Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/340

 324 MELPIS. ]inuru3 (Plin. iii. 5. s. 10). It is now called the Molpa. [E. H. B.] JIELPIS or MELFIS (6 MeAris : Mel/a), a small river of Latium, falling into the Liris (^Garifjliano), about 4 miles below its junction with the Trerus {Sacco). It crossed the Via Latina about 4 miles from Aquinum, though Strabo erroneously speaks of it as fioioing hy that city. It is a still greater mistake that he calls it a great river Qn-oraixhs IJ.iyatruction by the combined forces of the Insubrians, Boians, and Senones, which took place according to Cornelius Nepos on the same day with the taking of Veil by Camillus, b. c 396 (Corn. Nep. ap. Plin. iii. 17. s. 21). He calls it a very wealthy city ("opulentia praecipuum"), and it therefore seems to have been one of the principal of the Etruscan set- tlements in this part of Italy. All trace of it sub- sequently disappears, and its site is a matter of mere conjecture. [E. H. B.] MELSIAGUJI, a lake or marsh in Germany (Mela, iii. 3. § 3), the site of which is unknown ; it is perhaps one of the lakes of MecMenlmri/. [L. S.] MELSUS (MfAfTos), a small river of Hispania Tarraconenis, flowing into the sea through the ter- ritory of the Astures, not far from the city Noega (Noiya). Perhaps the modern Narcea. (Strab, iii. p. 167 ; Florez, Esp. Sagr. xv. p. 47.) ME.MBLIAKUS. [Anaphe.] MEMBRE'SA (Mf^gp-naa), a town of the pro- consular province, the position of which is fixed by Procopius (B. V. ii. 15) at 350 stadia froiu Car- thage. Membressa (5Iembrissa, Pent. Tab.), as it is called in the Antonine Itinerary, was a station be- tween Musti, and Silicibba, and a pkce of some importance in ecclesiastical histoiy. (Morcelli. ^/)-/ca Christiana, vol. i. p. 223.) [E. B. J.] iIEMIN I. [Carpentoracte] JIEMXOXENSES {Mffxvovels), a tribe of Aethiopians, who dwelt between the Kile and the Astapus, north of the peninsular region of Meroe. (Ptol. iv. 8. § 114.) The name was not an indige- nous one, but given by the Greek geographers to one of the Nubian tribes, among whom they placed their legend of Memnon, son of Aurora. [W. B.D.] MEMPHIS (M6>is,Herod.ii.99, 114, 136, 154; Polyb. V. 61 ; Diod. i. 50, seq. ; Steph. B. s. v. : Eth. lVl<=/i(|)iT77s), the Noph of the Old Testament (Fsaiah, xis. 13; Jerem. 'i. 16. xliv. 1), was the first capital of the entire kingdom of Aegypt, after the Deltaic monarchy at Heliopolis was united to the Thebaid capital at This or Abydos. It stood on the western bank of the Nile, 1 5 miles S. of Cercasorus, in lat. 30° 6' N. The foundation of Jlemphis belongs to the very earliest age of Aegyptian histnry. It is ascribed (1) to Menes, the first mortal king ; (2) to Uchoreus, a monarch of a later dynasty ; and (3) to Apis or Epaphus. (Hygin. Fab. 149.) But the two latter may be dismissed as resting on very doubtful autho- rity. (Diod.i. 51.) The only certainty is that Memphis w-as of remote antiquity, as indeed is implied in the ascription of its origin to Menes, and that it was MEMPHIS. the first capital of the united kingdom of Upper and Lower Aegypt. The motives which induced its founder to .select such a site for his capital are obvious. Not far removed from the bifurcation of the Nile at Cercasorus, it commanded the S. entrance to the Delta, while it was nearer to the Thebaid than any of the Deltaic provincial cities of im- portance, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Sais. It is also clear why be placed it on the western bank of the Nile. His kingdom had little to apprehend from the tribes of the Libyan desert; whereas the eastern frontier of Aegypt was always exposed to attack from Arabia, Assyria, and Persia, nor indeed was it beyond the reach of the Scythians. (Herod i. 105.) It was important, therefore, to make the Nile a bar- rier of the city; and this was effected by placing Memphis W. of it. Before, however, Menes could lay the foundations of his capital, an artificial area was to be provided for them. The Nile, at that remote period, seems to have had a double bifurcation ; one at the head of the Delta, the other above the site of ]Iemphis, and parallel with the Arsinoite Nome. Of the branches of its southern fork, the western and the wider of the two ran at the foot of the Libyan hills; the eastern and lower was the present main stream. Between them the plain, though resting on a limestone basis, was covered with marshes, caused by their periodical ovei-flow. This plain Slenes chose for the area of Memphis. He began by constructing an embankment about 100 stadia S. of its site, that diverted the main body of the water into the eastern arm ; and the marshes he drained off into two principal lakes, one to N., the other to W. of Memphis, which thus, on every side but S., was defended by water. The area of Memphis, according to Diodorus(i.50), occupied a circuit of 150 stadia, or at least 15 miles. This space, doubtless, included mucli open ground, laid out in gardens, as well as the courts required for the barracks of the garrison, in the quarter denominated " the White Castle," and which was successively occupied, under the Pharaohs, by the native militia; in the reign of Psammetichus (b. c. 658 — 614), by Phoenician and Greek mercenaries; by the Persians, after the invasion of Cambyses (b. c. 524); and finally by the Macedonian and Koman troops. For although Memphis was not always a royal residence, it retained always two features of a metropolis: (1) it was the seat of the central garrison, at least until Alexandreia was founded ; and (2) its necropolis — the pyramids — was the tomb of the kings of every native dynasty. The mound which curbed the inundations of the Nile was so essential to the very existence of Jlem- phis, that even the Persians, who ravaged or neglected all other great works of the country, annually repaired it. (Herod, ii. 99.) The climate was of remarkable salubrity; the soil extremely productive ; and the prospect from its walls at- tracted the notice of the Greeks and Romans, who seldom cared much for tlie picturesque. Diodorus (i. 96) mentions its bright green meadows, inter- sected by canals, paven with the lotus-flower. Pliny (xiii. 10, xvi. 21) speaks of trees of such girth that three men with extended arms could not span them. Martial (vi. 80) says that the "navita Memphiticus" brought roses in winter to Rome (com p. Lucan, Pharsal. iv. 135); and Athenaeus (i. 20. p. 11) celebrates its teeming soil and its wine. (Comp. Joseph. Antiq. ii. 14. § 4; Horace, Od. iii. 26. 10.) And these natural advantages were seconded by its