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._