Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/381

 MODIN. those days a mere village, or at least a dependency | of Mediolanum ; but the Gothic king Theodoric constructed a palace there, and made it his summer residence. It continued to be a favourite abode of the Lombard kings, and Queen Theodolinda founded a Basilica there, which has ever since been one of the most celebrated churches in the N. of Italy, and still contains many interesting relics of the cele- brated Lombard queen. (P. Diac. Hist. Lanq. iv. 22. 49.) [E. H. B.] MODIN (y.5eeiV, Joseph. ; MrjSeeiV, Eu.seb.),the residence of JIattathias, the great grandson of Asamonaeus, and the father of Judas Maccabaeus and his four valiant brothers, who was however only a sojourner at Jlodin, being a native of Jerusalem, and a priest of the course of Joarib. It was probably the native place of the sons, as it was also their burj'ing-placc. Here it was that the first opposition to the impious edict of Antiochus Epiphanes was made, when JIattathias slew with his own hand the renegade Jew who had offered idolatrous sacrifice, and demolished the altar. (Jos. Ant. xii. 8. §§ 1, 2.) Judas was buried there in the sepulchre of his father (lb. 11. § 27); and subse- quently on the death of Jonathan, Simon erected a monument of white polished marble over their graves, which he raised to a great height, so as to be con- spicuous from afar, and surrounded with a monolithic colonnade. In addition to this, he raised seven pyramids, one for each of the family, remarkable both for their size and beauty, which remained until the age of the historian (xiii. 6. § 5, comp. 1 Mace. xiii. 27 — 30), as indeed Eusebius and S. Jerome affirm that the sepulchres of the Maccabees were shown there at their day. {Onomast. s. f.) Josephus (xii. 6. § 1) simply calls it a village of Judaea; but the last-cited authors speak of it as a village near to Diospolis {Lyddd). The author of the 1st Book of Maccabees writes that upon the pil- lars which were set about the pyramids, Simon " made all their armour for a perpetual memoiy, and by the armour ships carved, that they might be seen of all that sail on the sea." (xiii. 28, 29.) This would imply that these pyramids were not very far distant from the sea, and so far confirm the report of Eusebius and S. Jerome, who place the sepul- chres in the vicinity of Lydda, and perhaps affords some countenance to the idea that the name '• Mac- cabee " was derived from the root 3pQ the final radicals of the names of the three patriarchs Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob, which the tribe of Dan, on whose borders Jlodin was situated, are said to have carried on their banner. (Reland, s.v. p. 901.) A comparatively modern tradition has placed Modin on a remarkable conical hill, named Soha, 2^ hours from Jerusalem, on the left of the Jaffa road; but this is, as Dr. Eobinson has remarked " several hours distant from the plain, upon the mountains, and wholly shut out from any view of the sea." (Bib. Res. vol. ii. p. 329.) He suggests that it may have been at LdtrSn, which is also on the Jaffii road, on the very verge of the plain (Ibid, note 4, and vol. iii. p. 30, r. 4.) But this is too far from Lydda, and so near to Nicopolis [Ejimaus, 2.] that Eusebius would doubtless have described it by its vicinity to that city, rather than to Diospohs. Its site has yet to be sought. [G. W.] MODOGALINGA (Plin. vi. 19. s. 22), one of the large islands in the Delta of the Ganges. Calinga is of frequent occurrence in the ancient notices of India. [Callsga.] [V.] MOERIS LACUS. 365 MODOGULLA (Mo56yovKa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 83), a town mentioned by Ptolemy, on the western side of Hindostdn. It is probably the present Modgull, at no great distance from Calliany. [V.] iIODOMA'STICE (Mo5o^affTiKT7, Ptol. vi. 6. § 2). one of the four divisions into which Ptolemy divides the province of Carmania Deserta (now Kirmdn). [V.] MODEA (tci M(55po), a small town, which, ac- cording to Strabo (xii. p. 543), was situated in Phrygia Epictetus, at the sources of the river Cal- lus ; but as this river flows down from the northern slope of mount Olympus, which there forms the boundary between Phrygia and Bithynia, Strabo must be mistaken, and Modra probably belonged to the south-west of Bithynia, and was situated at or near the modern ^2we Geul. (Paul. Lucas, 5ec. Voy. i. 14.) As Strabo's expression is e'/c MoSpaij/, some have supposed that Mudra was no town at all, but only a name of a district ; but it is known from Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Them, vi.) that the district about Jlodra was called Modrene. [L S.] JIODUBAE (Plin. vi. 19. s. 22), one of several unknown triiics or nations placed by Pliny beyond the Ganges, in that part of India which was anciently called India extra Gangem. [V.] aiODU'EA (MdSoi^pa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 89.) There are two places of this name mentioned in the ac- counts of ancient India : one described by Ptolemy {I. c.) as PaffiAeiov UavSiovns, the Palace of King Pandion ; and the other as MdSovpa rj tSjv Sniuv, the Sacred Jlodoura (vii. 1. § 50). The fonner of these towns was in the southern part of Hindosidn, and is most probably the present ruined city, Ma- dura ; the second was in the land of the Caspeiraei in the NW. part of India, either on the frontier or in the Paiijab. Its exact position cannot now be determined. [V.] MODUTTI (MoSouTTou ffj,iT6ptov, Ptol. vii. 4. § 7), a port in the island of Taprjbane or Ceylon, mentioned by Ptolemy. The strong resemblance of the name makes it extremely probable that it is the same with the present 3IantoUe, where there are still the remains of a great city, and where a great number of Roman coins of the times of the Antonines have been dug up. It appears to have been situated at the northern point of the island. The inhabitants were called MoSoCttoi. [^^0 MOENUS (the Main), a navigable river of Ger- many, which has its sources in the Sudeti Montes, near the town of Menosgada, and after flowing in a western direction through the country of the Her- munduri and the Agri Decumates, empties itself into the Rhine, a little above Moguntiacum (Plin. ix. 17; Mfla, iii. 3. § 3 ; Amm. Marc. xvii. 1 ; Tac. Germ. 28 ; Eumen. Paneg. Constant. 13.) [L. S.] MOERIS LACUS {v Uolpws Xlfivt), Herod, ii. 13, 148, seq.; Diod. i. 52; Moi'piSos Xlfxvr}, Strab. xviii. p. 810; Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 20, 36 ; Moeris Lacus, Mela, i. 9. § 5 ; Moeridis, Plin. v. 9. s. 9), was the most extensive and remarkable of all the Aegyptian lakes. It fomicd the western boundaiy of the Arsinoite nome [Arsinoe] in Jliddle Aegypt, and was con- nected with the Nile by the canal of Joseph {Balir- Jusvf). A portion of its ancient bed is repre- sented by the modern Birket-el- Rerun. Of all the remarkable objects in a land so replete with wonders, natural and artificial, as Aegypt, the lake of Moeris was the most enigmatical to the ancients. Herodotus (ii. 149), who is followed by Pliny (v. 9. s. 9), regarded it as the work of man, and ascribes it to a