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.
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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.