Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/992

Rh 978 MAURICIUS. carrying the news of the revolt to the emperor in Constantinople. There the green faction assumed a threatening attitude, and information having reached them that Phocas was marching upon Constantinople, such a commotion arose in the capital, that Maurice thougj^t it best to fly into the provinces, and there to prepare for resistance. He effected his escape by sea, together with his wife and children. A storm compelled him to land near the church of St. Autonomus, not far from Chal- cedon. Thence he despatched his eldest son Theodosius to the court of Chosroes, to implore him to confer the same favour upon the emperor which the emperor had once conferred upon the king. Maurice with his family took sanctuary in the church of St. Autonomus : he was tortured by sufferings of body and despair of mind. During this time Phocas arrived in Constantinople, and was proclaimed emperor on the 23d of November, 602. He immediately sent executioners in search of Maurice, who was dragged with his family from the sanctuary to the scaffold. Five of his sons, Tiberius, Petrus, Paulus, Justin, and Justinian, had their heads cut off while their father stood by praying, but not trembling, awaiting the fatal stroke in his turn. He was murdered on the 27t]i of November, 602 ; his eldest son Theodosius, who had not proceeded far on his way to Persia, was arrested, and shared his fate soon afterwards. The empress and three of her daughters were thrown into prison, but in 605, or perhaps 607, they were likewise put to death, and their bodies thrown into the sea. The heads of Maurice and his sons were carried on pikes to Phocas, who, after having enjoyed the sight for some time, gave orders for the execution of Petrus, the brother of Maurice, Comentiolus, Constantine Lardys, and a great number of other persons of distinction. [Phocas.] Among the papers of the murdered emperor was found his will, which he had made in the fifteenth year of his reign (597), and by which he left Constantinople and the East to Theodosius ; Rome, Italy and the Islands, to his second son Tiberius. Maurice was indeed preparing for wresting Italy from the Lombards, and might have carried his plan into execution, but for the great wars against the Persians and the Avars. Although greater as a general than as a king, Maurice was yet one of the best emperors of the East. Con- stantly active, he knew no other pleasure than that which arises from doing one's duty ; he was firm without being obstinate, bold yet prudent, and both severe or forbearing according to circumstances. He was completely master of his passions and appetites, sober to the extreme, a loving and virtuous husband and father, and full of filial piety. No sooner was he informed of the intentions of the emperor Tiberius towards him, than he en- treated his father Paulus and his mother Joanna to come to Constantinople, and they were both present at his marriage with the princess Constantina. They continued to live at his court, and his father became one of his most influential ministers : the fame of Paulus as a wise and well-disposed man spread abroad, and the views of Maurice upon Italy being likely to lead to either an alliance or a war with the Franks in Gaul, their king Childebert wrote a letter to Paulus on that subject, which is given in Hist. Francor. vol i. p. 869. A natural and timely death in 593 saved Paulus from being MAUSOLUS. involved in the wholesale murder of the imperial family. Maurice is said to have loved money too much ; but he was so far from oppressing his sub- jects from taxes, that, on the contrary, he lowered them considerably ; on one occasion he took off one-third of the land-tax. Arts and sciences were protected by this great emperor, who possessed considerable learning. Maurice wrote twelve books on the military art, which have fortunately come down to posterity. They are entitled ^TparriyiKd, and were published with a Latin version, together with Arrian's " Tactica," by John Scheffer, Upsala, 1664, 8vo. The text contains 382 half pages, and the version as much ; the editor added 157 pages of notes, and a few pages with very curious repre- sentations of the different battle arrays spoken of in the work. (Theophylact. Simocatta, Vita Maji- ricii; Evagr. lib. v. vi. ; Theoph. p. 213, &c. ; Cedren. p. 394, &c. ; Zonar. vol. ii, p. 70, &c. ; Menander, p. 124, &c. ; Niceph. Call, xviii. 5, &c.) [W.P.] COIN OF MAURICIUS. MAU'RICUS, JU'NIUS, called in some manu- scripts both of Tacitus and Pliny Maricus^ was an intimate friend of Plin}^ who says {£Jp. iv. 22) of him, " quo viro nihil firmius, nihil verius." Mau- ricus showed his independence by the question which he dared to ask Domitian in the senate, at the accession of Vespasian, A. d. 70 (Tac. Hist. iv. 40), which is the first time that his name is men- tioned ; and it is therefore not surprising that he was banished during the reign of Domitian. He was recalled from exile by Nerva, and an anecdote related by Pliny {Ep. I. c.) and Aurelius Victor (Epit. 12) shows with what freedom he spoke to the latter emperor. (Tac. Jgric. 45 ; PI in. Ep. i, 5, § 10, iii. 1 1, § 3.) Mauricus was the brother of Arulenus Rusticus (Plin. Ep. i. 14). [Rust]cus.] Three of Pliny's epistles are addressed to Mauricus (i. 14, ii. 18, vi. 14). MAU'ROPUS, JOANNES. [Joannes, No. 58.] MAUSO'LUS (MavfTwAos or MavarouXos, tho latter form is that found on his coins), king or dynast of Caria, was the eldest son of Hecatomniis, whom he succeeded in the sovereignty. If tlic chronology of Diodorus be correct, his accession may be placed in b. c. 377. But the first occasion on which he appears in history is not till long afterwards, in b. c. 362, when he took part in the general revolt of the satraps against Artiixerxes Mnemon. (Diod. xv. 90.) He is said to liavc at that time already possessed several strong fortresses and flourishing cities, of which his capital, Hali- camassus, was the most conspicuous ; but he ap- pears to have availed himself of the opportunity of that war to extend his dominions by conquest, having overrun great part of Lydia and Ionia as far as Miletus, and made himself master of several of the neighbouring islands. (Lucian. Dial. Mori. xxiv. ; and comp. Polyaen. vii. 23. § 2.) His