Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/318

 302 MEDIA. is, that tlic Mafji were a priest-class amonc; the Median people; not, like the AehaemeniJae in Persia, a distinct or dominant tribe. (Cf. Strab. xvi. p. 962 ; Cic. Divin. i. 41 ; Porphyr. Abstinent. 4. 16, &c.) In other authors we find the following peoples counted among the inhabitants of Media, though it may be doubted whether some of them do not more properly belong to one or more of the adjacent nations. the Sagartii, Tapyri or Tapyrrhi, Matiani Caspii, Cadusii, Gelae, and the Mardi or Aniardi. (See these under their respective names.) Herodotus proceeds to state that originally the Medes were a free people, who lived in separate villages, but that at length they chose for themselves a king in the person of Deioces, who built the celebrated city of Ecbatana [Ecbatana], and was succeeded by Phraortes and Cyaxares (i. 95—103). The reign of the foi-mer was, he adds, terminated by a defeat which he sustained (at Rhages, Judith, i. 15) ; while, during the commencement of that of the latter, all Western Asia was overrun by a horde of Scythians (i. 103). There can be no doubt that for awhile they were subject to, and formed a satrapy of, the Assyrian empire, as stated by Diodorus (ii. 2); that then they threw off the Assyrian yoke, as stated by Herodotus (i. 106), and were ruled over by a series of kings of their own for a long period. (Cf. Strab. xi. p. 524.) The order and the names of these rulers are differently stated; and it would be out of place here to discuss at length one of the most dif- ficult and disputed points of ancient chronology. (Cf., however, Diod. ii. 24, 32 ; Herod, i. 95; and Euseb. Chron. Armen. i. 101 ; Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. i. p. 257, app.) It may be remarked, that in the Bible the first notice we find of the Medes, exhibits them as the subjects of the Assyrian king iSalmaneser (2 Kings, xvii. 6), who was contem- porary with the Jewish king Hoshea; while in the later times of Nebuchadnezzar, they appear as a warlike nation, governed by their own rulers. (^Isaiah, xiii. 17; Jerem. xxv. 25, Ii. 11, 28.) It is equally clear that the Medians were united to the Persians by Cyrus, and formed one empire with them (Herod, i. 129; Diod. ii. 34; Justin, i. 6), and hence are spoken of in the later books of the Bible as a people subject to the same ruler as the Persians. (Dan. v. 28, viii. 20 ; Esth. i. 3, &c.) From this time forward their fate was the same as that of the Persian monarchy; and they became in succession subject to the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, to the Syro-Macedonian rulers after his death, and lastly to the Parthian kings. (Cf. 1 Mace. vi. 5G, xiv. 2 ; Strab. xvi. p. 745 ; Joseph. Antiq. XX. 3. § 3.) The consent of history shows that in early times the Medes were held to be a very warlike race, who had a peculiar skill in the use of the bow. (/sr»V(/i,, xiii. 18; Herod, vii.62; Xen.^wn&. ii. l.§ 7; Strab. xi. p. 525,) They had also great knowledge and practice in horsemanship, and were considered in tills, as in many other acquirements, to have been the masters of the Persians. (Strab. xv. pp. 525, 526, 531.) Hence, in the armament of Xerxes, the Medes are described as equipped simi- larly with the Persians, and Herodotus expressly states that their dress and weapons were of Median, not Persian origin (/. c). In later ages they ap- pear to have degenerated veiy much, and to have adopted a luxurious fashion of life and dress (cf. Xon. Cyrop. i. 3. § 2 ; Strab. I. c. ; Ammian. xxiii. 6), which jxissed from them to their Persian conquerors. MEDIOLANUM. The religion of the Medes was a system of Star- worship ; their priests bearing, as we have re- marked, the name of Slagi, which was common to them with the Persians, indeed was probably adopted by the latter from the former. (Xen. Cyr. iv. 5 ; Strab. XV. pp. 727, 735,; Cic. Div. i. 33.) The principal object of their adoration was the Sun, and then the Moon and the five planets, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, and ]Iars. [V.] MEDIAE MUEUS, mentioned only by name by Xenophon, who calls it to M7)5iay KaAovnevov rtixos. (Anab. ii. 4. § 12.) He states that it was 20 parasangs in length, 100 feet high, and 20 broad ; and it may be inferred from his narrative that it was frorr. 30 to 40 miles to the N. of Baghdad. There can be little doubt that it was the same work as that called by Strabo in two places rh 'Zfy.ipa/j.iSos SiareixiCMct (ii. p. 80, xi. p. 529), and that it had been built across the strip of land where the Tigris and Euphrates approach most nearly, as a defence to the province of Baby- lonia, which lay to the S. of it. There has been much question, whether this great work can be identified with any of the numerous mounds still remaining in this part of Mesopotamia ; but the question has, we think, been set at rest by the careful survey of Lieut. Lynch, in 1837. (Roy. Geogr. Journ. vol. ix. pp. 472, 473.) Mr. Lynch places the end adjoining the Tigris in N. lat. 34° 3' 30", and long. 21' 50" W. of Baghdad. He describes the existing ruins as an embankment or wall of lime and pebbles, having towers or buttresses on the northern or NW. face, and a wide and deep fosse ; and states, that, putting his horse at its full speed, he galloped along it for more than an hour without finding any appearance of termination. The natives, too, assured him that it extended to the Euphrates. [V.] MEDIAJI, AD. [Dacia, Vol. L p. 744, b.] MEDIA'NA, an imperial villa, 3 miles from Naissus, in Upper Moesia. (Amm. Marc. xxvi. 5.) A town of this name is mentioned, in the Peuting. Table, on the road leading through Rhaetia along the Danube, opposite to Bonamverth, and seems to be the same as the modem Medingen. [L. S.] MEDIOLA'NUM, a Gallic name of towns which occurs in Gallia, North Italy, and Britain. 1. Mediolanum is placed in the Table between Fonim Segusta varum (Fairs') and Eodumna (Rou- anne). As to D'Anville's remarks on the position of Mediolanum, see Forum Segusianorum. This Mediolanum is supposed to have been a town of the Transalpine Insubres, and so it is generally marked in our maps ; but the existence of these Transalpine Insubres is hardly established. [Galli. Cisal- riNA, Vol. I. p. 936.] 2. The Table places Mediolanum between Ar- gentomagus (^Argentoii) and Aquae Nerae (^Nevis'). The figures which have been generally considered to belong to this road, belong to another, and so we have no distances in the Table for this place. Me- diolanum seems to be Chateau Meillan, south of Avaricum (Bmirges). A milestone found at Ali- champ between Bourges and Chateau Meillan, makes the distance from Avaricum to Mediolanum to be 39 M. P., which is not far from the truth. (Walckenaer, Geog. cfc. vol. i. p. 67.) 3. The Antonine Itin. places a Mediolanum on a road from Colonia Trajana (A'eZfc) to Colonia Agrippina (Cologne'), and 12 M. P. from Colonia Trajana. It' Colonia Trajana is rightly placed, it is