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 128 MANTINEA During the administration of Count Branden- burg (1848-'50) he was minister of the interior. Upon the death of the count he was appointed minister of foreign affairs, and soon after, at the conference of Olmutz (November, 1850), brought about a settlement of the disputes be- tween Austria and Prussia, by abandoning the position previously assumed by his state in North Germany. In December following he was appointed prime minister, still retaining his place as the head of the department of for- eign affairs. In January, 1862, he became president of the council of state, and in 1858 was superseded and retired to private life. II. Karl Roehns Edwin, baron, a Prussian soldier, cousin of the preceding, born in Magdeburg, Feb. 24, 1809. lie became aide-de-camp to the king in 1848, and rose to the rank of adjutant general, lieutenant general, and chief of the military cabinet. In 1865-'6 he became con- spicuous as military and civil governor of Schleswig, by the invasion of Holstein, by his operations against Hanover, and by his vigor- ous proceedings against the city of Frankfort. In the Franco-German war he commanded the first Prussian army corps before Metz, and on the capitulation of Bazaine (Oct. 27, 1870) he commanded the first German army against the French army of the North, capturing Amiens, Rouen, and Dieppe. In January, 1871, he was placed in command of the South German troops operating against the French army of the East under Bourbaki, and afterward under Clin- chant, which he drove across the Swiss fron- tier, thus ending the war. In June, 1871, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ger- man army of occupation, his headquarters be- in^ at first at Comptegne, and afterward at Nancy, where he remained until the final evac- uation of the French territory in 1873. He has received the rank of field marshal. See Am dem Leben dea General- Feldmarachalls Edwin Freiherrn von Manteuffel (Berlin, 1874). MANTUTEi, one of the oldest and most pow- erful towns of Arcadia, on the borders of Ar- golis and the river Ophis. Its democratic po- litical constitution was, according to Polybius, one of the best in antiquity. Like the other Arcadian towns, it acknowledged the Spartan supremacy prior to and during the Persian war. It was an ally of Sparta in the early part of the Peloponnesian war, but in 421-'20 B. 0. formed a confederacy with Argos, Elis, and Athens, which was defeated and dissolved by the Lace- daemonians in 418. Though it became again an ally of Sparta, its increasing power ren- lered it obnoxious to the latter city, and in 885 the Spartans attacked and destroyed it by turning the waters of the Ophis against its walls. The Mantineans rebuilt their city after the overthrow of the Spartan supremacy by the battle of Leuctra in 371. They were promi- n. nt in the formation of the Arcadian con- federacy, but soon abandoned it for an alli- ance with their ancient enemies the Spartans. To prevent this coalition Epaminondas marched MANTIS into the Peloponnesus, and Mantinea is chiefly celebrated as the scene of the great battle (362) between the Thebans and Spartans, in which he fell. It continued one of the most impor- tant towns of Arcadia till the time of the Achaean league, which it at first joined, but subsequently deserted for the ^Etolian confed- eracy, an event which occasioned the Cleo- menic war. In 226 it was surprised and ter- ribly chastised by Aratus, and in 222 it was plundered by Antigonus Doson, and its name changed to Antigonea, which it bore till its an- cient appellation was restored by the emperor Hadrian. The ruins of Mantinea are visible at the modern village of Paleopoli, in a bare plain, 8 m. N. of Tripolitza; they consist of the remains of the theatre and three courses of masonry of the entire circuit of the walls, which were elliptical, 1,250 yards in diameter, with 10 gates and 118 towers. MANTIS (Fabr. ; Gr. pavnc, a soothsayer), a genus of orthopterous insects of the group of graspers (raptorid). In the best known spe- cies, M. religiosa (Linn.), the head is triangular, the eyes large, the prothorax very long, and the body narrowed and lengthened ; the an- terior feet are armed with hooks and spines, and the shanks are capable of being doubled up on the under side of the thighs. When at Mantis religiosa. rest it sits upon the four posterior legs, with the head and prothorax nearly erect, and the anterior feet folded backward ; from this sin- gular attitude it is called the praying mantis or soothsayer (the prie-Dieu of the French). The insects are slow in their motions, waiting on the branches of trees and shrubs for some insect to pass within their reach, when they seize and hold it with the anterior feet, and tear it to pieces. They are voracious, some- times preying upon each other ; they are bene- ficial to man in destroying caterpillars and oth- er insects injurious to vegetation. The eggs are deposited in two long rows, protected by a parchment-like envelope, and attached to the stalk of a plant ; the nymph is as voracious as the perfect insect, from which it differs prin- cipally in the less developed wings. They are most abundant in the tropical regions of Afri- ca, South America, and India, but are found in the warmer parts of North America, Europe, and Australia. In the south of France it was once a popular belief that this insect, if spo- ken to, would point out the way to a lost child, and in central and south Africa it is still re- garded with veneration. The American spe- cies is the M. Carolina.