Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/962

Rh 948 MARDONIUS. the whole work was a forger}', or that, if it was, Marcus was the author of it. The very form of a commentary on doubtful parts implies the previous existence and the antiquity of the work itself. Oudin makes Marcus to have been a monk of the convent of St. Saba, near Jerusalem, in the begin- ning of the eleventh century. A life of Gregory of Agrigentum [Grkgorius, No. 2] by Marcus, monk and hegumenus, or abbot of St. Saba, is perhaps by the same author as the commentary on the Typkum. We are noi aware that it has been published. Various works are extant in MS., by Marcus Monachus ; but the name is too common, and the description too vague, to enable us to identify the writers. (Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. Dissert. I. p. 13; Oudin. De Scriptorib. Eccles. vol. ii. col. 584, &c. ; Fabric. Bibl. Ch-aec. vol. x. p. 232, vol. xi. p. 678.) 17. HVDRUNTIS or IdRUNTIS EpISCOPUS, (eTTl- cKoiros 'iSpoijvTos), BiSHOP of Otranto. Mar- cus of Otranto is supposed to have lived in the eighth century. Allatius says he was oeconomus or steward of the great church of Constantinople, before he became bishop, which seems to be all that is known of him. He wrote Tcp /xeyaKcp (ra§- Sdra Tj (XKpoffTixls, Hyianus Acrodichus in Mag- num Sabbatum, s. In Magno Sabhato Capita Vcr- suuni, which was published by Aldus Manutius, with a Latin version, in hia edition of Prudentius and other early Christian poets, 4to., without mark of date or place ; but judged to be Venice, 1.501. The hymn is not in metre; the initial letters of the successive paragraphs are intended to make up the words Kal cn^fiepou Se, which are the opening words of the hymn ; but as divided by Aldus, the acrostic is spoiled by the introduction of one or two superfluous letters. A Latin version of the hymn is given in several editions of the Biblio- ilieca Patrum. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. pp. 177, 677 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 750, vol. i. p. 630.) lo. Joannes. [Joannes, No. 84.] 19. Monachus. [No. 10.] 20. Monachus S. Sabae. [No. 16.] 21. Of St. Saba. [No.^ 16.] [J. C. M.] MARDO'NIUS (Mapdouios), a Persian, son of Gobryas, who was one of the seven conspirators against Smerdis the Magian, in B.C. 521. (See Herod, iii. 70, &c.) In the spring of B. c. 492, the second year from the close of the Ionian war, Mardonius, who had recently married Artaaostra, the daughter of Dareius Hystaspis, was sent by the king, with a large armament, as successor of Artaphernes, to complete the settlement of Ionia, and to pimish Eretria and Athens for the aid they had given to the rebels. (Comp: Herod, v. 09^ &c.) But while this was the nominal object of the ex- pedition, it was intended also for the conquest of as many Grecian states as possible. Throughout the Ionian cities Mardonius deposed the tyrants whom Artaphernes had placed in power, and esta- blished democracy, — a step remarkably opposed to the ordinary rules of Persian policy. He then crossed the Hellespont, and, while his fleet sailed to Thasos and subdued it, he marched with his land forces through Thrace and Macedonia, re- ducing on his way the tribes which had not yet submitted to Persia. But the fleet was overtaken by a storm off Mount Athos, in which it was said that 300 ships and 20,000 men were lost ; and Mardonius himself, on his passage through Mace- donia, was attacked at night by the Brygians, a MARDONIUS. Thracian tribe, who slaughtered a great portion of his army. He remained in the country till he had reduced them to submission ; but his force was so weakened by these successive disasters, that he was obliged to return to Asia. His failure was visited with the displeasure of the king, and he was superseded in the command by Datis and Artaphernes, B. c. 490. On the accession of Xerxes, in B. c. 485, Mardonius, who was high in his favour, and was connected with him by blood as well as by marriage, was one of the chief insti- gators of the expedition against Greece, with the government of which he hoped to be invested after its conquest ; and he was appointed one of the generals of the whole land army, with the excep- tion of the thousand Immortals, whom Hydarnes led. After the battle of Salamis (b. c. 480), he became alarmed for the consequences of the advice he had given, and persuaded Xerxes to return home with the rest of the army, leaving 300,000 men under his command for the subjugation of Greece. Having wintered in Thessaly, he re- solved, before commencing operations, to consult the several Grecian oracles, for which purpose he employed a man of the name of Mys, a native of Europus in Caria, Herodotus professes his iano- rance of the answers returned, but he connects with them the step which Mardonius immediately afterwards took, of sending Alexander I., king of Macedonia, to the Athenians, whose Trpo^fvos he was, with a proposal of very advantageous terms if they would withdraw themselves from the Greek confederacy. The proposal was rejected, and Mar- donius poured his army into Attica and occupied Athens without resistance, the Athenians having fled for refuge to Salamis. Thither he sent Mury- chides, a Hellespontine Greek, with the same pro- posal he had already made through Alexander, but with no better success than before. From Attica (a country unfavourable for the operations of cavalry, and full of narrow defiles, through which retreat would be dangerous if he were de- feated) he determined to fall back on Boeotia as soon as he heard that the Spartans under Pausa- nias were on their march against him. But before his departure he reduced Athens to rujns, having previously abstained from damaging the city or the country as long as there had been any hope of winning over the Athenians. On his retreat from Attica he received intelligence that a body of 1000 Lacedaemonians had advanced before the rest into Megara, and thither accordingly he directed his marcli with the view of surprising them, and over- ran the Megarian plain, — the furthest point to- wards the west, according to Herodotus, which the Persian army ever reached. Hearing, how- ever, that the Greek force was collected at the Isthmus of Corinth, he passed eastward through Deceleia, crossed Mount Parnes, and, descending into Boeotia, encamped in a strong position on the southern bank of the Asopus. Tlie Greeks arrived not long after at Erythrae and stationed tliem- selves along the skirts of Mount Cithaeron. Mar- donius waited with impatience, expecting that they would descend into the plain and give him battle, and at length sent his cavalry against them under Masistius. After their success over the latter the Greeks removed further to the west near Plataea, where they would have a better supply of water, and hither Mardonius followed them. The two armies were now stationed on opposite bank»