Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/390

 374 MOSTENI. iiiLstiike as well as we can. It is possible that both rivers were called Mosa; and Jlosella or Blosula, as Floras has it, seems to be a diminutive of Mosa, but that reading is somewhat doubtful. (Floras, iii. 10. ed. Duk.) There is no variation in Caesar's text in the passage where he speaks of the confluence of the Rhenus and the Jlosa. (Caesar, ed. Schneider.) Several of the affluents of the Jlosel are mentioned in the ancient writers, and chiefly by Ausonius: the Sura (^Soiir), Pronaea (Prnm), Nemesa (Xims), Gelbis {Kill), Erubrus (Rurer), Lesura {Leser), Drahonus {Drone), Saravus {Saar'), and Salmona {Salni), The Mosella is celebrated in one of the longer poems of Ausonius, who wrote in the 4th century A. D. The vine at that time clothed the slopes of the hills and the cliffs which bound this deep and picturesque river valley in its course below Trier: " Qua sublimis apex longo super ardua tractu, Et rupes et aprica jugi, flexusque sinusque Vitibus adsurgunt naturahque theatro." (v. 154.) There is a German metrical translation of this poem by Booking with notes. ' The 3Iosel rises on the western face of the Vosges, and its upper course is in the liill country, formed by the offsets of the mountains. It then enters the plain of Lorraine, and after passing Tullum {Toul), it is joined by the Afeurthe on the right bank. From the junction of the Meurthe it is navigable, and has a general north course past Divodurum {Metz), and Thionvilk, to Augusta Trevirorum {Trier or Treves). From Trier its general course is about NNE. with many great bends, and in a bed deep sunk below the adjacent country, to its junction with the Rhine at Cohlenz. The whole course of the river is somewhat less than 300 miles. It is navigable for steamboats in some seasons as far as 3Ietz. A Roman governor in Gallia proposed to unite the Mosella and the Arar {Saune) by a canal, and thus to effect a navigation from the Mediterranean to the North Sea [Gallia Transalpixa, Vol. I. p. 967.] [G. L.] JIOSTE'NI (MotrTTjvoi), a town of Lydia in the Hyrcanian plain, south-east of Thyatira, and on the road between this latter town and Sard is. In A. D. 17, Mosteni and many other towns of that country were visited by a fearful earthquake. (Ptol. v. 2. § IG; Tac. Ann. ii. 17 ; Hierocl. p. 671, where it is erroneously called Mua-Ti^vr] or MoffTiva ; Concil. Chalc. p. 240. where it bears the name Mouo'ttJi't).) Its exact site is unknown. (Comp. Rasche, Lex. Num. iii. 1. p. 869, &c.) [L. S.] MOSYCHLUS. [Lemnos.] MOSYNOECI, MUSSYNOECI, MOSYNI, MOS- SYNl {MocrvyoiKoi, MoaavvoiKoi, Mo(Tvvoi., Moa- (Tvvoi), a tribe on the coast of Pontus, occupying the district between the Tibareni and Macrones, and con- tainino; the towns of Cerasus and Phaknacia. The Mosynoeci were a brave and warlike people, but are at the same time said to have been the rudest and most uncivilised among all the tribes of Asia Minor. Many of their peculiar customs are noticed by the Greeks, who planted colonies in their districts. They are said to have lived on trees and in towers. (Strab. xii. p. .549.) Their kings, it is said, were elected by the people, and dwelt in an isolated tower rising somewhat above the houses of his subjects, who watched his proceedings closely, and proxided liiin with all that was necessary ; but when he did MOTYA. anything that displeased them, they stopped their supplies, and left him to die of starvation. (Xen. Anab. v. 4. § 26 ; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1027 ; Diod. xiv. 30 ; Scymnus, Fragm. 1 66.) They used to cut off the heads of the enemies they had slain, and carry them about amid dances and songs. (Xen. Allah, iv. 4. § 17 ; v. 4. § 15.) It is also related that they knew nothing of marriage (Xen. Anab. V. 4. § 33 ; Diod. I. c), and that they generally tattooed their bodies. Eating and drinking was their greatest happiness, whence the children of the wealthy among them were regularly fattened with salt dolphins and chestnuts, until they were as thick as they were tall (Xen. Anab. v. 4. § 32). Their arms consisted of heavy spears, six cubits in length, with round or globular handles ; large shields of wicker-work covered with ox-hides ; and leather or wooden helmets, the top of which was adorned with a crest of hair. (Xen. /. c, v. 4. § 12 ; Herod, vii. 78.) The fourth chapter of the fifth book of Xeno- phon's Anabasis is full of curious information about this singular people. (Comp. also Strab. xi. p. 528 ; Hecat. Fragm. 193 ; Steph. B. «. v. ; Herod, iii. 94; Scylax, p. 33. ; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8 ; Orph. Argon. 740; Mela, i. 19; Tibull. iv. 1. 146; Curtius, vi. 4, 17; Plin. vi.4; Val. Flac-c. v. 152; Dionys. Per. 766.) [L. S.] ]IOTE'NE. [Otene.] MO'TYA (MoTuij: Eth. MoTvaios : S.Panialeo), a city on the W. coast of Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum. It was situated on a small island, about three quarters of a mile (six stadia) from the mainland, to which it was joined by an artificial causeway. (Diod. xiv. 48.) It was originally a colony of the Phoenicians, who were fond of choos- ing similar sites, and probably in the first instance merely a commercial station or emporium, but gra- dually rose to be a flourishing and important town. The Greeks, however, according to their custom, assigned it a legendary origin, and derived its name from a woman named Motya, whom they connected with the fables concerning Hercules. (Steph. B. s. r.) It passed, in common with the other Phoenician set- tlements in Sicily, at a later period under the govern- ment or dependency of Carthage, whence Diodorus calls it a Carthaginian colony ; but it is probable that this is not strictly correct. (Thuc. vj. 2 ; Diod. xiv. 47.) As the Greek colonies in Sicily increased in numbers and importance the Phoenicians gra- dually abandoned their settlements in the immediate neighbourhood of tlie new comers, and concentrated themselves in the three principal colonies of Solus, Panormus, and Jlotya. (Thuc. I. c.) The last of these, from its proximity to Carthage and its op- portune situation for communication with Africa, as well as the natural strength of its position, became one of the chief strongholds of the Carthaginians, as well as one of the most important of their com- mercial cities in the island. (Diod. xiv. 47.) It appears to have held, in both these respects, the same position which was attained at a later period by Lilybaeum. [Lilybaeum.] Notwithstanding these accounts of its early importance and flourish- ing condition, the name of IIotya is rarely mentioned in history untU just before the period of its me- morable siege. It is first mentioned by Hecataeus {aj). Steph. B. s. v.), and Thucydides notices it among the chief colonies of the Phoenicians in Sicily, which still subsisted at the period of the Athenian expe- dition, B.C. 415. (Thuc. vi. 2.) A few years later (d. c. 409) when the Carthaginian army under