Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1099

Rh MILO. 2. Ah Athenian, of considerable wealth and in- fluence, was a violent and bitter enemy of Demos- thenes, the orator. His hostility he first displayed when he broke violently into the house of Demos- thenes, with his brother Thrasylochus, to take possession of it, — Thrasylochus having offered, in the case of a trierarchy, to make an exchange of property with Demosthenes (duTidocris ; see Diet, of Ant. s. v.), under a private understanding with the guardians of the latter that, if the exchange were effected, the suit then pending against them should be dropped. (Dem. c. Meid. p. 540, c. Aphob. p. 841 ; Bbckh, Fuhl. Econ. of Athens, bk. iv. ch. 16.) The opposition offered by Demos- thenes, though to no purpose, to the proposal for sending aid against Callias and Taurosthenes of Chalcis to Plutarchus, the tyrant of Eretria, and the friend of Meidias, no doubt further exasperated the hatred of the latter, and he not only assailed Demosthenes with a charge of neglect of military duty (A6i7roTa|tou Si'/ctj), but endeavoured also, with the grossest malice, to implicate him in the accusation of murdering one Nicodemus. (Aesch. c. Ctes. pp. 65, QG ; Dera. De Pac. p. 58, c. Meid. pp. 547 — 554.) For the remainder of the trans- actions between Demosthenes and Meidias, see above. Vol. I. pp. 982, 983, and comp. Clint. F./f. vol. ii. sub annis 350, 348, App. ch. 20. 3. The son-in-law of Mania. [Meidias.] [E.E. | MI'DIAS, the engraver of a gem in the Royal Liljrary at Paris. (Clarac, Descr. des Antiques du Musee Royal, p. 420 ; Raoul-Rochette, Leltre a M. Schorn, p. 45.) [P. S.] MIGONI'TIS (Mi7wj'ms), a surname of Aphro- dite, derived from a place, Migonium, in or near the island of Cranne in Laconia, where the goddess had a temple. (Pans. iii. 22. § 1.) [L. S.] MILA'NION. [Mkilanion.] MILE'TUS (Mi'Atjtos), a son of Apollo and Areia of Crete. Being beloved by Minos and Sar- pedon, he attached himself to the latter, and fled from Minos to Caria, where he built a town, which he called after his own name (ApoUod. iii. 1. § 2 ; Pans. vii. 2. § 3 ; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 186). Ovid (^Mei. ix. 442) calls him a son of Apollo and Dei'one, and hence Dei'onides. A different genea- looy and story about him is preserved in Antonius Liberalis (30). [L. S.] MPLICHUS, a freedman of Flavius Scaevi- nus, gave Nero the first information of Piso's con- spiracy in A. D, QQ. Milichus was liberally re- warded by the emperor, and assumed the surname of Soter, or the Preserver. (Tac. Ann. xv. 54, 55, 71.) [W.B, D.] MILO, T. A'NNIUS PAPIA'NUS, was the son of C. Papius Celsus and Annia [Annia, No. 2]. He was born at Lanuvium, of which place he was in b. c. 53, chief magistrate — dictator. Milo derived the name of Annius from his adoption by his maternal grandfather T. Annius Liiscus. But the appellation by which he is best known, was an Italiot-Greek name, common in the South of Italy, the fruitful nursery of Gladiators. Since his an- cestors, neither in the Papian nor Annian families, bore this name, and Milo was notorious as a leader of mercenary swordsmen, and for his lawless and ferocious life, a by-name has probably superseded his birth-names. The year of his quaestorship is unknown. He was tribune of the plebs in B. c, 57, when his memorable and fatal contest with P. Clodius began. The history of his tribunate and MILO. 1085 of the succeeding events until the murder of Clodius in B. c. 52, is inseparable from that of his rival, and has already been related [P. Clodius Pulcher, No. 40]. We shall, therefore, merely recapitulate the principal features of their quarrel. Milo was deeply in debt, and a wealthy province alone could extricate him. But without eloquence or political talents, the member of a comparatively obscure family could not hope to attain the consulate, unless he identified his own interest with that of some one or other of the great leaders of the common- wealth. Milo, therefore, attached himself to Cn. Pompey, and Cicero's recall from exile was the im- mediate pretext of their alliance. In procuring Cicero's restoration, Milo, from his daring and un- scrupulous character, was by far the most efficient of tlie tribunes. He combated Clodius with his own weapons. He purchased, after a faint and fruitless trial of constitutional means, a band of gladiators, and the streets of Rome were the scene of almost daily and always deadly conflict between the two leaders of these paid assassins. Cicero's return did not, however, tranquillise the city. Clodius renewed his attacks on the person and pio- perty of the great orator, and Milo twice rescued him from the hands of the Clodian mob. Pompey also had become an object of Clodius' hate, and Milo and his gladiators, who served without being expressly employed by him, were a valuable guard to one who prized the concealment of his sentiments little less than the safety of his person. The success of the combatants was nearly equal. Mile's houses in Rome, the Anniana on the Capitoline and another on the hill Germalus, Avere assailed by the Clodians, but Clodius was twice driven from the forum, and the last time narrowly escaped with life. Nor did the rivals restrict their warfare to the swords of their adherents. With equal justice and consistency they accused each other of a breach of the Lex Flotia de Vi, and with equal violence both eluded the results of prosecution. Clodius, however, notwithstanding Milo's repeated disrup- tion of the cornitia, succeeded in carrying his election for the curule-aedileship in b. c. oQ, and was thus during his year of office exempt from impeachment. Milo, whose tribunate expired in December B. c. 57, was on the other hand open to legal proceedings, and Cicero from dread of Crassus, who favoured Clodius, refused to undertake his de- fence. It was, therefore, necessary for his safety that he should again hold an office of the state. But his bankrupt condition did not allow him to risk the expenses of the curule-aedileship, and there is no authentic record of his j)raetorship. In those convulsionary years of Rome it is indeed likely that the sequence of magistracies was not very strictly observed. Milo, however, although never aedile, exhibited aedilitian games of unusual and, according to Cicero, of insane magnificence. He was enabled to give them by the bequest of a deceased curule-aedile, whose name is lost, and he exhibited them in the year previous to his canvass for the consulship. In B. c. 53 Milo was candidate for the consulship, and Clodius for the praetorship of the ensuing year. The gladiatorial combats were revived, and Clodius upbraided Milo in the senate with his insolvency. Cicero, to whom Milo's election was of vital importance, defended him in the speech de Aere ulieno Milonis, of which a few frag- ments are still extant. The contest, however, be- tween the rival rufiians was brought to an end by