Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/376

 360 MINIZUS. largest river of Lusitania, and is navigable for 800 stadia. According to Aetbicus Ister (p. 17), it has a course of 310 miles; but its real course is about 120 miles. The river was said to have derived its name from the minium, or vermilion, carried down by its waters. (Justin, xliv. 3.) According to Strabo {l. c.) it was originally called B.venis {Baluis); but as this name does not occur elsewhere, it has been conjectured that Barns is a false reading for NaTgis, or Nvjgis, mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 6. § 1) and Jlela (iii. 1). The Naebis is a river falling into the Ocean between the Minius and the Durius; and it is supposed that I'oseidonius, whom Strabo followed, confounded this river with the Jlinius. (Groskurd's Strabo, vol. i. p. 260.) Uifiios, in Ajipian (Hisp. 72), is clearly only a false reading for Mivios. The Minius is also mentioned by Ptol. ii. G. § 1 ; Mela, iii. 1 ; Plin. iv. 21. s. 35. MIXIZUS. [Mxizus.] MINNAGARA {Miwdyapa, Arrian, Peripl. p. 24; nwayapa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 63), the chief town of the district lying between the Namadus and Indus, which towards the sea was known generically by the name of Indo-Scythia. Its exact position cannot now be determined ; hence, some have sup- posed that it is represented by Tatta, near the months of the Indus, which is said to be called by the native Rajputs, Sa-Minagur. (IJitter, Erdkunde. vol. V. p. 475.) There is little doubt that the name expresses the " city of Min," nagara being a common Sanscrit word for city, and Isidore of Charas men- tioning a town called Mia in this exact locality. (Parth. p. 9 ; Lassen, Fentap. Indie, p. 56.) [V.] MINNITH, a town on the E. of Jordan, in the country of the Ammonites (^Judges, xi. 33), cele- brated for its corn, which was sold for export in the markets of Tyre. {Ezech. xxvu. 17.) The proper name does not occur in the LXX. in either of these passages, reading in the former Arnon (Alex. 2s- p.(t>eid), and translating a corrupt reading in the latter by ^vpuv, after airov, as in the same passage they represent the proper name Pannag by Kaaias. Its situation, as Reland has remarked (Palaestina, s. V. p. 899), depends on the two questions, (1) of the line of march followed by Jephtha, and (2) of the existence of two Aroers. There is no proof of the latter hypothesis; and the course of the narra- tive seems to demand that the former question should be resolved in favour of a course from N. to S. ; which would oblige us to look for Min- nith some distance south of Aroer, which was situ- ated, we know, on the river Arnon. [Aknon; Aroer.] Josephus names it Maniatbe {Maviddri), but gives no clue to its position, further than that it was in Ammanitis. Eusebius places it at Maan- ith (Maavid), iv. M. P. from Esbus (Heshbon), on the road to Philadelphia {Onomast. s. v. Meva-qB; St. Jerome, Mennith): but this does not accord with the above notifications of its site. [G. W.] MINNODUNUM, is in the country of the Hel- vetii, on a road from Viviscus ( Vevai), on the lake of Geneva, to Aventicum (^Avenches'). The place is Moiidon, or as the Germans call it Milden, in the Canton of Vaud, on the road from Bern to Lau- sanne. [G. L.] JMIXO'A (Mji/cSa.Ptol. iii. 1 7. § 7 ; ^ivu>,Stadiasm. ; Minoum, Plin. iv. 12.) 1. A place in Crete, which Ptolemy {I. c.) fixes to the W. of the headland of Drepanon. Mr. Pashley {Trav. vol. i. p. 44) thinks that it was situated at Sternes, on the Akrote'ri of the bay of Smlha. MINTURNAE. 2. A city of Crete, which belonged to the district of Lyctus, and stood on the narrowest part of the island, at a distance of 60 stadia from Hierapytna. (Strab. X. p. 475; Ptol. iii. 17. § 5.) Its position has been fixed at Casiel Mirahello, nea.r Ist7-6nes. (H(Jck,irreta,vol.i.p.421.) [E.B.J.] MINO'A (Mivcia). 1. A small island in front of Nisaea, the port of Megara. [For details, see Megara.] 2. A promontory of Laconia, S. of Epidanrus Li- mera. [Epidatirus Lijiera.] 3. Another name of the island of Paros. [Paros.] 4. A city of Sicily, usually called Heracleia Minoa. [Heracleia MrsoA.] 5. A town in the island of Amorgos. [Asiorgos.] 6. A town in the island of Siplmos. [Siphxos.] MINTHE. [Elis, p. 817, b.] MINTURNAE {MLvrovpuai, Ptol. ; Mivroi'pvr], Strab. : Eth. tHwTovpvrjaios, Pint. ; Mintumensis), a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of that term; but originally a city of the Ausonians, situated on the right bank of the Liris (^GarigUano), about 3 miles from the sea. It was on the line of the Appian Way, which here crossed the Liris. (Strab. V. p. 233.) The name of Minturnae is first mentioned in history during the great Latin War, B. c. 340 — 338, when it afforded a refuge to the Latin forces after their defeat in Campania. (Liv. viii. 10.) It was not, however, at that time a Latin city, but belonged to the Ausonians, who appear to have been then in alliance with the Latins and Campanians. For, in B.C. 315, Livy tells us that there were three cities of the Ausonians, Ausoiia, Minturnae, and Vescia, which had declared them- selves hostile to Rome after the battle of Lautulae, but were again betrayed into the hands of the Ro- mans by some of the young nobles in each, and the inhabitants unsparingly put to the sword. (Liv. ix. 25.) Not many years later, in b. c. 296, a Roman colony was established at Minturnae, at the same time with one at Sinuessa, a little further down the coast : they were both of them of the class called " Coloniae Maritimae," with the rights of Roman citizens (Liv. x. 21; Veil. Pat. i. 14); and were obviously designed to maintain and secure the com- munications of the Romans with Campania. During the Second Punic War both Minturnae and Sinuessa were among the colonies which endeavoured, but without success, to establish their exemption from the obligation to furnish military levies (Liv. xxvii. 38); and again, during the war with Antiochus (b. c. 191), they attempted, with equal ill success, to procure a similar exemption from providing re- cruits and supplies for the naval service. (Id. sxxvi. 3.) Mintuniae was situated on the borders of an extensive marsh, which rendered the city un- healthy, but its situation on the Appian Way must have contributed to maintain its prosperity; and it seems to have been already under the Republic, what it certainly became under the Empire, a flourishing and populous town. In b. c. 88 Minturnae was the scene of a celebrated adventure of C. Marius, who, while flying from Rome by sea, to escape from the Lands of Sulla, was compelled to put into the mouth of the Liris. He at first endeavoured to conceal himself in the marshes near the sea-coast ; but being discovered and dragged from thence, he w:is cast into prison by order of the magistrates of Minturnae, who sent a slave to put him to death. But the man is said to have been so struck with the majestic appearance of the aged general that he was unable