Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/255

 MACISTUS. was heavy and foggy, showery and hot, but pro- ducing excellent fruit. The cultivation of the vine was peculiar. They were planted in the marshes, the soil necessary for their sustenance being placed in wicker baskets. They would sometimes drift from tlieir moorings, and were thrust back to their places with poles. [G. W.] MACISTUS or MACISTUM (MdKiaros, rh MaKicTTOV : Eth. MaKiiTTios), a town of Triphylia, in Elis, said to have been also called Platanistus. (UaTavi(TTovs, Strab. viii. p. 345.) It was origi- nally inhabited by the Paroreatae and Caucones, who were driven out by the Minyae. (Strab. I. c. ; Herod, iv. 148.) It was afterwards subdued by the Eleians, and became one of their dependent town- ships whose history is given under Lepeeum. In the time of Strabo, it was no longer inhabited (viii. p. 349). Macistus was situated upon a lofty hill in the north of Triphylia, and appears to have been the chief town in the north of the district, as Lepreum was in the south. That Macistus was in the north of Triphylia appears from several circum- stances. Strabo describes its territory, the Macistia, as bordering upon Pisatis. (Strab. viii. p. 343.) Agis, in his invasion of the territory of Elis, in b. c. 400, when he entered Triphylia through the Aulon of Messenia, was iirst joined by the Lepreatae, next by the Macistii, and then by the Epitalii on the Alpheius. (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. § 25.) Stephanus places Macistus to the westward of the Lepreatis (Steph. B. s. v.); but this is obviously an error, as Arcadia bordered upon the Lepreatis in that direc- tion. Macistus would appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Samicum upon the coast, as it had the superintendence of the celebrated temple of the Samian Poseidon at this place. (Strab. viii. p. 343.) From these circumstances there can be little doubt that Macistus was situated upon the heights of Khaidffa, It is worthy of notice that Pausanias and Polybius mention only Samicum, and Xenophon only Slacistus. This fact, taken in connection with the JIacistians having the superintendence of the temple of the Samian Poseidon, has led to the conjecture that upon the decay of Samos upon the coa.->t, the Minyans built Macistus upon the heights above; but that the ancient name of the place was afterwards revived in the foiin of Samicum. The Macistians had a temple of Hercules situated upon the coast near the Acidon. (Strab. viii. p. 348.) (Leake, Mc/i-ea, vol. ii. p. 205; Peloponnesiaca, p. 217; Boblaye, Recherches, <|c., p. 135; Curtius, Pelojwnnesos, vol. ii. p. 83.)' MAGNA (JAaKva), an inland town of Arabia Felix, according to Ptolemy (vi. 7.), who places it in lat. 67°, long. 28° 45', near the Aelanitic gulf of the Red Sea, now the Gulf of Ahaha. [G. W.] JIACORABA (Majcopago), an inland city of Arabia Felix, placed by Ptolemy in lat. 73° 20', long. 22°, universally admitted to be the ancient classical representative of the modern Mekka or Mecca, which Mr. Forster holds to be an idiomatic abbreviation of Machoraba, identical with the Arabic " Mecharab," " the warlike city," or " the city of the Harb." {Geog. of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 265, 266.) A very high antiquity is claimed for this city in the native traditions, but the absence of all authentic notices of it in the ancient geographers must be allowed to disprove its claim to notoriety on account of its sanctity at any very remote period. Tlie territory of Mekka was, according to universal MACORABA. 239 Arabian history or tradition, the central seat of the kingdom of Jorham and the .Jorhamites, descendants of the Joktanite patriarch Sherah, the Jerah of the book of Genesis (x. 26), who in the earliest times were the sovereigns of Mekka, the guardians of the Kaaba, and the superintendents of the idolatrous sacrifices in the valley of Mina, from whence they derived their classical synonym Minaei. It is quite uncertain when they were superseded by the Ishmaelite Arabs of the family of Kedar, whose descendants, according to immemorial Arabic tra- dition, settled in the Hedjaz; and one tribe of whom was named Koreish {colkgit tmdiqtie), " quod circa Meccam, congregati dcgerenV.' (Canus ap. Golium, in voc, cited by Forster, Geog. of Arabia, vol. i. p. 248, n.) This tribe, however, from which Mo- hammed sprung, had been for centuries the guardians of the Kaaba, and lords of Mekka, prior to his ap- pearance ; for if the veiy plausible etymology and import of the classical name, as above given, be correct, and Beni-Harb was, as Mr. Forster has elaborately proved, a synonym for the sons of Kedar, it will follow that they had succeeded in fixing their name to the capital some time before it ap- peared in Ptolemy's list, nor can any traces of a more ancient name be discovered, nor any notices of the ancient city, further than the bare mention of its name by the Alexandrian geographer. " Mekka, sometimes also called Bekka, which words are synonymous, and signify a place of great concourse, is certainly one of the most ancient cities in the world. It is by some thought to be the Me.'^a of Scripture (Gew. x. 30), a name not unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be taken from one of Ishmael's sons" {Gen. xxv. 15). (Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse, sect. i. p. 4.) Its situation is thus described by Burckhardt : — " The town is situated in a valley, narrow and sandy, the main direction of which is from north to south ; but it inclines towards the north-west near the southern extremity of the town. In breadth this valley varies from one liundred to seven hundred paces, the chief part of the city being placed where the valley is most broad. The town itself covers a space of about 1 500 paces in length ; .... but the whole extent of ground comprehended under the denomination of Mekka" (i. e. including the suburbs) " amounts to 3500 paces. The mountains enclosing this valley (which, before the town was built, the Ai-abs had named Wady Mekka or Bekka) are from 200 to 500 feet in height, completely barren and destitute of trees Most of the town is situated in the valley itself; but there are also parts built on the sides of the mountains, principally of the eastern chain, where the primitive habitations of the Koreysh and the ancient tovn appear to have been placed." It is described as a handsome town; with streets broader, and stone houses more lofty, than in other Eastern cities : but since the decline of the pilgrimage " numerous buildings in the outskirts have fallen completely into ruin, and the town itself exhibits in every street houses rapidly decaying." Its pofiulation has declined in proportion. The results of Burckhardt's inquiries gave " between 25,000 and 30,000 stationary inhabitants for the population of the city and suburbs, besides from 3000 to 4000 Abyssinians and black slaves: its habitations are capable of containing three times this number." This estimate, however, shows a considerable increase within the last three centuries; for " in the time ot Sultan Selym L (inA. h. 923, i. e. A. d. 1517) a