that the island on which the Apostle was shipwrecked, was another island of the same name in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyricum, now called Melede. Malta is now remarkable as being the residence of the knights of Malta, formerly of St. John of Jerusalem, settled there A.D. 1530, by the concession of Charles V., after their expulsion from Rhodes by the Turks. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, ch. 46.——Another on the coast of Illyricum, in the Adriatic, now Melede. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 26.——An ancient name of Samothrace. Strabo, bk. 10.——One of the Nereides. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 825.

Melitene, a province of Armenia.

Melĭtus, a poet and orator of Athens, who became one of the principal accusers of Socrates. After his eloquence had prevailed, and Socrates had been put ignominiously to death, the Athenians repented of their severity to the philosopher, and condemned his accusers. Melitus perished among them. His character was mean and insidious, and his poems had nothing great or sublime. Diogenes Laërtius.

Spurius Melius, a Roman knight accused of aspiring to tyranny, on account of his uncommon liberality to the populace. He was summoned to appear by the dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, and when he refused to obey, he was put to death by Ahala the master of horse, A.U.C. 314.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 6, ch. 3.

Melixandrus, a Milesian, who wrote an account of the wars of the Lapithæ and Centaurs. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 11, ch. 2.

Mella, or Mela, a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Ollius, and with it into the Po. Catullus, poem 68, li. 33.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 278.

Mella Annæus, the father of Lucan. He was accused of being privy to Piso’s conspiracy against Nero, upon which he opened his veins. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 16, ch. 17.

Melobōsis, one of the Oceanides.

Melon, an astrologer, who feigned madness and burnt his house that he might not go to an expedition, which he knew would be attended with great calamities.——An interpreter of king Darius. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 13.

Melos, now Milo, an island between Crete and Peloponnesus, about 24 miles from Scyllæum, about 60 miles in circumference, and of an oblong figure. It enjoyed its independence for above 700 years before the time of the Peloponnesian war. This island was originally peopled by a Lacedæmonian colony, 1116 years before the christian era. From this reason the inhabitants refused to join the rest of the islands and the Athenians against the Peloponnesians. This refusal was severely punished. The Athenians took Melos, and put to the sword all such as were able to bear arms. The women and children were made slaves, and the island left desolate. An Athenian colony repeopled it, till Lysander reconquered it and re-established the original inhabitants in their possessions. The island produced a kind of earth successfully employed in painting and medicine. Strabo, bk. 7.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 35, ch. 9.—Thucydides, bk. 2, &c.

Melpes, now Melpa, a river of Lucania, falling into the Tyrrhene sea. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.

Melpia, a village of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 38.

Melpŏmĕne, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. She presided over tragedy. Horace has addressed the finest of his odes to her, as to the patroness of lyric poetry. She was generally represented as a young woman with a serious countenance. Her garments were splendid; she wore a buskin, and held a dagger in one hand, and in the other a sceptre and crowns. Horace, bk. 3, ode 4.—Hesiod, Theogony.

Memaceni, a powerful nation of Asia, &c. Curtius.

Memmia Sulpitia, a woman who married the emperor Alexander Severus. She died when young.

Memmia lex, ordained that no one should be entered on the calendar of criminals who was absent on the public account.

Memmius, a Roman citizen, accused of ambitus. Cicero, Letters to his brother Quintus, bk. 3.——A Roman knight, who rendered himself illustrious for his eloquence and poetical talents. He was made tribune, pretor, and afterwards governor of Bithynia. He was accused of extortion in his province, and banished by Julius Cæsar, though Cicero undertook his defence. Lucretius dedicated his poem to him. Cicero, Brutus.——Regulus, a Roman of whom Nero observed, that he deserved to be invested with the imperial purple. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 47.——A Roman who accused Jugurtha before the Roman people.——A lieutenant of Pompey, &c.——The family of the Memmii were plebeians. They were descended, according to some accounts, from Mnestheus the friend of Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 117.

Memnon, a king of Æthiopia, son of Tithonus and Aurora. He came with a body of 10,000 men to assist his uncle Priam, during the Trojan war, where he behaved with great courage, and killed Antilochus, Nestor’s son. The aged father challenged the Æthiopian monarch, but Memnon refused it on account of the venerable age of Nestor, and accepted that of Achilles. He was killed in the combat, in the sight of the Grecian and Trojan armies. Aurora was so disconsolate at the death of her son, that she flew to Jupiter all bathed in tears, and begged the god to grant her son such honours as might distinguish him from other mortals. Jupiter consented, and immediately a numerous flight of birds issued from the burning pile on which the body was laid, and after they had flown three times round the flames, they divided themselves into two separate bodies, and fought with such acrimony, that above half of them fell down into the fire, as victims to appease the manes of Memnon. These birds were called Memnonides; and it has been observed by some of the ancients, that they never failed to return yearly to the tomb of Memnon in Troas, and repeat the same bloody engagement, in honour of the hero, from whom they received their name. The Æthiopians or Egyptians, over whom Memnon reigned, erected a celebrated statue to the honour of their monarch. This statue had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious sound every day, at sun-rising, like that which is heard at the breaking of the string of a harp when it is wound up. This was effected by the rays of the sun when they fell upon it. At the setting of the sun, and in the night the sound was lugubrious. This is supported by the testimony of the geographer Strabo, who confesses himself ignorant whether it proceeded from the basis of the statue, or the people that were then round it. This celebrated statue was dismantled by order of Cambyses, when he conquered Egypt, and its ruins still astonish modern travellers by their grandeur and beauty. Memnon was the inventor of the alphabet, according to Anticlides, a writer mentioned by Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56. Moschus, Epitaphios Bionis.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 578, &c.—Ælian, bk. 5, ch. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 31.—Strabo, bks. 13 & 17.—Juvenal, satire 15, li. 5.—Philostratus, on Apollodorus.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 7.—Homer, Odyssey, bk. 9.—Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus].——A general of the Persian forces, when Alexander invaded Asia. He distinguished himself for his attachment to the interest of Darius, his valour in the field, the soundness of his counsels, and his great sagacity. He defended Milotus against Alexander, and died in the midst of his successful enterprises, B.C. 333. His wife Barsine was taken prisoner with the wife of Darius. Diodorus, bk. 16.——A governor of Cœlosyria.——A man appointed governor of Thrace by Alexander.——A man who wrote a history of Heraclea in Pontus, in the age of Augustus.

Memphis, a celebrated town of Egypt, on the western banks of the Nile, above the Delta. It once contained many beautiful temples, particularly those of the god Apis (bos Memphites), whose worship was observed with the greatest ceremonies. See: [Apis]. It was in the neighbourhood of Memphis that those famous pyramids were built, whose grandeur and beauty still astonish the modern traveller. These noble monuments of Egyptian vanity, which pass for one of the wonders of the world, are about 20 in number, three of which, by their superior size, particularly claim attention. The largest of these is 481 feet in height measured perpendicularly, and the area of its basis is on 480,249 square feet, or something more than 11 English acres of ground. It has steps all round with massy and polished stones, so large that the breadth and depth of every step is one single stone. The smallest stone, according to an ancient historian, is not less than 30 feet. The number of steps, according to modern observation, amounts to 208, a number which is not always adhered to by travellers. The place where Memphis formerly stood is not now known; the ruins of its fallen grandeur were conveyed to Alexandria to beautify its palaces, or to adorn the neighbouring cities. Tibullus, bk. 1, poem 7, li. 28.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 660.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.—Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, bk. 8.——A nymph, daughter of the Nile, who married Ephesus, by whom she had Libya. She gave her name to the celebrated city of Memphis. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.——The wife of Danaus. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 1.

Memphītis, a son of Ptolemy Physcon king of Egypt. He was put to death by his father.

Mena, a goddess worshipped at Rome, and supposed to preside over the monthly infirmities of women. She was the same as Juno. According to some, the sacrifices offered to her were young puppies that still sucked their mother. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 2.—Pliny, bk. 29, ch. 4.

Mena, or Menes, the first king of Egypt, according to some accounts.

Menalcas, a shepherd in Virgil’s eclogues.

Menalcĭdas, an intriguing Lacedæmonian in the time of the famous Achæan league. He was accused before the Romans, and he killed himself.

Menalippe, a sister of Antiope queen of the Amazons, taken by Hercules when that hero made war against this celebrated nation. She was ransomed, and Hercules received in exchange the arms and belt of the queen. Juvenal, satire 8, li. 229.——A daughter of the centaur Chiron, beloved and ravished by Æolus son of Hellen. She retired into the woods to hide her disgrace from the eyes of her father, and when she had brought forth she entreated the gods to remove her totally from the pursuits of Chiron. She was changed into a mare, and called Ocyroe. Some suppose that she assumed the name of Menalippe, and lost that of Ocyroe. She became a constellation after death, called the horse. Some authors call her Hippe, or Evippe. Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Pollux, bk. 4.——Menalippe is a name common to other persons, but it is generally spelt Melanippe by the best authors. See: [Melanippe].

Menalippus. See: [Melanippus].

Menander, a celebrated comic poet of Athens, educated under Theophrastus. He was universally esteemed by the Greeks, and received the appellation of Prince of the New Comedy. He did not disgrace his compositions, like Aristophanes, by mean and indecent reflections and illiberal satire, but his writings were replete with elegance, refined wit, and judicious observations. Of 108 comedies which he wrote, nothing remains but a few fragments. It is said that Terence translated all these, and indeed we may have cause to lament the loss of such valuable writings, when we are told by the ancients that the elegant Terence, so much admired, was in the opinion of his countrymen reckoned inferior to Menander. It is said that Menander drowned himself in the 52nd year of his age, B.C. 293, because the compositions of his rival Philemon obtained more applause than his own. Only eight of his numerous comedies were rewarded with a poetical prize. The name of his father was Diopythus, and that of his mother Hegistrata. His fragments, with those of Philemon, were published by Clericus, 8vo, 1709. Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 16.——A man who wrote an account of embassies, &c.——A king of Bactria, whose ashes were divided among his subjects, &c.——An historian of Ephesus.——Another of Pergamus.——An Athenian general defeated at Ægospotamos by Lysander.——An Athenian sent to Sicily with Nicias.——A man put to death by Alexander for deserting a fortress of which he had the command.——An officer under Mithridates, sent against Lucullus.

Menapii, a people of Belgic Gaul, near the Mosa. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Menapis, a Persian exile, made satrap of Hyrcania by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 4.

Menas, a freedman of Pompey the Great, who distinguished himself by the active and perfidious part which he took in the civil wars which were kindled between the younger Pompey and Augustus. When Pompey invited Augustus to his galley, Menas advised his master to seize the person of his enemy, and at the same time the Roman empire, by cutting the cables of his ship. “No,” replied Pompey, “I would have approved of the measure if you had done it without consulting me; but I scorn to break my word.” Suetonius, Octavius Augustus. Horace, epode 4, has ridiculed the pride of Menas, and recalled to his mind his former meanness and obscurity.

Menchēres, the twelfth king of Memphis.

Mendes, a city of Egypt, near Lycopolis, on one of the mouths of the Nile, called the Mendesian mouth. Pan, under the form of a goat, was worshipped there with the greatest solemnity. It was unlawful to kill one of these animals, with which the Egyptians were not ashamed to have public commerce, to the disgrace of human nature, from the superstitious notion that such embraces had given birth to the greatest heroes of antiquity, as Alexander, Scipio, &c. Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 42 & 46.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Diodorus, bk. 1.

Menĕcles, an orator of Alabanda in Caria, who settled at Rhodes. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2, ch. 53.—Strabo, bk. 14.

Meneclides, a detractor of the character of Epaminondas. Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas.

Menecrătes, a physician of Syracuse, famous for his vanity and arrogance. He was generally accompanied by some of his patients, whose disorders he had cured. He disguised one in the habit of Apollo, and the other in that of Æsculapius, while he reserved for himself the title and name of Jupiter, whose power was extended over those inferior deities. He crowned himself like the master of the gods; and in a letter which he wrote to Philip king of Macedon, he styled himself in these words, Menecrates Jupiter to king Philip, greeting. The Macedonian monarch answered, Philip to Menecrates, greeting, and better sense. Philip also invited him to one of his feasts, but when the meats were served up, a table was put separate for the physician, on which he was served only with perfumes and frankincense, like the father of the gods. This entertainment displeased Menecrates; he remembered that he was a mortal, and hurried away from the company. He lived about 360 years before the christian era. The book which he wrote on cures is lost. Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 10, ch. 51.—Athenæus, bk. 7, ch. 13.——One of the generals of Seleucus.——A physician under Tiberius.——A Greek historian of Nysa, disciple to Aristarchus, B.C. 119. Strabo, bk. 16.——An Ephesian architect who wrote on agriculture. Varro, de Re Rustica.——An historian.——A man appointed to settle the disputes of the Athenians and Lacedæmonians in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. His father’s name was Amphidorus.——An officer in the fleet of Pompey the son of Pompey the Great.

Menedēmus, an officer of Alexander, killed by the [♦]Dahæ. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 6.——A Socratic philosopher of Eretria, who was originally a tent-maker, an employment which he left for the profession of arms. The persuasive eloquence and philosophical lectures of Plato had such an influence over him, that he gave up his offices in the state to cultivate literature. It is said that he died through melancholy when Antigonus, one of Alexander’s generals, had made himself master of his country, B.C. 301, in the 74th year of his age. Some attribute his death to a different cause, and say that he was falsely accused of treason, for which he became so desperate that he died, after he had passed seven days without taking any aliments. He was called the Eretrian Bull, on account of his gravity. Strabo, bk. 9.—Diogenes Laërtius.——A cynic philosopher of Lampsacus, who said that he was come from hell to observe the sins and wickedness of mankind. His habit was that of the furies, and his behaviour was a proof of his insanity. He was the disciple of Colotes of Lampsacus. Diogenes Laërtius.——An officer of Lucullus.——A philosopher of Athens. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 19.

[♦] ‘Danæ’ replaced with ‘Dahæ’

Menegetas, a boxer or wrestler in Philip of Macedon’s army, &c. Polyænus.

Menĕlāi portus, a harbour on the coast of Africa, between Cyrene and Egypt. Cornelius Nepos, Agesilaus, ch. 8.—Strabo, bk. 1.——Mons, a hill near Sparta, with a fortification, called Menelaium. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 28.

Mĕnĕlāia, a festival celebrated at Therapnæ in Laconia, in honour of Menelaus. He had there a temple, where he was worshipped with his wife Helen, as one of the supreme gods.

Mĕnĕlāus, a king of Sparta, brother to Agamemnon. His father’s name was Atreus, according to Homer, or, according to the more probable opinion of Hesiod, Apollodorus, &c., he was the son of Plisthenes and Ærope. See: [Plisthenes]. He was educated with his brother Agamemnon in the house of Atreus, but soon after the death of this monarch, Thyestes his brother usurped the kingdom, and banished the two children of Plisthenes. Menelaus and Agamemnon came to the court of Œneus king of Calydonia, who treated them with tenderness and paternal care. From Calydonia they went to Sparta, where, like the rest of the Grecian princes, they solicited the marriage of Helen the daughter of king Tyndarus. By the artifice and advice of Ulysses, Helen was permitted to choose a husband, and she fixed her eyes upon Menelaus, and married him, after her numerous suitors had solemnly bound themselves by an oath to defend her, and protect her person against the violence or assault of every intruder. See: [Helena]. As soon as the nuptials were celebrated, [♦]Tyndarus resigned the crown to his son-in-law, and their happiness was complete. This was, however, of short duration; Helen was the fairest woman of the age, and Venus had promised Paris the son of Priam to reward him with such a beauty. See: [Paris]. The arrival of Paris in Sparta was the cause of great revolutions. The absence of Menelaus in Crete gave opportunities to the Trojan prince to corrupt the fidelity of Helen, and to carry away home what the goddess of beauty had promised to him as his due. This action was highly resented by Menelaus; he reminded the Greek princes of their oath and solemn engagements when they courted the daughter of Tyndarus, and immediately all Greece took up arms to defend his cause. The combined forces assembled at Aulis in Bœotia, where they chose Agamemnon for their general, and Calchas for their high priest; and after their applications to the court of Priam for the recovery of Helen had proved fruitless, they marched to meet their enemies in the field. During the Trojan war Menelaus behaved with great spirit and courage, and Paris must have fallen by his hand, had not Venus interposed and redeemed him from certain death. He also expressed his wish to engage Hector, but Agamemnon hindered him from fighting so powerful an adversary. In the tenth year of the Trojan war, Helen, as it is reported, obtained the forgiveness and the good graces of Menelaus by introducing him with Ulysses, the night that Troy was reduced to ashes, into the chamber of Deiphobus, whom she had married after the death of Paris. This perfidious conduct totally reconciled her to her first husband; and she returned with him to Sparta, during a voyage of eight years. He died some time after his return. He had a daughter called Hermione, and Nicostratus, according to some, by Helen, and a son called Megapenthes by a concubine. Some say that Menelaus went to Egypt on his return from the Trojan war to obtain Helen, who had been detained there by the king of the country. See: [Helena]. The palace which Menelaus once inhabited was still entire in the days of Pausanias, as well as the temple which had been raised to his memory by the people of Sparta. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4, &c.; Iliad, bk. 1, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Pausanias, bk. 3, chs. 14 & 19.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, &c.—Quintus Smyrnæus bk. 14.—Ovid, Heroides, poems 5 & 13.—Hyginus fable 79.—Euripides, Iphigeneia.—Propertius, bk. 2.—Sophocles.——A lieutenant of Ptolemy, set over Salamis. Polyænus.—Pausanias.——A city of Egypt. Strabo, bk. 14.——A mathematician in the age of the emperor Trajan.

[♦] ‘Tyndaros’ replaced with ‘Tyndarus’

Menēnius Agrippa, a celebrated Roman who appeased the Roman populace in the infancy of the consular government by repeating the well-known fable of the belly and limbs. He flourished 495 B.C. Livy, bk. 2, chs. 16, 32, 33.——A Roman consul.——An insane person in the age of Horace.

Menĕphron, a man who attempted to offer violence to his own mother. He was changed into a wild beast. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 387.

Mēnes, the first king of Egypt. He built the town of Memphis, as is generally supposed, and deserved, by his abilities and popularity, to be called a god after death. Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 90.—Diodorus, bk. 1.

Menesthēi portus, a town of Hispania [♦]Bætica.

[♦] ‘Bœtica’ replaced with ‘Bætica’

Menesteus, Menestheus, or Mnestheus, a son of Pereus, who so insinuated himself into the favour of the people of Athens, that, during the long absence of Theseus, he was elected king. The lawful monarch at his return home was expelled, and Mnestheus established his usurpation by his popularity and great moderation. As he had been one of Helen’s suitors, he went to the Trojan war at the head of the people of Athens, and died in his return in the island of Melos. He reigned 23 years B.C. 1205, and was succeeded by Demophoon the son of Theseus. Plutarch, Theseus.——A son of Iphicrates, who distinguished himself in the Athenian armies. Cornelius Nepos, Timoleon.

Menesthius, a Greek killed by Paris in the Trojan war.

Menetas, a man set governor over Babylon by Alexander. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Meninx, or Lotophagītis insula, now Zerbi, an island on the coast of Africa, near the Syrtis Minor. It was peopled by the people of Neritos, and thence called Neritia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 17.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 318.

Menippa, one of the Amazons who assisted Ætes, &c.

Menippides, a son of Hercules. Apollodorus.

Menippus, a cynic philosopher of Phœnicia. He was originally a slave, and obtained his liberty with a sum of money, and became one of the greatest usurers at Thebes. He grew so desperate from the continual reproaches and insults to which he was daily exposed on account of his meanness, that he destroyed himself. He wrote 13 books of satires, which have been lost. Marcus Varro composed satires in imitation of his style, and called them Menippean.——A native of Stratonice, who was preceptor to Cicero for some time. Cicero, Brutus, ch. 91.

Menius, a plebeian consul at Rome. He was the first who made the rostrum at Rome with the beaks (rostra) of the enemy’s ships.——A son of Lycaon, killed by the same thunderbolt which destroyed his father. Ovid, Ibis, li. 472.

Mennis, a town of Assyria abounding in bitumen. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 1.

Menodŏtus, a physician.——A Samian historian.

Menœceus, a Theban, father of Hipponome, Jocasta, and Creon.——A young Theban, son of Creon. He offered himself to death when Tiresias, to ensure victory on the side of Thebes against the Argive forces, ordered the Thebans to sacrifice one of the descendants of those who sprang from the dragon’s teeth, and he killed himself near the cave where the dragon of Mars had formerly resided. The gods required this sacrifice because the dragon had been killed by Cadmus, and no sooner was Creon dead than his countrymen obtained the victory. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 10, li. 614.—Euripides, Phœnician Women.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 6.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 98.—Sophocles, Antigone.

Menœtes, the pilot of the ship Gyas, at the naval games exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his father’s death. He was thrown into the sea by Gyas for his inattention, and saved himself by swimming to a rock. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 161, &c.——An Arcadian, killed by Turnus in the wars of Æneas. Æneid, bk. 12, li. 517.

Menœtiades. See: [Menœtius].

Menœtius, a son of Actor and Ægina after her amour with Jupiter. He left his mother and went to Opus, where he had, by Sthenele, or, according to others, by Philomela or Polymela, Patroclus, often called from him Menœtiades. Menœtius was one of the Argonauts. Apollodorus, bk. 4, ch. 24.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, li. 307.—Hyginus, fable 97.

Menon, a Thessalian commander in the expedition of Cyrus the younger against his brother Artaxerxes. He was dismissed on the suspicion that he had betrayed his fellow-soldiers. Diodorus, bk. 14.——A Thessalian refused the freedom of Athens, though he furnished a number of auxiliaries to the people.——The husband of Semiramis.——A sophist in the age of Socrates.——One of the first kings of Phrygia. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.——A scholar of Phidias, &c.

Menophĭlus, a eunuch to whom Mithridates, when conquered by Pompey, entrusted the care of his daughter. Menophilus murdered the princess for fear of her falling into the enemy’s hands. Ammianus, bk. 16.

Menta, or Minthe. See: [Minthe].

Mentes, a king of the Taphians in Ætolia, son of Anchialus, in the time of the Trojan war.

Mentissa, a town of Spain. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 17.

Mento, a Roman consul, &c.

Mentor, a faithful friend of Ulysses.——A son of Hercules.——A king of Sidonia, who revolted against Artaxerxes Ochus, and afterwards was restored to favour by his treachery to his allies, &c. Diodorus, bk. 16.——An excellent artist in polishing cups and engraving flowers on them. Pliny, bk. 33, ch. 11.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 63, ltr. 16.

Menyllus, a Macedonian set over the garrison which Antipater had stationed at Athens. He attempted in vain to corrupt the innocence of Phocion. Plutarch.

Mera, a priest of Venus. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 8, li. 478.——A dog of Icarius, which by his cries showed Erigone where her murdered father had been thrown. Immediately after this discovery the daughter hung herself in despair, and the dog pined away, and was made a constellation in the heavens known by the name of Canis. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 363.—Hyginus, fable 130.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 7, ch. 28.

Mera, or Mœra, one of the Atlantides, who married Tegeates son of Lycaon. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 48.

Mercurii promontorium, a cape of Africa near Clypea. Livy, bk. 26, ch. 44; bk. 29, ch. 27.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 4.

Mercŭrius, a celebrated god of antiquity, called Hermes by the Greeks. There were no less than five of this name according to Cicero; a son of Cœlus and Lux; a son of Valens and Coronis; a son of the Nile; a son of Jupiter and Maia; and another called by the Egyptians Thaut. Some add a sixth, a son of Bacchus and Proserpine. To the son of Jupiter and Maia, the actions of all the others have been probably attributed, as he is the most famous and the best known. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and of Jupiter in particular; he was the patron of travellers and of shepherds; he conducted the souls of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over orators, merchants, declaimers, but he was also the god of thieves, pickpockets, and all dishonest persons. His name is derived a mercibus, because he was the god of merchandise among the Latins. He was born, according to the more received opinion, in Arcadia, on mount Cyllene, and in his infancy he was entrusted to the care of the Seasons. The day that he was born, or more probably the following day, he gave an early proof of his craftiness and dishonesty, in stealing away the oxen of Admetus which Apollo tended. He gave another proof of his thievish propensity, by taking also the quiver and arrows of the divine shepherd, and he increased his fame by robbing Neptune of his trident, Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his sceptre, and Vulcan of many of his mechanical instruments. These specimens of his art recommended him to the notice of the gods, and Jupiter took him as his messenger, interpreter, and cup-bearer in the assembly of the gods. This last office he discharged till the promotion of Ganymede. He was presented by the king of heaven with a winged cap called petasus, and with wings for his feet called talaria. He had also a short sword called herpe, which he lent to Perseus. With these he was enabled to go into whatever part of the universe he pleased with the greatest celerity; and besides, he was permitted to make himself invisible, and to assume whatever shape he pleased. As messenger of Jupiter he was entrusted with all his secrets. He was the ambassador and plenipotentiary of the gods, and he was concerned in all alliances and treaties. He was the confidant of Jupiter’s amours, and he often was set to watch over the jealousy and intrigues of Juno. The invention of the lyre and its seven strings is ascribed to him. This he gave to Apollo, and received in exchange the celebrated caduceus with which the god of poetry used to drive the flocks of king Admetus. See: [Caduceus]. In the wars of the giants against the gods, Mercury showed himself brave, spirited, and active. He delivered Mars from the long confinement which he suffered from the superior power of the Aloides. He purified the Danaides of the murder of their husbands, he tied Ixion to his wheel in the infernal regions, he destroyed the hundred-eyed Argus, he sold Hercules to Omphale the queen of Lydia, he conducted Priam to the tent of Achilles, to redeem the body of his son Hector, and he carried the infant Bacchus to the nymphs of Nysa. Mercury had many surnames and epithets. He was called Cyllenius, Caduceator, Acacetos, from Acacos, an Arcadian; Acacesius, Tricephalos, Triplex, Chthonius, Camillus, Agoneus, Delius, Arcas, &c. His children are also numerous as well as his amours. He was father of Autolycus by Chione; of Myrtillus by Cleobula; of Libys by Libya; of Echion and Eurytus by Antianira; of Cephalus by Creusa; of Prylis by Issa; and of Priapus, according to some. He was also father of Hermaphroditus by Venus; of Eudorus by Polimela; of Pan by Dryope, or Penelope. His worship was well established, particularly in Greece, Egypt, and Italy. He was worshipped at Tanagra in Bœotia, under the name of Criophorus, and represented as carrying a ram on his shoulders, because he delivered the inhabitants from a pestilence by telling them to carry a ram in that manner round the walls of their city. The Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival on the 15th of May, in honour of Mercury, in a temple near the Circus Maximus. A pregnant sow was then sacrificed, and sometimes a calf and particularly the tongues of animals were offered. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water with laurel leaves, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive whatever artful measures, false oaths, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pursuit of gain. Sometimes Mercury appears on monuments with a large cloak round his arm, or tied under his chin. The chief ensigns of his power and offices are his caduceus, his petasus, and his talaria. Sometimes he is represented sitting upon a crayfish, holding in one hand his caduceus, and in the other the claws of the fish. At other times he is like a young man without a beard, holding in one hand a purse, as being the tutelary god of merchants, with a cock on his wrists as an emblem of vigilance, and at his feet a goat, a scorpion, and a fly. Some of his statues represented him as a youth fascino erecto. Sometimes he rests his foot upon a tortoise. In Egypt his statues represented him with the head of a dog, whence he was often confounded with Anubis, and received the sacrifice of a stork. Offerings of milk and honey were made because he was the god of eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. The Greeks and Romans offered tongues to him by throwing them into the fire, as he was the patron of speaking of which the tongue is the organ. Sometimes his statues represent him as without arms, because, according to some, the power of speech can prevail over everything, even without the assistance of arms. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 1, &c.; Iliad, bk. 1, &c.; Hymn to Hermes.—Lucian, Dialogi Mortuorum.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 5, li. 667; Metamorphoses, bks. 1, 4, 11, 14.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 35.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bks. 1, 7, 8, & 9.—Orpheus.—Plutarch, Numa.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 6.—Plato, Phædras.—Livy, bk. 36.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1; Æneid, bk. 1, li. 48.—Diodorus, bks. 4 & 5.—Apollodorus, bks. 1, 2, & 3.—Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 10.—Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, bk. 2.—Tzetzes, Lycophron, li. 219.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum.—Lactantius [Placidus].—Philostratus, bk. 1, Imagines, ch. 27.—Marcus Manilius.—Macrobius, bk. 1, Saturnalia, ch. 19.——Trismegistus, a priest and philosopher of Egypt, who taught his countrymen how to cultivate the olive, and measure their lands, and to understand hieroglyphics. He lived in the age of Osiris, and wrote 40 books on theology, medicine, and geography, from which Sanchoniathon the Phœnician historian has taken his theogonia. Diodorus, bks. 1, & 5.—Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride.—Cicero, bk. 3, de Natura Deorum.

Merĕtrix, a name under which Venus was worshipped at Abydos and at Samos, because both those places had been benefited by the intrigues or the influence of courtesans. Athenæus, bk. 13.

Mēriŏnes, a charioteer of Idomeneus king of Crete during the Trojan war, son of Molus, a Cretan prince, and Melphidis. He signalized himself before Troy, and fought with Deiphobus the son of Priam, whom he wounded. He was greatly admired by the Cretans, who even paid him divine honours after death. Horace, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 15.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, &c.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, fable 1.——A brother of Jason son of Æson, famous for his great opulence and for his avarice. Polyænus, bk. 6, ch. 1.

Mermĕros, a centaur. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 305.——A Trojan, killed by Antilochus.——A son of Jason and Medea, who was father to Ilus of Corinth. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 3.

Mermnadæ, a race of kings in Lydia, of which Gyges was the first. They sat on the Lydian throne till the reign of Crœsus, who was conquered by Cyrus king of Persia. They were descendants of the Heraclidæ, and probably received the name of Mermnadæ from Mermnas, one of their own family. They were descended from Lemnos, or, according to others, from Agelaus, the son of Omphale by Hercules. Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 14.

Meroe, now Nuabia, an island of Æthiopia, with a town of the same name, celebrated for its wines. Its original name was Saba, and Cambyses gave it that of Meroe from his sister. Strabo, bk. 17.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 31.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 173.—Mela, bk. 1.—Lucan, bk. 4, lis. 3, 33; bk. 10, lis. 163 & 303.

Merŏpe, one of the Atlantides. She married Sisyphus son of Æolus, and, like her sisters, was changed into a constellation after death. See: [Pleiades]. It is said, that in the constellation of the Pleiades the star of Merope appears more dim and obscure than the rest, because she, as the poets observe, married a mortal, while her sisters married some of the gods or their descendants. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 175.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 192.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.——A daughter of Cypselus, who married Cresphontes king of Messenia, by whom she had three children. Her husband and two of her children were murdered by Polyphontes. The murderer obliged her to marry him, and she would have been forced to comply had not Epytus or Telephontes, her third son, revenged his father’s death by assassinating Polyphontes. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 3.——A daughter of Œnopion, beloved by Orion. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 4.——A daughter of the Cebrenus, who married Æsacus the son of Priam.——A daughter of Erechtheus, mother of Dædalus. Plutarch, Theseus.——A daughter of Pandarus.——A daughter of the river Sangarius, who married king Priam.

Merops, a king of the island of Cos, who married Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was changed into an eagle and placed among the constellations. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 763.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Hyginus, Poetica astronomica, bk. 2, ch. 16.——A celebrated soothsayer of Percosus in Troas, who foretold the death of his sons Adrastus and Amphius, who were engaged in the Trojan war. They slighted their father’s advice, and were killed by Diomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2.——One of the companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 702.

Meros, a mountain of India sacred to Jupiter. It is called by Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 21, Nysa. Bacchus was educated upon it, whence arose the fable that Bacchus was confined in the thigh (μηρος) of his father. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 13.—Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 10.—Diodorus, bk. 1.

Merŭla Cornelius, a Roman who fought against the Gauls, and who was made consul by Octavius in the place of Cinna. He some time after killed himself in despair, &c. Plutarch.

Mesabătes, a eunuch in Persia, flayed alive by order of Parysatis, because he had cut off the head and right hand of Cyrus. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.

Mesabius, a mountain of Bœotia, hanging over the Euripus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 22.

Mesapia, an ancient name of Bœotia.

Mesaubius, a servant of Eumæus the steward of Ulysses. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 14, li. 449.

Mesembria, now Miseuria, a maritime city of Thrace. Hence Mesembriacus. Ovid, bk. 1, Tristia, bk. 6, li. 37.——Another at the mouth of the Lissus.

Mesene, an island in the Tigris where Apamea was built, now Disel. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 27.

Mesomēdes, a lyric poet in the age of the emperor Antoninus.

Mesopotămia, a country of Asia, which receives its name from its situation (μεσος ποταμος) between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It is yearly inundated by the Euphrates, and the water properly conveyed over the country by canals. It is now called Diarbec. Strabo, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 11.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 2, ch. 52.

Messāla, a name of Valerius Corvinus, from his having conquered Messana in Sicily. This family was very ancient; the most celebrated was a friend of Brutus, who seized the camp of Augustus at Philippi. He was afterwards reconciled to Augustus, and died A.D. 9, in his 77th year. Plutarch.——Another consul, &c.——The father of Valeria, who married the dictator Sylla. Plutarch.——A great flatterer at the court of Tiberius.——A governor of Syria.——A tribune in one of the Roman legions during the civil war between Vespasian and Vitellius, of which he wrote an historical account mentioned by Tacitus, Dialogue on Oratory, ch. 14.——A consul with Domitius, &c.——A painter at Rome, who flourished B.C. 235.——A writer, whose book de Augusti progenie was edited 12mo, Leiden, 1648.

Messalīna Valeria, a daughter of Messala Barbatus. She married the emperor Claudius, and disgraced herself by her cruelties and incontinence. Her husband’s palace was not the only seat of her lasciviousness, but she prostituted herself in the public streets, and few men there were at Rome who could not boast of having enjoyed the favours of the impure Messalina. Her extravagancies at last irritated her husband; he commanded her to appear before him to answer all the accusations which were brought against her, upon which she attempted to destroy herself, and when her courage failed, one of the tribunes, who had been sent to her, despatched her with his sword, A.D. 48. It is in speaking of her debaucheries and lewdness that a celebrated satirist says,

Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.

Juvenal.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 11, ch. 37.—Suetonius, Claudius.—Dio Cassius.——Another, called also Statilia. She was descended from a consular family, and married the consul Atticus Vistinus, whom Nero murdered. She received with great marks of tenderness her husband’s murderer and married him. She had married four husbands before she came to the imperial throne; and after the death of Nero she retired to literary pursuits and peaceful occupations. Otho courted her, and would have married her had he not destroyed himself. In his last moments he wrote her a very pathetic and consolatory letter, &c. Tacitus, Annals.

Messālīnus Marcus Valerius, a Roman officer in the reign of Tiberius. He was appointed governor of Dalmatia, and rendered himself known by his opposition to Piso, and by his attempts to persuade the Romans of the necessity of suffering women to accompany the camps on their different expeditions. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 3.——One of Domitian’s informers.——A flatterer of the emperor Tiberius.

Messāna, an ancient and celebrated town of Sicily, on the straits which separate Italy from Sicily. It was anciently called Zancle, and was founded 1600 years before the christian era. The inhabitants, being continually exposed to the depredation of the people of Cuma, implored the assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and with them repelled the enemy. After this victorious campaign, the Messenians entered Zancle, and lived in such intimacy with the inhabitants that they changed their name, and assumed that of the Messenians, and called their city Messana. Another account say that Anaxilaus tyrant of Rhegium made war against the Zancleans, with the assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and that after he had obtained a decisive victory, he called the conquered city Messana in compliment to his allies, about 494 years before the christian era. After this revolution at Zancle, the Mamertini took possession of it, and made it the capital of the neighbouring country. See: [Mamertini]. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Romans, and was for some time the chief of their possessions in Sicily. The inhabitants were called Messanii, Messanienses, and Mamertini. The straits of Messana have always been looked upon as very dangerous, especially by the ancients, on account of the rapidity of the currents, and the irregular and violent flowing and ebbing of the sea. Strabo, bk. 6.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 23.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 7, ch. 28.

Messapia, a country of Italy, between Tarentum and Brundusium. It is the same as Calabria. It received its name from Messapus the son of Neptune, who left a part of Bœotia called Messapia, and came to Italy, where he assisted the Rutulians against Æneas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 513.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 691; bk. 8, li. 6; bk. 9, li. 27.

Messatis, a town of Achaia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 18.

Messe, a town in the island of Cythera. Statius, bk. 1, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 226.

Messeis, a fountain of Thessaly. Strabo, bk. 9.

Messēne, a daughter of Triopas king of Argos, who married Polycaon, son of Lelex king of Laconia. She encouraged her husband to levy troops, and to seize a part of Peloponnesus, which, after it had been conquered, received her name. She received divine honours after her death, and had a magnificent temple at Ithome, where her statue was made half of gold and half of Parian marble. Pausanias, bk. 4, chs. 1 & 13.

Messēne, or Messēna, now Maura-Matra, a city in the Peloponnesus, the capital of the country called Messenia. The inhabitants have rendered themselves famous for the war which they carried on against the Spartans, and which received the appellation of the Messenian war. The first Messenian war arose from the following circumstances. The Messenians offered violence to some Spartan women, who had assembled to offer sacrifices in a temple which was common to both nations, and which stood on the borders of their respective territories; and, besides, they killed Teleclus the Spartan king, who attempted to defend the innocence of the females. This account, according to the Spartan traditions, is contradicted by the Messenians, who observe that Teleclus, with a chosen body of Spartans, assembled at the temple before mentioned, disguised in women’s clothes, and all secretly armed with daggers. This hostile preparation was to surprise some of the neighbouring inhabitants; and in a quarrel which soon after arose, Teleclus and his associates were all killed. These quarrels were the cause of the first Messenian war, which began B.C. 743. It was carried on with vigour and spirit on both sides, and after many obstinate and bloody battles had been fought and continued for 19 years, it was at last finished by the taking of Ithome by the Spartans, a place which had stood a siege of 10 years, and been defended with all the power of the Messenians. The insults to which the conquered Messenians were continually exposed at last excited their resentment, and they resolved to shake off the yoke. They suddenly revolted, and the second Messenian war was begun 685 B.C., and continued 14 years. The Messenians at first gained some advantage, but a fatal battle in the third year of the war so totally disheartened them, that they fled to Ira, where they resolved to maintain an obstinate siege against their victorious pursuers. The Spartans were assisted by the Samians in besieging Ira, and the Messenians were at last obliged to submit to the superior power of their adversaries. The taking of Ira by the Lacedæmonians, after a siege of 11 years, put an end to the second Messenian war. Peace was re-established for some time in Peloponnesus, but after the expiration of 200 years, the Messenians attempted a third time to free themselves from the power of Lacedæmon, B.C. 465. At that time the Helots had revolted from the Spartans, and the Messenians, by joining their forces to these wretched slaves, looked upon their respective calamities as common, and thought themselves closely interested in each other’s welfare. The Lacedæmonians were assisted by the Athenians, but they soon grew jealous of one another’s power, and their political connection ended in the most inveterate enmity, and at last in open war. Ithome was the place in which the Messenians had a second time gathered all their forces, and though 10 years had already elapsed, both parties seemed equally confident of victory. The Spartans were afraid of storming Ithome, as the oracle of Delphi had threatened them with the greatest calamities if they offered any violence to a place which was dedicated to the service of Apollo. The Messenians, however, were soon obliged to submit to their victorious adversaries, B.C. 453, and they consented to leave their native country, and totally to depart from the Peloponnesus, solemnly promising that if they ever returned into Messenia, they would suffer themselves to be sold as slaves. The Messenians upon this, miserably exiled, applied to the Athenians for protection, and were permitted to inhabit Naupactus, whence some of them were afterwards removed to take possession of their ancient territories in Messenia, during the Peloponnesian war. The third Messenian war was productive of great revolutions in Greece, and though almost a private quarrel, it soon engaged the attention of all the neighbouring states, and kindled the flames of dissension everywhere. Every state took up arms as if in its own defence, or to prevent additional power and dominion from being lodged in the hands of its rivals. The descendants of the Messenians at last returned to Peloponnesus, B.C. 370, after a long banishment of 300 years. Pausanias, Messenia, &c.—Justin, bk. 3, ch. 4, &c.—Strabo, bk. 6, &c.—Thucydides, bk. 1, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 11, &c.—Plutarch, Cimon, &c.—Polyænus, bk. 3.—Polybius, bk. 4, &c.

Messēnia, a province of Peloponnesus, situate between Laconia, Elis, Arcadia, and the sea. Its chief city is Messena. See: [Messena].

Mestor, a son of Perseus and Andromeda, who married Lysidice daughter of Pelops, by whom he had Hippothoe.——A son of Pterilaus.——of Priam. Apollodorus.

Mesūla, a town of Italy, in the country of the Sabines.

Metăbus, a tyrant of the Privernates. He was father of Camilla, whom he consecrated to the service of Diana, when he had been banished from his kingdom by his subjects. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 540.

Metagitnia, a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated by the inhabitants of Melite, who migrated to Attica. It receives its name from its being observed in the month called Metagitnion.

Metanīra, the wife of Celeus king of Eleusis, who first taught mankind agriculture. She is also called Meganira. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 5.

Metapontum, a town of Lucania in Italy, founded about 1269 years B.C. by Metabus the father of Camilla, or Epeus, one of the companions of Nestor. Pythagoras retired there for some time, and perished in a sedition. Annibal made it his head-quarters when in that part of Italy, and its attachment to Carthage was afterwards severely punished by the Roman conquerors, who destroyed its liberties and independence. A few broken pillars of marble are now the only vestiges of Metapontum. Strabo, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Justin, bk. 12, ch. 2.—Livy, bks. 1, 8, 25, 27, &c.

Metapontus, a son of Sisyphus, who married [♦]Theano. See: [♦][Theano]. Hyginus, fable 166.

[♦] ‘Theana’ replaced with ‘Theano’ for consistency

Metaurus, now Metro, a town with a small river of the same name, in the country of the Brutii. The river Metaurus falls into the Tyrrhene sea above Sicily.——Another, in Umbria, famous for the defeat of Asdrubal by the consuls Livy and Nero. Horace, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 38.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 495.

Metella, the wife of Sylla.

Metelli [Metellus], the surname of the family of the Cæcilii at Rome, the most known of whom were:—A general who defeated the Achæans, took Thebes, and invaded Macedonia, &c.——Quintus Cæcilius, who rendered himself illustrious by his successes against Jugurtha the Numidian king, from which he was surnamed Numidicus. He took, in this expedition, the celebrated Marius as his lieutenant, and he had soon cause to repent of the confidence he had placed in him. Marius raised himself to power by defaming the character of his benefactor, and Metellus was recalled to Rome, and accused of extortion and ill-management. Marius was appointed successor to finish the Numidian war, and Metellus was acquitted of the crimes laid to his charge before the tribunal of the Roman knights, who observed that the probity of his whole life and the greatness of his exploits were greater proofs of his innocence than the most powerful arguments. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 48.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.——Lucius Cæcilius, another, who saved from the flames the palladium, when Vesta’s temple was on fire. He was then high priest. He lost his sight and one of his arms in doing it, and the senate, to reward his zeal and piety, permitted him always to be drawn to the senate-house in a chariot, an honour which no one had ever before enjoyed. He also gained a great victory over the Carthaginians in the first Punic war, and led in his triumph 13 generals and 120 elephants taken from the enemy. He was honoured with the dictatorship, and the office of master of horse, &c.——Quintus Cæcilius Celer, another, who distinguished himself by his spirited exertions against Catiline. He married Clodia the sister of Clodius, who disgraced him by her incontinence and lasciviousness. He died 57 years B.C. He was greatly lamented by Cicero, who shed tears at the loss of one of his most faithful and valuable friends. Cicero, For Marcus Cæcilius.——Lucius Cæcilius, a tribune in the civil wars of Julius Cæsar and Pompey. He favoured the cause of Pompey, and opposed Cæsar when he entered Rome with a victorious army. He refused to open the gates of Saturn’s temple, in which were deposited great treasures, upon which they were broken open by Cæsar, and Metellus retired, when threatened with death.——Quintus Cæcilius, the grandson of the high priest, who saved the palladium from the flames, was a warlike general, who, from his conquest of Crete and Macedonia, was surnamed Macedonicus. He had six sons, of whom four are particularly mentioned by Plutarch.——Quintus Cæcilius, surnamed Balearicus, from his conquest of the Baleares.——Lucius Cæcilius, surnamed Diadematus, but supposed the same as that called Lucius with the surname of Dalmaticus, from a victory obtained over the Dalmatians during his consulship with Mutius Scævola.——Caius Cæcilius, surnamed Caprarius, who was consul with Carbo, A.U.C. 641.——The fourth was Marcus, and of these four brothers it is remarkable, that two of them triumphed in one day, but over what nations is not mentioned by Eutropius, ch. 4.——Nepos, a consul, &c.——Another, who accused Caius Curio, his father’s detractor, and who also vented his resentment against Cicero when going to banishment.——Another, who, as tribune, opposed the ambition of Julius Cæsar.——A general of the Roman armies against the Sicilians and Carthaginians. Before he marched he offered sacrifices to all the gods, except Vesta, for which neglect the goddess was so incensed that she demanded the blood of his daughter Metella. When Metella was going to be immolated, the goddess placed a heifer in her place, and carried her to a temple at Lanuvium, of which she became the priestess.——Lucius Cæcilius, or Quintus, surnamed Creticus, from his conquest in Crete, B.C. 66, is supposed by some to be the son of Metellus Macedonicus.——Cimber, one of the conspirators against Julius Cæsar. It was he who gave the signal to attack and murder the dictator in the senate-house.——Pius, a general in Spain, against Sertorius, on whose head he set a price of 100 talents, and 20,000 acres of land. He distinguished himself also in the Marsian war, and was high priest. He obtained the name of Pius from the sorrow he showed during the banishment of his father Metellus Numidicus, whom he caused to be recalled. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 44.——A consul who commanded in Africa, &c. Valerius Maximus.—Pliny.—Plutarch.—Livy.—Paterculus, bk. 2.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 7, chs. 8 & 13.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, &c.—Juvenal, satire 3, li. 138.—Appian, Civil Wars.—Cæsar, Civil War.—Sallust, Jugurthine War.

Metharma, a daughter of Pygmalion king of Cyprus, and mother of Adonis by Cinyras, &c. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 14.

Methīon, the father of Phorbas, &c. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 3.

Methodius, a bishop of Tyre, who maintained a controversy against Porphyry. The best edition of his works is that of Paris, folio, 1657.

Methōne, a town of Peloponnesus, where king Philip gained his first battle over the Athenians, B.C. 360.——A town of Macedonia, south of Pella, in the siege of which, according to Justin, bk. 7, ch. 6, Philip lost his right eye.——Another in Magnesia. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 71.

Methydrium, a town of Peloponnesus, near Megalopolis. Valerius Flaccus.

Methymna (now Porto Petero), a town of the island of Lesbos, which received its name from a daughter of [♦]Macareus. It is the second city of the island in greatness, population, and opulence, and its territory is fruitful, and the wines it produces excellent. It was the native place of Arion. When the whole island of Lesbos revolted from the power of the Athenians, Methymna alone remained firm to its ancient allies. Diodorus, bk. 5.—Thucydides, bk. 3.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 8, li. 50.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 90.

[♦] ‘Marcareus’ replaced with ‘Macareus’

Metiadūsa, a daughter of Eupalamus, who married Cecrops, by whom she had Pandion. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 15.

Metilia lex, was enacted A.U.C. 536, to settle the power of the dictator, and of his master of horse, within certain bounds.

Metilii, a patrician family, brought from Alba to Rome by Tullus Hostilius. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Metilius, a man who accused Fabius Maximus before the senate, &c.

Mētiŏchus, a son of Miltiades, who was taken by the Phœnicians, and given to Darius king of Persia. He was tenderly treated by the monarch, though his father had conquered the Persian armies in the plains of Marathon. Plutarch.—Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 41.——An Athenian entrusted with the care of the roads, &c. Plutarch.

Metion, a son of Erechtheus king of Athens and Praxithea. He married Alcippe daughter of Mars and Agraulos. His sons drove Pandion from the throne of Athens, and were afterwards expelled by Pandion’s children. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 15.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 6.

Metis, one of the Oceanides. She was Jupiter’s first wife, celebrated for her great prudence and sagacity above the rest of the gods. Jupiter, who was afraid lest she should bring forth into the world a child more cunning and greater than himself, devoured her in the first month of her pregnancy. Some time after this adventure the god had his head opened, from which issued Minerva, armed from head to foot. According to Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2, Metis gave a portion to Saturn, and obliged him to throw up the children whom he had devoured. Hesiod, Theogony, li. 890.—Apollodorus, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Hyginus.

Metiscus, a charioteer to Turnus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 469.

Metius Curtius, one of the Sabines who fought against the Romans, on account of the stolen virgins.——Suffetius, a dictator of Alba, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius. He fought against the Romans, and at last, finally to settle their disputes, he proposed a single combat between the Horatii and Curiatii. The Albans were conquered, and Metius promised to assist the Romans against their enemies. In a battle against the Veientes and Fidenates, Metius showed his infidelity by forsaking the Romans at the first onset, and retired to a neighbouring eminence, to wait for the event of the battle, and to fall upon whatever side proved victorious. The Romans obtained the victory, and Tullus ordered Metius to be tied between two chariots, which were drawn by four horses two different ways, and his limbs were torn away from his body, about 669 years before the christian era. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 23, &c.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 642.——A critic. See: [Tarpa].——Carus, a celebrated informer under Domitian, who enriched himself with the plunder of those who were sacrificed to the emperor’s suspicion.

Metœcia, festivals instituted by Theseus in commemoration of the people of Attica having removed to Athens.

Meton, an astrologer and mathematician of Athens. His father’s name was Pausanias. He refused to go to Sicily with his countrymen, and pretended to be insane, because he foresaw the calamities that attended that expedition. In a book called Enneadecaterides, or the cycle of 19 years, he endeavoured to adjust the course of the sun and the moon, and supported that the solar and lunar years could regularly begin from the same point in the heavens. This is called by the moderns the golden numbers. He flourished B.C. 432. Vitruvius, bk. 1.—Plutarch, Nicias. A native of Tarentum, who pretended to be intoxicated that he might draw the attention of his countrymen, when he wished to dissuade them from making an alliance with king Pyrrhus. Plutarch, Pyrrhus.

Metŏpe, the wife of the river Sangarius. She was mother of Hecuba.——The daughter of Ladon, who married the Asopus.——A river of Arcadia.

Metra, the daughter of Eresichthon, a Thessalian prince, beloved by Neptune. When her father had spent all his fortune to gratify the canine hunger under which he laboured, she prostituted herself to her neighbours, and received for reward oxen, goats, and sheep, which she presented to Eresichthon. Some say that she had received from Neptune the power of changing herself into whatever animal she pleased, and that her father sold her continually to gratify his hunger, and that she instantly assumed a different shape, and became again his property. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 21.

Metragryrte, one of the names of Tellus, or Cybele.

Metrobius, a player greatly favoured by Sylla. Plutarch.

Metrŏcles, a pupil of Theophrastus, who had the care of the education of Cleombrotus and Cleomenes. He suffocated himself when old and infirm. Diogenes Laërtius.

Metrodōrus, a physician of Chios, B.C. 444. He was the disciple of Democritus, and had Hippocrates among his pupils. His compositions on medicine, &c., are lost. He supported that the world was eternal and infinite, and denied the existence of motion. Diogenes Laërtius.——A painter and philosopher of Stratonice, B.C. 171. He was sent to Paulus Æmylius, who, after the conquest of Perseus, demanded of the Athenians a philosopher and a painter; the former to instruct his children, and the latter to make a painting of his triumphs. Metrodorus was sent, as in him alone were united the philosopher and the painter. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 11.—Cicero, bk. 5, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, ch. 1; On Oratory, bk. 4; Academica.—[♦]Diogenes Laërtius, Epicurus.——A friend of Mithridates, sent as ambassador to Tigranes king of Armenia. He was remarkable for his learning, moderation, humanity, and justice. He was put to death by his royal master for his infidelity, B.C. 72. Strabo.—Plutarch.——Another, of a very retentive memory.

[♦] ‘Diod.’ replaced with ‘Diogenes Laërtius’

Metrophănes, an officer of Mithridates, who invaded Eubœa, &c.

Metropŏlis, a town of Phrygia on the Mæander.——Another of Thessaly near Pharsalia.

Mettius, a chief of the Gauls, imprisoned by Julius Cæsar. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Mettus. See: [Metius].

Metulum, a town of Liburnia, in besieging of which Augustus was wounded. Dio Cassius, bk. 49.

Mevania, now Bevagna, a town of Umbria, on the Clitumnus, the birthplace of the poet Propertius. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 473.—Propertius, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 124.

Mevius, a wretched poet. See: [Mævius].

Mezentius, a king of the Tyrrhenians when Æneas came into Italy. He was remarkable for his cruelties, and put his subjects to death by slow tortures, or sometimes tied a man to a dead corpse face to face, and suffered him to die in that condition. He was expelled by his subjects, and fled to Turnus, who employed him in his war against the Trojans. He was killed by Æneas, with his son Lausus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 15.—Justin, bk. 43, ch. 1.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 648; bk. 8, li. 482.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 881.

Micea, a virgin of Elis, daughter of Philodemus, murdered by a soldier called Lucius, &c. Plutarch, Mulierum virtutes.

Micipsa, a king of Numidia, son of Masinissa, who, at his death, B.C. 119, left his kingdom between his sons Adherbal and Hiempsal, and his nephew Jugurtha. Jugurtha abused his uncle’s favours by murdering his two sons. Sallust, Jugurthine War.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus.

Micythus, a youth through whom Diomedon, by order of the Persian king, made an attempt to bribe Epaminondas. Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas, ch. 4.——A slave of Anaxilaus of Rhegium. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 170.

Mĭdas, a king of Phrygia, son of Gordius, or Gorgius. In the early part of his life, according to some traditions, he found a large treasure, to which he owed his greatness and opulence. The hospitality he showed to Silenus the preceptor of Bacchus, who had been brought to him by some peasants, was liberally rewarded; and Midas, when he conducted the old man back to the god, was permitted to choose whatever recompence he pleased. He had the imprudence and the avarice to demand of the god that whatever he touched might be turned into gold. His prayer was granted, but he was soon convinced of his injudicious choice; and when the very meats which he attempted to eat became gold in his mouth, he begged Bacchus to take away a present which must prove so fatal to the receiver. He was ordered to wash himself in the river Pactolus, whose sands were turned into gold by the touch of Midas. Some time after this adventure, Midas had the imprudence to support that Pan was superior to Apollo in singing and playing upon the flute, for which rash opinion the offended god changed his ears into those of an ass, to show his ignorance and stupidity. This Midas attempted to conceal from the knowledge of his subjects, but one of his servants saw the length of his ears, and being unable to keep the secret, and afraid to reveal it, apprehensive of the king’s resentment, he opened a hole in the earth, and after he had whispered there that Midas had the ears of an ass, he covered the place as before, as if he had buried his words in the ground. On that place, as the poets mention, grew a number of reeds, which, when agitated by the wind, uttered the same sound that had been buried beneath, and published to the world that Midas had the ears of an ass. Some explain the fable of the ears of Midas by the supposition that he kept a number of informers and spies, who were continually employed in gathering every seditious word that might drop from the mouths of his subjects. Midas, according to Strabo, died of drinking hot bull’s blood. This he did, as Plutarch mentions, to free himself from the numerous ill dreams which continually tormented him. Midas, according to some, was son of Cybele. He built a town, which he called Ancyræ. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, fable 5.—Plutarch, de Superstitione.—Strabo, bk. 1.—Hyginus, fables 191, 274.—Maximus Tyrius, ch. 30.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 14.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bks. 4 & 12.—Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 36; bk. 2, ch. 31.

Midea, a town of Argolis. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 20.——Of Lycia. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 45.——Of Bœotia, drowned by the inundations of the lake Copais. Strabo, bk. 8.——A nymph, who had Aspledon by Neptune. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 38.——A mistress of Electryon. Apollodorus.

Milānion, a youth who became enamoured of Atalanta. He is supposed by some to be the same as Meleager or Hippomanes. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 2, li. 188.——A son of Amphidamas.

Mīlēsii, the inhabitants of Miletus. See: [Miletus].

Milesiorum murus, a place of Egypt, at the entrance of one of the mouths of the Nile.

Milesius, a surname of Apollo.——A native of Miletus.

Milētia, one of the daughters of Scedasus, ravished with her sister by some young Thebans. Plutarch & Pausanias.

Milētium, a town of Calabria, built by the people of Miletus of Asia.——A town of Crete. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 154.

Mīlētus, a son of Apollo, who fled from Crete to avoid the wrath of Minos, whom he meditated to dethrone. He came to Caria, where he built a city which he called by his own name. Some suppose that he only conquered a city there called Anactoria, which assumed his name. They further say, that he put the inhabitants to the sword, and divided the women among his soldiers. Cyanea, a daughter of the Mæander, fell to his share. Strabo, bk. 14.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 446.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.——A celebrated town of Asia Minor, the capital of all Ionia, situate about 10 stadia south of the mouth of the river Mæander, near the sea coast on the confines of Ionia and Caria. It was founded by a Cretan colony under Miletus, or, according to others, by Neleus the son of Codrus, or by Sarpedon, Jupiter’s son. It has successively been called Lelegeis, Pithyusa, and Anactoria. The inhabitants, called Milesii, were very powerful, and long maintained an obstinate war against the kings of Lydia. They early applied themselves to navigation, and planted no less than 80 colonies, or, according to Seneca, 380, in different parts of the world. Miletus gave birth to Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Hecatæus, Timotheus the musician, Pittacus, one of the seven wise men, &c. Miletus was also famous for a temple and an oracle of Apollo Didymæus, and for its excellent wool, with which were made stuffs and garments, held in the highest reputation, both for softness, elegance, and beauty. The words Milesiæ fabulæ, or Milesiaca, were used to express wanton and ludicrous plays. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 413.—Capitolinus, Life of Albinus, ch. 11.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 306.—Strabo, bk. 15.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 2.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 17.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.—Herodotus, bk. 1, &c.—Seneca, de Consolatione ad Helviam.

Milias, a part of Lycia.

Milichus, a freedman who discovered Piso’s conspiracy against Nero. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 54.

Milinus, a Cretan king, &c.

Milionia, a town of the Samnites, taken by the Romans.

Mīlo, a celebrated athlete of Crotona in Italy. His father’s name was Diotimus. He early accustomed himself to carry the greatest burdens, and by degrees became a monster in strength. It is said that he carried on his shoulders a young bullock four years old, for above 40 yards, and afterwards killed it with one blow of his fist, and ate it up in one day. He was seven times crowned at the Pythian games, and six at Olympia. He presented himself a seventh time, but no one had the courage or boldness to enter the lists against him. He was one of the disciples of Pythagoras, and to his uncommon strength the learned preceptor and his pupils owed their life. The pillar which supported the roof of the school suddenly gave way, but Milo supported the whole weight of the building, and gave the philosopher and his auditors time to escape. In his old age Milo attempted to pull up a tree by the roots and break it. He partly effected it, but his strength being gradually exhausted, the tree, when half cleft, re-united, and his hands remained pinched in the body of the tree. He was then alone, and being unable to disentangle himself, he was eaten up by the wild beasts of the place, about 300 years before the christian era. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15.—Cicero, de Senectute.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 9, ch. 12.—Strabo, bk. 16.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 11.——Titus Annius, a native of Lanuvium, who attempted to obtain the consulship at Rome by intrigue and seditious tumults. Clodius the tribune opposed his views, yet Milo would have succeeded had not an unfortunate event totally frustrated his hopes. As he was going into the country, attended by his wife and a numerous retinue of gladiators and servants, he met on the Appian road his enemy Clodius, who was returning to Rome with three of his friends and some domestics completely armed. A quarrel arose between the servants. Milo supported his attendants, and the dispute became general. Clodius received many severe wounds, and was obliged to retire to a neighbouring cottage. Milo pursued his enemy in his retreat, and ordered his servants to despatch him. Eleven of the servants of Clodius shared his fate, as also the owner of the house who had given them a reception. The body of the murdered tribune was carried to Rome, and exposed to public view. The enemies of Milo inveighed bitterly against the violence and barbarity with which the sacred person of a tribune had been treated. Cicero undertook the defence of Milo, but the continual clamours of the friends of Clodius, and the sight of an armed soldiery, which surrounded the seat of judgment, so terrified the orator, that he forgot the greatest part of his arguments, and the defence he made was weak and injudicious. Milo was condemned and banished to Massilia. Cicero soon after sent his exiled friend a copy of the oration which he had delivered in his defence, in the form in which we have it now; and Milo, after he had read it, exclaimed, “O Cicero, hadst thou spoken before my accusers in those terms, Milo would not be now eating figs at Marseilles.” The friendship and cordiality of Cicero and Milo were the fruits of long intimacy and familiar intercourse. It was by the successful labours of Milo that the orator was recalled from banishment and restored to his friends. Cicero, For Milo.—Paterculus, bk. 2, chs. 47 & 68.—Dio Cassius, bk. 40.——A general of the forces of Pyrrhus. He was made governor of Tarentum, and that he might be reminded of his duty to his sovereign, Pyrrhus sent him as a present a chain, which was covered with the skin of Nicias the physician, who had perfidiously offered the Romans to poison his royal master for a sum of money. Polyænus, bk. 8, &c.——A tyrant of Pisa in Elis, thrown into the river Alpheus by his subjects for his oppression. Ovid, Ibis, li. 325.

Milōnius, a drunken buffoon at Rome, accustomed to dance when intoxicated. Horace, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 24.

Miltas, a soothsayer, who assisted Dion in explaining prodigies, &c.

Miltiădes, an Athenian, son of Cypselus, who obtained a victory in a chariot race at the Olympic games, and led a colony of his countrymen to the Chersonesus. The causes of this appointment are striking and singular. The Thracian Dolonci, harassed by a long war with the Absynthians, were directed by the oracle of Delphi to take for their king the first man they met in their return home, who invited them to come under his roof and partake of his entertainments. This was Miltiades, whom the appearance of the Dolonci, their strange arms and garments, had struck. He invited them to his house, and was made acquainted with the commands of the oracle. He obeyed, and when the oracle of Delphi had approved a second time the choice of the Dolonci, he departed for the Chersonesus, and was invested by the inhabitants with sovereign power. The first measure he took was to stop the further incursions of the Absynthians, by building a strong wall across the isthmus. When he had established himself at home, and fortified his dominions against foreign invasion, he turned his arms against Lampsacus. His expedition was unsuccessful; he was taken in an ambuscade, and made prisoner. His friend Crœsus king of Lydia was informed of his captivity, and he procured his release by threatening the people of Lampsacus with his severest displeasure. He lived a few years after he had recovered his liberty. As he had no issue, he left his kingdom and his possessions to Stesagoras the son of Cimon, who was his brother by the same mother. The memory of Miltiades was greatly honoured by the Dolonci, and they regularly celebrated festivals and exhibited shows in commemoration of a man to whom they owed their greatness and preservation. Some time after Stesagoras died without issue, and Miltiades the son of Cimon, and the brother of the deceased, was sent by the Athenians with one ship to take possession of the Chersonesus. At his arrival Miltiades appeared mournful, as if lamenting the recent death of his brother. The principal inhabitants of the country visited the new governor to condole with him; but their confidence in his sincerity proved fatal to them. Miltiades seized their persons, and made himself absolute in Chersonesus; and to strengthen himself he married Hegesipyla, the daughter of Olorus the king of the Thracians. His prosperity, however, was of short duration. In the third year of his government his dominions were threatened by an invasion of the Scythian Nomades, whom Darius had some time before irritated by entering their country. He fled before them, but as their hostilities were but momentary, he was soon restored to his kingdom. Three years after he left Chersonesus and set sail for Athens, where he was received with great applause. He was present at the celebrated battle of Marathon, in which all the chief officers ceded their power to him, and left the event of the battle to depend upon his superior abilities. He obtained an important victory [See: [Marathon]] over the more numerous forces of his adversaries; and when he had demanded of his fellow-citizens an olive crown as the reward of his valour in the field of battle, he was not only refused, but severely reprimanded for presumption. The only reward, therefore, that he received for a victory which proved so beneficial to the interests of universal Greece, was in itself simple and inconsiderable, though truly great in the opinion of that age. He was represented in the front of a picture among the rest of the commanders who fought at the battle of Marathon, and he seemed to exhort and animate his soldiers to fight with courage and intrepidity. Some time after Miltiades was entrusted with a fleet of 70 ships, and ordered to punish those islands which had revolted to the Persians. He was successful at first, but a sudden report that the Persian fleet was coming to attack him, changed his operations as he was besieging Paros. He raised the siege and returned to Athens, where he was accused of treason, and [♦]particularly of holding a correspondence with the enemy. The falsity of these accusations might have appeared, if Miltiades had been able to come into the assembly. A wound which he had received before Paros detained him at home, and his enemies, taking advantage of his absence, became more eager in their accusations and louder in their clamours. He was condemned to death, but the rigour of the sentence was retracted on the recollection of his great services to the Athenians, and he was put into prison till he had paid a fine of 50 talents to the state. His inability to discharge so great a sum detained him in confinement, and soon after his wounds became incurable, and he died about 489 years before the christian era. His body was ransomed by his son Cimon, who was obliged to borrow and pay the 50 talents, to give his father a decent burial. The crimes of Miltiades were probably aggravated in the eyes of his countrymen when they remembered how he made himself absolute in Chersonesus; and in condemning the barbarity of the Athenians towards a general who was the source of their military prosperity, we must remember the jealousy which ever reigns among a free and independent people, and how watchful they are in defence of the natural rights which they see wrested from others by violence and oppression. Cornelius Nepos has written the life of Miltiades the son of Cimon; but his history is incongruous and not authentic; and the author, by confounding the actions of the son of Cimon with those of the son of Cypselus, has made the whole dark and unintelligible. Greater reliance in reading the actions of both the Miltiades is to be placed on the narration of Herodotus, whose veracity is confirmed, and who was indisputably more informed and more capable of giving an account of the life and exploits of men who flourished in his age, and of which he could see the living monuments. Herodotus was born about six years after the famous battle of Marathon, and Cornelius Nepos, as a writer of the Augustan age, flourished about 450 years after the age of the father of history. Cornelius Nepos, Lives.—Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 137; bk. 6, ch. 34, &c.—Plutarch, Cimon.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 3.—Justin, bk. 2.—Pausanias.——An Archon of Athens.

[♦] ‘paticularly’ replaced with ‘particularly’

Milto, a favourite mistress of Cyrus the younger. See: [Aspasia].

Milvius, a parasite at Rome, &c. Horace, bk. 2, satire 7.——A bridge at Rome over the Tiber, now called Pont de Molle. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 13, ltr. 33.—Sallust, Catilinæ Coniuratio, ch. 45.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 47.

Milyas, a country of Asia Minor, better known by the name of Lycia. Its inhabitants, called Milyades, and afterwards Solymi, were among the numerous nations which formed the army of Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. Herodotus.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1, ch. 38.

Mimallŏnes, the Bacchanals, who, when they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus, put horns on their heads. They are also called Mimallonides, and some derive their name from the mountain Mimas. Persius, bk. 1, li. 99.—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, li. 541.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 660.

Mimas, a giant whom Jupiter destroyed with thunder. Horace, bk. 3, ode 4.——A high mountain of Asia Minor, near Colophon. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, fable 5.——A Trojan, son of Theano and Amycus, born on the same night as Paris, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He followed the fortune of Æneas, and was killed by Mezentius. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 702.

Mimnermus, a Greek poet and musician of Colophon in the age of Solon. He chiefly excelled in elegiac poetry, whence some have attributed the invention of it to him; and, indeed, he was the poet who made elegy an amorous poem, instead of a mournful and melancholy tale. In the expression of love, Propertius prefers him to Homer, as this verse shows:

Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero.

In his old age Mimnermus became enamoured of a young girl called Nanno. Some few fragments of his poetry remain, collected by Stobæus. He is supposed by some to be the inventor of the pentameter verse, which others, however, attribute to Callinus or Archilochus. The surname of Ligustiades, λιγυς (shrill-voiced), has been applied to him, though some imagine the word to be the name of his father. Strabo, bks. 1 & 14.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 1.—Propertius, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 11.—Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 65.

Mincius, now Mincio, a river of Venetia, flowing from the lake Benacus, and falling into the Po. Virgil was born on its banks. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 7, li. 13; Germania, ch. 3, li. 15; Æneid, bk. 10, li. 206.

Mindărus, a commander of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian war. He was defeated by the Athenians, and died 410 B.C. Plutarch.

Mīnēĭdes, the daughters of Minyas or Mineus, king of Orchomenos in Bœotia. They were three in number, Leuconoe, Leucippe, and Alcithoe. Ovid calls the two first Clymene and Iris. They derided the orgies of Bacchus, for which impiety the god inspired them with an unconquerable desire of eating human flesh. They drew lots which of them should give up her son as food to the rest. The lot fell upon Leucippe, and she gave up her son Hippasus, who was instantly devoured by the three sisters. They were changed into bats. In commemoration of this bloody crime, it was usual among the Orchomenians for the high priest, as soon as the sacrifice was finished, to pursue, with a drawn sword, all the women who had entered the temple, and even to kill the first he came up to. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 12.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Græcæ, ch. 38.

Mĭnerva, the goddess of wisdom, war, and all the liberal arts, was produced from Jupiter’s brain without a mother. The god, as it is reported, married Metis, whose superior prudence and sagacity above the rest of the gods, made him apprehend that the children of such a union would be of a more exalted nature, and more intelligent than their father. To prevent this, Jupiter devoured Metis in her pregnancy, and some time after, to relieve the pains which he suffered in his head, he ordered Vulcan to cleave it open. Minerva came all armed and grown up from her father’s brain, and immediately was admitted into the assembly of the gods, and made one of the most faithful counsellors of her father. The power of Minerva was great in heaven; she could hurl the thunders of Jupiter, prolong the life of men, bestow the gift of prophecy, and, indeed, she was the only one of all the divinities whose authority and consequence were equal to those of Jupiter. The actions of Minerva are numerous, as well as the kindnesses by which she endeared herself to mankind. Her quarrel with Neptune concerning the right of giving a name to the capital of Cecropia deserves attention. The assembly of the gods settled the dispute by promising the preference to whichever of the two gave the most useful and necessary present to the inhabitants of the earth. Neptune, upon this, struck the ground with his trident, and immediately a horse issued from the earth. Minerva produced the olive, and obtained the victory by the unanimous voice of the gods, who observed that the olive, as the emblem of peace, is far preferable to the horse, the symbol of war and bloodshed. The victorious deity called the capital Athenæ, and became the tutelar goddess of the place. Minerva was always very jealous of her power, and the manner in which she punished the presumption of Arachne is well known. See: [Arachne]. The attempts of Vulcan to offer her violence, are strong marks of her virtue. Jupiter had sworn by the Styx to give to Vulcan, who had made him a complete suit of armour, whatever he desired. Vulcan demanded Minerva, and the father of the gods, who had permitted Minerva to live in perpetual celibacy, consented, but privately advised his daughter to make all the resistance she could to frustrate the attempts of her lover. The prayers and force of Vulcan proved ineffectual, and her chastity was not violated, though the god left on her body the marks of his passion, and, from the impurity which proceeded from this scuffle, and which Minerva threw down upon the earth, wrapped up in wool, was born Erichthon, an uncommon monster. See: [Erichthonius]. Minerva was the first who built a ship, and it was her zeal for navigation, and her care for the Argonauts, which placed the prophetic tree of Dodona behind the ship Argo, when going to Colchis. She was known among the ancients by many names. She was called Athena, Pallas [See: [Pallas]], Parthenos, from her remaining in perpetual celibacy; Tritonia, because worshipped near the lake Tritonis; Glaucopis, from the blueness of her eyes; Agorea, from her presiding over markets; Hippia, because she first taught mankind how to manage the horse; Stratea and Area, from her martial character; Coryphagenes, because born from Jupiter’s brain; Sais, because worshipped at Sais, &c. Some attributed to her the invention of the flute, whence she was surnamed Andon, Luscinia, Musica, Salpiga, &c. She, as it is reported, once amused herself in playing upon her favourite flute before Juno and Venus, but the goddesses ridiculed the distortion of her face in blowing the instrument. Minerva, convinced of the justness of their remarks by looking at herself in a fountain near mount Ida, threw away the musical instrument, and denounced a melancholy death to him who found it. Marsyas was the miserable proof of the veracity of her expressions. The worship of Minerva was universally established; she had magnificent temples in Egypt, Phœnicia, all parts of Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Sicily. Sais, Rhodes, and Athens particularly claimed her attention, and it is even said that Jupiter rained a shower of gold upon the island of Rhodes, which had paid so much veneration and such an early reverence to the divinity of his daughter. The festivals celebrated in her honour were solemn and magnificent. See: [Panathenæa]. She was invoked by every artist, and particularly such as worked in wool, embroidery, painting, and sculpture. It was the duty of almost every member of society to implore the assistance and patronage of a deity who presided over sense, taste, and reason. Hence the poets have had occasion to say,

Tu nihil invitâ dices faciesve Minervâ,

and,

Qui bene placârit Pallada, doctus erit.

Minerva was represented in different ways, according to the different characters in which she appeared. She generally appeared with a countenance full more of masculine firmness and composure, than of softness and grace. Most usually she was represented with a helmet on her head, with a large plume nodding in the air. In one hand she held a spear, and in the other a shield, with the dying head of Medusa upon it. Sometimes this Gorgon’s head was on her breastplate, with living serpents writhing round it, as well as round her shield and helmet. In most of her statues she is represented as sitting, and sometimes she holds in one hand a distaff, instead of a spear. When she appeared as the goddess of the liberal arts she was arrayed in a variegated veil, which the ancients called peplum. Sometimes Minerva’s helmet was covered at the top with the figure of a cock, a bird which, on account of his great courage, is properly sacred to the goddess of war. Some of her statues represented her helmet with a sphinx in the middle, supported on either side by griffins. In some medals, a chariot drawn by four horses, or sometimes a dragon or a serpent, with winding spires, appear at the top of her helmet. She was partial to the olive tree; the owl and the cock were her favourite birds, and the dragon among reptiles was sacred to her. The functions, offices, and actions of Minerva seem so numerous, that they undoubtedly originate in more than one person. Cicero speaks of five persons of this name; a Minerva, mother of Apollo; a daughter of the Nile, who was worshipped at Sais, in Egypt; a third, born from Jupiter’s brain; a fourth, daughter of Jupiter and Coryphe; and a fifth, daughter of Pallas, generally represented with winged shoes. This last put her father to death because he attempted her virtue. Pausanias, bks. 1, 2, 3, &c.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 16; bk. 3, ode 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, &c.—Strabo, bks. 6, 9, & 13.—Philostratus, Imagines, bk. 2.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, &c.; Metamorphoses, bk. 6.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 3, ch. 23, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, &c.—Pindar, Olympian, poem 7.—Lucan, bk. 9, li. 354.—Sophocles, Œdipus.—Homer, Iliad, &c.; Odyssey; Hymn to Pallas Athena.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Aeschylus, Eumenides.—Lucian, Dialogues.—Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, bk. 2.—Orpheus, Hymns, poem 31.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bk. 14, li. 448.—Apollonius, bk. 1.—Hyginus, fable 168.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 2, li. 721; bk. 7, &c.—Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 12.—Cornelius Nepos, Pausanias.—Plutarch, Lycurgus, &c.—Thucydides, bk. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 5.

Minervæ Castrum, a town of Calabria, now Castro.——Promontorium, a cape at the most southern extremity of Campania.

Mĭnervālia, festivals at Rome in honour of Minerva, celebrated in the months of March and June. During this solemnity scholars obtained some relaxation from their studious pursuits, and the present, which it was usual for them to offer to their masters, was called Minerval, in honour of the goddess Minerva, who patronized over literature. Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 3, ch. 2.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 3, li. 809.—Livy, bk. 9, ch. 30.

Mĭnio, now Mignone, a river of Etruria, falling into the Tyrrhene sea. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 183.——One of the favourites of Antiochus king of Syria.

Minnæi, a people of Arabia, on the Red sea. Pliny, bk. 12, ch. 14.

Minoa, a town of Sicily, built by Minos when he was pursuing Dædalus, and called also Heraclea.——A town of Peloponnesus.——A town of Crete.

Minois, belonging to Minos. Crete is called Minoia regna, as being the legislator’s kingdom. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 14.——A patronymic of Ariadne. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 157.

Minos, a king of Crete, son of Jupiter and Europa, who gave laws to his subjects, B.C. 1406, which still remained in full force in the age of the philosopher Plato. His justice and moderation procured him the appellation of the favourite of the gods, the confidant of Jupiter, the wise legislator, in every city of Greece; and, according to the poets, he was rewarded for his equity, after death, with the office of supreme and absolute judge in the infernal regions. In this capacity, he is represented sitting in the middle of the shades and holding a sceptre in his hand. The dead plead their different causes before him, and the impartial judge shakes the fatal urn, which is filled with the destinies of mankind. He married Ithona, by whom he had Lycastes, who was the father of Minos II. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 19, li. 178.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 432.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Hyginus, fable 41.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 28.

Minos II., was a son of Lycastes, the son of Minos I. king of Crete. He married Pasiphae the daughter of Sol and Perseis, and by her he had many children. He increased his paternal dominions by the conquest of the neighbouring islands, but he showed himself cruel in the war which he carried on against the Athenians, who had put to death his son Androgeus. See: [Androgeus]. He took Megara by the treachery of Scylla [See: [Scylla]], and, not satisfied with a victory, he obliged the vanquished to bring him yearly to Crete seven chosen boys, and the same number of virgins, to be devoured by the Minotaur. See: [Minotaurus]. This bloody tribute was at last abolished when Theseus had destroyed the monster. See: [Theseus]. When Dædalus, whose industry and invention had fabricated the labyrinth, and whose imprudence, in assisting Pasiphae in the gratification of her unnatural desires, had offended Minos, fled from the place of his confinement with wings [See: [Dædalus]], and arrived safe in Sicily, the incensed monarch pursued the offender, resolved to punish his infidelity. Cocalus king of Sicily, who had hospitably received Dædalus, entertained his royal guest with dissembled friendship; and that he might not deliver to him a man whose ingenuity and abilities he so well knew, he put Minos to death. Some say that it was the daughters of Cocalus who put the king of Crete to death, by detaining him so long in a bath till he fainted, after which they suffocated him. Minos died about 35 years before the Trojan war. He was father of Androgeus, Glaucus, and Deucalion, and two daughters, Phædra and Ariadne. Many authors have confounded the two monarchs of this name, the grandfather and the grandson, but Homer, Plutarch, and Diodorus prove plainly that they were two different persons. Pausanias, Achaia, ch. 4.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Hyginus, fable 41.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 141.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 21.—Plutarch, Parallela minora.—Athenæus.—Flaccus, bk. 14.

Minōtaurus, a celebrated monster, half a man and half a bull, according to this verse of Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 2, li. 24,

Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem.

It was the fruit of Pasiphae’s amour with a bull. Minos refused to sacrifice a white bull to Neptune, an animal which he had received from the god for that purpose. This offended Neptune, and he made Pasiphae the wife of [♦]Minos enamoured of this fine bull, which had been refused to his altars. Dædalus prostituted his talents in being subservient to the queen’s unnatural desires, and, by his means, Pasiphae’s horrible passions were gratified, and the Minotaur came into the world. Minos confined in the labyrinth a monster which convinced the world of his wife’s lasciviousness and indecency, and reflected disgrace upon his family. The Minotaur usually devoured the chosen young men and maidens, whom the tyranny of Minos yearly extracted from the Athenians. Theseus delivered his country from this shameful tribute, when it had fallen to his lot to be sacrificed to the voracity of the Minotaur, and, by means of Ariadne, the king’s daughter, he destroyed the monster, and made his escape from the windings of the labyrinth. The fabulous traditions of the Minotaur, and of the infamous commerce of Pasiphae with a favourite bull, have been often explained. Some suppose that Pasiphae was enamoured of one of her husband’s courtiers, called Taurus, and that Dædalus favoured the passion of the queen by suffering his house to become the retreat of the two lovers. Pasiphae, some time after, brought twins into the world, one of whom greatly resembled Minos, and the other Taurus. In the natural resemblance of their countenance with that of their supposed fathers originated their name, and consequently the fable of the Minotaur. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 2.—Hyginus, fable 40.—Plutarch, Theseus.—Palæphatus.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 26.

[♦] ‘Minys’ replaced with ‘Minos’

Minthe, a daughter of Cocytus, loved by Pluto. Proserpine discovered her husband’s amour, and changed his mistress into an herb, called by the same name, mint. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 729.

Minturnæ, a town of Campania, between Sinuessa and Formiæ. It was in the marshes, in its neighbourhood, that Marius concealed himself in the mud, to avoid the partisans of Sylla. The people condemned him to death, but when his voice alone had terrified the executioner, they showed themselves compassionate, and favoured his escape. Marica was worshipped there; hence Maricæ regna applied to the place. Strabo, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Livy, bk. 8, ch. 10; bk. 10, ch. 21; bk. 27, ch. 38.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 14.—Lucan, bk. 2, li. 424.

Mĭnŭtia, a vestal virgin, accused of debauchery on account of the beauty and elegance of her dress. She was condemned to be buried alive because a female supported the false accusation, A.U.C. 418. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 15.——A public way from Rome to Brundusium. See: [Via].

Mĭnŭtius Augurinus, a Roman consul slain in a battle against the Samnites.——A tribune of the people, who put Mælius to death when he aspired to the sovereignty of Rome. He was honoured with a brazen statue for causing the corn to be sold at a reduced price to the people. Livy, bk. 4, ch. 16.—Pliny, bk. 18, ch. 3.——Rufus, a master of horse to the dictator Fabius Maximus. His disobedience to the commands of the dictator was productive of an extension of his prerogative, and the master of the horse was declared equal in power to the dictator. Minutius, soon after this, fought with ill success against Annibal, and was saved by the interference of Fabius; which circumstance had such an effect upon him, that he laid down his power at the feet of his deliverer, and swore that he would never act again but by his directions. He was killed at the battle of Cannæ. Livy.—Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal.——A Roman consul who defended Coriolanus from the insults of the people, &c.——Another, defeated by the Æqui, and disgraced by the dictator Cincinnatus.——An officer under Cæsar, in Gaul, who afterwards became one of the conspirators against his patron. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 6, ch. 29.——A tribune who warmly opposed the views of Caius Gracchus.——A Roman, chosen dictator, and obliged to lay down his office, because, during the time of his election, the sudden cry of a rat was heard.——A Roman, one of the first who were chosen questors.——Felix, an African lawyer, who flourished 207 A.D. He has written an elegant dialogue in defence of the christian religion, called Octavius, from the principal speaker in it. This book was long attributed to Arnobius, and even printed as an eighth book (Octavus), till Balduinus discovered the imposition in his edition of Felix, 1560. The two last editions are that of Davies, 8vo, Cambridge, 1712; and of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1709.

Minyæ, a name given to the inhabitants of Orchomenos in Bœotia, from Minyas king of the country. Orchomenos the son of Minyas gave his name to the capital of the country, and the inhabitants still retained their original appellation, in contradistinction to the Orchomenians of Arcadia. A colony of Orchomenians passed into Thessaly and settled in Iolchos; from which circumstance the people of the place, and particularly the Argonauts, were called Minyæ. This name they received, according to the opinion of some, not because a number of Orchomenians had settled among them, but because the chief and noblest of them were descended from the daughters of Minyas. Part of the Orchomenians accompanied the sons of Codrus when they migrated to Ionia. The descendants of the Argonauts, as well as the Argonauts themselves, received the name of Minyæ. They first inhabited Lemnos, where they had been born from the Lemnian women who had murdered their husbands. They were driven from Lemnos by the Pelasgi about 1160 years before the christian era, and came to settle in Laconia, from whence they passed into Calliste with a colony of Lacedæmonians. Hyginus, fable 14.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 6.—Apollonius, bk. 1, Argonautica.—Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 145.

Mĭnyas, a king of Bœotia, son of Neptune and Tritogenia the daughter of Æolus. Some make him the son of Neptune and Callirrhoe, or of Chryses, Neptune’s son, and Chrysogenia the daughter of Halmus. He married Clytodora, by whom he had Presbon, Periclymenus, and Eteoclymenus. He was father of Orchomenos, Diochithondes, and Athamas, by a second marriage with Phanasora the daughter of Paon. According to Plutarch and Ovid, he had three daughters, called Leuconoe, Alcithoe, and Leucippe. They were changed into bats. See: [Mineides]. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36.—Plutarch, Quæstiones Græcæ, ch. 38.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, lis. 1 & 468.

Miny̆cus, a river of Thessaly, falling into the sea near Arene, called afterwards Orchomenus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 11.—Strabo, bk. 8.

Minyeides. See: [Mineides].

Minyia, a festival observed at Orchomenus, in honour of Minyas the king of the place. The Orchomenians were called Minyæ, and the river upon whose banks their town was built, Mynos.——A small island near Patmos.

Minytus, one of Niobe’s sons. Apollodorus.

Miraces, a eunuch of Parthia, &c. Flaccus, bk. 6, li. 690.

Misēnum, or Misenus. See: [Misenus].

Misēnus, a son of Æolus, who was piper to Hector. After Hector’s death he followed Æneas to Italy, and was drowned on the coast of Campania, because he had challenged one of the Tritons. Æneas afterwards found his body on the sea-shore, and buried it on a promontory which bears his name, now Miseno. There was also a town of the same name on the promontory, at the west of the bay of Naples, and it had also a capacious harbour, where Augustus and some of the Roman emperors generally kept stationed one of their fleets. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 239; bk. 6, lis. 164 & 234.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Livy, bk. 24, ch. 13.—Tacitus, Histories, bk. 2, ch. 9; Annals, bk. 15, ch. 51.

Misitheus, a Roman celebrated for his virtues and his misfortunes. He was father-in-law to the emperor Gordian, whose counsels and actions he guided by his prudence and moderation. He was sacrificed to the ambition of Philip, a wicked senator who succeeded him as prefect of the pretorian guards. He died A.D. 243, and left all his possessions to be appropriated for the good of the public.

Mithras, a god of Persia, supposed to be the sun, or, according to others, Venus Urania. His worship was introduced at Rome, and the Romans raised him altars, on which was this [♦]inscription, Deo Soli Mithræ, or Soli Deo invicto Mithræ. He is generally represented as a young man, whose head is covered with a turban, after the manner of the Persians. He supports his knee upon a bull that lies on the ground, and one of whose horns he holds in one hand, while with the other he plunges a dagger into his neck. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 1, li. 720.—Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 13.—Claudian, de consulatu Stilichonis, bk. 1.

[♦] ‘incription’ replaced with ‘inscription’

Mithracenses, a Persian who fled to Alexander after the murder of Darius by Bessus. Curtius, bk. 5.

Mithradātes, a herdsman of Astyages, ordered to put young Cyrus to death. He refused, and educated him at home as his own son, &c. Herodotus.—Justin.

Mithrēnes, a Persian who betrayed Sardes, &c. Curtius, bk. 3.

Mithridātes I., was the third king of Pontus. He was tributary to the crown of Persia, and his attempts to make himself independent proved fruitless. He was conquered in a battle, and obtained peace with difficulty. Xenophon calls him merely a governor of Cappadocia. He was succeeded by Ariobarzanes, B.C. 363. Diodorus.—Xenophon.

Mithridātes II., king of Pontus, was grandson to Mithridates I. He made himself master of Pontus, which had been conquered by Alexander, and had been ceded to Antigonus at the general division of the Macedonian empire among the conqueror’s generals. He reigned about 26 years, and died at the advanced age of 84 years, B.C. 302. He was succeeded by his son Mithridates III. Some say that Antigonus put him to death, because he favoured the cause of Cassander. Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Diodorus.

Mithridātes III., was son of the preceding monarch. He enlarged his paternal possessions by the conquest of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia, and died after a reign of 36 years. Florus.

Mithridātes IV., succeeded his father Ariobarzanes, who was the son of Mithridates III.

Mithridātes V., succeeded his father Mithridates IV., and strengthened himself on his throne by an alliance with Antiochus the Great, whose daughter Laodice he married. He was succeeded by his son Pharnaces.

Mithridātes VI., succeeded his father Pharnaces. He was the first of the kings of Pontus who made alliance with the Romans. He furnished them with a fleet in the third Punic war, and assisted them against Aristonicus, who had laid claim to the kingdom of Pergamus. This fidelity was rewarded; he was called Evergetes, and received from the Roman people the province of Phrygia Major, and was called the friend and ally of Rome. He was murdered B.C. 123. Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Justin, bk. 37, &c.

Mithridātes VII., surnamed Eupator and The Great, succeeded his father Mithridates VI., though only at the age of 11 years. The beginning of his reign was marked by ambition, cruelty, and artifice. He murdered his own mother, who had been left by his father co-heiress of the kingdom, and he fortified his constitution by drinking antidotes against the poison with which his enemies at court attempted to destroy him. He early inured his body to hardship, and employed himself in many manly exercises, often remaining whole months in the country, and making the frozen snow and the earth the place of his repose. Naturally ambitious and cruel, he spared no pains to acquire himself power and dominion. He murdered the two sons whom his sister Laodice had had by Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, and placed one of his own children, only eight years old, on the vacant throne. These violent proceedings alarmed Nicomedes king of Bithynia, who married Laodice the widow of Ariarathes. He suborned a youth to be king of Cappadocia, as the third son of Ariarathes, and Laodice was sent to Rome to impose upon the senate, and assure them that her third son was still alive, and that his pretensions to the kingdom of Cappadocia were just and well grounded. Mithridates used the same arms of dissimulation. He also sent to Rome Gordius, the governor of his son, who solemnly declared before the Roman people, that the youth who sat on the throne of Cappadocia was the third son and lawful heir of Ariarathes, and that he was supported as such by Mithridates. This intricate affair displeased the Roman senate, and finally to settle the dispute between the two monarchs, the powerful arbiters took away the kingdom of Cappadocia from Mithridates, and Paphlagonia from Nicomedes. These two kingdoms, being thus separated from their original possessors, were presented with their freedom and independence; but the Cappadocians refused it, and received Ariobarzanes for king. Such were the first seeds of enmity between Rome and the king of Pontus. See: [Mithridaticum bellum]. Mithridates never lost an opportunity by which he might lessen the influence of his adversaries; and the more effectually to destroy their power in Asia, he ordered all the Romans that were in his dominions to be massacred. This was done in one night, and no less than 150,000, according to Plutarch, or 80,000 Romans, as Appian mentions, were made, at one blow, the victims of his cruelty. This universal massacre called aloud for revenge. Aquilius, and soon after Sylla, marched against Mithridates with a large army. The former was made prisoner, but Sylla obtained a victory over the king’s generals, and another decisive engagement rendered him master of all Greece, Macedonia, Ionia, and Asia Minor, which had submitted to the victorious arms of the monarch of Pontus. This ill fortune was aggravated by the loss of about 200,000 men, who were killed in the several engagements that had been fought; and Mithridates, weakened by repeated ill success by sea and land, sued for peace from the conqueror, which he obtained on condition of defraying the expenses which the Romans had incurred by the war, and of remaining satisfied with the possessions which he had received from his ancestors. While these negotiations of peace were carried on, Mithridates was not unmindful of his real interests. His poverty, and not his inclinations, obliged him to wish for peace. He immediately took the field, with an army of 140,000 infantry and 16,000 horse, which consisted of his own forces and those of his son-in-law Tigranes king of Armenia. With such a numerous army, he soon made himself master of the Roman provinces in Asia; none dared to oppose his conquests, and the Romans, relying on his fidelity, had withdrawn the greatest part of their armies from the country. The news of his warlike preparations was no sooner heard, than Lucullus the consul marched into Asia, and without delay blocked up the camp of Mithridates, who was then besieging Cyzicus. The Asiatic monarch escaped from him, and fled into the heart of his kingdom. Lucullus pursued him with the utmost celerity, and would have taken him prisoner after a battle, had not the avidity of his soldiers preferred the plundering of a mule loaded with gold, to the taking of a monarch who had exercised such cruelties against their countrymen, and shown himself so faithless to the most solemn engagements. After this escape, Mithridates was more careful about the safety of his person, and he even ordered his wives and sisters to destroy themselves, fearful of their falling into the enemy’s hands. The appointment of Glabrio to the command of the Roman forces, instead of Lucullus, was favourable to Mithridates, and he recovered the greatest part of his dominions. The sudden arrival of Pompey, however, soon put an end to his victories. A battle, in the night, was fought near the Euphrates, in which the troops of Pontus laboured under every disadvantage. The engagement was by moonlight, and, as the moon then shone in the face of the enemy, the lengthened shadows of the arms of the Romans having induced Mithridates to believe that the two armies were close together, the arrows of his soldiers were darted from a great distance, and their efforts rendered ineffectual. A universal overthrow ensued, and Mithridates, bold in his misfortunes, rushed through the thick ranks of the enemy, at the head of 800 horsemen, 500 of which perished in the attempt to follow him. He fled to Tigranes, but that monarch refused an asylum to his father-in-law, whom he had before supported with all the collected forces of his kingdom. Mithridates found a safe retreat among the Scythians, and, though destitute of power, friends, and resources, yet he meditated the destruction of the Roman empire, by penetrating into the heart of Italy by land. These wild projects were rejected by his followers, and he sued for peace. It was denied to his [♦]ambassadors, and the victorious Pompey declared that, to obtain it, Mithridates must ask it in person. He scorned to trust himself into the hands of his enemy, and resolved to conquer or to die. His subjects refused to follow him any longer, and they revolted from him, and made his son Pharnaces king. The son showed himself ungrateful to his father, and even, according to some writers, he ordered him to be put to death. This unnatural treatment broke the heart of Mithridates; he obliged his wife to poison herself, and attempted to do the same himself. It was in vain; the frequent antidotes he had taken in the early part of his life strengthened his constitution against the poison, and, when this was unavailing, he attempted to stab himself. The blow was not mortal; and a Gaul, who was then present, at his own request, gave him the fatal stroke, about 63 years before the christian era, in the 72nd year of his age. Such were the misfortunes, abilities, and miserable end of a man, who supported himself so long against the power of Rome, and who, according to the declaration of the Roman authors, proved a more powerful and indefatigable adversary to the capital of Italy, than the great Annibal, and Pyrrhus, Perseus, or Antiochus. Mithridates has been commended for his eminent virtues, and censured for his vices. As a commander he deserves the most unbounded applause, and it may create admiration to see him waging war with such success during so many years against the most powerful people on earth, led to the field by a Sylla, a Lucullus, and a Pompey. He was the greatest monarch that ever sat on a throne, according to the opinion of Cicero; and, indeed, no better proof of his military character can be brought, than the mention of the great rejoicings which happened in the Roman armies and in the capital at the news of his death. No less than 12 days were appointed for public thanksgivings to the immortal gods, and Pompey, who had sent the first intelligence of his death to Rome, and who had partly hastened his fall, was rewarded with the most uncommon honours. See: [Ampia lex]. It is said that Mithridates conquered 24 nations, whose different languages he knew, and spoke with the same ease and fluency as his own. As a man of letters he also deserves attention. He was acquainted with the Greek language, and even wrote in that dialect a treatise on botany. His skill in physic is well known, and even now there is a celebrated antidote which bears his name, and is called Mithridate. Superstition, as well as nature, had united to render him great; and if we rely upon the authority of Justin, his birth was accompanied by the appearance of two large comets, which were seen for 70 days successively, and whose splendour eclipsed the mid-day sun, and covered the fourth part of the heavens. Justin, bk. 37, ch. 1, &c.—Strabo.—Diodorus, bk. 14.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.—Plutarch, Sulla; Lucullus; Caius Marius; & Pompey.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 6, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 30, &c.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 97; bk. 7, ch. 24; bk. 25, ch. 2; bk. 33, ch. 3, &c.—Cicero, On Pompey’s Command, &c.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Eutropius, bk. 5.—Josephus, bk. 14.—Orosius, bk. 6, &c.

[♦] ‘ambassaders’ replaced with ‘ambassadors’

Mithridātes, a king of Parthia, who took Demetrius prisoner.——A man made king of Armenia by Tiberius. He was afterwards imprisoned by Caligula, and set at liberty by Claudius. He was murdered by one of his nephews, and his family were involved in his ruin. Tacitus, Annals.——Another, king of Armenia.——A king of Pergamus, who warmly embraced the cause of Julius Cæsar, and was made king of Bosphorus by him. Some supposed him to be the son of the great Mithridates by a concubine. He was murdered, &c.——A king of Iberia.——Another of Comagena.——A celebrated king of Parthia, who enlarged his possessions by the conquest of some of the neighbouring countries. He examined with a careful eye the constitution and political regulations of the nations he had conquered, and framed from them, for the service of his own subjects, a code of laws. Justin.—Orosius.——Another, who murdered his father, and made himself master of the crown.——A king of Pontus, put to death by order of Galba, &c.——A man in the armies of Artaxerxes. He was rewarded by the monarch for having wounded Cyrus the younger; but, when he boasted that he had killed him, he was cruelly put to death. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.——A son of Ariobarzanes, who basely murdered Datames. Cornelius Nepos, Datames.

Mithridātĭcum bellum, begun 89 years B.C., was one of the longest and most celebrated wars ever carried on by the Romans against a foreign power. The ambition of Mithridates, from whom it receives its name, may be called the cause and origin of it. His views upon the kingdom of Cappadocia, of which he was stripped by the Romans, first engaged him to take up arms against the republic. Three Romans officers, Lucius Cassius the proconsul, Marcus Aquilius, and Quintus Oppius, opposed Mithridates with the troops of Bithynia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and Gallo-græcia. The army of these provinces, together with the Roman soldiers in Asia, amounted to 70,000 men and 6000 horse. The forces of the king of Pontus were greatly superior to these; he led 250,000 foot, 40,000 horse, and 130 armed chariots into the field of battle, under the command of Neoptolemus and Archelaus. His fleet consisted of 400 ships of war, well manned and provisioned. In an engagement the king of Pontus obtained the victory, and dispersed the Roman forces in Asia. He became master of the greatest part of Asia, and the Hellespont submitted to his power. Two of the Roman generals were taken, and Marcus Aquilius, who was principally entrusted with the conduct of the war, was carried about in Asia, and exposed to the ridicule and insults of the populace, and at last put to death by Mithridates, who ordered melted gold to be poured down his throat, as a slur upon the avidity of the Romans. The conqueror took every possible advantage; he subdued all the islands of the Ægean sea, and, though Rhodes refused to submit to his power, yet all Greece was soon overrun by his general Archelaus, and made tributary to the kingdom of Pontus. Meanwhile the Romans, incensed against Mithridates on account of his perfidy, and of his cruelty in massacring 80,000 of their countrymen in one day all over Asia, appointed Sylla to march into the east. Sylla landed in Greece, where the inhabitants readily acknowledged his power; but Athens shut her gates against the Roman commander, and Archelaus, who defended it, defeated, with the greatest courage, all the efforts and operations of the enemy. This spirited defence was of short duration. Archelaus retreated into Bœotia, where Sylla soon followed him. The two hostile armies drew up in a line of battle near Chæronea, and the Romans obtained the victory, and of the almost innumerable forces of the Asiatics, no more than 10,000 escaped. Another battle in Thessaly, near Orchomenos, proved equally fatal to the king of Pontus. Dorylaus, one of his generals, was defeated, and he soon after sued for peace. Sylla listened to the terms of accommodation, as his presence at Rome was now become necessary to quell the commotions and cabals which his enemies had raised against him. He pledged himself to the king of Pontus to confirm him in the possession of his dominions, and to procure him the title of friend and ally of Rome; and Mithridates consented to relinquish Asia and Paphlagonia, to deliver Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, and Bithynia to Nicomedes, and to pay to the Romans 2000 talents to defray the expenses of the war, and to deliver into their hands 70 galleys, with all their rigging. Though Mithridates seemed to have re-established peace in his dominions, yet Fimbria, whose sentiments were contrary to those of Sylla, and who made himself master of the army of Asia by intrigue and oppression, kept him under continual alarms, and rendered the existence of his power precarious. Sylla, who had returned from Greece to ratify the treaty which had been made with Mithridates, rid the world of the tyrannical Fimbria; and the king of Pontus, awed by the resolution and determined firmness of his adversary, agreed to the conditions, though with reluctance. The hostile preparations of Mithridates, which continued in the time of peace, became suspected by the Romans, and Muræna, who was left as governor of Asia in Sylla’s absence, and who wished to make himself known by some conspicuous action, began hostilities by taking Comana and plundering the temple of Bellona. Mithridates did not oppose him, but he complained of this breach of peace before the Roman senate. Muræna was publicly reprimanded; but, as he did not cease from hostilities, it was easily understood that he acted by the private directions of the Roman people. The king upon this marched against him, and a battle was fought, in which both the adversaries claimed the victory. This was the last blow which the king of Pontus received in this war, which is called the second Mithridatic war, and which continued for about three years. Sylla at that time was made perpetual dictator at Rome, and he commanded Muræna to retire from the kingdom of Mithridates. The death of Sylla changed the face of affairs; the treaty of peace between the king of Pontus and the Romans, which had never been committed to writing, demanded frequent explanations, and Mithridates at last threw off the mask of friendship, and declared war. Nicomedes, at his death, left his kingdom to the Romans, but Mithridates disputed their right to the possessions of the deceased monarch, and entered the field with 120,000 men, besides a fleet of 400 ships in his ports, 16,000 horsemen to follow him, and 100 chariots armed with scythes. Lucullus was appointed over Asia, and entrusted with the care of the Mithridatic war. His valour and prudence showed his merit; and Mithridates, in his vain attempts to take Cyzicum, lost no less than 300,000 men. Success continually attended the Roman arms. The king of Pontus was defeated in several bloody engagements, and with difficulty saved his life, and retired to his son-in-law Tigranes king of Armenia. Lucullus pursued him; and, when his applications for the person of the fugitive monarch had been despised by Tigranes, he marched to the capital of Armenia, and terrified, by his sudden approach, the numerous forces of the enemy. A battle ensued. The Romans obtained an easy victory, and no less than 100,000 foot of the Armenians perished, and only five men of the Romans were killed. Tigranocerta, the rich capital of the country, fell into the conqueror’s hands. After such signal victories, Lucullus had the mortification to see his own troops mutiny, and to be dispossessed of the command by the arrival of Pompey. The new general showed himself worthy to succeed Lucullus. He defeated Mithridates, and rendered his affairs so desperate, that the monarch fled for safety into the country of the Scythians; where, for a while, he meditated the ruin of the Roman empire, and, with more wildness than prudence, secretly resolved to invade Italy by land, and march an army across the northern wilds of Asia and Europe to the Apennines. Not only the kingdom of Mithridates had fallen into the enemy’s hands, but also all the neighbouring kings and princes were subdued, and Pompey saw prostrate at his feet Tigranes himself, that king of kings, who had lately treated the Romans with such contempt. Meantime, the wild projects of Mithridates terrified his subjects; and they, fearful to accompany him in a march of above 2000 miles across a barren and uncultivated country, revolted, and made his son king. The monarch, forsaken in his old age, even by his own children, put an end to his life [See: [Mithridates VII.]], and gave the Romans cause to rejoice, as the third Mithridatic war was ended in his fall, B.C. 63. Such were the unsuccessful struggles of Mithridates against the power of Rome. He was always full of resources, and the Romans had never a greater or more dangerous war to sustain. The duration of the Mithridatic war is not precisely known. According to Justin, Orosius, Floras, and Eutropius, it lasted 40 years; but the opinion of others, who fix its duration to 30 years, is far more credible; and, indeed, by proper calculation, there elapsed no more than 26 years from the time that Mithridates first entered the field against the Romans, till the time of his death. Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Justin, bk. 37, &c.—Florus, bk. 2, &c.—Livy.—Plutarch, Lucullus, &c.—Orosius.—Paterculus.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Mithridātis, a [♦]daughter of Mithridates the Great. She was poisoned by her father.

[♦] ‘daughther’ replaced with ‘daughter’

Mithrobarzānes, a king of Armenia, &c.——An officer sent by Tigranes against Lucullus, &c. Plutarch.——The father-in-law of Datames.

Mĭty̆lēne and Hĭty̆lĕnæ, the capital city of the island of Lesbos, which receives its name from Mitylene the daughter of Macareus, a king of the country. It was greatly commended by the ancients for the stateliness of its buildings and the fruitfulness of its soil, but more particularly for the great men whom it produced. Pittacus, Alcæus, Sappho, Terpander, Theophanes, Hellenicus, &c., were all natives of Mitylene. It was long a seat of learning, and, with Rhodes and Athens, it had the honour of having educated many of the great men of Rome and Greece. In the Peloponnesian war the Mityleneans suffered greatly for their revolt from the power of Athens; and, in the Mithridatic wars, they had the boldness to resist the Romans, and disdain the treaties which had been made between Mithridates and Sylla. Cicero, On the Agrarian Law.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Diodorus, bks. 3 & 12.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 7, &c.—Thucydides, bk. 3, &c.—Plutarch, Pompey, &c.

Mitys, a man whose statue fell upon his murderer, and crushed him to death, &c. Aristotle, bk. 10, Poetics.——A river of Macedonia.

Mizæi, a people of Elymais.

Mnasalces, a Greek poet, who wrote epigrams. Athenæus.—Strabo.

Mnasias, an historian of Phœnicia.——Another of Colophon.——A third of Patræ, in Achaia, who flourished 141 B.C.

Mnasicles, a general of Thymbro, &c. Diodorus, [♦]bk. 18.

[♦] ‘58’ replaced with ‘18’

Mnasīlus, a youth who assisted Chromis to tie the old Silenus, whom they found asleep in a cave. Some imagine that Virgil spoke of Varus under the name of Mnasilus. Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6, li. 13.

Mnasippidas, a Lacedæmonian, who imposed upon the credulity of the people, &c. Polyænus.

Mnasippus, a Lacedæmonian, sent with a fleet of 65 ships and 1500 men to Corcyra, where he was killed, &c. Diodorus, bk. 15.

Mnasitheus, a friend of Aratus.

Mnason, a tyrant of Elatia, who gave 1200 pieces of gold for 12 pictures of 12 gods to Asclepiodorus. Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 16.

Mnasyrium, a place in Rhodes. Strabo, bk. 14.

Mnemon, a surname given to Artaxerxes on account of his retentive memory. Cornelius Nepos, Kings.——A Rhodian.

Mnēmŏsy̆ne, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, mother of the nine Muses by Jupiter, who assumed the form of a shepherd to enjoy her company. The word Mnemosyne signifies memory, and therefore the poets have rightly called memory the mother of the Muses, because it is to that mental endowment that mankind are indebted for their progress in science. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fable 4.—Pindar, Isthmean, ch. 6.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.——A fountain of Bœotia, whose waters were generally drunk by those who consulted the oracle of Trophonius. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 39.

Mnesarchus, a celebrated philosopher of Greece, pupil to Panætius, &c. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 11.

Mnesidămus, an officer who conspired against the lieutenant of Demetrius. Polyænus, bk. 5.

Mnesilaus, a son of Pollux and Phœbe. Apollodorus.

Mnesimăche, a daughter of Dexamenus king of Olenus, courted by Eurytion, whom Hercules killed. Apollodorus, bk. 2.

Mnesimăchus, a comic poet.

Mnester, a freedman of Agrippina, who murdered himself at the death of his mistress. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, ch. 9.

Mnestheus, a Trojan, descended from Assaracus. He was a competitor for the prize given to the best sailing vessel by Æneas, at the funeral games of Anchises in Sicily, and became the progenitor of the family of the Memmii at Rome. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 116, &c.——A son of Peteus. See: [Menestheus].——A freedman of Aurelian, &c. Eutropius, bk. 9.—Aurelius Victor.

Mnestia, a daughter of Danaus. Apollodorus.

Mnestra, a mistress of Cimon.

Mnĕvis, a celebrated bull, sacred to the sun in the town of Heliopolis. He was worshipped with the same superstitious ceremonies as Apis, and, at his death, he received the most magnificent funeral. He was the emblem of Osiris. Diodorus, bk. 1.—Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride.

Moaphernes, the uncle of Strabo’s mother, &c. Strabo, bk. 12.

Modestus, a Latin writer, whose book De re Militari has been elegantly edited in 2 vols., 8vo, Vesaliæ, 1670.

Modia, a rich widow at Rome. Juvenal, satire 3, li. 130.

Mœcia, one of the tribes at Rome. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 17.

Mœnus, now Mayne, a river of Germany, which falls into the Rhine near Mentz. Tacitus, Germania, ch. 28.

Mœragĕtes, fatorum ductor, a surname of Jupiter. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 15.

Mœris, a king of India, who fled at the approach of Alexander. Curtius, bk. 9, ch. 8.——A steward of the shepherd Menalcas in Virgil’s, Eclogues, poem 9.——A king of Egypt. He was the last of the 300 kings from Menes to Sesostris, and reigned 68 years. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 13.——A celebrated lake in Egypt, supposed to have been dug by the king of the same name. It is about 220 miles in circumference, and intended as a reservoir for the superfluous waters during the inundation of the Nile. There were two pyramids in it, 600 feet high, half of which lay under the water, and the other appeared above the surface. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 6.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 12.

Mœdi, a people of Thrace, conquered by Philip of Macedonia.

Mœon, a Sicilian, who poisoned Agathocles, &c.

Mœra, a dog. See: [Mera].

Mœsia, a country of Europe, bounded on the south by the mountains of Dalmatia, north by mount Hæmus, extending from the confluence of the Savus and the Danube to the shores of the Euxine. It was divided into Upper and Lower Mœsia. Lower Mœsia was on the borders of the Euxine, and contained that tract of country which received the name of Pontus from its vicinity to the sea, and which is now part of Bulgaria. Upper Mœsia lies beyond the other, in the inland country, now called Servia. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 26.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 102.

Moleia, a festival in Arcadia, in commemoration of a battle in which Lycurgus obtained the victory.

Molion, a Trojan prince, who distinguished himself in the defence of his country against the Greeks as the friend and companion of Thymbræus. They were slain by Ulysses and Diomedes. Homer, Iliad, bk. 11, li. 320.

Molīŏne, the wife of Actor son of Phorbas. She became mother of Cteatus and Eurytus, who, from her, are called Molionides. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 7.

Molo, a philosopher of Rhodes, called also Apollonius. Some are of opinion that Apollonius and Molo are two different persons, who were both natives of Alabanda, and disciples of Menecles, of the same place. They both visited Rhodes, and there opened a school, but Molo flourished some time after Apollonius. Molo had Cicero and Julius Cæsar among his pupils. See: [Apollonius]. Cicero, On Oratory.——A prince of Syria, who revolted against Antiochus, and killed himself when his rebellion was attended with ill success.

Moloeis, a river of Bœotia, near Platæa.

Mŏlorchus, an old shepherd near Cleonæ, who received Hercules with great hospitality. The hero, to repay the kindness he received, destroyed the Nemæan lion, which laid waste the neighbouring country and, therefore, the Nemæan games, instituted on this occasion, are to be understood by the words Lucus Molorchi. There were two festivals instituted in his honour, called Molorcheæ. Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 44; bk. 14, ltr. 44.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 19.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 4, li. 160.

Mŏlossi, a people of Epirus, who inhabited that part of the country which was called Molossia, or Molossis from king Molossus. This country had the bay of Ambracia on the south, and the country of the Perrhæbeans on the east. The dogs of the place were famous, and received the name of Molossi among the Romans. Dodona was the capital of the country according to some writers. Others, however, reckon it as the chief city of Thesprotia. Lucretius, bk. 5, lis. 10, 62.—Lucan, bk. 4, li. 440.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Livy.—Justin, bk. 7, ch. 6.—Cornelius Nepos, bk. 2, ch. 8.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 495.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 6, li. 114.

Mŏlossia, or Molossis. See: [Molossi].

Molossus, a son of Pyrrhus and Andromache. He reigned in Epirus, after the death of Helenus, and part of his dominions received the name of Molossia from him. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.——A surname of Jupiter in Epirus.——An Athenian general, &c. Pausanias, Theseus.——The father of Merion of Crete. See: [Molus]. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 6.

Molpadia, one of the Amazons, &c. Plutarch.

Molpus, an author who wrote a history of Lacedæmon.

Molus, a Cretan, father of Meriones. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 6.——A son of Deucalion.——Another, son of Mars and Demonice.

Molycrion, a town of Ætolia, between the Evenus and Naupactum. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.

Momemphis, a town of Egypt. Strabo, bk. 17.

Momus, the god of pleasantry among the ancients, was son of Nox, according to Hesiod. He was continually employed in satirizing the gods, and whatever they did was freely turned to ridicule. He blamed Vulcan, because in the human form which he had made of clay, he had not placed a window in his breast, by which whatever was done or thought there might be easily brought to light. He censured the house which Minerva had made, because the goddess had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighbourhood might be avoided. In the bull which Neptune had produced, he observed that his blows might have been surer if his eyes had been placed near his horns. Venus herself was exposed to his satire; and when the sneering god had found no fault in the body of the naked goddess, he observed, as she retired, that the noise of her feet was too loud, and greatly improper in the goddess of beauty. These illiberal reflections upon the gods were the cause that Momus was driven from heaven. He is generally represented raising a mask from his face, and holding a small figure in his hand. Hesiod, Theogony.—Lucian, Hermotimus.

Mona, an island between Britain and Hibernia, anciently inhabited by a number of Druids. It is supposed by some to be the modern island of Anglesey, and by others, the island of Man. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 14, chs. 18 & 29.

Monæses, a king of Parthia, who favoured the cause of Marcus Antony against Augustus. Horace, bk. 3, ode 6, li. 9.——A Parthian in the age of Mithridates, &c.

Monda, a river between the Durius, and Tagus, in Portugal. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 22.

Monēsus, a general killed by Jason at Colchis, &c.

Monēta, a surname of Juno among the Romans. She received it because she advised them to sacrifice a pregnant sow to Cybele, to avert an earthquake. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1, ch. 15. Livy says (bk. 7, ch. 28) that a temple was vowed to Juno under this name, by the dictator Furius, when the Romans waged war against the Aurunci, and that the temple was raised to the goddess by the senate, on the spot where the house of Manlius Capitolinus had formerly stood. Suidas, however, says, that Juno was surnamed Moneta, from assuring the Romans, when in the war against Pyrrhus they complained of want of pecuniary resources, that money could never fail to those who cultivated justice.

Monĭma, a beautiful woman of Miletus, whom Mithridates the Great married. When his affairs grew desperate, Mithridates ordered his wives to destroy themselves; Monima attempted to strangle herself, but when her efforts were unavailing, she ordered one of her attendants to stab her. Plutarch, Lucullus.

Monimus, a philosopher of Syracuse.

Monŏdus, a son of Prusias. He had one continued bone instead of a row of teeth, whence his name (μονος ὁδους). Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 16.

Monœcus, now Monaco, a town and port of Liguria, where Hercules had a temple; whence he is called Monœcius, and the harbour Herculis Portus. Strabo, bk. 4.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 830.

Monoleus, a lake of Æthiopia.

Monophăge, sacrifices in Ægina.

Monophĭlus, a eunuch of Mithridates. The king entrusted him with the care of one of his daughters; and the eunuch, when he saw the affairs of his master in a desperate situation, stabbed her, lest she should fall into the enemy’s hands, &c.

Mons Sacer, a mountain near Rome, where the Roman populace retired in a tumult, which was the cause of the election of the tribunes.

Mons Sevērus, a mountain near Rome, &c.

Montānus, a poet who wrote in hexameter and elegiac verses. Ovid, ex Ponto.——An orator under Vespasian.——A favourite of Messalina.——One of the senators whom Domitian consulted about boiling a turbot. Juvenal, satire 4.

Mony̆chus, a powerful giant, who could root up trees and hurl them like a javelin. He receives his name from his having the feet of a horse, as the word implies. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 11.

Mony̆ma. See: [Monima].

Mony̆mus, a servant of Corinth, who, not being permitted by his master to follow Diogenes the cynic, pretended madness, and obtained his liberty. He became a great admirer of the philosopher, and also of Crates, and even wrote something in the form of facetious stories. Diogenes Laërtius.

Mophis, an Indian prince conquered by Alexander.

Mopsium, a hill and town of Thessaly, between Tempe and Larissa. Livy, bk. 42.

Mopsopia, an ancient name of Athens, from Mopsus, one of its kings, and from thence the epithet of Mopsopius is often applied to an Athenian.

Mopsuhestia, or Mopsos, a town of Cilicia near the sea. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 3, ch. 8.

Mopsus, a celebrated prophet, son of Manto and Apollo, during the Trojan war. He was consulted by Amphimachus king of Colophon, who wished to know what success would attend his arms in a war which he was going to undertake. He predicted the greatest calamities; but Calchas, who had been a soothsayer of the Greeks during the Trojan war, promised the greatest successes. Amphimachus followed the opinion of Calchas, but the opinion of Mopsus was fully verified. This had such an effect upon Calchas that he died soon after. His death is attributed by some to another mortification of the same nature. The two soothsayers, jealous of each other’s fame, came to a trial of their skill in divination. Calchas first asked his antagonist how many figs a neighbouring tree bore. “Ten thousand except one,” replied Mopsus, “and one single vessel can contain them all.” The figs were gathered, and his conjectures were true. Mopsus, now to try his adversary, asked him how many young ones a certain pregnant sow would bring forth. Calchas confessed his ignorance, and Mopsus immediately said that the sow would bring forth on the morrow 10 young ones, of which only one should be a male, all black, and that the females should all be known by their white streaks. The morrow proved the veracity of his prediction, and Calchas died by excess of the grief which this defeat produced. Mopsus after death was ranked among the gods; and had an oracle at Malia, celebrated for the true and decisive answers which it gave. Strabo, bk. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.—Ammianus, bk. 14, ch. 8.—Plutarch, de Defectu Oraculorum.——A son of Ampyx and Chloris, born at Titaressa in Thessaly. He was the prophet and soothsayer of the Argonauts, and died at his return from Colchis by the bite of a serpent in Libya. Jason erected to him a monument on the sea-shore, where afterwards the Africans built him a temple where he gave oracles. He has often been confounded with the son of Manto, as their professions and their names were alike. Hyginus, fables 14, 128, 173.—Strabo, bk. 9.——A shepherd of that name in Virgil, Eclogues.

Morgantium (or ia), a town of Sicily, near the mouth of the Simethus. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 18.

Morĭni, a people of Belgic Gaul, on the shores of the British ocean. The shortest passage to Britain was from their territories. They were called extremi hominum by the Romans, because situate on the extremities of Gaul. Their city, called Morinorum castellum, is now Mount Cassel, in Artois; and Morinorum civitas, is Terouenne, on the Lis. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 726.—Cæsar, bk. 4, Gallic War, ch. 21.

Moritasgus, a king of the Senones at the arrival of Cæsar in Gaul. Cæsar, Gallic War.

Morius, a river of Bœotia. Plutarch.

Morpheus, the son and minister of the god Somnus, who naturally imitated the grimaces, gestures, words, and manners of mankind. He is sometimes called the god of sleep. He is generally represented as a sleeping child of great corpulence, and with wings. He holds a vase in one hand, and in the other are some poppies. He is represented by Ovid as sent to inform by a dream and a vision the unhappy Alcyone of the fate of her husband Ceyx. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, fable 10.

Mors, one of the infernal deities born of Night, without a father. She was worshipped by the ancients, particularly by the Lacedæmonians, with great solemnity, and represented not as an actually existing power, but as an imaginary being. Euripides introduces her in one of his tragedies on the stage. The moderns represent her as a skeleton armed with a scythe and a scymetar.

Mortuum mare. See: [Mare Mortuum].

Morys, a Trojan killed by Meriones during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 13, &c.

Mosa, a river of Belgic Gaul falling into the German ocean, and now called the Maese or Meuse. The bridge over it, Mosæpons, is now supposed to be Maestricht. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 66.

Moscha, now Mascat, a port of Arabia on the Red sea.

Moschi, a people of Asia, at the west of the Caspian sea. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, ch. 5.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 270.

Moschion, a name common to four different writers, whose compositions, character, and native place are unknown. Some fragments of their writings remain, some few verses and a treatise de morbis mulierum, edited by Gesner, 4to, Basil, 1566.

Moschus, a Phœnician who wrote the history of his country in his own mother tongue.——A philosopher of Sidon. He is supposed to be the founder of anatomical philosophy. Strabo.——A Greek Bucolic poet in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The sweetness and elegance of his eclogues, which are still extant, make the world regret the loss of poetical pieces no ways inferior to the productions of Theocritus. The best editions of Moschus with Bion is that of Heskin, 8vo, Oxford, 1748.——A Greek rhetorician of Pergamus in the age of Horace, defended by Torquatus in an accusation of having poisoned some of his friends. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 5, li. 9.

Mosella, a river of Belgic Gaul falling into the Rhine at Coblentz, and now called the Moselle. Florus, bk. 3, ch. 10.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, ch. 53.

Moses, a celebrated legislator and general among the Jews, well known in sacred history. He was born in Egypt 1571 B.C., and after he had performed his miracles before Pharaoh, conducted the Israelites through the Red sea, and given them laws and ordinances, during their peregrination of 40 years in the wilderness of Arabia, he died at the age of 120. His writings have been quoted and commended by several of the heathen authors, who have divested themselves of their prejudices against a Hebrew, and extolled his learning and the effects of his wisdom. Longinus.—Diodorus, bk. 1.

Mosychlus, a mountain of Lemnos. Nicander.

Mosynæci, a nation on the Euxine sea, in whose territories the 10,000 Greeks stayed on their return from Cunaxa. Xenophon.

Mothōne, a town of Magnesia, where Philip lost one of his eyes. Justin, bk. 7, ch. 6. The word is oftener spelt Methone.

Motya, a town of Sicily, besieged and taken by Dionysius tyrant of Syracuse.

Muciānus, a facetious and intriguing general under Otho and Vitellius, &c.

Mucius. See: [Mutius].

Mucræ, a village of Samnium. Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 565.

Mulcĭber, a surname of Vulcan (a mulcendo ferrum), from his occupation. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 5. See: [Vulcanus].

Mulŭcha, a river of Africa, dividing Numidia from Mauritania. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 2.

Mulvius pons, a bridge on the Flaminian way, about one mile distant from Rome. Martial, bk. 3, ltr. 14.

Lucius Mummius, a Roman consul sent against the Achæans, whom he conquered, B.C. 147. He destroyed Corinth, Thebes, and Chalcis, by order of the senate, and obtained the surname of Achaicus from his victories. He did not enrich himself with the spoils of the enemy, but returned home without any increase of fortune. He was so unacquainted with the value of the paintings and works of the most celebrated artists of Greece, which were found in the plunder of Corinth, that he said to those who conveyed them to Rome, that if they lost them or injured them, they should make others in their stead. Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 13.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 7; bk. 37, ch. 1.—Florus, bk. 2, ch. 6.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 24.——Publius, a man commended by Caius Publicius for the versatility of his mind, and the propriety of his manners. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2.——A Latin poet. Macrobius, bk. 1, Saturnalia, ch. 10.——Marcus, a pretor. Cicero, Against Verres.——Spurius, a brother of Achaicus before mentioned, distinguished as an orator, and for his fondness for the stoic philosophy. Cicero, Brutus, ch. 25; Letters to Atticus, bk. 13, ltr. 6.——A lieutenant of Crassus defeated, &c. Plutarch, Crassus.

Munatius Plancus, a consul sent to the rebellious army of Germanicus. He was almost killed by the incensed soldiery, who suspected that it was through him that they had not all been pardoned and indemnified by a decree of the senate. Calpurnius rescued him from their fury.——An orator and disciple of Cicero. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather bore the same name. He was with Cæsar in Gaul, and was made consul with Brutus. He promised to favour the republican cause for some time, but he deserted again to Cæsar. He was long Antony’s favourite, but he left him at the battle of Actium to conciliate the favours of Octavius. His services were great in the senate; for through his influence and persuasion, that venerable body flattered the conqueror of Antony with the appellation of Augustus. He was rewarded with the office of censor. Plutarch, Antonius.——Gratus, a Roman knight who conspired with Piso against Nero. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 15, ch. 30.——Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 23.——A friend of Horace, epode 3, li. 31.

Munda, a small town of Hispania Bætica, celebrated for a battle which was fought there on the 17th of March, B.C. 45, between Cæsar and the republican forces of Rome, under Labienus and the sons of Pompey. Cæsar obtained the victory after an obstinate and bloody battle, and by this blow put an end to the Roman republic. Pompey lost 30,000 men, and Cæsar only 1000, and 500 wounded. Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 400.—Hirtius, Spanish War, ch. 27.—Lucan, bk. 1.

Munītus, a son of Laodice, the daughter of Priam by Acamas. He was entrusted to the care of Æthra as soon as born, and at the taking of Troy he was made known to his father, who saved his life, and carried him to Thrace, where he was killed by the bite of a serpent. Parthenius, ch. 10.

Muny̆chia (and æ), a port of Attica, between the Piræus and the promontory of Sunium, called after king Munychus, who built there a temple to Diana, and in whose honour he instituted festivals called Munychia. The temple was held so sacred that whatever criminals fled there for refuge were pardoned. During the festivals they offered small cakes which they called amphiphontes, ἀπο τον ἁμφιφαειν, from shining all round, because there were lighted torches hung round when they were carried to the temple, or because they were offered at the full moon, at which time the solemnity was observed. It was particularly in honour of Diana, who is the same as the moon, because it was full moon when Themistocles conquered the Persian fleet at Salamis. The port of Munychia was well fortified and of great consequence; therefore the Lacedæmonians, when sovereigns of Greece, always kept a regular garrison there. Plutarch.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 2, li. 709.—Strabo, bk. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 1.

Muræna, a celebrated Roman, left at the head of the armies of the republic in Asia by Sylla. He invaded the dominions of Mithridates with success, but soon after met with a defeat. He was honoured with a triumph at his return to Rome. He commanded one of the wings of Sylla’s army at the battle against Archelaus near Chæronea. He was ably defended in an oration by Cicero, when his character was attacked and censured. Cicero, for Lucius Murena.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars.——A man put to death for conspiring against Augustus, B.C. 22.

Murcia. See: [Murtia].

Murcus, an enemy of the triumvirate of Julius Cæsar.——Statius, a man who murdered Piso in Vesta’s temple in Nero’s reign. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 1, ch. 43.

Murgantia, a town of Samnium. Livy, bk. 25, ch. 27.

Murrhēnus, a friend of Turnus, killed by Æneas, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 529.

Mursa, now Essek, a town of Hungary, where the Drave falls into the Danube.

Murtia, or Myrtia (a μυρτος), a supposed surname of Venus, because she presided over the myrtle. This goddess was the patroness of idleness and cowardice. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 32.

Mus, a Roman consul. See: [Decius].

Musa Antonius, a freedman and physician of Augustus. He cured his imperial master of a dangerous disease under which he laboured, by recommending to him the use of the cold bath. He was greatly rewarded for this celebrated cure. He was honoured with a brazen statue by the Roman senate, which was placed near that of Æsculapius, and Augustus permitted him to wear a golden ring, and to be exempted from all taxes. He was not so successful in recommending the use of the cold bath to Marcellus, as he had been to Augustus, and his illustrious patient died under his care. The cold bath was for a long time discontinued, till Charmis of Marseilles introduced it again, and convinced the world of its great benefits. Musa was brother to Euphorbus the physician of king Juba. Two small treatises, de herbâ Botanicâ, and de tuendâ Valetudine, are supposed to be the productions of his pen.——A daughter of Nicomedes king of Bithynia. She attempted to recover her father’s kingdom from the Romans, but to no purpose, though Cæsar espoused her cause. Paterculus, bk. 2.—Suetonius, Julius Cæsar.

Musæ, certain goddesses who presided over poetry, music, dancing, and all the liberal arts. They were daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, and were nine in number: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Calliope, and Urania. Some suppose that there were in ancient times only three Muses, Melete, Mneme, and Aœde; others four, Telxiope, Aœde, Arche, Melete. They were, according to others, daughters of Pierus and Antiope, from which circumstance they are called Pierides. The name of Pierides might probably be derived from mount Pierus, where they were born. They have been severally called Castalides, Aganippides, Lebethrides, Aonides, Heliconiades, &c., from the places where they were worshipped, or over which they presided. Apollo, who was the patron and the conductor of the Muses, has received the name of Musagetes, or leader of the Muses. The same surname was also given to Hercules. The palm tree, the laurel, and all the fountains of Pindus, Helicon, Parnassus, &c., were sacred to the Muses. They were generally represented as young, beautiful, and modest virgins. They were fond of solitude, and commonly appeared in different attire, according to the arts and sciences over which they presided. See: [Clio], [Euterpe], [Thalia], [Melpomene], &c. Sometimes they were represented as dancing in a chorus, to intimate the near and indissoluble connection which exists between the liberal arts and sciences. The Muses sometimes appear with wings, because by the assistance of wings they freed themselves from the violence of Pyrenæus. Their contest with the daughters of Pierus is well known. See: [Pierides]. The worship of the Muses was universally established, particularly in the enlightened parts of Greece, Thessaly, and Italy. No sacrifices were ever offered to them, though no poet ever began a poem without a solemn invocation to the goddesses who presided over verse. There were festivals instituted in their honour in several parts of Greece, especially among the Thespians, every fifth year. The Macedonians observed also a festival in honour of Jupiter and the Muses. It had been instituted by king Archelaus, and it was celebrated with stage plays, games, and different exhibitions, which continued nine days, according to the number of the Muses. Plutarch, Amatorius.—Pollux.—Aeschines, Against Timarchus.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 21.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Virgil, Æneid.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 310.—Homer, Hymn 25 to the Muses and Apollo.—Juvenal, satire 7.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 14.

Musæus, an ancient Greek poet, supposed to have been son or disciple of Linus or Orpheus, and to have lived about 1410 years before the christian era. Virgil has paid great honour to his memory by placing him in the Elysian fields attended by a great multitude, and taller by the head than his followers. None of the poet’s compositions are extant. The elegant poem of the loves of Leander and Hero was written by a Musæus, who flourished in the fourth century, according to the more received opinions. Among the good editions of Musæus two may be selected as the best; that of Rover, 8vo, Leiden, 1727, and that of Schroder, 8vo, Leovard, 1743. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 677.—Diogenes Laërtius.——A Latin poet, whose compositions were very obscene. Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 96.——A poet of Thebes who lived during the Trojan war.

Musonius Rufus, a stoic philosopher of Etruria in the reign of Vespasian. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 81.

Mustēla, a man greatly esteemed by Cicero. Letters to Atticus, bk. 12.——A gladiator. Cicero.

[♦]Muta, a goddess who presided over silence, among the Romans. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 580.

[♦] corrected alphabetic order.

Muthullus, a river of Numidia. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 48.

Mutia, a daughter of Quintus Mutius Scævola, and sister of Metellus Celer. She was Pompey’s third wife. Her incontinent behaviour so disgusted her husband, that at his return from the Mithridatic war, he divorced her, though she had borne him three children. She afterwards married Marcus Scaurus. Augustus greatly esteemed her. Plutarch, Pompey.——A wife of Julius Cæsar, beloved by Clodius the tribune. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ch. 50.——The mother of Augustus.

Mutia lex, the same as that which was enacted by Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Mutius, A.U.C. 657. See: [Licinia lex].

Mutica, or Mutyce, a town of Sicily west of the cape Pachynus. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 43.

Mutilia, a woman intimate with Livia Augusta. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 12.

Mutĭna, a Roman colony of Cisalpine Gaul, where Marcus Antony besieged Decimus Brutus, whom the consuls Pansa and Hirtius delivered. Two battles on the 15th of April, B.C. 43, were fought there, in which Antony was defeated, and at last obliged to retire. Mutina is now called Modena. Lucan, bk. 1, li. 41; bk. 7, li. 872.—Silius Italicus, bk. 8, li. 592.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 822.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 10, ltr. 14; Brutus, ltr. 5.

Mutīnes, one of Annibal’s generals, who was honoured with the freedom of Rome on delivering up Agrigentum. Livy, bk. 25, ch. 41; bk. 27, ch. 5.

Mutinus. See: [Mutunus].

Mutius, the father-in-law of Caius Marius.——A Roman who saved the life of young Marius by conveying him away from the pursuit of his enemies in a load of straw.——A friend of Tiberius Gracchus, by whose means he was raised to the office of a tribune.——Caius Scævola, surnamed Cordus, became famous for his courage and intrepidity. When Porsenna king of Etruria had besieged Rome to reinstate Tarquin in all his rights and privileges, Mutius determined to deliver his country from so dangerous an enemy. He disguised himself in the habit of a Tuscan, and as he could fluently speak the language, he gained an easy introduction into the camp, and soon into the royal tent. Porsenna sat alone with his secretary when Mutius entered. The Roman rushed upon the secretary and stabbed him to the heart, mistaking him for his royal master. This occasioned a noise, and Mutius, unable to escape, was seized and brought before the king. He gave no answer to the inquiries of the courtiers, and only told them that he was a Roman; and to give them a proof of his fortitude, he laid his right hand on an altar of burning coals, and sternly looking at the king, and without uttering a groan, he boldly told him that 300 young Romans like himself had conspired against his life, and entered the camp in disguise, determined either to destroy him or perish in the attempt. This extraordinary confession astonished Porsenna; he made peace with the Romans, and retired from their city. Mutius obtained the surname of Scævola, because he had lost the use of his right hand by burning it in the presence of the Etrurian king. Plutarch, Parallela minora.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 10.—Livy, bk. 2, ch. 12.——Quintus Scævola, a Roman consul. He obtained a victory over the Dalmatians, and signalized himself greatly in the Marsian war. He is highly commended by Cicero, whom he instructed in the study of civil law. Cicero.—Plutarch.——Another, appointed proconsul of Asia, which he governed with so much popularity, that he was generally proposed to others as a pattern of equity and moderation. Cicero speaks of him as eloquent, learned, and ingenious, equally eminent as an orator and as a lawyer. He was murdered in the temple of Vesta, during the civil war of Marius and Sylla, 82 years before Christ. Plutarch.—Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 1, ch. 48.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 22.

Mutūnus, or Mutīnus, a deity among the Romans, much the same as the Priapus of the Greeks. The Roman matrons, and particularly new married women, disgraced themselves by the obscene ceremonies which custom obliged them to observe before the statue of this impure deity. Augustine, City of God, bk. 4, ch. 9; bk. 6, ch. 9.—Lactantius, bk. 1, ch. 20.

Mutuscæ, a town of Umbria. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 711.

Muzeris, a town of India, now Vizindruk. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 23.

Myagrus, or Myodes, a divinity among the Egyptians, called also Achor. He was entreated by the inhabitants to protect them from flies and serpents. His worship passed into Greece and Italy. Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 28.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 26.

My̆căle, a celebrated magician, who boasted that she could draw down the moon from her orb. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 263.——A city and promontory of Asia Minor opposite Samos, celebrated for a battle which was fought there between the Greeks and Persians on the 22nd of September, 479 B.C., the same day that Mardonius was defeated at Platæa. The Persians were about 100,000 men, that had just returned from the unsuccessful expedition of Xerxes in Greece. They had drawn their ships to the shore and fortified themselves, as if determined to support a siege. They suffered the Greeks to disembark from their fleet without the least molestation, and were soon obliged to give way before the cool and resolute intrepidity of an inferior number of men. The Greeks obtained a complete victory, slaughtered some thousands of the enemy, burned their camp, and sailed back to Samos with an immense booty, in which were seventy chests of money among other very valuable things. Herodotus.—Justin, bk. 2, ch. 14.—Diodorus.——A woman’s name. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 141.

Mycalessus, an inland town of Bœotia, where Ceres had a temple. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 19.

My̆cēnæ, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, built by Perseus son of Danae. It was situate on a small river at the east of the Inachus, about 50 stadia from Argos, and received its name from Mycene, a nymph of Laconia. It was once the capital of a kingdom, whose monarchs reigned in the following order: Acrisius, 1344 B.C.; Perseus, Electryon, Mæstor, and Sthenelus, and Sthenelus alone for eight years; Atreus and Thyestes, Agamemnon, Ægysthus, Orestes, Æpytus, who was dispossessed 1104 B.C., on the return of the Heraclidæ. The town of Mycenæ was taken and laid in ruins by the Argives, B.C. 568; and it was almost unknown where it stood in the age of the geographer Strabo. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 16.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 839.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3. The word Mycenæus is used for Agamemnon, as he was one of the kings of Mycenæ.

Mycēnis (idis), a name applied to Iphigenia, as residing at Mycenæ. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 34.

Mycerīnus, a son of Cheops king of Egypt. After the death of his father he reigned with great justice and moderation. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 129.

Myciberna, a town of the Hellespont. Diodorus, bk. 12.

Mycithus, a servant of Anaxilaus tyrant of Rhegium. He was entrusted with the care of the kingdom, and of the children of the deceased prince, and he exercised his power with such fidelity and moderation, that he acquired the esteem of all the citizens, and at last restored the kingdom to his master’s children when come to years of maturity, and retired to peace and solitude with a small portion. He is called by some Micalus. Justin, bk. 4, ch. 2.

Mycon, a celebrated painter, who with others assisted in making and perfecting the Pœcile of Athens. He was the rival of Polygnotus. Pliny, bks. 33 & 35.——A youth of Athens changed into a poppy by Ceres.

Mycŏnos (or e), one of the Cyclades between Delos and Icaria, which received its name from Myconus, an unknown person. It is about three miles at the east of Delos, and is 36 miles in circumference. It remained long uninhabited on account of the frequent earthquakes to which it was subject. Some suppose that the giants whom Hercules killed were buried under that island, whence arose the proverb of everything is under Mycone, applied to those who treat of different subjects under one and the same title, as if none of the defeated giants had been buried under no other island or mountain about Mycone. Strabo observes, and his testimony is supported by that of modern travellers, that the inhabitants of Mycone became bald very early, even at the age of 20 or 25, from which circumstance they were called, by way of contempt, the bald heads of Mycone. Pliny says that the children of the place were always born without hair. The island was poor, and the inhabitants very avaricious; whence Archilochus reproached a certain Pericles, that he came to a feast like a Myconian, that is, without previous invitation. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 76.—Strabo, bk. 10.—Pliny, bk. 11, ch. 37; bk. 12, ch. 7; bk. 14, ch. 1.—Athenæus, bk. 1.—Thucydides, bk. 3, ch. 29.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 463.

Mydon, one of the Trojan chiefs who defended Troy against the Greeks. He was killed by Antilochus. Homer, Iliad, bk. 5, li. 580.

Myecphŏris, a town in Egypt, in a small island near Bubastis.

Myēnus, a mountain of Ætolia. Plutarch, de Fluviis.

Mygdon, a brother of Amycus, killed in a war against Hercules.——A brother of Hecuba. See: [Mygdonus].

Mygdŏnia, a small province of Macedonia, near Thrace, between the rivers Axius and Strymon. The inhabitants, called Mygdones, migrated into Asia, and settled near Troas, where the country received the name of their ancient habitation. Cybele was called Mygdonia, from the worship she received in Mygdonia in Phrygia. Horace, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 22; bk. 3, ode 16, li. 41.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 45.——A small province of Mesopotamia bears also the name of Mygdonia, and was probably peopled by a Macedonian colony. Flaccus, bk. 3, &c.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 10.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 20.—Horace, bk. 2, ode 12.

Mygdŏnus, or Mygdon, a brother of Hecuba, Priam’s wife, who reigned in part of Thrace. His son Corœbus was called Mygdonides, from him. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 341.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 3.——A small river running through Mesopotamia.

Mylassa (orum), a town of Caria. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 39.

Myle, or Mylas, a small river on the east of Sicily, with a town of the same name. Livy, bk. 24, chs. 30 & 31.—Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 16.——Also a town of Thessaly, now Mulazzo. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 54.

Myles, a son of Lelex.

Mylitta, a surname of Venus among the Assyrians, in whose temples all the women were obliged to prostitute themselves to strangers. Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 131 & 199.—Strabo, bk. 16.

Myndus, a maritime town of Caria near Halicarnassus. Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 3, ltr. 8.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 16.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.

Mynes, a prince of Lyrnessus, who married Briseis. He was killed by Achilles, and his wife became the property of the conqueror. Homer, Iliad, bk. 3.

Myniæ. See: [Minyæ].

Myŏnia, a town of Phocis. Pausanias.

Myonēsus, a town and promontory of Ionia, now Jalanghi-Liman. Livy, bk. 37, chs. 13 & 27.

Myra (orum, or æ), a town of Lycia, on a high hill, two miles from the sea. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.—Strabo, bk. 14.

Myriandros, a town of Seleucia in Syria, on the bay of Issus, which is sometimes called Sinus Myriandricus. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 108.

Myrīna, a maritime town of Æolia, called also Sebastopolis, and now Sanderlic. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 47.—Livy, bk. 33, ch. 30.—Strabo, bk. 13.——A queen of the Amazons, &c. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 4.——A town of Lemnos, now Palio Castro. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.——A town of Asia, destroyed by an earthquake in Trajan’s reign.——The wife of Thoas king of Lemnos, by whom she had [♦]Hypsipyle.

[♦] ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency

Myrīnus, a surname of Apollo, from Myrina in Æolia, where he was worshipped.——A gladiator. Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 29.

Myriœ, a town of Arcadia, called also Megalopolis.

Myrlææ, or Apamea, a town of Bithynia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32.

Myrmecĭdes, an artist of Miletus, mentioned as making chariots so small that they could be covered by the wing of a fly. He also inscribed an elegiac distich on a grain of Indian sesamum. Cicero, bk. 4, Academica.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 1.

Myrmĭdŏnes, a people on the southern borders of Thessaly, who accompanied Achilles to the Trojan war. They received their name from Myrmidon, a son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa, who married one of the daughters of Æolus son of Hellen. His son Actor married Ægina the daughter of the Asopus. He gave his name to his subjects, who dwelt near the river Peneus in Thessaly. According to some, the Myrmidons received their name from their having been originally ants, μυρμηκες. See: [Æacus]. According to Strabo, they received it from their industry, because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like them were indefatigable, and were continually employed in cultivating the earth. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, li. 654.—Strabo.—Hyginus, fable 52.

Myron, a tyrant of Sicyon.——A man of Priene, who wrote a history of Messenia. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 6.——A celebrated statuary of Greece, peculiarly happy in imitating nature. He made a cow so much resembling life, that even bulls were deceived and approached her as if alive, as is frequently mentioned by many epigrams in the Anthologia. He flourished about 442 years before Christ. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 3, li. 319.—Pausanias.—Juvenal satire 8.—Propertius, bk. 2, poem 41.

Myronianus, an historian. Diogenes Laërtius.

Myronides, an Athenian general who conquered the Thebans. Polyænus.

Myrrha, a daughter of Cinyras king of Cyprus. She became enamoured of her father, and introduced herself into his bed unknown. She had a son by him, called Adonis. When Cinyras was apprised of the incest he had committed, he attempted to stab his daughter, and Myrrha fled into Arabia, where she was changed into a tree called myrrh. Hyginus, fables 58 & 275.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 298.—Plutarch, Parallela minora.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.

Myrsĭlus, a son of Myrsus, the last of the Heraclidæ who reigned in Lydia. He is also called Candaules. See: [Candaules].

Myrsus, the father of Candaules. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 7.——A Greek historian in the age of Solon.

Myrtăle, a courtesan of Rome, mistress to the poet Horace, bk. 1, ode 33.

Myrtea, a surname of Venus. See: [Murtia].

Myrtĭlus, son of Mercury and Phaetusa, or Cleobule, or Clymene, was arm-bearer to Œnomaus king of Pisa. He was so experienced in riding and in the management of horses, that he rendered those of Œnomaus the swiftest in all Greece. His infidelity proved at last fatal to him. Œnomaus had been informed by an oracle that his daughter Hippodamia’s husband would cause his death, and on that account he resolved to marry her only to him who should overcome him in a chariot race. This seemed totally impossible, and to render it more terrible, Œnomaus declared that death would be the consequence of a defeat in the suitors. The charms of Hippodamia were so great, that many sacrificed their life in the fruitless endeavour to obtain her hand. Pelops at last presented himself, undaunted at the fate of those who had gone before him, but before he entered the course he bribed Myrtilus, and assured him that he should share Hippodamia’s favours if he returned victorious from the race. Myrtilus, who was enamoured of Hippodamia, gave an old chariot to Œnomaus, which broke in the course and caused his death. Pelops gained the victory, and married Hippodamia; and when Myrtilus had the audacity to claim the reward promised to his perfidy, Pelops threw him headlong into the sea, where he perished. The body of Myrtilus, according to some, was carried by the waves to the sea-shore, where he received an honourable burial, and as he was the son of Mercury, he was made a constellation. Diodorus, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 84 & 224.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.—Apollonius, bk. 1.

Myrtis, a Greek woman who distinguished herself by her poetical talents. She flourished about 500 years B.C., and instructed the celebrated Corinna in the several rules of versification. Pindar himself, as some report, was also one of her pupils.

Myrtōum mare, a part of the Ægean sea which lies between Eubœa, Attica, and Peloponnesus, as far as cape Melea. It receives this name from Myrto, a woman; or from Myrtos, a small island opposite to Carystos in Eubœa; or from Myrtilus the son of Mercury, who was drowned there, &c. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 14.—Hyginus, fable 84.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.

Myrtuntium, a name given to that part of the sea which lies on the coast of Epirus, between the bay of Ambracia and Leucas.

Myrtūsa, a mountain of Libya. Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo.

Mys (Myos), an artist famous in working and polishing silver. He beautifully represented the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, on a shield in the hand of Minerva’s statue made by Phidias. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.—Martial, bk. 8, ltrs. 34 & 51; bk. 14, ltr. 93.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 14.

Myscellus, or Miscellus, a native of Rhypæ in Achaia, who founded Crotona in Italy according to an oracle, which told him to build a city where he found rain with fine weather. The meaning of the oracle long perplexed him, till he found a beautiful woman all in tears in Italy, which circumstance he interpreted in his favour. According to some, Myscellus, who was the son of Hercules, went out of Argos without the permission of the magistrates, for which he was condemned to death. The judges had put each a black ball as a sign of condemnation, but Hercules changed them all and made them white, and had his son acquitted, upon which Myscellus left Greece and came to Italy, where he built Crotona. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 19.—Strabo, bks. 6 & 8.—Suidas.

Mysia, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into major and minor. Mysia minor was bounded on the north and west by the Propontis and Bithynia, and Phrygia on the southern and eastern borders. Mysia major had Æolia on the south, the Ægean on the west, and Phrygia on the north and east. Its chief cities were Cyzicum, Lampsacus, &c. The inhabitants were once very warlike, but they greatly degenerated; and the words Mysorum ultimus were emphatically used to signify a person of no merit. The ancients generally hired them to attend their funerals as mourners, because they were naturally melancholy and inclined to shed tears. They were once governed by monarchs. They are supposed to be descended from the Mysians of Europe, a nation which inhabited that part of Thrace which was situate between mount Hæmus and the Danube. Strabo.—Herodotus, bk. 1, &c.—Cicero, Against Verres.—Flaccus, ch. 27.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars.——A festival in honour of Ceres, surnamed Mysia from Mysias, an Argive, who raised her a temple near Pallene in Achaia. Some derive the words ἀπο του μυσιαν, to cloy, or satisfy, because Ceres was the first who satisfied the wants of men by giving them corn. The festival continued during seven days, &c.

Myson, a native of Sparta, one of the seven wise men of Greece. When Anacharsis consulted the oracle of Apollo, to know which was the wisest man in Greece, he received for answer, he who was now ploughing his fields. This was Myson. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

Mystes, a son of the poet Valgius, whose early death was so lamented by the father, that Horace wrote an ode to allay the grief of his friend. Horace, bk. 2, ode 9.

Mythecus, a sophist of Syracuse. He studied cookery, and when he thought himself sufficiently skilled in dressing meat, he went to Sparta, where he gained much practice, especially among the younger citizens. He was soon after expelled the city by the magistrates, who observed that the aid of Mythecus was unnecessary, as hunger was the best seasoning.

My̆tilēne. See: [Mitylene].

Myus (Myuntis), a town of Ionia on the confines of Caria, founded by a Grecian colony. It is one of the 12 capital cities of Ionia, situate at the distance of about 30 stadia from the mouth of the Mæander. Artaxerxes king of Persia gave it to Themistocles to maintain him in meat. Magnesia was to support him in bread, and Lampsacus in wine. Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 142.—Diodorus, bk. 11.

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