Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/370

 354 MIDIANITAE. " aptior armcntis Jlidea," and the selection of this pliice as the residence of the horse-hivinj^ Hippo- dameia in her banishment. (Bobhye, liecherches, cfc. p. 52 ; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 268 ; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 395.) 2. A city of Boeotia. [Leradeia.] MIDIANl'TAE (Ma5ioi/?ra, the descendants of Midian, one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, whom the patriarch is said to have sent away during his lifetime " eastward, luito the east country " (Gera. XXV. 2, 6), and whom we subsequently find reckoned among " the children of the east." (Judg. vi. 3.) In the third generation after Abraham they were a distinct people, trading between Gilead and Egypt ; but are associated with, or confounded with, another Arab family, the Ishmaelites. ((?e». xxsviii. 25, 28, 36.) The Midianites were probably a Bedawi tribe, and their situation may be pretty accurately de- termined, by the following notices, to the territory afterwards occupied by the Nabataei, to the south and east of Palaestinc. Moses fed the sheep of Jethro, a priest of Midian, in the peninsula of Mount Sinai, and about Mount Horeb {Exod. iii. 1) ; sub- sequently Jethro came to his son-in-law from the land of Midian, while Israel was encamped in the vicinity of Horeb (xviii. 2, &c.) ; and Moses was glad to avail himself of his local knowledge while traversing the desert to the north of the peninsula. {Numh. s. 29 — 32). The close alliance between the Midianites and the Moabites, to oppose the pro- gress of Israel, indicates the proximity of the two peoples; and the hostility of the former proves that the alliance of Mo.ses with one of their family did not conciliate the national feeling. (^Nmnb. xxii. 4, 7, XXV. xxxi. 8 — 12 ; Josh. siii. 21.) The Midianites continued the bitter enemies of the Israelites throughout the period of the Judges, when, in concert with " the Amalekites and the children of the east," they invaded simultaneously, and in countless numbers, the southern frontier towards Gaza and the trans-Jordanic tribes in Gilead and Bashan (Judg. vi. rii.), from whence they extended their ravages to the west, and north as far as the confines of Naphthali and A.sher. After their signal defeat by Gideon, they disappear from the records of history, but their slaughter became proverbial. (^Psalm Ixxxiii. 9 ; Isaiah, ix, 4, x. 26.) The country of the Midianites, however, had still a traditionary recollection ; and subsequent no- tices, consistently with the foregoing, place them betvv-een Edom and Paran, which bordered on Egypt (1 Kings, xi. 17, 18), in the country afterwards comprehended under the name of Idumaea, and still later assigned to the Saraceni. Indeed Josephus (Ant. iv. 7. § 1) asserts that Petra, the capital of Arabia (i. e. Idumaea), was called by the natives Areceme ('Apeiceixri), from the Midianitish king Eekem, one of the five slain by Moses. (Numb. xxxi. 8.) Eusebius and St. Jerome mention a city Madian, so named after one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, situated beyond Arabia (i. e. Idumaea) to the south, in the desert of the Saracens, by the Eed Sea, from which the district was called; and another city of the same name near the Arnon and Areopolis ; the ruins of which only existed in their days. (Onomast. s. v. ; comp. Hieron. Comm. adJes. Ix. and Ezpch. sxv.) The situation of these two cities would define the limits of the territory of the Midianites in MIGONIUM their most palmy days. Tlie former of these two cities is doubtless that mentioned by Josephus (Ant. ii. 11. § 1) under the name of Madiene (Ma5i7)r:^), situated at the Eed Sea, and is properly identified by Eeland as the modern Mi- dyan (the Madian of Abulfeda), identical with the Miidiana of Ptolemy. (Reland, Palaestina, pp. 98 — 100.) It is situated about half-way down the eastern coast of the Elanitic gulf. (Forster, Geog. of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 116 ; and see the refe- rences in his index under Midian.) [G. W.] MIEZA (Mi'efa : £th. MteCalos, Miefeiys), a JLicedonian city, the position of which it is most difficult to ascertain. Stephanus of Byzantium (s.».), on the authority of Theagenes, assigns to an epony- mous founder, Mieza, a sister of Beroea, and grand- daughter of Macedon: this legend implies that it was an important city. I'rom the name it would seem most natural to look for it in the neighbourhood of Beroea, which agrees with Ptolemy (iii. 13. § 39), who classes it among the cities of Emathia. Ste- phanus, on the other hand, still deriving his in- formation apparently from Theagenes, alludes to it as a t6kos Srpu^ciror, and adds that it was some- times called Strymonium. Alexander the Great established an Aristotelian school at Mieza (Plut. Alex. M. 7); and it was famed for a stalactitic cavern. (Plin. xxxi. 2. s. 20 ; Leake, North. &reece, vol. iv. p. 583.) [E. B. J.] MIGDOL, a Hebrew word signifying " a tower," and used as a complement of several proper names of places in Holy Scripture. 1. Migdol-Edek, translated in Gen. xxxv. 21 (v. 16 in LXX.), toO -nvpyov TaSep, Auth. Ver. " the tower of Eder ;" and in Micah, iv. 8., trvpyos ■KOifj-viov, Auth. Ver. " tower of the flock " (marg. "Edar"). From the first cited passage, it would appear to have been near Bethlehem ; and St. Jerome mentions a shepherd's tower a mile from Bethlehem, so called, as he suggests, in prophetic anticipation of the angelic announcement of the Nativity. (Ono- mast. s.v. ; Eeland, Palaestina, s. v. p. 898.) 2. Migdol-El, a town in the tribe of Naphthali (Josh. xix. 38), where the LXX, running two names together, read Miyaaapifx for " JDgdal-el, Horem." Eusebius and St. Jerome mention it as a large village named Magdiel, ix. M. P. (St. Jerome writes v. M. P.) from Dora on the road to Ptolemais, probably identical with the modern El-Mejdel, in the plain of Esdraclon, a little to the SW. of Shefa 'Amar, which is, however, more remote than even Eusebius states from Dora, i. e. the modern Tantura. Neither could this have any connection with the Migdal-el of Naphthali, as Eeland, in agreement with his two authors, seems to imagine, seeing it was situated in the tribe of Asher or Issachar. (Reland, Palaestina, p. 898.) The Magdala of Galilee (now El-Mejdel) is much more probably the Migdal-el of Naphthali. [Magdala.] 3. ]MiGDAL-GAD (^a.-yaZaXjah, LXX.), a city of the tribe of Judah. (Josh. xv. 37.) 4. MiGDAL-SENNA, corrupted to M67aA7j ^evvd in Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. Senna), which, how- ever, St. Jerome's tran.slation enables us to correct to Mi75aA. SfVfa, " quod interpretatur turris Senna." There is yet another corruption of the Greek cor- rected in the Latin ; the former having bpiuv rfjs 'iSovnaias, the latter, correctly, " terminus Judae." A village of this name existed in their days 7 niiles north of Jericho. [G. W.] MIGO'NIUM. [Gythium.]