Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1061

Rh MERIONES. rence in the Antonian and Cornelian gentes at Rome. Merenda signifies the mid-day meal ( Fest. in V. p. 12:^, Muell. ed. ; Non. p, 28, 32 ; comp. Isidor. Orig. xx. 2. § 12), and the word, un- changed in form, is extant in the modern Neapo- litan dialect. The Merenda branch of the Gtns Antonia was patrician (Dionys. x. 58) [Antonia Gkns]. 1. T. Antonius Merenda, was decemvir in B. c. 450 — 49, and was defeated by the Aequians on the Algidus. (Dionys. x. 58, xi. 23, 33 ; Liv. iii. 35, 38, 41, 42 ; Fasti.) 2. Q. Antonius T. f. Merenda, probably a son of the preceding, was tribune of the soldiers, with consular authority, in B. c. 422. (Liv. iv.. 42; Fasti.) 3. Servius Cornelius Merenda, was legatus in B. c. 275, to the consul L. Cornelius Lentulus [Lentulus, No. 5], and was presented by him, for the capture of a town in Samnium, with a golden chaplet of five pounds' weight. In the fol- lowing year Merenda was consul, and again com- manded in Samnium and Lucania. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 11 ; Fasti.) [W.B. D.] MERGUS, M. LAETO'RIUS. [Laetorius, No. 3.] ME'RICUS, a leader of Spanish mercenaries in the service of Syracuse at the time when that city was besieged by Marcellus. After the departure of Epicydes, and the massacre of the officers whom he had left in the command, six new praetors were appointed, of whom Mericus was one ; but he en- tered into a correspondence with his countrymen in ihe Roman service ; and being entrusted with the charge of part of the island of Ortygia, took the opportunity to admit a body of Roman troops into that fortress. By this means Marcellus became master of the citadel, which soon led to the capture of the whole city, B.C. 212. Mericus was re- warded for his treacliery by appearing in the ova-r tion of the Roman general adorned with a crown of gold, besides the more substantial benefits of the Roman franchise, and an assignment of 500 jugera of land. (Liv. xxv. 30, 31, xxvi. 21.) [E. H. B.] ME'RIONES(M7jpt6j'Tjy), a son of Molus (Hom. IL xiii. 249), conjointly with Idomeneus, led the Cretans in 80 ships against Troy (ii. 651, iv. 254), where he was one of the bravest heroes, and usu- ally acted together with his friend Idomeneus (viii. 264, X. 58, xiii. 275, 304, xv. 302, xvii. 258). He slew Phereclus (v. 59), Hippotion, and Morys (xiv. 514), Adamas (xiii. 567), Harpalion (xiii. 650), Acamas (xvi. 342), Laogonus (xvi. 603), and wounded Deiphobus (xiii, 528). He also offered to fight with Hector, who afterwards slew his charioteer, Coeranus (vii. 165, xvii. 610). He offered to accompany Diomedes on his exploring expedition into the Trojan camp ; but when Dio- medes chose Odysseus for his companion, Meriones gave to the latter his bow, quiver, sword, and famous helmet (x. 662, &c.). He and Ajax pro- tected the body of Patroclus (xvii. 669) ; and at the funeral games of Patroclus he won the fourth prize in the chariot-race, in shooting with the bow the first, and in throwing the javelin the second (xxiii. 351, 528, 614, 860, &c.). Later traditions state that on his way homeward he was thrown on the coast of Sicily, where he was received by the Cretans who had settled there (Diod. iv. 79) ; whereas, according to others, he returned safely to Crete, and was buried and worshipped as a hero, MEROBAUDES. 1047 together with Idomeneus, at Cnossus. (Diod. v. 79.) TL S 1 ME'RMERUS (Me>fpos). 1. A son of Pheres, and grandson of Jason and Medeia. He was the father of Ilus and Ephyra, and skilled in the art of preparing poison. (Hom. Od. i. 260 ; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1416.) 2. A son of Jason and Medeia, is also called Macareus or Mormorus (Hygin. Fab. 239 ; Tzetz. ad Lye. 175) ; he was murdered, together with his brother Pheres, bv his mother at Corinth. (Apollod. i. 9. § 28 ; Hygin. Fab. 25 ; Diod. iv. 54.) Ac- cording to others he was stoned to death by the Corinthians (Pans. ii. 3. § 6 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Med. 10), or he was killed during the chase by a lioness. (Paus. ii. 3. § 7.) A centaur, Mermerus, is mentioned by Ovid. {Met. xii. 305.) [L. S.] ME'RMNADAE (Mep^mSat), a Lydian family, which, on the murder of Candaules by Gyges, suc- ceeded the Heracleidae on the throne of Lydia, and held it for five generations, during a period of 170 years (about 716— 546). The successive so- vereigns of this family were Gyges, Ardys, Sady- attes, Alyattes, Croesus. (See these articles, and comp. Deioces ; also Thirl wall's Greece, vol. ii. pp. 157, 158 ; Clint. F. H. vol. i. sub anno 716, vol. ii. App. xvii.) [E.E.] MEROBAUDES, FLA'VIUS. In the collec- tion of the Christian poets by G. Fabricius, fol. Basel. 1564, we find (p. 765) thirty hexameters, De Christo, said to be the work " Merobaudis His- panici Scholastici," taken, as we are assured by the editor, from a very ancient MS. This hymn was, at a subsequent period, most erroneously ascribed to Claud ian, and in all the later impressions of his poems is placed among the Epigrammata, and numbered xcviii. About the year 1812 or 1813 the base of a statue was dug up in the Ulpian forum at Rome, bearing a long inscription in honour of Flavius Merobaudes, who is declared to have been equally brave and learned, capable of performing glorious deeds, and of celebrating the achievements of others, well skilled in wielding both the sword and the pen, a gallant and experienced soldier, a bard worthy of the Heliconian wreath. It is then set forth that, as a tribute to his rare qualities, a brazen image had been erected in the Ulpian forum, on the 29th of July, in the 15th consulship of Theodosius, and the 4th of Valentinian (a. D. 435). Ten years afterwards Niebuhr succeeded in de- cyphering, upon eight leaves of a palimpsest be- longing to the monastery of St. Gall, several Latin verses, which, from the subjects to which some of them referred, must have been composed about the middle of the fi^fth century. For a considerable time it seemed impossible to determine the author, no name appearing on the parchment.; but upon comparing the preface to the principal piece with the inscription just mentioned, some expressions in the former were found to be so completely an echo of the words in the latter, that it became almost certain that Merobaudes must be the person sought, and this conclusion was confirmed by a passage in Sidonius Apoliinaris, which contains an allusion to this very statue. {Carrn. ix. Ad Felicem, 278 — 302, comp. the note of Sirmond.) The fragments thus recovered are miserably mutilated. The pages preserved do not follow each other in regular order ;, the initial or the final words in most of the larget 3x 4