Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/912

Rh 808 MAESON. Goltzius are unquestionably spurious. (Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann. 16.) [W. R.] MAEO'NIUS, A'STYANAX, is quoted by Trebellius Pollio as his authority for the speeches of Macrianus and Balista [Balista ; Macrianus], when the former was induced to assume the purple after the capture of Valerianus by the Persians. Maeonius was, we are told, actually present at the meeting where the discussion took place. (Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann. .) [W. R.] MAERA (Mar/>o). 1. [IcARius, No. 1.] 2. A daughter of Nereus. (Hom, /?. xviii. 48.) 3. A daughter of Proetus and Anteia, was one of the companions of Artemis, but was killed by her after she had become by Zeus the mother of Locrus ; others, however, state that she died as a virgin. (Hom. Od. xi. 325 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1688.) She was represented by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi. (Pans. x. 30. § 2.) 4. One of the four daughters of firasinus of Argos. (Anton. Lib. 40.) 5. A daugliter of Atlas, w;^s married to Tegeates, the son of Lycaon. Her tomb was shown both at Tegea and Mantineia in Arcadia, and Pausanias thinks that she was the same as the Maera whom Odysseus saw in Hades. (Pans, viii, 12, § 4, 48. § 4, 53. § 1 ; Volcker, Mythol. des lapet. GescM. p. 114.) [L.S.] MAESA, JU'LIA, the sister-in-law of Septimius Severus, the aunt of Caracalla, the grandmother of Elagabalus and Alexander Severus. [See genea- logical table prefixed to Caracalla.] She was a native of Emesa in Syria, and seems, after the elevation of the husband of her sister Julia Domna, to have lived at the imperial court until the death of Caracalla, aud to have accumulated great wealth. The boldness and skill with which she contrived and executed the plot which transferred the supreme power from Macrinus to her grandson, the sagacity with which she foresaw the downfall of the latter, and the arts by which, in order to save herself from being involved in his ruin, she prevailed on him to adopt his cousin Alexander, are detailed in the articles Elagabalus and Macrinus. By Severus she was always treated with the greatest respect, and she exerted all her influence in the best direction, ever urging him to obliterate by his own virtues all recollection of the foul enormities of his predecessor. She enjoyed the title of Au- gusta during her life, died in peace, and received divine honours. Every particular of her history points her out as one of the most able and strong- minded women of antiquity, one who was passion- ately desirous of power, who was unscrupulous in the means she employed to gratify her ambition, but who had the wisdom to perceive that the domi- nion thus obtained would be» best preserved by justice and moderation. (Dion Cass. Ixxviii. 30 ; Herodian. in Elagab. For other authorities, see Caracalla, Elagabalus, Macrinus, Se- VKRUS.) [W. R.] MAESON (Mafcrojj'), a comic actor of Megara, who seems to have been celebrated for his skill in the buffoonery which characterised the old Megaric comedy. He invented the masks of the slave and the cook ; and the coarse jokes of those characters were called aKd/uLfxara tiaia-wviKoi. (Athen, xiv. p. 669, a ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1751, 56.) The fol- lowing proverb is attributed to him by several an- cient writers — 'Avt' fvepyeairis * Ay afiefivoua Srjaav 'Axa'oi. MAGAS. (Zenob. Cent.' ii. 11; Liban. de Nee. Juliana p. 285, b ; Harpocr. s. v. 'Epixa7 ; Diogenian. ap. Gais/ord, Paroemiogr. p. v.) Polemon {ap. AtJien. xiv. p. 659, c ) maintained, in opposition to Timaeus, that Maeson was a native of Megara in Sicil}', and not of the Nisaean Megara. If so, he must have lived before b c. 483, in which year the Megarians were expelled by Gelo. (Thuc. vi. 4, comp. Herod, vii. 156.) It may be conjectured, with some probabilitj', that Maeson was a native of the Nisaean Megara, but mif>rated to Megara in Sicily, and was thus one of those who introduced into Sicily that style of comedy which Epicharmus afterwards brought to perfection. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 22, 24 ; Grysar, de Com. Dor. p. 16.) [P. S.] MAE'VIUS. 1. The envious poetaster of the Augustan age, is spoken of under Bavius. 2. A person, who killed his brother in the civil Avar, and thus has become the subject of two beau- tiful elegiac poems, which are printed in the Latin Anthology (ii. 131, 132, ed. Burmaiin, ov Ep. 820, •{521, ed. Meyer), and by Wernsdorf {Pact. Lat. Min. vol. iii. pp. 199, &c.). MAGADA'TES (MoYaSciTTjs), general of Ti- granes, king of Armenia, was entrusted by him with the government of Syria, when it had been conquered from Antiochus X, (Eusebes) in B.C. 83. Magadates, having ruled over the country for fourteen years, left it in B. c. GB to aid his master against LucuUus ; and Antiochus XIIL, son of Antiochus X., seized the opportunity to recover the kingdom. (App. Syr. 48, 49, Mitlir. 84, &c. ; Plut. Luc. 25, &c. ; Just. xl. 1, 2.) Justin differs, apparently, from Appian in men- tioning eighteen years as the period during Avhich Syria was held by the officer of Tigranes ; but the numbers are satisfactorily reconciled bv Clinton. {F. H. vol. iii. p. 340.) [E. E.] MAGA'RSIA {^ayapala or '^layapals)., a sur- name of Athena, derived from Magarsos, a Cilician town near the mouth of the river Pyramus, where the goddess had a sanctuary. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 5.) [L. S.] MAGAS {Mayas). 1. King of Cyrene, was a step-son of Ptolemy Soter, being the offspring of the accomplished Berenice by a former marriage. His father's name was Philip: he is termed by Pausanias (i. 7. § 1) a Macedonian of obscure and ignoble birth, but Droysen regards him as the same with the Philip, son of Amyntas, who is frequently mentioned as commanding one division of the pha- lanx in the wars of Alexander. Magas seems to have accompanied his mother to Egypt, where he soon rose to a high place in the favour of Ptolemy, so that in B.C. 308 he was appointed by that mon- arch to the command of the expedition destined for the recovery of Cyrene after the death of Ophelias. [Ophellas.] The enterprise was completely successful, and Magas obtained from his step-father the government of the province thus re-united to Egypt, which he continued to hold without interruption from thenceforth till the day of his death, an interval of not less than fifty years. (Pans. i. 6. § 8; Agatharchides, up. Athen. xii. p. 550 b.) Of the transactions of this long period we know almost nothing : it is certain that Magas at first ruled over the province of Cyrenaica only as a dependency of Egypt, and there is no reason to suppose that he threw off his allegiance to Ptolemy Soter so long as the latter lived, though