Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1121

Rh k MNESITHEUS. MNEST'PHILUS (MvnTi(pios), an AtTjeTiian, who pointed out to Themistocles, B.C. 4«0, the extreme impolicy of the measure which had been agreed on by the Greek generals, viz. to withdraw the fleet from Salamis and fight the Persians at the isthmus of Corinth. Hereupon Themistocles per- suaded Eurybiades to call another council, and therein with much difficulty prevailed on the generals to maintain their position at Salamis. According to Plutarch, Themistocles had, in a great measure, formed himself on the model of Mnesi- philus, who, he tells us, was addicted neither to the arts of rhetoric nor to the speculations of phy- sical philosophy ; but was a man of sound, strong, practical, good sense. With nothing of the sophist about him, he applied himself entirely to politics, and was a good specimen of an Athenian statesman of the old school of Solon. This intellectual con- nection of his with the great legislator is, by a bold fiction of chronology, converted into one of personal friendship, in the Banquet of the Seven Sages, ascribed to Plutarch. (Herod, viii. 67, &c.; Plut. T/iem. 2, 1 1, de Herod. Malign. 37, Conv. Sept Sap. 11.) [E. E.] MNESIPTO'LEMUS (M»/r?(n7rT(^AeMos), an historical writer, who was in great favour with Antiochus the Great. (Athen. xv. p. 697, d.) He was satirised by the comic poet Epinicus. (Athen. X. p. 432, b.) [C. P. M.] MNESI'STRATUS. 1. An astronomer men- tioned by Censorinus {de Die Nat. c. 18). He was the author of a modification of the cycle, called OKraerripls. 2. A native of Thasos, a disciple of Plato. (Diog. Laert. iii. 47.) There was a sect of philosophers called Mne- sistrateans,but who their founder was is not known. (Athen. vii. p. 27.9.) [C. P. M.] MNESITHEUS or MNASI'THEUS, a Sicyo- nian painter of some note. (Plin. //. A', xxxv. 1 1 . s. 40. § 42.) [P. S.] MNESI'THEUS (Mr7j(r(0eos), a physician, who was a native of Athens, and lived probably in the fourth century b. c, as he is quoted by the comic poet Alexis (ap. Athen. Deipnos. x. § 14. p. 419). He belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatic! (Galen, Introd. c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 683, De Venae Sect. adv. Eraaistr. c. 5. vol. xi. p. 163). He enjoyed a great reputation, and was particularly celebrated for his classification of diseases (Id. ad Glauc. de Meth. Med. i. 1, vol. xi. p. 3). He wrote a work " On Diet," Uepi 'EdeffTwv, or, according to Galen (/>e Ali}>i: Facult. ii. 61, vol. vi. p. 645), Ilepl Athenaeus (ii. 54, 57, iii. 80, 92, 96, 106, 121, viii. 357, &c.). He wrote another work, Hepl Ku- QwvKTiiov, " On Tippling" {Idi. Ibid. xi. 483), in which he recommended this practice. He is fre- quently mentioned by Galen, and generally in favourable terms ; as also by Rufus Ephesius, A. Gellius (xiii. 30), Soranus {De Arte Obstetr. pp. 184, 201), Pliny {H.N. xxi. 9), Plutarch {QuaesL Nat. c. 26, vol. v. p. 334, ed. Tauchn.), and Oribasius {Coll. Medic, viii. 9, 38, pp. 342, 357). See also Dietz's Scholia in Hippocr. et ■Gal. vol. i. pp. 239, 240, 241 ; and Matthaei's Collection, entitled "XXI. Vet. et Clar. Medi- cor. Graec. Opusc." His tomb was still existing in Attica in the time of Pausanias {Att. c. 37. §3). 2. A physician of Cyzicus in Mysia, quoted by MOCHUS. 1107 Orihasuis {Coll. Medic, iv. 4, p. 251). See also Matthaei's Collertion quoted above. [W. A. G.] MNESITI'MUSor MNASrn'MUS,a painter of some note, was the son and disciple of Aristoni- des. (Plin. //. N. xxxv. 1 1. s. 40. § 42.) [P. S.] MNESTER (Mj/Tjo-TTjp). 1. A celebrated pan- tomime actor in the reigns of Caligula and Clau- dius. The former emperor prized Mnester's acting so highly, that he used to kiss him before the au- dience, and once chastised with his own hands an eques who had made some disturbance during his performance. It was accounted among the portents of Caligula's death that on the morning of his assassination Mnester played a character which the tragedian Neoptolemus, centuries before, had acted on the day of Philip of Macedon's murder by Pau- sanias, B. c. 336. Under Claudius Mnester re- tained his popularity and his favour at court. He was among the many lovers of Poppaea Sabina, the mother of Nero's empress, and of Messalina, the wife of Claudius. [Messalina.] At first, through dread of the emperor, Mnester rejected Messalina's advances. But she had the art to persuade her imbecile husband to command the re- luctant player to be compliant to her in all things ; and, till supplanted by C. Silius, he remained her favourite. That she might have his society with- out interruption, she compelled him to abandon the stage, and thereby nearly occasioned a serious riot at Rome, for the people resented the sacrifice of their pleasures to those of the empress. The tumult was in some measure appeased by a foolish excuse which Claudius assigned for Mnester's ab- sence : he told the people that " Mnester belonged to his wife — he had no power to make him act." On the triumph for the campaign in Britain, a. d. 44, the brass money issued in Caligula's reign was called in and melted down, and part of the metal cast into statues of Mnester. He was involved in Messalina's ruin, and was put to death pleading the emperor's own order of compliance to her wilL (Suet. Cal. 36, 55, 57 ; Tac. Ann. xi. 4, 36; Sen. Mort, Claud, ed. Bipont. p. 256 ; Dion Cass. Ix. 22,28, 31.) 2. A freedman of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, who, after her death, either from grief for his patroness, or from dread of exile, slew himself on her tomb, near Misenum, a. d. 60. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 9.) [W. B. D.] MNESTHEUS, a Trojan, who accompanied Aeneas to Italy, and is described by Virgil as the ancestral hero of the Memmii. (Virg. Aen. v. 117, &c.) [L. S.] MOA'GETES, tyrant of the Cibyrates, in Up- per Phrygia, had made himself conspicuous by his enmity to Rome during the war with Antiochus the Great. In B.C. 189, the consul Cn. Manlius Vulso, condenmed Moagetes to pay a fine of 100 talents and to furnish 10,000 medimni of wheat for the use of the legions. (Polyb. xxii. 17; Liv. xxxviii. 14.) [W. B. D.] MOCHUS (M«xt^s) a native of Phoenicia, the author of a work on Phoenician history quoted by Athenaeus (iii. p. 126, a). Strabo (xvi. p. 757) speaks of one Mochus or Moschus (the reading varies) of Sidon, as the author of the atomic theory, and says that he was more ancient than the Trojan war. This statement he gives on the authority of Posidonius. It is impossible, of course, to tell from such a scanty notice whether he refers to the same person, or whether he really lived so early. 4b 2
 * ES€(riJ.dTwv, which is several times quoted by