Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1123

Rh MOERTS. of the d3Mng Lucretia. The verses are very bad, and "vve know nothing of the author. (Burniann, AnthoL Lat. ii. 171, No. 557, Meyer.) [W. R.J MODESTUS, JU'LIU^, a freednian of Julius Hyginns, who was himself a freednian of the em- peror Augustus [Hyginus], followed in the foot- steps of his patron, and like him became distin- guished as a Roman grammarian. He wrote a work entitled Quaestiones Confusae, in at least two hooks, containing, as it would seem, discussions on various grammatical and antiquarian subjects. (Suet, de Illusir. Gramm. 20 ; Gell. iii. 9 ; Macrob. Saturn, i. 4, 10, 16.) MO'DIUS, a Roman name, which rarely oc- curs. Varro {de Re Rust, ii, 7) speaks of a Q. Modius Equiculus, and Cicero ( Verr. ii. 48) of a M. Modius. Juvenal (iii. 130) also mentions a rich Roman matron of the name of Modia. MOERA'GENES {moipa-yhris), one of the royal body-guards at the Egyptian court, was sus- pected by the profligate Agathocles, who had been minister of Ptolemy Philopater, and was now guardian of the young Epiphanes, of being leagued with Tlepolemus and others in a conspiracy against him. Agathocles accordingly ordered Nicostratus, his secretary, to examine Moeragenes with torture. When the latter had been stripped for this purpose, a servant entered and whispered something in the ear of Nicostratus, who immediately left the room in great agitation. The attendants, who were to have administered the torture, gazed at one another in wonder for some time, and then one by one withdrew. Moeragenes, thus left alone, fled forth, naked as he was, to a tent near the palace, where a party of soldiers were taking their mid-day meal, and by his exhortations incited them to raise the tumult which ended in the murder of Agathocles and his family, b. c. 202. (Polyb. xv. 27, &c.) [Agathoclea.] [E. E.] MOERIS or MYRIS (Mo7pjs, Mv>s), a king of Egypt, who, Herodotus tells us, reigned some 900 years before his own visit to that country, which seems to have been about B. c. 450. Ac- cording to Diodorus, he was twelve generations after Uchoreus, the founder of Memphis. We hear of Moeris that he erected the northern gate- way of the temple of Hephaestus at Memphis, and that he formed the lake known by his name and joined it by a canal to the Nile, in order to receive the waters of the river when they were super- abundant, and to supply the defect when they did not rise sufficiently. In the lake he built two pyramids, on each of which was a stone statue, seated on a throne, and intended to represent him- self and his wife. The revenue from the fishing of the lake was very large, and was given to the queen for her personal expences in dress and per- fumes. According to a statement of Anticleides, quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Moeris was the dis- coverer of the elements of geometry. (Herod, ii. 13, 101, 149; Diod. i. 52; Plin. H.N. v. 9, xxxvi. 13 ; Strab. xvii. pp. 789, 809, 810 ; Diog. Laert. viii. 1 1 ; comp. Menag. ad loc. ; Plat. Phaedr. p. 274 ; Bunsen, Aegyptens Stelle in der WeltgescMchte, vol. ii. p. 198, &c.) [E. E.] MOERIS {Mo7pis commonly called MOERIS ATTI'CISTA, a distinguished grammarian, the author of a work which is still extant, entitled MoipLSos 'Attikictov Xe^eis 'Attikwv Kal 'EAAt}- vccv Kara <ttoix(7ou, though the title varies some- what in different manuscripts. Photius (Cod. 157) MOIRA. gives 'Attiki(tt-^s as the name of the treatise itself. In some manuscripts the name of the author is given as Eumoeris or Eumoerides. Of the persoiuj history of the author nothing is known. He is conjectured to have lived about the end of the second century after Christ. His treatise is a sort of comparison of the Attic with other Greek dia- lects ; consisting of a list of Attic words and ex- pressions, which are illustrated or explained by those of other dialects, especially the common Greek. Though various manuscripts had been re- ferred to by dilferent schohirs, the work was first published in 1712, at Oxford, edited by Hudson. A better edition is that by Pierson. More recent editions have appeared in Germany by Koch and Jacobitz. [C. P. M.] MOERO (MoipoJ), or MYRO (Mi/poJ), a By- zantine poetess, the wife of Andromachus surnamed Philologus, and mother of the grammarian and tragic poet Homerus [Homerus]. She wrote epic, elegiac, and lyric poems. Athenaeus (xi. p. 490, e.) quotes a passage from a poem written by her, named yivTiixoavvr]. Eustathius {wi II. ii. p. 247) mentions a hymn to Poseidon, the produc- tion of Myro, who is probably identical with Moero, who is called Myro by Suidas. One of her epigrams is contained in the Anthology (iv. 1). Other fragments are given in Brunck's Anal. vol. i. p. 202. (Suidas, s.v. Mvpco, with Kiister's note ; Fabric. BiU. Graee. vol. ii. p. 131, &c. ; Groddeck, Initia Hist. Graec. Lit. ii. p. 4.) [C. P. M.j MOEROCLES (MotpoKATjs), an Athenian ora- tor, a native of Salamis. He was a contemporary of Demosthenes, and like him an opponent of Philip and Alexander, and was one of the anti- Macedonian orators whom Alexander demanded to have given up to him after the destruction of Thebes, though he subsequently withdrew his demand on the mediation of Demades. (Arrian, i. 10. § 7.) We rind mention of him as the ad- vocate of Theocrines [TheocrinksJ, and in the oration against Theocrines, which is usually placed among those of Demosthenes (p. 1339, ed. Reiske), he is spoken of as the author of a decree in accord- ance with which the Athenians and their allies joined their forces for the suppression of piracy. On one occasion he was prosecuted by Eubulus for an act of extortion practised upon those who rented the silver mines (Dem. de Falsa Leg. c. 81, p. 435), and Timocles, the comic poet (ap. Athen. viii. p. 34 1 ) speaks of him as having received bribes from Har- palus. At one period of his life he had been im- prisoned, though we do not know on what charge. He was afterwards the accuser of the sons of Lycurgus, according to Demosthenes (Epist. 3, p» 1478). According to Plutarch, however, it was Menesaechmus on whose charge they were impri- soned ( Vit. X. Oral. p. 8428). Moerocles is men- tioned by Aristotle {Rhet. iii. 10). [C. P. M.] MOIRA (Mo?pa) properly signifies "a share," and as a personification " the deity who ass-gns to every man his fate or his share,"' or the Fates. Homer usually speaks of only one Moira, and only once mentions the Motpat in the plural. (//. xxiv. 29.) In his poems Moira is fate personified, which, at the birth of man, spins out the thread of his future life (//. xxiv. 209), follows his steps, and directs the consequences of his actions accord- ing to the counsel of the gods. (//. v. 613, XX. 5.) Homer thus, when he personifies Fate, conceives her as spinning, an act by which also