Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/288

 272 MARDENE. invaded and conquered their country. Maroboduns fled, and demanded the protection of Tiberius, who ofTered to him a safe retreat in Italy. He there spent the remaining eighteen years of his hfe, wliile the tlirone of the Marcomaani was left to Catualda. ^I>ict. ofBiogr. art. Maroboduus.] But the latter, too, was soon expelled by the Hermunduri, and ended his life in exile. (Tac. Ann. ii. 62, 63.) The Mar- comanni, however, like the Quadi, continued to be governed by kings of their own, though they were not quite independent of the Komans, who often sup- ported them with money and more rarely with troops. (Tac. Germ. 42.) ' They appear to have gradually extended their dominion to the banks of the Danube, where they came into hostile collision with the Romans. The emperor Domitian demanded their assistance against the Dacians, and this being re- fused, he made war against them. But he was defeated A. D. 90, and obliged to make peace with the Dacians. (Dion Cass. Ixvii. 7.) Trajan and Hadrian kept them in check; but in the reign of M. Aurelius hostilities were recommenced with fresh energy. The Marcomanni, allied with the Quadi and others, partly from hatred of the Romans, and partly urged on by other tribes pressing upon them in the north and east, invaded the Roman provinces A. d. 166; and thus commenced the protracted war com- monly called the Marcomannic or German War, which lasted until the accession of Commodus, A. D. 1 80, who purchased peace of them. During this war, the JIarcomanni and their confederates advanced into Rhaetia, and even penetrated as far as Aquileia. The war was not carried on uninterruptedly, but was divided into two distinct contests, having been inter- rupted by a peace or truce, in which the places con- quered on both sides were restored. The second war broke out towards the end of the reign of ]I. Aurelius, about A. D. 178. (Dion Cass. Fragm. lib. Ixxi., Ixxii., Ixxvii. pp. 1178, foil., 1305, ed. Reimar.; Eutrop. viii. 6; J. Capitol. M. Anton. Philos. 12, &c., 17, 21, 22, 25, 27; Amm. Marc. xix. 6; He- rodian, i. init.) In consequence of the pusillanimity of Commodus the llarcomannians were so much em- boldened, that, soon after and throughout the third century, they continued their inroads into the Roman provinces, especially Rhaetia and Noricum. In the reign of Aurelian, they penetrated into Italy, even as far as Ancona, and excited great alarm at Rome. ( Vopisc. Aurel. 18,21.) But afterwards they cease to act a prominent part in history. Their name, however, is still mentioned occasionally, as in Jornandes (22), who speaks of them as dwelling on the west of Transylvania. (Comp. Amm. jIarc. xxii. 5, xxix. 6, x.xxi. 4.) In the Notitia Imperii, we have mention of " Honoriani Marcomanni seniores " and " juniores " among the Roman auxiliaries. The last occasion on which their name occurs is in the history of Attila, among whose hordes Marcomanni an; mentioned. (Comp. Wilhelm, Germanien,^. 212, foil.; Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 114, foil.; Latham, TurAt. Germ. Proleg. p. 53, foil.) [L. S.] MARDENE. [Makdyene.] MARDI. [Amardi.] JIARDI, a branch of this powerful and warlike people were found in Armenia to the E. of Mar- dastan (lake Van). (Ptol. v. 13. § 20; Tac. Ann. xiv. 23; comp. Anquetil Duperron, J/e'm. de I' A cad. des Jnscr. vol. xlv. p. 87.) [E. B. J.] JIAltDYE'NE {UapZvrvri, Ptol. vi. 4. § 3), a district of ancient Persis, which, according to Ptolemy, extended to the sea-coast. The name is MAREIA. probably derived from some of the far extended nomade tribes of the Mardi or Amardi. (Herod, i. 125; Strab. xi. p. 524.) [V.] MARDYE'NI (MapSurji/oi, Ptol. vi. 12 § 4), a tribe who occupied the lower part of the Sogdian mountains in Sogdiana. There can be no doubt that these people are the remains of a once very numerous race, whose traces we find spread over a wide extent of country from the Caspian to the Persian Gidf, and from the Oxus to the Caspian. We find the names of these tribes preserved in dif- ferent authors, and attributed to very different places. Hence the presumption that they were to a great extent a nomade tribe, who pressed onward from the N. and E. to the S. Thus we find them under the form of Mardi in Hyrcania (Diod. xvii. 76; Arrian, .4na&. iii. 24, iv. 18; Dionys. Perieg. V. 732; Curt. vi. 5), in Margiana according to Pliny (vi. 16. s. 13), in Persia (Herod, i. 125; Strab. xi. p. 524 ; Ptol. vi. 4. § 3 ; Curt. v. 6), in Armenia (Ptol. v. 13; Tacit. Ann. xiv. 23), on the eastern side of the Pontus Euxinus (Plin. vi. 5), under the form Amardi in Scythia intra Imaum (Mela, iii. 5, iv. 6; Plin. vi. 17. s. 19), and lastly in Bactriana. (Plin. vi. 16. s. 18.) [V.] MAREIA or MA'REA (Mape'a, Herod, ii. 18, 30 ; Mapei'a, Thucyd. i. 104; Mapeia, Steph. Byz. s.v. Mapia, Diod. ii. 68 ; TlaKai Mdpeia Kcofxr;, Ptol. iv. 5. § 34), the modern Mariouth, and the chief town of the Mareotic Nome, stood on a peninsula in the south of the lake Mareotis, nearly due south of Alexandreia, and adjacent to the mouth of the canal which con- nected the lake with the Canopic arm of the Nile. Under the Pharaohs Mareia was one of the principal frontier garrisons of Aegypt on the side of Libya ; but from the silence of Herodotus (ii. 30) we may infer that the Persians did not station troops there. In all ages, however, until it was eclipsed by the neighbouring greatness of Alexandreia, Mareia, as the nearest place of strength to the Libyan desert, must have been a town of great importance to the Delta. At Mareia, according to Diodorus (ii. 681), Am.asis defeated the Pharaoh- Apries, Hofra, or Psammet ich us ; although Herodotus (ii. 161) places this defeat at Momemphis. (Herod, ii. 169.) At Mareia, also, according toThucydides (i. 104; comp. Herod. iii. 12), Inarus, the son of Psammetichus, reigned, and orga- nised the revolt of Lower Aegypt against the Persians. Under the Ptolemies, Mareia continued to flourish as a harbour ; but it declined under the Romans, and in the age of the Antonines — the second century a.d. — it had dwindled into a village. (Comp. Athen.i. 25, p. 33, with Eustath. ad Homer. Odyss. ix. 197.) Mareia was the principal depot of the trade of the JIareotic Lake and Nome. The vineyards in its vicinity produced a celebrated wine, which Athenaeus (I. c.) describes as " remarkable for its sweetness, white in colour, in quahty excellent, light, with a fragrant bouquet : it was by no means astringent, and did not affect the head." (Comp. Plin. xiv. 3 ; Strab. xvii. p. 796.) Some, however, deemed the Mareotic wine inferior to that of Anthylla and Tenia ; and Columella {R. R. iii. 2) says that it was too thin for Italian palates, accustomed to the fuller-bodied Falernian. Virgil (^Georg. ii. 91) describes the Blareotic grape as white, and growing in a rich soil ; yet the soil of the vineyards around the Mareotic Lake was principally composed of gravel, and lay beyond the reach of the alluvial deposit of the Nile, which is ill suited to viticulture. Strabo (xyil. p. 799) ascribes to the wine of Mareia the additional