Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/289

 MAREOTIS. merit of keeping well to a great age ; and Hornce (^Od. i. 37) mentiofis it as a favourite beverage of Cleopatra. Mareia, from its neighbourhood to Alesandreia, was so generally known to Roman travellers, that among the Latin poets, the words Mareia and Mareotic be- came synonymous with Aegypt and Aegyptian. Thus Martial (Ep. siv. 209) calls the papyrus, " cortex Mareotica" (comp. id. Ep.'w. 42) : and Gra- tius (^Cynegetk. v. 313) designates Aegyptian luxury as Mareotic : and Ovid (il/et ix. v. 73) employs " arva Mareotica " for Lower Aegypt. [W. B. D.] MAREO'TIS or MAREI'A (J} Mapewns or Mapeia >dfj.vr), Strab. xvii. pp. 789 — 799 ; Mapeia, Steph. B. s. V. ; Mareotis Libya, Phn. v. 10. s. 11 ; Justin. xi. 1), the modern Birket-el-JiJariout, y^as a con- siderable lake in the north of the Delta, extending south-westward of the Canopic arm of the Nile, and running parallel to the Mediterranean, from which it was separated by a long and narrow ridge of sand, as far as the tower of Perseus on the Plinthinetic bay. The extreme western point of the lake was about 26 miles distant from Alexandreia ; and on that side it closely bordered upon the Libyan desert. At its northern extremity its waters at one time washed the walls of Alexandreia on their southern side, and be- fore the foundation of that city Mareotis was termed the Lake above Pharas. In breadth it was rather more than 150 stadia, or about 22 English miles, and in length nearly 300 stadia, or about 42 English miles. One canal connected the lake with the Ca- nopic arm of the Nile, and another with the old harbour of Alexandreia, the Portus Eunostus. [Alex- andreia.] The shores of the Mareotis were planted with olives and vineyards ; the papyrus which lined its banks and those of the eight islets which studded its waters was celebrated for its fine quality ; and around its margin stood the counti-y-houses and gardens of the opulent Alexandrian merchants. Its creeks and quays were filled with Nile boats, and its export and import trade in the age of Strabo sur- passed that of the most flourishing havens of Italy. Under the later Caesars, and after Alexandreki was occupied by the Arabs, the canals which fed the lake were neglected, and its depth and compass were materially reduced. In the 16th century a.d. its waters had retired about 2 miles from the city walls ; yet it still presented an ample sheet of water, and its banks were adorned with thriving date-plantations. The lake, however, continued to recede and to grow shallower ; and, according to the French traveller Savary, who visited this district in 1777, its bed was then, for the most part, a sandy waste. In 1801 the English army in Aegypt, in order to annoy the French garrison in Alexandria, bored the narrow isthmus which separates the Birket-el-Mariout from the Lake of Madieh or Aboitkir, and re-admitted the sea-water. About 450 square miles were thus converted into a salt-marsh. But subsequently Mehemet Ali repaired the isthmus, and again diverted the sea from the lake. It is now of very unequal depth. At its northern end, near Alexandreia, it is about 14 feet deep, at its opposite extremity not more than 3 or 4. Westward it forms a long and shallow lagoon, separ.'>ted from the sea by a bar of sand, and running towards Libya nearly as far as the Tower of the Arabs. The lands surrounding the ancient Mareotis were designated as the Mareotic Nome (MapewTTjs NS/xos, Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 8, 34); but this was probably not one of the established Nomes of Pharaonic Aegypt. [W. B. D.] MARES (Mapej), a tribe on the coast of Pontus, VOL. II. ]IARGANA. 273 in the neighbourhood of the Mosynoeci. (Herat. Fragm. 192; Herod, iii. 94.) Their armour, when serving in the army of Xerxes, is described by Herodotus (vii. 79) as having consisted of helmet's of wicker-work, leather shields, and javelins. Later writers do not mention this tribe. [L. S.] MARESHAH (Maprjcra, LXX., Euseb.; Mapiaaa, Joseph.), a city of Judah, "in the valley," enumerated with Keilah and Achzib in Joshua (xv. 44). In Micah (i. 15), where it is again joined with Achzib, the LXX. have substituted Aaxei'j. Lachish, how- ever, is found in the list of Joshua, independent of Maresha (xv. 39), so it could not be a synonym fur Mareshah. It was one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam against the Philistines and Egyptians (2 Chron. xi. 8) ; and there it was that Asa encoun- tered Zerah the Ethiopian, " in the valley of Zepha- thah at Mareshah " (xiv. 9), and gained a signal victory over him. In the time of Judas Maccabaeus it was occupied by the Idumaeans (2 Maccab. xii. 35), but Judas took and destroyed it. (Joseph. Ant. xii. 8. § 6.) Only a few years later it is again reckoned to Idumaea; and Hyrcanus I. took it, and compelled its inhabitants, in common with the other Idumaeans, to practice circumcision, and conform to the law, as a condition of remaining in that country (xiii. 9. § 1, 15. § 4). It was one of the cities restored to Aretas king of Arabia by Hyrcanus II., as the price of his services (xiv. 1. § 4): soon after which it was rebuilt by Gabinius (5. § 3); shortly after sacked and destroyed by the Parthians in their invasion of the country, in the time of Herod the Great (xiv. 13. § 9); and probably never recovered its former importance, as this is the latest histoi-ical notice. It is placed by Eusebius and St. Jerome 2 miles from Eleutheropolis; it was then a ruin. Dr. Robinson conjectures that " Eleutheropolis (at first Betogabra) had sprung up after the destruction of Maresha, and had been built with its materials," and that " the foundations which he discovered on the south-eastern part of the remarkable tell, south of the place, were remains of Maresha. The spot is admirably adapted for a fortress; it lies about a Roman mile and a half from the ruins of Beit Jebrinr There are no other ruins in the vicinity. {Bib. Res. vol. ii. pp. 422, 423.) [G. W.] MAREU'RA or MALTHU'RA (Mape'oupa ix-q- rpdwoXLS r] Kal MaAOovpa KaXuvfjiivi], Ptol. vii. 2. § 24), a place of some importance in the upper part of the Aurea Chersonesus in India extra Gangem. It is not possible now to identify it with any existing place. [V.] MA'RGANA or MA'RGALAE {Vlipyava, Diod.; M-apyaviis, Xen. ; MapyaAai, Strab. ; Vldpyaia, Steph. B. s. ».), a town in the Pisatis, in the dis- trict Amphidolia, was supposed by some to be the Homeric Aepy. (Strab. viii. p. 349.) The Eleians were obliged to renounce their supremacy over it by the treaty which they made with Sparta in b. c. 400 (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. § 30), on which occasion it is called one of the Triphylian towns: as to this statement, see Letrini. It is mentioned as one of the towns taken by the Arcadians in their war with the Eleians in B. c. 366. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 14; Diod. XV. 77.) Its site is uncertain, but it was probably east of Letrini. Leake places it too far north, at the junction of the Ladon and the Peneius, which is in all probability the site of the Plleian Pylos. (Leake, Peloponiiesiaca, p. 219; Bobl.aye, Kecherches, <fc. p. 130; Curtius, Pebpori' nesos, vol. i. p. 73.)