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.