Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/896

Rh €82 MACEDONIUS. quiry into the truth of these charges, and therefore banished him without trial, first to Chalcedon, and then to Euchaita ; and appointed Timotheus bishop or patriarch in his room ; and, having thus exiled him without any previous sentence of condemnation or deposition, he endeavoured to amend the irregularity of the proceeding by appointing a day for his trial, when he had him condemned in his absence, and by judges who were themselves accusers and wit- nesses. Many ecclesiastics, however, throughout the empire, refased to admit the validity of his de- position ; and his restoration to his see was one of the objects of the rebellion of Vitalian the Goth (a. D. 514), but it was not effected, and Mace- donius died in exile, a. d. 516. Evagrius assigns a different cause for the emperor's hostility to him, namely, his refusal to surrender a written engage- ment not to alter the established creed of the church, which Anastasius had given to the patriarch Euphemius, and which had been committed to the care of Macedonius, then only Sceuophylax, and which he persisted in retaining when the emperor wished to recover it. He is honoured as a saint by the Greek and Latin churches. (Evagrius,//. E. iii. 30, 31, 32 ; Theodor. Lector. //. E. ii. 12 —36; Theophan. Chronog. pp. 120—138, ed. Paris, pp. 96—110, ed. Venice, pp. 216—249, ed. Bonn ; Marcellin. Chronicon ; Victor Tunet. Chro- nicon; Liberatus, Breviarium, c. 19 ; Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, vol. i. col. 220 ; Tillemont, MemoireSf vol. xvi. p. 663, &c.) 5. The Consul, author of the epigrams. [See below.] 6. Critophagus, or Crithophagus. (o KpiOo- (pdyos.) Macedonius was a celebrated ascetic, con- temporary with the earlier years of Theodoret, who was intimately acquainted with him, and has left an ample record of him in his PhilotJieus or His- ioria Religiosa (c. 13). He led an ascetic life in the mountains, apparently in the neighbourhood of Antioch ; and dwelt forty-five years in a deep pit (for he would not use either tent or hut). When he was growing old, he yielded to the intreaties of his friends, and built himself a hut ; and was after- wards further prevailed upon to occupy a small house. He lived twenty-five years after quitting his cave, so that his ascetic life extended to seventy years ; but his age at his death is not known. His habitual diet was barley, bruised and moistened with water, from which he acquired his name of Crithophagus, " the barley-eater." He was also called, from his dwell- ing-place, Gouba, or Guba, a Syriac word denoting a*' pit" or " well." He was ordained priest by Flavian of Antioch, who was obliged to use artifice to induce him to leave his mountain abode ; and ordained him, without his being aware of it, during the celebration of the eucharist. When informed of what had occurred, Macedonius, imagining that his ordination would oblige him to give up his solitude and his barley diet, flew into a passion ill becoming his sanctity ; and after pouring out the bitterest reproaches against the patriarch and the priests, he took his walking staff, for he was now an old man, and drove them away. He was one of the monks who resorted to Antioch, to intercede with the emperor's officers for the citizens of Antioch after the great insurrection (a. d. 387), in -which they had overthrown the statues of the emperor. His admirable plea is given by Theo- doret. {H. E. V. 19.) Chrysostom notices one ■part of the plea of Macedonius, but does not men- MACEK tion his name. {Ad Popul. Antiochen. de Stattus. Homil. xvii. 1.) 7. Epigrammaticus. [See below.] 8. Gouba or Guba. [No. 6.] 9. Haereticus. [Nos. 2, 3.] 10. MONOTHELITA. [No. 2.] 11. Patriarcha. [Nos. 2, 3, 4.] 12. ViCARius Africae. Macedonius, who held the office of Vicarius Africae, in the early part of the fifth century, was the friend and correspondent of Augustin, who has described him as a person of many eminent qualifications. Two of his letters to Augustin, with Augustin's replies, are given in the works of that father. (Augustin. Epintolae., li. — liv. editt. vett., clii.— civ, ed. Caillau.) [J. C. M.] MACEDO'NIUS (Ma/ceSoVjos), of Thessalo- nica, a poet of the Greek Anthology, whom Suidas (s. V. 'AyaOlas) mentions as contemporary with Agathias and Paul the Silentiary and Tribonianus, in the time of Justinian. Suidas also calls him tJie Consul (tw viroLTCf)). There are altogether forty- three epigrams by him in the Anthology, most of which are of an erotic character, and in an elegant style. (Brunck, Anal. vol. iii. p. Ill ; Jacobs, Anth. Grace, vol. iv. p. 81, p. 215, No. 357, vol. xiii. p. 641, No. 30, p. 913; Fabric. BiU. Grace. vol. iv. p. 481.) [P. S.] MACER, AEMI'LIUS, of Verona, Avas senior to Ovid, and died in Asia, B. c. 1 6, three years after Virgil, as we learn from the Eusebian Chro-? nicle. He wrote a poem or poems upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, it would appear, of the Theriaca of Nicander. His produc- tions, of which not one word remains, are thus com- memorated in the Tristia : — '' Saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo, Quaeque necet serpens, quae juvet herba, ■ Macer.' The work now extant, entitled " Aemilius Macer de Herbarum Virtutibus," belongs to the middle ages. Of this piece there is an old translation, " Macer's Herbal, practys'd by Doctor Lynacro. Translated out of Laten into Englysshe, which shewynge theyr Operacyons and Venues set in the margent of this Boke, to the entent you mvght know theyr vertues." There is no date ; but it was printed by "• Robt. Wyer, dwellynge at the sj'^gne of Saynt Johan evangelyste, in Seynt Mar- tyns Parysshe, in the byshop of Norwytche rentes, besyde Charynge Crosse.", 2. We must carefully distinguish from Aemilius Macer of Verona, Macer who was one of the Latin Homeristae, and who must have been alive in A. D. 12, since he is addressed by Ovid in the 2d book of the Epistles from Pontus {Ep. x.), and is there spoken of as an old travelling companion, his literary undertaking being clearly described in the lines : — " Tu canis aetemo quidquid restabat Homero, Ne careant summa Troica bella manu ; " while elsewhere {ex Pont iv. 16. 6) he is desig- nated as " Iliacus Macer." We gather from Appu- leius that the title of his work was "Bellum Trojanum." (Hieron. iyi Chron, Emeb. 01. cxci. ; Ov. Trist. iv. 10. 43 ; Quintilian. vi. 3. § 96, X. 1. $$ 56, 87, xii. 11. $ 27 ; Appuleius, de Ortho- graph. § 18; Maffei, Verona Illustrata^ ii. 19; Broukhus. ad Tibvll. ii. 6 ; Wernsdorf, PoeU Lot, Min, vol, iv. p. 579.)