Metellus: Q. Caecilius Metellus, who successfully conducted the Numidian War against Jugurtha (109 B.C.) until superseded by Marius. A man of high character, military ability, and intellectual culture.
Mētrodórus: favourite pupil of Epicurus (q.v.) and almost co-master of his school. Died 277 B.C.
Mithridátes: Mithridates VI, or the Great, king of Pontus 120-63 B.C., a Hellenized oriental famed for his physical and intellectual ability, his ambition and daring; of importance in history for his wars with the Romans under Lucullus and Pompey. He made a special study of poisons and their antidotes.
Mnēsíphȋlus: Athenian statesman of sound practical ability, taken by Themistocles as his model. It was he who urged Themistocles to force on the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.). In the Dinner-Party Plutarch borrows the name for an imaginary friend of Solon.
Molycréa: a town just inside the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf on the north side.
Myrōn: Boeotian sculptor; fl. 430 B.C. Best known by his Discobolus and his ‘Cow’. His work included animal forms, and human figures in a state of muscular activity or tension.
Mýrsȋlus: see Pittacus.
Naucrătis: a Greek town in the Delta of Egypt, thirty miles from the sea. At first only a trading-station, it was granted privileges of internal self-government by Amasis (q.v.).
Neoptólĕmus: see Eumenes.
Nestor: the typical wise old man of the Iliad.