Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1020

Rh lOOG MEGABAZUS. cys and Goto, and one of the Ciorgons. [GoR- GONES, Perseus.] 2. A daughter of Sthenehis and Nicippe, and a sister of Eurystheus. (Apollod. ii. 4, § 5.) 3. A daughter of Priam. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 5 ; Pans. X. 26. § 1.) [L. S.] MEGABATES (Meyaedrvs.) 1. A Persian of the royal family of the Achaemenidae, cousin of Dareius and of Artaphernes, was appointed by the latter to the command of the expedition sent to assist Aristagoras in the reduction of Naxos ; but, in consequence of a quarrel with Aristagoras, Me- gabates betrayed the object of the expedition to the Naxians, who, thus forewarned, defended them- selves successfully. (Herod, v. 32 — 34.) Accord- ing to Herodotus, Pausaiiias designed to marry the daughter of Megabates ; but the letter of Pausanias to Xerxes, as given by Thucydides (i. 128), con- tains an offer to marry the daughter of the king himself. 2. In the narrative just quoted Thucydides mentions Megabates, governor of Dascylitis, who is perhaps the same person (c, 129). 3. See Megabazus, No. 5. [P. S.] MEGABA'ZUS (M^ydSaCos), and MEGA- BY'ZUS (M(yd€vCos), are Persian names, which are so intermixed by Herodotus, Ctesias, and other writers, as to make it nearly certain that they are only different forms of the same name. Thucj'^- dides, however, applies the names respectively to two different persons (i. 109) ; but this is not a certain proof that the names were really different. For a further discussion of the two forms, see Duker and Poppo, ad Thucyd. 1. c. ; Hemsterh. ad Lticiav. Tim. 22 ; Perizon. ad Aelian. V. H. ii. 2 ; Dorvill. ad Charit- p. 472 (pp.446, 447, orig. ed.) Aeschylus {Pers. 22) gives the form Meya.€dQqs^ and Xenophon confounds Vl^ydSa^os and Me7a- €dT7]s. [See below, No. 5.] 1. One of the seven Persian nobles who formed the conspiracy against the Magian Smerdis, B. c. 521. In the discussion put into the mouths of the conspirators by Herodotus, after the death of the Magian, Megabazus recommends an oligarchical form of government. (Herod, iii. 70, 81.) Da- reius, who held him in the highest esteem, left him behind with an army in Europe, when he himself recrossed the Hellespont, on his return from Scy- thia, B. c. 506. (Id. iv. 143,144.) Megabazus subdued Perinthus and the other cities on the Hellespont and along the coast of Thrace, which had not yet submitted to the Persian rule, and removed the Paeonians, who dwelt about the Strymon, into Phrygia. (Id. v. 1 — 16, comp. 98.) He also sent to Amyntas, the king of Macedonia, and demanded earth and water, in token of his submission to Dareius. [For what followed see Alexander I. Vol. I. p. ]18.] On his return to Sardis he advised Dareius to recall Histiaeus from Myrcinus. [Histiaeus.] Herodotus mentions a celebrated saying of his in praise of the situation of Byzantium (iv. 144). He was the father of Zo- pj'FUS. (Id. iii. 153.) Xenophon (Q/rop. viii. 6. § 7) mentions a Megabyzus who was appointed by Cyrus as satrap of Arabia. 2. Megabyzus, the son of Zopyras, and grand- son of the above, was one of the commanders of the land forces in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, B. c. 480. (Herod, vii. 82.) Megabyzus was the commander of the army which Cimon de- feated on the Eurymedon, in b. c. 466. (Diod. MEGACLEIDES. xii. 3.) [Cimon.] When the Athenians made their expedition against Egypt, Megabyzus was sent against them with a large army ; and having driven them out of Memphis, he shut them up in the island of Prosopitis, which he at last took, after a siege of eighteen months, b. c. 457. (Herod, iii. 160 ; Thuc. i. 109 ; Diod. xi. 74. § 6.) Ctesias informs us that he was the son-in-law of Xerxes, having married his daughter Amytis ; and he ascribes to Megabyzus the service which Plerodotus attributes to Zopyrus, namely, the taking of Babylon, after its revolt from Xerxes. {Pers. 22; Diod. x. 17. § 2; comp. Herod, iii. 153.) Several other incidents of his life are re- lated by Ctesias. {Pers. 27, 30, 33—40.) Two sons of his are mentioned, Zopyrus and Artyphius. (Ctes. 37 ; Herod, iii. 160.) He is alv/ays called M67a§i;fos, except in a quotation from Ctesias by Stephanas (s. v. Ki;,JTa?a), who gives the name in the form MeydSa^os : but even in this passage Westermann has printed it 'iJi^ydSu^os. 3. Megabazus, the son of Megabates, one of the commanders of the fleet of Xerxes. (Herod, vii. 97.) Diodorus calls him Megabates (xi. 12, 13). Perhaps he was the same person as 4. Megabazus, a Persian, who, at the time of the revolt of Inarus and the Athenian expedi- tion to Egypt, was sent by Artaxerxes to Lace- daemon, to bribe the Peloponnesians to invade At- tica ; but his mission altogether failed. (Thuc, i. 109.) 5. The son of Spithridates, was beloved by Agesilaus. (Xen. Hell. i. 4. § 28, Ages. 5; Plut. Ages. 11, Apopth. Lacon. p. 787 ; in which pas- sages the name varies between Me7a&a^oy, Me7o- Sv^os., Meya§dT-ns, and M€ya€riTr)s.) 6. The priest or keeper {vecoKopos) of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. (Xen. AnaL v. 3. §§ P, 7.) It appears from Strabo (xiv. p. 641) that the Megabyzi, or, as he calls them, the Megalobyzi, were eunuch priests in the temple of Artemis. Another of these priests is mentioned by Appian {B. C. V. 9) as having incurred the anger of Cleo- patra. [P. S.] MEGABERNES {M€ya€4pvvs), a grandson of Astvages, according to the account of Ctesias. (Pe/s. 2, 8.) • [P. S.] MEGABOCCHUS, C. is mentioned by Cicero in his oration for Scaurus (c. 2. § 40) as condemned along with T. Albucius on account of his crimes in the government of Sardinia. He is, perhaps, the same as the Megabacchus who perished along with Crassus in the expedition against the Parthians (Plut. Crass. 25). The Magabocchus spoken of by Cicero, in one of his letters {ad Att. ii. 7. § 3), is supposed by Manutius and others to be a nick- name given to Pompey on account of his victories in the war between Sulla and the Marian partj', and this supposition is also maintained by Dru- mann {Gesch. Roins, vol. vi. p. 44). But as there was evidently a Roman at that time of the name of Megabocchus, and Cicero in the letter referred to speaks of " Megabocchus et haec sanguinaria juventus," the opinion of Gronovius appears the more probable, that this Megabocchus was one of the reputed conspirators of Catiline ; and he may, therefore, have been the same as the one mentioned in the oration for Scaurus, and by Plutarch. MEGABY'ZUS. [Megabazus.] MEGACLEIDES ( MeyuKKciSris). 1. A Greek writer, from whom Athenacus has quoted some