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seized what they considered a favourable opportunity for the destruction of the people of Marathus, sent privately to Ammonius, prime minister of Alexander Balas, the king of Syria, and bribed him with the offer of 300 talents to deliver up Marathus to them. The unfortunate inhabitants of the devoted city attempted in vain to appease their enemies. The Aradians violated the common laws of suppliants, broke the very ancient images of the local deities, --which the Maratheni had brought to add solemnity to their embassy,-stoned the ambassadors, and cast them into prison: according to another account, they murdered some, and forged letters in their names, which they sealed with their seals, promising succour to Marathus, with a view of introducing their troops into the city under this pretence. But discovering that the citizens of Marathus were informed of their design, they desisted from the attempt. The facts of its final subjugation to Aradus are not preserved. Pliny (v. 20) places Marathus opposite to the island of Aradus, which he says was 200 passus (= 1000 Roman feet) from the coast. Diodorus (1. c.) states the distance between Aradus and Marathus to be 8 stadia; which need not be inconsistent with the statement of Pliny, as the latter may be supposed to measure to the point on the mainland nearest to Aradus, the former the distance between that island and the town of Marathus. The fact, however, is, that even the statement of Diodorus is too short for the nearest point on the coast; for this island is, according to Maundrell (March 7, p. 19), "about a league distant from the shore." And Pococke, who crossed the strait, says "it is reckoned to be about two miles from the continent. (Observations on Syria, p. 201.) The 20 stadia of Strabo is therefore much more correct than either of the other authorities. He says that the island lay off an exposed coast (paxidovs kaì àλiμévov), between its port (Caranus lege Carnos) and Marathus: and what was the respective situation of these towns he intimates in another passage, where, reckoning from the north, he enumerates Balanaea, Carnos, Enydra, Marathus. Pococke takes Tortosa to be "without doubt Caranus (Carnos) the port of Aradus on the continent;" and as this is two miles north of Aradus, he properly looks for Marathus to the south,-identifying Enydra with Ein-el-Hye (the Serpent's Fountain), "directly opposite to Aradus (p. 203), and suggesting that some ruins which he observed on a raised ground, at the northern extremity of a plain, about 7 miles south of Tortosa, "might possibly be Marathus" (p. 204). These conjectures may be admitted with some slight modifications. Thus, e. g., instead of identifying Tortosa with Carnos, this naval arsenal of the Arvadites must be placed about 2 miles north of Tortosa, where a late traveller has discovered " tensive ruins, called by the Arab peasants Carnoon, the site, doubtless, of the Carnos or Caranus of the ancients. The people from Arvad still quarry stones from these ruins; and below it, on the north, is a small harbour, which appears to have been fortified like that of Tortosa." (Thompson, in Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. v. p. 254.) A fresh-water spring in the sea, is mentioned by Strabo; and a mile to the south, between Carnoos and Tortosa, "a few rods from the shore, an immense fountain, called 'Ain Ibrahim (Abraham's fountain), boils up from the bottom." Tortosa, then, will be, as many mediaeval writers maintained, Antaradus, which "Arabic geographers write Antartûs and Antarsûs; whence

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the common Arabic name Tartús, in Italian Tortosa“ (l. c. p. 247, n. 1). 'Ain-el-Hiyeh, written by Pococke Ein-el-Hye, is certainly the Enydra of Strabo; the geographer, or his informant, having in this, as in so many other instances, retained the first half of the native name, and translated the latter half, — En being the usual Greek and Latin equivalent for the Semetic 'Ayn=fountain, and the hydra a sufficiently close representative of the Semetic Hiyeh = serpent. South of this fountain are very extensive quarries, five or six miles to the south of Tortosa. "This neighbourhood is called by the Arabs Amreed or Maabed Amreet 'the fane of Amreet.' This name the Greeks probably changed into Marathus, and the old vaults, foundations, sarcophagi, &c., near 'Ain-el-Hiyeh (Serpent's Fountain), may mark the precise locality of ancient Marathus." (Thompson, Z. c. p. 250.) Pococke describes here a rock-hewn temple, and monolithic house and chambers; besides a kind of semicircle, which he thinks "might serve for some sports to divert the people of Aradus and Antaradus, or of the ancient Marathus, if that was near. It was probably a circus" (p. 203).

It was the more necessary to identify these sites, as D'Anville placed the ancient Marathus at the modern Marakiah, which is, doubtless, the representative of "Mutatio Maraccas" of the Jerusalem Itinerary, on the confines of Syria and Phoenice, 13 M. P. south of Balaneas (now Baneas), and 10 M. P. north of Antaradus: and this error is perpetuated in Arrowsmith's map. [G. W.]

MARATHUS (Mápalos). 1. A small town in Phocis, near Anticyra, mentioned only by Strabo (ix. p. 423). Perhaps represented by the remains at Sidhiro-kafkhió. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 549.)

2. A town of Acarnania, of unknown site, mentioned only by Stephanus B. (s. v.)

MARATHUSA, an inland city of Crete, mentioned by Pliny (iv. 12; comp. Tzschucke, ad Pomp. Mel. ii. 7. § 13; Höck, Kreta, vol. i. p. 434.) [E. B. J.]

MARATHUSSA (Mapábovσoa), a small island of the Aegaean sea, off the coast of Ionia, neat Clazomenae. (Thuc. viii. 31; Plin. v. 31. s. 38.

MARCI, a place mentioned in the Not. Imp. as on the Saxon shore, and as a station of some Dalmatian cavalry under the command of the general of Belgica Secunda. D'Anville supposes, with De Valois, that it may be Mark between Calais and Gravelines: but the site is uncertain. [G. L.]

MARCIAE. [GALLAECIA, p. 934, b.] MARCIA'NA SILVA, a mountain forest in the south-west of Germany, probably the whole or a portion of what is now called the Black Forest (Amm. Marc. xxi. 8; Tab. Peuting.) The origin of the name is not known, Cluver regarding Marciana as a corruption of schwarz, and others connecting it with marsh and march, which is still used in the Black Forest as a name for a moor. [L. S.]

MARCIANOPOLIS (Μαρκιανούπολις, Procop. de Aed. iv. 7), a city of Moesia, 18 M. P. from Odessus (Varna) (Itin. Anton.; Peut.Tab.; Hierocl.), which derived its name from Marciana, sister of Trajan. (Amm. Marc. xxvii. 6. § 12; Jornand. de Reb. Get. 16.) Claudius II. signally defeated the Goths in several battles near this town. (Trebell. Poll. Claud. 9; Zozim. i. 42.) Gibbon (c. xxvi.; comp. Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. iv. p. 106; Greenwood, History of the Germans, London, 1836, p. 329 Art de Vér. les Dates, vol. i. p. 358) has told the story of the accidental quarrel between the Visigoth

Roer. The Frank kings are said to have had a palace there, named Duria Villa or Dura. [G. L.]

MARCOMAGUS, a place in North Gallia on a road from Augusta Trevirorum (Trèves) to Agrip. pina Civitas (Cologne). It appears both in the Antonine Itin. and in the Table. Marcomagus is Marmagen. It is 28 or 31 M. P. from Cologne, for the numbers are not certain. [G. L.]

Fritigern and the Roman governor of Marcianopolis, Lupicinus, — which became the signal of a long and destructive war. (Amm. Marc. xxxi. 5. § 4, Zozim. iv. 10, 11.) Marcianopolis afterwards became Peristhlava or Presthlava (Пepioλába), the capital of the Bulgarian kingdom, which was taken A. D. 971 by Swiatoslaff the Russian, and again reduced by John Zimisces, when 8500 Russians were put to the sword, and the sons of the Bulgarian king MARCOMANNI (Μαρκομάννοι, Μαρκομμάνοι, rescued from an ignominious prison, and invested with or Maρkoμavoí), a name frequently occurring in the a nominal diadem. (Gibbon, c. lv.; Schafarik, Slav. ancient history of Germany, sometimes as a mere Alt. vol. ii. pp. 187, foll. 216; Finlay, Byzantine appellative, and sometimes as a proper name of a Empire, pp. 408-413.) The site of the ancient distinct nation. Its meaning is border-men or town must be sought for in the neighbourhood of Pra-march-men, and as such it might be applied to any vadi. For coins of Marcianopolis, both autonomous and imperial, see Eckhel, vol. ii. p. 15. [E. B. J.] MARCILIA'NA, a station on the Via Popillia, in Lucania, where, according to the Tabula, that road (which led directly S. from Campania into Bruttium) was joined by a branch from Potentia. The name is corrupted both in the Tabula and in the Antonine Itinerary; but there can be no doubt that the place meant is the same called by Cassiodorus "Marcilianum," which was a kind of suburb of the town of Consilinum, where a great fair was annually held. (Itin. Ant. p. 110; Tab. Peut.; Cassiod. Varr. viii. 33.) The site is still called Marciliana, in the valley of the Tanagro, between La Sala and Padula. (Romanelli, vol. i. p. 405.)

[E. H. B.]

tribe or tribes inhabiting and defending a border country. Hence we must be prepared to find Marcomanni both on the western and southern frontiers of Germany; and they might also have existed in the east, or on any other frontier. Marcomanni are first mentioned in history among the tribes with which Ariovistus had invaded Gaul, and which were defeated and driven back across the Rhine by J. Caesar, B. c. 58 (Caes. Bell. Gall. i. 51). These Marcomanni, therefore, appear to have been the marchmen on the Rhenish frontier, perhaps about the lower part of the Main. They are again mentioned during the campaigns of Drusus in Germany, from B. C. 12 to 9, by Florus (iv. 12), who seems to place them somewhat further in the interior. Only a few years later, we hear of a powerful Marcomannian kingdom in Boiohemum or Bohemia, governed by Maroboduus; and we might be inclined to regard these Marcomanni as quite a different people from those on the Rhine and Main,that is, as the marchmen on the southern frontier,were it not that we are expressly told by Tacitus

MARCINA (Mаpriva), a town of Campania, in the district of the Picentini, situated on the N. shore of the gulf of Posidonia, between the Sirenusae Insulae and the mouth of the Silarus. (Strab. v. p. 251.) It is mentioned by no writer except Strabo, who tells us that it was a colony founded by the Tyrrhenians, but subsequently occupied, and in his day still inhabited, by the Samnites. As he adds that the dis-(Germ. 42), Paterculus (ii. 108), and Strabo (vii. tance from thence through Nuceria to Pompeii was not more than 120 stadia (15 Roman miles), he appears to have regarded this as the point from whence the passage of the isthmus (as he calls it) between the two bays began; and it may therefore be placed with some plausibility at Vietri. (Cluver, Ital. p. 1190; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 614.) Some ancient remains have been discovered there, though these may seem to indicate the site of Roman villas rather than of a town.

[E. H. B.]

MAʼRCIUS MONS (тd мáркιоν Ŏpos) was, according to Plutarch, the name of the place which was the scene of a great defeat of the Volscians and Latins by Camillus in the year after the taking of Rome by the Gauls B. C. 389. (Plut. Camill. 33, 34.) Diodorus, who calls it simply Marcius or Marcium (Td kaλoúμevov Máρkιov, xiv. 107), tells us it was 200 stadia from Rome; and Livy, who writes the name "ad Mecium," says it was near Lanuvium. (Liv. vi. 2.) The exact site cannot be determined. Some of the older topographers speak of a hill called Colle Marzo, but no such place is found on modern maps; and Gell suggests the Colle di Due Torri as the most probable locality. (Gell, 1 op. of Rome, 311.)

[E. H. B.]

MARCODAVA (Maрródava, Ptol. iii. 8. §7), a town of Dacia, the remains of which have been found near Thorda. (Sestini, Viaggio, p. 105.) [E.B.J.] MARCODU'RUM, North Gallia. Some of the cohorts of the Ubii were cut to pieces by the troops of Civilis at Marcodurum, which as Tacitus observes (Hist. iv. 28) is a long way from the bank of the Rhine. The termination durum indicates a place on

p. 290), that their king Maroboduus had emigrated with them from the west, and that, after expelling the Celtic Boii from Bohemia, he established himself and his Marcomanni in that country. (Comp. Ptol. ii. 11. § 25.) If we remember that the kingdom of the Marcomanni in Bohemia was fully organised as early as A. D. 6, when Tiberius was preparing for an expedition against it, it must be owned that Maroboduus, whose work it was, must have been a man of unusual ability and energy. Henceforth the name of the Marcomanni appears in history as a national name, though ethnologically it was not peculiar to any particular tribe, but was given to all the different tribes which the Marcomannian conqueror had united under his rule. The neighbouring nations whom it was impossible to subdue were secured by treaties, and thus was formed what may be termed the great Marcomannic confederacy, the object of which was to defend Germany against the Romans in Pannonia. But the Marcomanni soon also came into collision with another German confederation, that of the Cherusci, who regarded the powerful empire of Maroboduus as not less dangerous to the liberty of the German tribes than the aggressive policy of the Romans. In the ensuing contest, A. D. 17, the Marcomanni were humbled by the Cherusci and their allies, and Maroboduus implored the assistance of the emperor Tiberius. The aid was refused, but Drusus was sent to mediate peace between the hostile powers. (Tac. Ann. ii. 45, 46.) During this mediation, however, the Romans seem to have stirred up other enemies against the Marcomanni; for two years later,

probably derived from some of the far extended
nomade tribes of the Mardi or Amardi. (Herod. i.
125; Strab. xi. p. 524.)
[V.]

MARDYE'Nİ (Mapovnvol, Ptol. vi. 12 § 4), a tribe who occupied the lower part of the Sogdian mountains in Sogdiana. There can be no doubt that these people are the remains of a once very numerous race, whose traces we find spread over a wide extent of country from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf, and from the Oxus to the Caspian. We find the names of these tribes preserved in different authors, and attributed to very different places. Hence the presumption that they were to a great extent a nomade tribe, who pressed onward from the N. and E. to the S. Thus we find them under the form of Mardi in Hyrcania (Diod. xvii.

v. 732; Curt. vi. 5), in Margiana according to Pliny (vi. 16. s. 13), in Persia (Herod. i. 125; Strab. xi. p. 524; Ptol. vi. 4. § 3; Curt. v. 6), in Armenia (Ptol. v. 13; Tacit. Ann. xiv. 23), on the eastern side of the Pontus Euxinus (Plin. vi. 5), under the form Amardi in Scythia intra Imaum (Mela, iii. 5, iv. 6; Plin. vi. 17. s. 19), and lastly in Bactriana. (Plin. vi. 16. s. 18.) [V.]

invaded and conquered their country. Maroboduus fled, and demanded the protection of Tiberius, who offered to him a safe retreat in Italy. He there spent the remaining eighteen years of his life, while the throne of the Marcomanni was left to Catualda. [Dict. of Biogr. art. MAROBODUUS.] But the latter, too, was soon expelled by the Hermunduri, and ended his life in exile. (Tac. Ann. ii. 62, 63.) The Marcomanni, however, like the Quadi, continued to be governed by kings of their own, though they were not quite independent of the Romans, who often supported them with money and more rarely with troops. (Tac. Germ. 42.) They appear to have gradually extended their dominion to the banks of the Danube, where they came into hostile collision with the Romans. The emperor Domitian demanded their assistance against the Dacians, and this being re-76; Arrian, Anab. iii. 24, iv. 18; Dionys. Perieg. fused, he made war against them. But he was defeated A. D. 90, and obliged to make peace with the Dacians. (Dion Cass. lxvii. 7.) Trajan and Hadrian kept them in check; but in the reign of M. Aurelius hostilities were recommenced with fresh energy. The Marcomanni, allied with the Quadi and others, partly from hatred of the Romans, and partly urged on by other tribes pressing upon them in the north and east, invaded the Roman provinces A. D. 166; and thus commenced the protracted war commonly called the Marcomannic or German War, which lasted until the accession of Commodus, A. D. 180, who purchased peace of them. During this war, the Marcomanni and their confederates advanced into Rhaetia, and even penetrated as far as Aquileia. The war was not carried on uninterruptedly, but was divided into two distinct contests, having been interrupted by a peace or truce, in which the places conquered on both sides were restored. The second war broke out towards the end of the reign of M. Aurelius, about A. D. 178. (Dion Cass. Fragm. lib. lxxi., lxxii., lxxvii. pp. 1178, foll., 1305, ed. Reimar.; Eutrop. viii. 6; J. Capitol. M. Anton. Philos. 12, &c., 17, 21, 22, 25, 27; Amm. Marc. xix. 6; Herodian, i. init.) In consequence of the pusillanimity of Commodus the Marcomannians were so much emboldened, that, soon after and throughout the third century, they continued their inroads into the Roman provinces, especially Rhaetia and Noricum. In the reign of Aurelian, they penetrated into Italy, even as far as Ancona, and excited great alarm at Rome. (Vopisc. Aurel. 18, 21.) But afterwards they cease to act a prominent part in history. Their name, however, is still mentioned occasionally, as in Jornandes (22), who speaks of them as dwelling on the west of Transylvania. (Comp. Amm. Marc. xxii. 5, xxix. 6, xxxi. 4.) In the Notitia Imperii, we have mention of "Honoriani Marcomanni seniores" and "juniores" among the Roman auxiliaries. The last occasion on which their name occurs is in the history of Attila, among whose hordes Marcomanni are mentioned. (Comp. Wilhelm, Germanien, p. 212, foll.; Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 114, foll.; Latham, Tacit. Germ. Proleg. p. 53, foll.)

MARDENE. [MARDYENE.]
MARDI. [AMARDI.]

[L. S.]

MARDI, a branch of this powerful and warlike people were found in Armenia to the E. of Mardastan (lake Ván). (Ptol. v. 13. § 20; Tac. Ann. xiv. 23; comp. Anquetil Duperron, Mém. de l'Acad. des Inser. vol. xlv. p. 87.) [E. B. J.] MARDYE'NE (Mapdunun, Ptol. vi. 4. § 3), a district of ancient Persis, which, according to Ptolemy, extended to the sea-coast. The name is

MAREIA or MA'REA (Mapéa, Herod. ii. 18, 30; Mapeía, Thucyd. i. 104; Mápeia, Steph. Byz. s. v.; Mapía, Diod. ii. 68; Пuλai Máρeia kúμŋ, Ptol. iv. 5. § 34), the modern Mariouth, and the chief town of the Mareotic Nome, stood on a peninsula in the south of the lake Mareotis, nearly due south of Alexandreia, and adjacent to the mouth of the canal which connected the lake with the Canopic arm of the Nile. Under the Pharaohs Mareia was one of the principal frontier garrisons of Aegypt on the side of Libya; but from the silence of Herodotus (ii. 30) we may infer that the Persians did not station troops there. In all ages, however, until it was eclipsed by the neighbouring greatness of Alexandreia, Mareia, as the nearest place of strength to the Libyan desert, must have been a town of great importance to the Delta. At Mareia, according to Diodorus (ii. 681), Amasis defeated the Pharaoh-Apries, Hofra, or Psammetichus; although Herodotus (ii. 161) places this defeat at Momemphis. (Herod. ii. 169.) At Mareia, also, according to Thucydides (i. 104; comp. Herod. iii. 12), Inarus, the son of Psammetichus, reigned, and organised the revolt of Lower Aegypt against the Persians. Under the Ptolemies, Mareia continued to flourish as a harbour; but it declined under the Romans, and in the age of the Antonines-the second century A.D. -it had dwindled into a village. (Comp. Athen. i. 25, p. 33, with Eustath. ad Homer. Odyss. ix. 197.)

Mareia was the principal depôt of the trade of the Mareotic Lake and Nome. The vineyards in its vicinity produced a celebrated wine, which Athenaeus (l. c.) describes as "remarkable for its sweetness, white in colour, in quality excellent, light, with a fragrant bouquet: it was by no means astringent, and did not affect the head." (Comp. Plin. xiv. 3; Strab. xvii. p. 796.) Some, however, deemed the Mareotic wine inferior to that of Anthylla and Tenia; and Columella (R. R. iii. 2) says that it was too thin for Italian palates, accustomed to the fuller-bodied Falernian. Virgil (Georg. ii. 91) describes the Mareotic grape as white, and growing in a rich soil; yet the soil of the vineyards around the Mareotic Lake was principally composed of gravel, and lay beyond the reach of the alluvial deposit of the Nile, which is ill suited to viticulture. Strabo (xvii. p. 799) ascribes to the wine of Mareia the additional

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in the neighbourhood of the Mosynoeci. (lecat. Fragm. 192; Herod. iii. 94.) Their armour, when serving in the army of Xerxes, is described by Herodotus (vii. 79) as having consisted of helmets of wicker-work, leather shields, and javelins. Later writers do not mention this tribe. [L. S.]

MARESHAH (Mapnoά, LXX., Euseb.; Mapioσa, Joseph.), a city of Judah, “in the valley," enumerated with Keilah and Achzib in Joshua (xv. 44). In Micah (i. 15), where it is again joined with Achzib, the LXX. have substituted Aaxeís. Lachish, however, is found in the list of Joshua, independent of Maresha (xv. 39), so it could not be a synonym for Mareshah. It was one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam against the Philistines and Egyptians (2 Chron. xi. 8); and there it was that Asa encountered Zerah the Ethiopian, "in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah" (xiv. 9), and gained a sigual victory over him. In the time of Judas Maccabaeus it was occupied by the Idumaeans (2 Maccab. xii 35), but Judas took and destroyed it. (Joseph. Ant. xii. 8. § 6.) Only a few years later it is again reckoned to Idumaea; and Hyrcanus I. took it, and compelled its inhabitants, in common with the other Idumaeans, to practice circumcision, and conform to the law, as a condition of remaining in that country (xiii. 9. § 1, 15. § 4). It was one of the cities restored to Aretas king of Arabia by Hyrcanus II., as the price of his services (xiv. 1. § 4): soon after which it was rebuilt by Gabinius (5. § 3); shortly after sacked and destroyed by the Parthians in their

merit of keeping well to a great age; and Horace (Od. i. 37) mentions it as a favourite beverage of Cleopatra. Mareia, from its neighbourhood to Alexandreia, was so generally known to Roman travellers, that among the Latin poets, the words Mareia and Mareotic became synonymous with Aegypt and Aegyptian. Thus Martial (Ep. xiv. 209) calls the papyrus, "cortex Mareotica" (comp. id. Ep.iv. 42): and Gratius (Cynegetic. v. 313) designates Aegyptian luxury as Mareotic and Ovid (Met. ix. v. 73) employs "arva Mareotica" for Lower Aegypt. [W. B. D.] MAREO'TIS or MAREI'A ( Mapeŵris or Mapeía Aluvn, Strab. xvii. pp. 789-799; Mápeia, Steph. B. s. v.; Mareotis Libya, Plin. v. 10. s. 11; Justin. xi. 1), the modern Birket-el-Mariout, was a considerable lake in the north of the Delta, extending south-westward of the Canopic arm of the Nile, and running parallel to the Mediterranean, from which it was separated by a long and narrow ridge of sand, as far as the tower of Perseus on the Plinthinetic bay. The extreme western point of the lake was about 26 miles distant from Alexandreia; and on that side it closely bordered upon the Libyan desert. At its northern extremity its waters at one time washed the walls of Alexandreia on their southern side, and before the foundation of that city Mareotis was termed the Lake above Pharus. In breadth it was rather more than 150 stadia, or about 22 English miles, and in length nearly 300 stadia, or about 42 English miles. One canal connected the lake with the Canopic arm of the Nile, and another with the old harbour of Alexandreia, the Portus Eunostus. [ALEX-invasion of the country, in the time of Herod the ANDREIA.] The shores of the Mareotis were planted with olives and vineyards; the papyrus which lined its banks and those of the eight islets which studded its waters was celebrated for its fine quality; and around its margin stood the country-houses and gardens of the opulent Alexandrian merchants. Its creeks and quays were filled with Nile boats, and its export and import trade in the age of Strabo surpassed that of the most flourishing havens of Italy. Under the later Caesars, and after Alexandreia was occupied by the Arabs, the canals which fed the lake were neglected, and its depth and compass were materially reduced. In the 16th century A. D. its waters had retired about 2 miles from the city walls; yet it still presented an ample sheet of water, and its banks were adorned with thriving date-plantations. The lake, however, continued to recede and to grow shallower; and, according to the French traveller Savary, who visited this district in 1777, its bed was then. for the most part, a sandy waste. In 1801 the English army in Aegypt, in order to annoy the French garrison in Alexandria, bored the narrow isthmus which separates the Birket-el-Mariout from the Lake of Madieh or Aboukir, and re-admitted the sea-water. About 450 square miles were thus converted into a salt-marsh. But subsequently Mehemet Ali repaired the isthmus, and again diverted the sea from the lake. It is now of very unequal depth. At its northern end, near Alexandreia, it is about 14 feet deep, at its opposite extremity not more than 3 or 4. Westward it forms a long and shallow lagoon, separated from the sea by a bar of saud, and running towards Libya nearly as far as the Tower of the Arabs. The lands surrounding the ancient Mareotis were designated as the Mareotic Nome (Mapewτns Náuos, Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 8, 34); but this was probably not one of the established Nomes of Pharaonic Aegypt. [W. B. D.]

MARES (Mapes) a tribe on the coast of Pontus,

Great (xiv. 13. § 9); and probably never recovered its former importance, as this is the latest historical notice. It is placed by Eusebius and St. Jerome 2 miles from Eleutheropolis; it was then a ruin. Dr. Robinson conjectures that "Eleutheropolis (at first Betogabra) had sprung up after the destruction of Maresha, and had been built with its materials," and that "the foundations which he discovered on the south-eastern part of the remarkable tell, south of the place, were remains of Maresha. The spot is admirably adapted for a fortress; it lies about a Roman mile and a half from the ruins of Beit Jebrin." There are no other ruins in the vicinity. (Bib. Res. vol. ii. pp. 422, 423.) [G. W.]

MAREU'RA or MALTHU'RA (Mapéovpa unτρόπολις ἡ καὶ Μάλθουρα καλουμένη, Ptol. vii. 2. § 24), a place of some importance in the upper part of the Aurea Chersonesus in India extra Gangem. It is not possible now to identify it with any existing place. [V.]

as to

MA'RGANA or MA'RGALAE (Mápyava, Diod.; Mapyaveis, Xen.; Mapyáλaι, Strab.; Mápyaia, Steph. B. s. v.), a town in the Pisatis, in the district Amphidolia, was supposed by some to be the Homeric Aepy. (Strab. viii. p. 349.) The Eleians were obliged to renounce their supremacy over it by the treaty which they made with Sparta in B. C. 400 (Xen. Hell. iii. 2. § 30), on which occasion it is called one of the Triphylian towns: this statement, see LETRINI. It is mentioned as one of the towns taken by the Arcadians in their war with the Eleians in B. c. 366. (Xen. Hell. vii. 4. § 14: Diod. xv. 77.) Its site is uncertain, but it was probably east of Letrini. Leake places it too far north, at the junction of the Ladon and the Peneius, which is in all probability the site of the Eleian Pylos. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 219; Boblaye, Récherches, &c. p. 130; Curtius, Pelopon. nesos, vol. i. p. 73.)

MARGIA'NA ( Mapylavh, Strab. xi. p. 516, Ptol. vi. 10; Plin. vi. 16. s. 18), a district of considerable extent in the western part of Central Asia, which was bounded on the W. by Hyrcania, on the N. by Scythia and the Oxus as far as Bactriana, on the E. by Bactriana, and on the S. by Ariana. At present the country is called Khorasan, and comprehends also some part of the territory occupied by the Turkoman tribes. Like most of the districts at a great distance from Greece or Rome, it was but partially known to the ancients; hence its limits are variously stated by ancient authors. Thus Strabo makes it the province next to Parthia, to the N. of the Sariphi mountains, and gives the same boundaries to the W., N., and E. as the other geographers (xi. p. 516). Pliny places it in the same direction, but adds that a desert of 120 M.P. must be crossed before it could be reached (vi. 16. s. 18). Both Strabo and Pliny speak of the great fertility of its land, and the fineness of its climate; the former stating that the vines were often so large that a man could not embrace their stems in his arms; the latter, that it was the only district in that part of the world which produced grapes. The accounts of the ancients are in this particular confirmed by modern and by Muhammedan writers. According to the latter, it would seem to have comprehended the territory from Bunjurd on the west, to Merv and the Murgh-áb in the east, a tract remarkable for its beauty and fertility. (Wilson, Ariana, p. 149.) The principal river of Margiana, from which, too, it probably derived its name, was the Margus (now Murgh-áb). Various races and tribes are noticed in different authors as occupying parts of Margiana. All of them may be considered as of Scythian or Tátar origin; indeed, in this part of Asia, the population has remained nearly the same to the present day which it was in the classical times. The principal of these were the DERBICCAE or DERBICES (Steph. p. 23; Strab. xi. p. 508; Dionys. v. 734), who lived to the N. near the mouth of the Oxus; the MASSAGETAE, the PARNI, and the DAAE, who lived to the S. of the former along the Caspian and the termination of the Margus, which loses itself in the sands before it reaches the Caspian; and the TAPURI and MARDI. The chief towns were, ANTIOCHEIA MARGIANA (certainly the present Merv), NISAEA or NESAEA, ARIACA, and JASONIUM. [See these places under their respective names.]

[V.]

MARGIDUNUM, in Britain (Itin. Anton. pp. 477, 479). It is supposed by Camden, Stukeley, Horseley, and others, to have been situated at or near East Bridgeford, about eight miles from Willoughby. [C. R. S.] MARGUM or MARGUS (Mápyov, Mápyos), also called MURGUM, a city of Moesia, at the confluence of the Margus and Danube. It was termed "Margum planum" on account of the level character of the surrounding country. (Jornand. de Reb. Get. c. 58.) It was here that the emperor Carinus was totally defeated by Diocletian. (Eutrop. ix. 13, x. 20; It. Ant. p. 132; It. Hieros. D. 564.) [A. L.] MARGUS (Mápyos, Strab. vii. p. 318; Margis, Plin. iii. 26. s. 29), an important river of Moesia, which flows into the Danube, near the town of Margum, now the Morava. Strabo says (l. c.) that it was also called Bargus, and the same appears in Herodotus (iv. 44) under the form of Brongus (Booyyos). It is the same river as the Moschius (Móoxios) of Ptolemy (iii. 9. § 3). [A. L.]

MARGUS (Mápyos, Strab. xi. p. 516; Ptol. vi. 10. §§ 1, 4), the chief river of the province of Margiana, which in all probability derives its name from it,-now the Murgh-áb or Merv Rúd. It is said by Ptolemy to have taken its rise in the Sariphi mountains (now Hazarás), a western spur of the great range of the Paropamisus, and, after a northern course and a junction with another small stream, to have flowed into the Oxus. The travels of Sir Alexander Burnes have demonstrated that the Murgh-áb no longer reaches the Oxus, but is lost in the sands about 50 miles NW. of Merv (Burnes, vol. ii. p. 35); but it is probable that as late as the time of Ibn Haukal (about A. D. 950) it still flowed into the Jihon (De Sacy, Mém. sur deux Prov. de la Perse, p. 22). The Margus passed by and watered Antiocheia Margiana, the capital of the province. [V.]

MARIABA (Mapíasa). There seem to have been several cities of this name in Arabia, as there are still several towns or sites of the name, scarcely modified. How many distinct cities are mentioned by the classical geographers, antiquarians are not agreed, and the various readings have involved the question in great perplexity. It will be well to elininate first those of which the notices are most distinct.

1. The celebrated capital of the Sabaei in Yemen, is known both in the native and classical writers. It is called the metropolis of the Sabaei by Strabo (xvi. 4. § 2), which tribe was contiguous to that of the Minaei, who bordered on the Red Sea on one side, and to the Catabaneis, who reached to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. [SABAEI; MINAEI; CATABANI.] It was situated on a well-wooded mountain, and was the royal residence. It seems difficult to imagine that this was distinct from the Mariaba of Pliny, who, however, assigns it to the Atramitae, a branch of the Sabaei, and places it on a bay 94 M. P. in circuit, filled with spice-bearing islands; while it is certain that the Mariaba of the Sabaeans was an inland city. It is beyond all doubt the Maarib of the Arabian historians, built according to their traditions by 'Abd-schems, surnamed Saba, third only in succession from the patriarch Koktan or Joktan, son of Eber. Abulfeda says that this city was also called Saba; and that, in the opinion of some. Maarib was the name of the royal residence, while the city itself was called Saba. Its founder also constructed the stupendous embankment so renowned in history, forming a dam for confining the water of seventy rivers and torrents, which he conducted into it from a distance. (Abulfeda, Historia Ante-Islamica, lib. iv. ap. init.) The object of this was not only to supply the city with water, but also to irrigate the lands, and to keep the subjugated country in awe, by being masters of the water. The water rose to the height of almost 20 fathoms, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid, that many of the inhabitants had their houses built upon it. It stood like a mountain above the city, and no danger was apprehended of its ever failing. The inundation of El-Arem (the mound) is an aera in Arabic history, and is mentioned in the Koran as a signal instance of divine judgment on the inhabitants of this city for their pride and insolence. A mighty flood broke down the mound by night, while the inhabitants were asleep, and carried away the whole city, with the neighbouring towns and people. (Sale, Koran, cap. 34, vol. ii. p. 289, notes, and Preliminary Discourse, sect. 1. vol. i p. 18;

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