Ariobarzanes some places of importance in Cappadocia. The pretor Murena was induced by these infractions, and still more by the hope of enriching himself by a new war, to invade the dominions of Mithridates, who laid his complaints before the Roman senate; and Sylla, in consequence, sent orders to the pretor to give him no further molestation. The king then employed his arms in reducing the Bosphori; and hearing of the death of Sylla, he resolved immediately to attempt recovering his former conquests in Asia. He engaged his son-in-law Tigranes, king of Armenia, to invade Cappadocia, whilst he himself entered Paphlagonia with a powerful army, and soon brought it to submission. He had the same success in Bithynia, which king Nicomedes had lately bequeathed to the Romans. He next over-ran the Roman province of Asia, which, by the exorbitant taxes levied upon it, had been alienated from the republic, and received the king as a deliverer.

A new war being unavoidable, Lucullus, now consul, B. C. 74, was appointed to the command in Asia. Mithridates, who had raised three powerful armies, and fitted out a strong fleet, obtained considerable advantages by land and sea before the arrival of Lucullus. He laid siege to the important city of Cyzicum, but through the superior generalship of Lucullus was obliged to raise it after great loss; and fortune now began to turn against him. The Roman general marched into Pontus, and reduced most of its fortresses; whilst the king, forsaken by his troops, took refuge in Armenia. In his flight, recollecting that he had left his sisters, wives, and concubines, at Pharnacia, he sent an eunuch to put them all to death, lest they should fall into the enemy's hands. From the account of this tragedy, it appears that the women in general submitted without reluctance to their fate; but one of his two sisters, before she took the poisonous draught prepared for them, uttered many imprecations and reproaches against her brother; whilst the other expressed her obligations to him for his care that they should die free. Lucullus (see his article) reduced Pontus to the form of a Roman province, and then sent a requisition to Tigranes to deliver up Mithridates. On the honourable refusal of that prince, he invaded his dominions, and gave him a total defeat. Mithridates, however, persuaded him to raise a new army, and by his own military abilities recovered several places, and gave the Romans some checks in the field.

At length he entirely defeated Triarius, the lieutenant of Lucullus; which disaster, and the protraction of the war, produced so much discontent at Rome, that Lucullus was superseded in his command by the consul Glabrio. Mithridates, meantime, so actively pursued his success, that he recovered the best part of Pontus, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and ArmeniaMinor.

The Romans at length resolved to bring to a conclusion this long and hazardous war; and Pompey, invested with greater powers than had ever before been conferred on a Roman commander, was sent into Asia, B. C. 67. As he advanced into Pontus, the king withdrew to the frontiers of Armenia, and encamped on a hill opposite to Pompey. That general enclosed him with lines of circumvallation, and reduced him to great distress; but at length, having put to death his sick and wounded that they might not fall into the enemy's hands, he burst through by night. Pompey followed him, and overtaking him as he was posted in a narrow valley, took possession of all the surrounding defiles, and then made a nocturnal attack on his army. The consequence was the destruction or dispersion of all the king's troops, except a body of cavalry with which he forced a passage. Mithridates fled into Armenia, where he found Tigranes no longer inclined to support him. He therefore withdrew to Colchis, and thence into Scythia, between the Euxine and Caspian seas. Pompey pursued, till at length he lost all tidings of his antagonist; and concluding him to be dead, he marched back and proceeded to Syria. After a long concealment in the territories of a Scy-thian prince near the Palus-Mootis, Mithridates emerged at the head of a considerable army, and entering Pontus, made himself master of several important places. His fortune, however, had ebbed so low, that his subjects had no longer any confidence in his cause, and were disposed to rebellion. In this emergency he attempted to engage the Scythian chiefs in his favour, by ambassadors, accompanied by his daughters, who were to be offered them in marriage. His envoys, however, were killed, and his daughters delivered to the Romans. Thus disappointed, and unable to prevail on any of the Asiatic powers to join his arms, he adopted the bold design of marching into Europe, and stirring up the Gauls, whom he understood to be nationally hostile to Rome. When his intention became known to his troops, great discontents arose among them,

which suggested to his favourite son, Pharnaces, the idea of placing the crown on his own head. The army in a tumultuous manner proclaimed the young prince king; and when Mithridates attempted, at the head of his guards, to appease the mutiny, he was driven back to the city where he then lay, Panticapœum, near the Cimmerian Bosphorus. From the walls, he attempted to recal his, son to the sentiments of filial obedience and affection; and finding his address disregarded, he solemnly implored the gods that his son might one day feel from his own experience the sting of a beloved child's ingratitude. Resolving not to outlive this final calamity, he withdrew to the female apartments, and after drinking poison himself, presented it to his wives and concubines, and to two favourite daughters. To them it was soon mortal; but his constitution was so inured (it is said) to the use of antidotes, that its operation was too slow to be depended upon. He then stabbed himself, but with a failing hand, so that he was still alive when the rebels broke into the town. While lying in this situation, a Gallic mercenary entering the room in quest of booty, was earnestly requested by him to put him out of his misery, which office he performed. His death took place B. C. 64, about the 71st year of his age. Such was the unhappy end of a prince, who, with many great qualities, lived in a perpetual state of war and trouble, occasioned by his restless ambition and total want of principle. He was one of the most formidable foes that the Roman republic ever experienced; and the news of his death was received with the greatest joy and exultation. His body was delivered to Pompey, who, like a generous enemy, bestowed on it a most magnificent funeral. Mithridates was learned, and a favourer of letters: he was particularly attached to the study of medicine; and a very compounded electuary, formerly regarded as a capital alexipharmac, still bears his name. Appian. Velleius Paterc. Plutarchi Sylla, Lucullus,& Pompeius. Univers. Hist.-A.

MOAWIYAH, sixth caliph of the Arabians, was the son of Abu Sofian, a chief of the Koreish, and an eminent commander under Mahomet. At his request, Moawiyah was appointed secretary to the prophet, which post he held for several years. After the conquest of Syria, he was made governor of that province by Omar, and was continued in that important office by Othman. He obtained several successes against the Greek emperors; and in

the thirty-fifth year of the hejyra, A. D. 654, he conquered the isle of Rhodes, and demolished the famous colossus of the Sun. His great wealth and reputation, and his influence as chief of the powerful house of Ommiyah, caused him, at the death of Othman in 655, to become a competitor for the caliphate. When Ali was chosen, Moawiyah declared against him, and prevailed upon Amru to join him. He was proclaimed caliph at Mecca and Medina, and maintained a civil war against Ali till the assassination of that caliph in 660. Moawiyah himself was severely wounded by one of the three conspirators who undertook to restore peace among the Mussulmans by the assassination of the two rivals and of Amru, but he escaped with life. Hassan, Ali's son, was proclaimed after the death of his father, and marched against Moawiyah; but being of a mild and unambitious character, he could not bear the thought of involving the empire in bloodshed on his account, and made an offer of resignation to his competitor. This was accepted, (see Hassan); and Moawiyah obtained the caliphate in 661, being the first prince of the dynasty of the Ommiyans. An insurrection of the fanatical Kharegites was one of the first events of his reign; it was quelled by the people of Irak, with the total extermination of that sect. A reconciliation with his illegitimate brother Ziyad, a man of great talents, who had taken the part of Ali, and was made governor of Persia, added strength to the throne of Moawiyah, who did not scruple, in order to gain him, to violate the laws of the Koran, by acknowledging him as of the blood of the Koreish, though his legal father was a Greek slave. The severity of Ziyad was of great service in suppressing some other commotions which threatened to disturb the tranquillity of the empire. In the year 668, Moawiyah sent his son Yezid with an army to besiege Constantinople; so formidable had the Mussulman power become only fortyeight years after the flight of the founder from Mecca! The undertaking, however, was beyond their military skill; and after spending seven years in a series of repeated summer attacks, attended with a variety of petty events, but signalised by no great action, they relinquished the enterprise. The famous Greek fire is said to have been a principal cause of their failure, and their loss in men and ships was very considerable. The caliph's arms were more successful in another quarter; for Saad, his governor of Khorasan, crossed the Jihoon

or Oxus, defeated an army of Usbeks, and took possession of Samarcand. Moawiyah fixed his residence at Damascus, and the great object of his cares in the latter years of his reign was to secure the crown to his son Yezid. In this attempt he met with much opposition, as the young man's character by no means merited the confidence his father placed in him, and the moslems were unwilling to render hereditary a sovereignty which had hitherto been elective. At length he procured the public recognition of Yezid as his own colleague and presumptive heir to the caliphate. Soon after, in the year 679, the twentieth of his reign, and about the seventy-fifth of his age, he expired at Damascus. Moawiyah is accounted one of the most eminent of the Saracen caliphs, and is extolled for his capacity, his courage, generosity, and clemency. He was the first of the caliphs who wore rich garments and affected royal splendour. He also drank wine without scruple, and in other respects deviated from the strictness of the Mahometan law. Though not learned, he favoured the, sciences, and was particularly fond of poetry, to the proficients in which he shewed singular kindness on several occasions. Mod. Univers. Hist. Marigny's Hist. of the Arabians.—A. MOCENIGO, ANDREW, a noble Venetian, flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century, and was employed in the public affairs of his country, which he managed with success. He wrote in Latin a "History of the War sustained by the Republic of Venice in consequence of the League of Cambray, from 1500 to 1501, in four Books;" and although his style has little elegance, the work was received with applause on account of the accuracy and veracity of the narration. He also composed a poem in Latin verse on the war with Bajazet II. which is lost. Moreri Tiraboschi.-A.

MODIUS, FRANCIS, a learned critic, was born at Oudenburg, in the diocese of Bruges, in Flanders, in 1546. The wars of the Low Countries obliged him to retire to Cologne, and to pass a great part of his life in Germany. Being at Bonne in 1587, when that town was surprised, he lost all his effects and was dangerously wounded. He was finally presented with a canonry at Aire, where he died in 1597. Modius wrote annotations upon several ancient writers, on the tactical authors Frontinus, Aelian, Modestus, and Vegetius; Livy, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Tacitus, and others. They are mostly contained in his "Lectiones

Nov-antiqua," which were first printed at Frankfort in 1584, and were re-printed in one hundred and twenty-three letters by Gruter, in the fifth volume of his "Thesaurus criticus." He also wrote poems and other works in Latin. His critical talents have been praised by Lipsius and Scioppius. Baillet. Moreri.-A.

MOEBIUS, GEORGE, an eminent German Lutheran divine and professor in the seventeenth century, was born at Lauch in Thuringia, in the year 1616. He became professor of philosophy, and afterwards of divinity, in the university of Leipsic, where he died in 1697, about the age of 81. He was the author of a variety of works, in the Latin and German languages; one of the most celebrated of which is entitled, "On the Origin, Propagation, and Duration of the Pagan Oracles," in a preliminary dissertation. This treatise was written in opposition to Van Dale's famous performance, and is distinguished by much profound and recondite erudition. It was freely made use of by father Baltus, one of the writers against Fontenelle's book on the same subject. Saxii Onomast. Lit. par. V. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

MOESTLIN, MICHAEL, a German Lutheran divine, and celebrated mathematician in the seventeenth century, was born at Goppingen in the duchy of Wirtemberg, but in what year we are not informed. He was sent on an exhibition from the duke of Wirtemberg to the university of Tubingen, where he distinguished himself by his diligence and proficiency, and was admitted to the degrees of B A. and M. A. Afterwards he applied himself closely to the study of divinity, and being receiv ed into the ministry, was chosen pastor of the town of Tetschen. The duties of this office he discharged to the great satisfaction of his flock, and acquired universal respect by his unaffected piety and exemplary manners. He also obtained considerable reputation for pro-. found skill in the mathematical sciences, to which his genius was peculiarly adapted. This circumstance, after he had resided four years at Tetschen, induced duke Lewis of Wirtemberg to offer him the chair of mathematical professor at Heidelberg; which he accepted.. Three years afterwards, he was removed to occupy the same post in the university of Tubingen; which he appears to have held during the remainder of his life, with high credit to himself, and essential benefit to the interests of science. He died in the year 1650. He was the first who explained the