[Mariamne], the wife of Herod the Great, whom he put to death on suspicion of her unfaithfulness.
[Mariana, Juan], Spanish historian and political philosopher, born at Talavera; joined the Jesuits in 1554, and taught in their colleges in Rome, Sicily, and Paris; returning to Toledo he gave himself to literature; his "History of Spain" appeared in 1592 and 1605, theological writings incurred persecution, and his greatest work, "De Rege et Regis Institutione," in which he defended the right of the people to cast out a tyrant, was condemned by the general of his order (1536-1624).
[Marie Antoinette], queen of France, fourth daughter of Maria Theresa; was married in 1770 to the dauphin of France, who in 1774 succeeded to the throne as Louis XVI.; was a beautiful woman, but indiscreet in her behaviour; had made herself unpopular and impotent for good when the Revolution broke out; when matters became serious the queenliness of her nature revealed itself, but it was in haughty defiance of the million-headed monster that was bellowing at her feet; the heroism she showed at this crisis the general mass of the people could not appreciate, though it won the homage of such men as Mirabeau and Barnave; all she wanted was a wise adviser, for she had courage to follow any course which she could be persuaded to see was right; in Mirabeau she had one who could have guided her, but by his death in 1791 she was left to herself, and the course she took was fatal to all the interests she had at heart; fatality followed fatality: first she saw her husband hurried off to the guillotine, and then she followed herself; hers, if any, was the most tragic of fates, and any one who has read that heart-moving apostrophe to her by Carlyle on the way to her doom must know and feel that it was her fate; she and her husband suffered as the representatives of the misgovernment of France for centuries before they were born, and were left a burden on their shoulders which they could not bear and under which they were crushed to death (1756-1793).
[Marie de France], a poetess and fabulist of Henry III.'s time; her fables are translations into French from an English version of old Greek tales; a greater work was her "Laïs," consisting of 12 or 14 beautiful narratives in French verse.
[Marie de' Medici], daughter of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, born at Florence; was married to Henry IV. of France in 1600, with whom she lived unhappily till his murder in 1610; she was then regent for seven years; in 1617 her son assumed power as Louis XIII.; she was for two years banished from the court, and on her return so intrigued as to bring about her imprisonment in 1631; though a lover of art she was neither good wife nor good queen, and escaping from confinement she died in destitution at Cologne (1573-1642).
[Marienbad], a high-lying Bohemian watering-place, 18 m. S. of Carlsbad; it is much frequented for its saline springs.
[Mariette Pasha, François Auguste Ferdinand], Egyptologist, born at Boulogne; became professor in the college there in 1841, entered the Egyptian department of the Louvre in 1849, and next year set out for Egypt; eight years later he was made keeper of the monuments to the Egyptian government, and in 1879 was made a pasha; he died at Cairo; he made many valuable discoveries and excavations, among which were the burial-place of the Apis bulls, the Sphinx monument, and many temples (1821-1881).
[Mario, Giuseppe], a celebrated tenor, born in Cagliari; acquired a large fortune as a professional singer, but lost it through unsuccessful speculations; in the circumstances a concert was given in London for his benefit which realised £1000; he was a handsome man and of charming manners (1808-1883).
[Mariotte, Edme], a French physicist, born at Dijon; discoverer of the law named after him, that the volume of a gas is inversely as the pressure; called also Boyle's; it bears the name of Mariotte's law on the Continent, and Boyle's in England (1620-1684).
[Marius, Caius], a celebrated Roman general, born near Arpinum, uncle by marriage to Julius Cæsar and head of the popular party, and the rival of Sulla; conquered the Teutons and the Cimbri in Gaul, and made a triumphal entry into Rome; having obtained command of the war against Mithridates, Sulla marched upon the city and drove his rival beyond the walls; having fled the city, he was discovered hiding in a marsh, cast into prison, and condemned to die; to the slave sent to execute the sentence he drew himself haughtily up and exclaimed, "Caitiff, dare you slay Caius Marius?" and the executioner fled in terror of his life and left his sword behind him; Marius was allowed to escape; finding his way to Africa, he took up his quarters at Carthage, but the Roman prætor ordered him off; "Go tell the prætor," he said to the messenger sent, "you saw Caius Marius sitting a fugitive on the ruins of Carthage"; upon this he took courage and returned to Rome, and along with Cinna made the streets of the city run with the blood of the partisans of Sulla; died suddenly (156-88 B.C.).