Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/348

 332 MESANITES SINUS. MESANI'TES SINUS (MeaavlT-ns, al. Maiaa- vlrris ko'Attos), a bay at the extreme north of the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf. (Ptol. v. 19. § 1. vi. 7. § 19.) Forster finds the modern repre- sentative of the ancient name in the Phrat Misan (if O'Anville, at the mouth of the Euplirates, or the Shat-al-Arab. (^Arabia, vol. ii. p. 55.) " The coincidence of names," he says, " is important, as placing it in our power to point out two towns ^vhich Ptolemy disposes close to this bay ; viz. Idicara ('iSiKcipa) in El-Kader, a town at the mouth of the old bed of the Euphrates, and Jucara ('louKapa), in DfjCikhre, an ancient town, now in ruins, 20 miles south of El-Kader, now Core Boobian" (p. 214). [G. W.] MESA'MBRIA ( M f o-a a gp 177, Arum, Ind. c. 38), a small place, apparently a chersonesns on the souihern coast of Persis, the present Abu-shir. (Vin- cent, Vcy. of Nearchis, i. p. 394.) [V.] MES.V.MBRIA. [Mesembuia.] MESCHE MONS {yiiaxnal 'Ii/fVxi, Ptol. iv. 9. § 6), a mountain of Interior Africa, S. of the equator, which Ptolemy (J. c.) places in W. long. 25°, and which may be identified with part of the chain of the Mahee or Konff Mountains, to the N. of Dahomey. [E. B. J.] ME'SCHELA (Meo-xfAa, Diod. xx. 57, 58), a town of Numidia, taken by Eumachus, the general of A^athocles. [E. B.' J.] MESE. [Mylae.] IIESE. [Stoechades.] MESE'JIBRIA {Uea-ntiSpia., Dor. Mecra^Spia : Eth. Me(rrt/x§piav6i). 1. An important Greek city in Thi'ace, situated on the coast of the Euxine and at the foot of Mt. Haemus (Scymn. Ch. 738); consequently upon the confines of Moesia, in which it is placed by Ptolemy (iii. 10. § 8). Strabo (vii. p. 319) relates that it was a colony of the Jle- garians, and that it was originally called Menebria (^M(ve§p'ia) after its founder Jlenas ; Stephanus B. (s. I'.) says that its original name was Melsembria (MeAfl-Tju^pia), from its founder Melsas ; and both writers state that the termination -bria was the Thracian word for town. According to the Ano- riy}nous Periplus of the Euxine (p. 14) Mesembria was founded by Chalcedonians at the time of the expedition of Darius against Scythia ; but according to Herodotus (vi. 33) it was founded a little later, after the suppression of the Ionic revolt, by Byzantine and Chalcedonian fugitives. These statements may, however, be reconciled by supposing that the Thra- cian town was oiiginally colonized by Megarians, and afterwards received additional colonists from By- zantium and Chalcedon. Mesembria was one of the cities, forming the Greek Pentapolis on the Euxine, the other four being Odessus, Tomi, Istriani and Apol- loniatae. (See Bockh, Inscr. vol. ii. p. 996.) Me- sembria is rarely mentioned in history, but it con- tinued to exist till a late period. (Jlela, ii. 2 ; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18 ; Ptol. I. c. ; Tab. Pent.) 2. A Greek city of Thrace, on the Aegaean Sea, COIN OF MESEMBRLV. MESOPOTAMIA. and not far from the mouth of the Lissus. (II oil vii. 108; Steph. B. s. v.) MESE'NE (meavi^rj, Strab. ii. p. 84), a small tract of land in ancient Mesopotamia, about the ex.act position of which there has been much dis- cussion, owing to the indistinct and confused ac- counts of it which have been preserved in ancient authors. The real cause of this would seem to be that there were two districts at no great distance one from the other, both of which, from similar reasons, bore the name of Mesene, or Middle-Land. One of these was near the mouths of the Tigris where that river is divided into two branches, cor- responding to the modern tract called Shat-al-Arab (Steph. B. «. V. M(ar]VTi.) To this Mesene must be referred the passage in Philostorgius (B. E. iii. 7), in which he states that the Tigris, before it reaches the .sea, is divided into two great branches, forming an extensive island, which is inhabited by the Meseni. To this also belongs the Mesene, men- tioned in the history of Trajan by Dion Cassius, who calls it an island in the Tigris, over which Athambilus was the ruler (Ixviii. 28). The other was much higher up on the same river, and has derived its chief importance from its capital Apameia. Stephanus speaks of this tract in two places ; first {s. V. 'A-Kdfxfia), where he states that that city is surrounded by the Tigris, where that river is di- vided into two streams, of which that on the right hand is called Delas, and that on the left bears the name of Tigris ; and secondly (s. v. "OpaQa), where he asserts that Oratha is a town of Mesene, which is near the Tigris, according to Arrian, in the 1 6th book of his Parthica. Pliny evidently refers to this Mesene, when he is speaking of Apameia, which town he states to have been 125 miles on this side (i.e. to the N.) of Seleuceia; the Tigris being divided into two chan- nels, by one of which it flows to the S. and to Seleuceia, washing all along Mesene (vi. 27. s. 31). There might have been some doubt to which Mesene Ammianus refers ; but as he mentions Teredon, which was near the mouth of the Tigris, it is probable that he is speaking of the former one (xxiv. 3). The district in the neighbourhood of the Apameian Mesene has been surveyed with great care by Lieut. Lynch ; and, from his observations, it seems almost certain that the more northern Mesene was the territory now comprehended between the Bijeil and the Tigris. {_Roy. Geogr. Journ. vol. ix. p. 473.) [V.] MES5IA. [jIedma.] ME'SOA or ME'SSOA. [Sparta.] MESOBOA. [Arcadia, p. 193, No. 15.] IMESOGAEA. [Attica, p. 322.] MESO'GIS or MESSO'GIS (micwyl^, M^acrw- 7ts), the chief mountain of Lydia, belonging to the trunk of Mount Taurus, and extending on the north of the jMaeander, into which it sends numerous small streams, from Celaenae to Mycale, which forms its western termination. Its slopes were known in antiquity to produce an excellent kind of wine. (Strab. xiv. pp. 629, 636, 637, 648, 650; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. V. 2. § 13, where MHrfjTis is, no doubt, only a corrupt form of Mio-wyis.) Mounts Pactyes and Thorax, near its western extremity, are only branches of Mesogis, and even the large range of Mount Tmolus is, in reality, only an off- shoot of it. Its modern Turkish name is Kestaneh Dagh, that is, chestnut mountain. [L. S.] MESOPOTA'MIA (ji yiecroTroTai.da), an extensive