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.