Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/919

Rh MAHARBAL. in a speech at once prudent and man!)'. (Polyl). xxxvi. 3.) He is termed by Polybius the Bruttian (d BpcTTios), from whence Reiske inferred him to be the same with the lieutenant of Hannibal (No. 7), bv.t this, as Schweighaeuser has observed, is impossible, on chronological grounds. That author suggests that he may be the son of the one just alluded to, and may have derived his surname from the services of his father in Bruttiura. (Schw. ad Polyb. I.e. and Index Historicus, p. 365.) 1 4. A Carthaginian of uncertain date, who wrote a work upon agriculture in the Punic language, which is frequently mentioned by Roman authors in terms of the highest commendation. He is even styled by Columella the father of agriculture — rtisticatiunis parens {DeR.R.i. 1. § 13), Nothing is known of the period at which he flourished, or of the events of his life, except that he was a man of distinction in his native country, and had held important military commands. (Colum. xii. 4. § 2 ; Plin. H. N. xviii. 5.) Heeren's conjecture that he was the same as No. 1, is wholly without foundation : the name of Mago was evidently too common at Carthage to afltbrd any reasonable ground for identifying him with any of the persons known to us from history. His work was a vo- luminous one, extending to twenty-eight books, and comprising all branches of the subject. So great was its reputation even at Rome, that after the destruction of Carthage, when the libraries which had fallen into the hands of the Romans were distributed among the princes of Africa, an exception was made in favour of the work of Mago, and it was ordered by the senate that it should be translated into Latin by competent persons, at the head of whom was D. Silanus. (Plin. H. N. xviii. 5; Colum. i. 1. § 13.) It was subsequently trans- lated into Greek, though with some abridgment and alteration, by Cassius Dionysius of Utica, and an epitome of it in the same language, brought into the compass of six books, was drawn up by Dio- phanes of Bithynia, and dedicated to king Deio- tarus. (Varro, de R. R. i. 1. § 10; Colum. i. 1. § 10.) His precepts on agricultural matters are continually cited by the Roman writers on those subjects, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, as well as by Pliny : his work is also alluded to by Cicero {De Orat. i. 58) in terms that imply its high reputation as the standard authority upon the subject on which it treated. It is said to have opened with the very sound piece of advice that if a man meant to settle in the country, he should begin by selling his town house. (Colum. i. 1. § 18; Plin. H.N. xviii. 7.) All the passages in Roman authors in which the work of Mago is cited or referred to are collected by Ileeren. {Ideen, vol. iv. p. 527, &c.) [E. H. B.] MAGUS (Mdyos), one of the followers of Siraus in the merry and licentious songs, the poets of which were called iKapcff^oi. [Lysis.] [P. S.] MAHARBAL (MadpSas), son of Himilco, and one of the most distingitished Carthaginian officers in the Second Punic War. He is first mentioned as commanding the besieging force at the siege of Saguntum, during the absence of Hannibal, when he carried on his operations and pressed the siege Avith so much vigour that neither party, says Livy, felt the absence of the general-in-chief. (Liv. xxi. 12.) We next find him detached with a body of cavalry to ravage the plains near the Po, soon after the arrival of Hannibal in Italy, but from this ser- MAIA. 903 vice he was recalled in haste to rejoin his com- mander before the combat on the Ticinus. (Id. xxi. 45.) After the victory of Thrasymene (b. c. 217), he was sent with a strong force of cavalry and Spanish infantry to pursue a body of 6000 Romans who had escaped from the battle and occupied a strong position in one of the neighbouring villages. Finding themselves surrounded, they were induced to lay down their arms, on receiving from Mahar- bal a promise of safety. Hannibal refused to ratify the capitulation, alleging that Maharbal had ex- ceeded his powers ; but he dismissed, without ransom, all those men who belonged to the Italian allies, and only retained the Roman citizens as prisoners of war. (Polyb. iii. 84, 85 ; Liv. xxii. 6, 7 ; Appian, Annib. 10.) Shortly after Mahar- bal had an opportunity of striking a fresh blow by intercepting the praetor C. Centinius, who was on his march to join Flaminius with a detachment of 4000 men, the whole of which were either cut to pieces or fell into the hands of the Carthaginians. (Polyb. iii. 86 ; Liv. xxii. 8 ; Appian, ^wmi. 11.) He is again mentioned as sent with the Numidian cavalry to ravage the rich Falernian plains ; and in the following year he commanded, according to Livy, the right wing of the Carthaginian army at the battle of Cannae. Appian, on the contrary, assigns him on that occasion the command of the reserve of cavalry, and Polybius does not mention his name at all. But, whatever post he held, it is certain that he did good service on that eventful day ; and it was he that, immediately after the victory, urged Hannibal to push on at once with his cavalry upon Rome itself, promising him that if he did so, within five days he should sup in the Capitol. On the refusal of his commander, Ma- harbal is said to have observed, that Hannibal knew indeed how to gain victories, but not how to use them ; a sentiment which has been confirmed by some of the best judges in the art of war. (Liv. xxii. 13, 46, 51 ; Appian, Annib. 20, 21 ; Florus, ii. 5 ; Zonar. ix. 1 ; Cato ap. Gell. x. 24 ; Plu- tarch, i^^afi. 17, erroneously assigns this advice to a Carthaginian of the name of Barca.) . Except an incidental notice of his presence at the siege of Casilinum (Liv. xxiii. 18), Maharbal from this period disappears from history. A person of that name is mentioned by Frontinus {Strateg. ii. 5. § 12) as employed by the Carthaginians against some African tribes that had rebelled, but whether this be the same as the subject of the present arti- cle, or to what period the event there related is referable, we have no means of judging. [E.H.B.] MAI A (Mata or Maids), a daughter of Atlas and Pleione (whence she is called Atlantis and Pleias), was the eldest of the Pleiades, and in a grotto of mount Cyllene in Arcadia she became by Zeus the mother of Hermes. Areas, the son of Zeus by Callisto, was given to her to be reared. (Horn. Od. xiv. 435, Hymn, in Merc. 3 ; Hes. Tlieog. 938 ; ApoUod. iii. 10. § 2, 8. § 2 ; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 219; Herat. Carm. i. 10. 1, 2. 42, &c.) Maia is also the name of a divinity worshipped at Rome, who was also called Majesta. She is mentioned in connection with Vulcan, and was regarded by some as the wife of that god, though it seems for no other reason but because a priest of Vulcan offered a sacrifice to her on the first of May, while in the popular superstition of later times she was identified with Maia, the daughter of Atlas,