Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1043

Rh MEMPHIS. towns without difficulty, but was delayed for a considerable time in the reduction of Mytilene. At this place he was taken ill and died, B. c. 333. His death was an irreparable loss to the Persian cause ; for several Greek states, and in particular the Spartans, hearing of his success and intentions, were prepared to join him, had he carried the war into Greece. According to Polyaenus (v. 44. § 1) he was some time or other engaged in hostilities with Leucon, king of Bosporus, who died B. c. 353. (Arrian, i. 12, 20—23, ii. 1 ; Diod. xvi. 34, 52, xvii. 7, 18, 23, 24, 29, 31 ; Clinton, F.H. vol. ii. p. 284.) 2. Governor of Thrace, who, while Alexander was absent in the East, seized the opportunity afforded by the disaster of Zopyrion, and revolted. The outbreak, however, was speedily suppressed by Antipater, b. c. 330. (Diod. xvii. 62.) 3. One of the demiurgi of the Achaeans, at the time of the Roman embassy to the League. (Liv. xxxii. 22.) [C. P. M.J MEMNON (Me;Ui/a)f ), a Greek historical writer, a native probably of Heracleia Pontica. He wrote a large work on the history of that city, especially of the tyrants under whose power Heracleia had at various times fallen. Our knowledge of this work is derived from Photius. Of how many books it consisted we do not know. Photius had read from the ninth to the sixteenth inclusive, of which portion he has made a tolerably copious abstnict. The first eight books he had not read, and he speaks of other books after the sixteenth. The ninth book begins with an account of the tyrant Clearchus, the disciple of Plato and Isocrates. The last event mentioned in the sixteenth book was the death of Brithagoras, who was sent by the Hera- cleians as ambassador to J. Caesar, after the latter had obtained the supreme power. From this Vossius supposes that the work was written about the time of Augustus ; in the judgment of Orelli, not later than the time of Hadrian or the An- tonines. It is, of course, impossible to fix the date with any precision, as we do not know at all down to what time the entire work was carried. The style of Memnon, according to Photius, was clear and simple, and the words well chosen. The Excerpta of Photius, however, contain numerous examples of rare and poetical expressions, as well as a few which indicate the decline of the Greek language. These Excerpta of Photius were first published separately, together with the remains of Otesias and Agatharchides by H. Stephanus, Paris, 1557. The best edition is that by J. Conr. Orelli, Leipzig. 1816, containing, together with the remains of Memnon, a few fragments of other writers on Heracleia. There is a French trans- lation of Photius's Excerpta in the Mtmoires de VAcadeinie des Inscriptions, vol. xiv. (Phot. Cod. ccxxiv. ; Voss. De Hist. Graecis, ed. Wester- mann, p. 226 ; Fabric. BibL Graec. vol. vii. p. 748 ; Groddeck, Iniiia Historiae Graecorum Literuriae, ii. p.74.) [C. P. M.] MEMPHIS (MefKfiLs). 1. A daughter of Neilus and wife of Epaphus, by whom she became the mother of Libya. The town of Memphis in Egypt was said to have derived its name from her. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 4.) Others call her a daughter of the river-god Uchoreus, and add that by Neilus she became the mother of Aegyptus. (Diod. i. 51.) 2. One of the daughters of Danaus (Apollod. iil. §5.) [US.] MENALCIDAS. 1029 MEN (Mr?*/), or translated into Latin, Lunus, the god presiding over the months, was a Phrygian divinity. (Strab. xii. pp. 657, 577 ; Procl. in Plat. Tim. iv. 251 ; Spartian. Carac. 7.) [L. S.] MENAECHMUS and SOIDAS (Mhaixfios Kol 2,otSas), were the makers of the gold and ivory statue of the Laphrian Artemis, which Pausanias saw in the temple of that goddess in the citadel of Patrae in Achaia, whither it had been removed from Calydon by Augustus. The goddess was represented in the attitude of the chase. The artists were natives of Naupactus, and were sup- posed to have lived not much later than Canachus of Sicyon and Gallon of Aegina. (Pans. vii. 18. § 6. s. 10, 11.) If so, they must have flourished about B. c. 500. [Gallon, Canachus.] Pliny quotes among the authorities for his 33d and 34th books, Menaechmus, a writer on the toreutic art, under which designation the chryselephantine statues were included. (Plin. H. N. Elench. xxxiii. xxxiv.) He also mentions (xxxiv. 8. s. 19. § 18) a group by Menaechmus, of a calf pressed down by the knee, and with the neck doubled back (no doubt by some one about to sacrifice it, but this Pliny omits) ; and he adds that Me- naechmus wrote upon his art. He does not ex- pressly say what this art was, but of course we must consider this Menaechmus as the same person whom Pliny quotes as one of the authorities for this book of his work ; and then again, since the subject on which he wrote was toreutice, it would follow, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that he was the same person as the artist mentioned by Pausanias. Harduin {Index Auct.) and Thiersch (Epochen., p. 202) are therefore almost certainly wrong in identifying Pliny's Menaechmus with the Me- naechmus or Manaechmus of Sicyon, who wrote a work Trepl rexviTwv (which means here actors, not artists, as Harduin and the rest evidently thought: see Meineke, Hist^ Crit. Com. Graec. p. 17), and also a history of Alexander the Great, and a book on Sicyon, and whom Suidas states to have flourished in the time of the successors of Alexander. (Suid.. s. v. ; Athen. ii. p. 65, a, vi. p. 271 d, xiv. p. 635 b, p. 637 f. ; SchoL ad Find. Nem. ii. 1, ix. 30 ; Yossius, de Hist. Graec. p. 102, ed. Westermann.) [P. S.] MENA'LCIDAS (MewA/ctSas), a Lacedaemo- nian adventurer, who, in some way not further specified by Polybius, took advantage of the cir- cumstances of Egypt, in its war with Antiochus Epiphanes (b. c. 171 — 168), to advance his own interests at the Ptolemies' expence. He was thrown into prison by Philometor and Physcon, but was released by them in B. c. 1 68, at the re- quest of C. Popillius Laenas, the Roman ambas- sador, who was sent to comiwii^ Antiochus to withdraw from the country. (Polyb. xxx. 1 1 ; eomp. Liv. xiv. 12, 13; Just, xxxiv. 2, 3; Val. Max. vi. 4. § 3.) In a. c. 150 we find Menal- cidas, as general of the Achaean league, engaging for a bribe of ten talents to induce the Achaeans to aid Oropus against Athens. By the promise of half the sum, he won Callicrates to the same cause, and they succeeded in carrying a decree for the succour required. No effectual service, however, was rendered to the Oropians, but Menalcidas still exacted the money he had agreed for, and then evaded the payment of his portion to Callicrates, The latter accordingly retaliated on . him with a 3u 3