neians formed an alliance with Argos, Elis, and Athens, in B. C. 421, and thus became involved in war with Sparta. (Thuc. v. 29, 33, 47.) This war was brought to a close by the decisive battle fought near Mantineia, in June, 418, in which the Argives, Mantineians, and Athenians were defeated by the Lacedaemonians under Agis. This battle was fought to the S. of Mantineia, between the city and the frontiers of Tegea, and is the first of the five great battles bearing the name of Mantineia. The Mantineians now concluded a peace with Sparta, renouncing their dominion over the districts in Arcadia, which they had conquered. (Thuc. v. 65, seq., 81.)

Mantineia continued an unwilling ally of Sparta for the next 33 years; but in the second year after the peace of Antalcidas, which had restored to the Spartans a great part of their former power, they resolved to crush for ever this obnoxious city. Accordingly, they required the Mantineians to raze their walls; and upon the refusal of the latter, they marched against the city with an army under the command of their king Agesipolis (B. c. 385), alleging that the truce for 30 years had expired, which had been concluded between the two states after the battle of 418. The Mantineians were defeated in battle, and took refuge in their city, prepared to withstand a siege; but Agesipolis having raised an embankment across the river Ophis, which flowed through Mantineia, forced back the waters of the river, and thus caused an inundation around the walls of the city. These walls, being built of unbaked bricks, soon began to give way; and the Mantineians, fearing that the city would be taken by assault, were obliged to yield to the terms of the Spartans, who required that the inhabitants should quit the city, and be dispersed among the villages, from the coalescence of which the city had been originally formed. (Xen. Hell. v. 2. §§ 6, 7; Diod. xv. 5; Ephorus, ap. Harpocrat. s. v. Mavrivéwv Biokioμós; Pol. iv. 27; Paus. viii. 8. § 7, seq.) Of the forces of Mantineia shortly before this time we have an account from the orator Lysias, who says that the military population or citizens of Mantineia were not less than 3000, which will give 13,000 for the free population of the Mantineian territory. (Lysias, ap. Dionys. p. 531; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 416.)

The Mantineians did not long remain in this dispersed condition. When the Spartan supremacy was overthrown by the battle of Leuctra in 371, they again assembled together, and rebuilt their city. They took care to exclude the river from the new city, and to make the stone substructions of the walls higher than they had been previously. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 3; Paus. viii. 8. § 10; Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 73.) The Mantineians took an active part in the formation of the Arcadian confederacy, and in the foundation of Megalopolis, which followed immediately after the restoration of their own city; and one of their own citizens, Lycomedes, was the chief promoter of the scheme. But a few years afterwards the Mantineians, for reasons which are not distinctly mentioned, quarrelled with the supreme Arcadian government, and formed an alliance with their inveterate enemies the Spartans. In order to put down this new coalition, Epaminondas marched into the Peloponnesus; and Mantineia was again the scene of another great battle (the second of the five alluded to above), in which the Spartans were defeated, but which was rendered still more memo

rable by the death of Epaminondas. (Xen. Hell. vii. 5; Diod. xv. 84.) The site of this battle is described below. The third and fourth battles of Mantineia are only incidentally mentioned by the ancient writers: the third was fought in 295, when Demetrius Poliorcetes defeated Archidamus and the Spartans (Plut. Demetr. 35); the fourth in 242, when Aratus and the Achaeans defeated the Spartans under Agis, the latter falling in the battle. | (Paus. viii. 10. § 5, seq.)

Mantineia continued to be one of the most powerful towns of Arcadia down to the time of the Achaean League. It at first joined this league; but it subsequently deserted it, and, together with Orchomenus and Tegea, became a member of the Aetolian confederacy. These three cities at a later time renounced their alliance with the Aetoliars, and entered into a close union with Sparta, about B. C. 228. This step was the immediate cause of the war between the Achaeans and the Spartans, usually called the Cleomenic War. In 226, Áratus surprised Mantineia, and compelled the city to receive an Achaean garrison. The Mantineians soon afterwards expelled the Achaeans, and again joined the Spartans; but the city was taken a second time, in 222, by Antigonus Doson, whom the Achaeans had invited to their assistance. It was now treated with great severity. It was abandoned to plunder, its citizens were sold as slaves, and its name changed to Antigoneia ('AvTyóveta), in compliment to the Macedonian monarch (Pol. ii. 57, seq.; Plut. Arat. 45; Paus. viii. 8. § 11). In 207, the plain of Mantineia was the scene of a fifth great battle, between the Achaean forces, commanded by Philopoemen, and the Lacedaemonians, under the tyrant Machanidas, in which the latter was defeated and slain. An account of this battle is given by Polybius, from whom we learn that the Achaean army occupied the entire breadth of the plain S. of the city, and that their light-armed troops occupied the hill to the E. of the city called Alesium by Pausanias. The Lacedaemonians were drawn up opposite to the Achaeans; and the two armies thus occupied the same position as in the first battle of Mantineia, fought in the Peloponnesian War. (Pol. xi. 11.) The Mantineians were the only Arcadian people who fought on the side of Augustus at the battle of Actium. (Paus. viii. 8. § 12.) The city continued to bear the name of Antigoneia till the time of Hadrian, who restored to it its ancient appellation, and conferred upon it other marks of his favour, in honour of his favourite, Antinous, because the Bithynians, to whom Antinous belonged, claimed descent from the Mantineians. (Paus. viii. 8. § 12, viii. 9. § 7.)

The territory of Mantineia was bounded on the W. by Mt. Maenalus, and on the E. by Mt. Artemisium, which separated it from Argolis. Its northern frontier was a low narrow ridge, separating it from Orchomenia; its southern frontier, which divided it from Tegeatis, was formed by a narrow part of the valley, hemmed in by a projecting ridge from Mt. Maenalus on the one side, and by a similar ridge from Mt. Artemisius on the other. (See below.) The territory of Mantineia forms part of the plain now called the plain of Tripolitzá, from the modern town of this name, lying between the ancient Mantineia and Tegea, and which is the principal place in the district. This plain is about 25 English miles in length, with a breadth varying from 1 to 8, and includes, besides the territory of Mantineia, that of

Orchomenus and Caphyae on the N., and that of Tegea and Pallantium on the S. The distance between Mantineia and Tegea is about 10 English miles in a direct line. The height of the plain where Mantineia stood is 2067 feet above the level of the sea. Owing to its situation, Mantineia was a place of great military importance, and its territory was the scene of many important battles, as has been already related. It stood upon the river Ophis, nearly in the centre of the plain of Tripolitza as to length, and in one of the narrowest parts as to breadth. It was enclosed between two ranges of hills, on the E. and the W., running parallel to Mts. Artemisium and Maenalus respectively. The eastern hill was called ALESIUM ('Aλotov, Paus. viii. 10. §1), and between it and Artemisium lay the plain called by Pausanias (viii. 7. § 1) Tò àрyòv πediov, or the "Uncultivated Plain." (viii. 8. § 1.) The range of hills on the W. had no distinct name : between them and Mt. Maenalus there was also a plain called Alcimedon ('Aλkiμédwv, Paus. viii. 12. $ 2.)

Mantineia was not only situated entirely in the plain, but nearly in its lowest part, as appears by the course of the waters. In the regularity of its fortifications it differs from almost all other Greek cities of which there are remains, since very few other Greek cities stood so completely in a plain. It is now called Paleópoli. The circuit of the walls is entire, with the exception of a small space on the N. and W. sides. In no place are there more than three courses of masonry existing above ground, and the height is so uniform that we may conclude that the remainder of the walls was constructed of unbaked bricks. The city had 9 or 10 gates, the approach to which was carefully defended. Along the walls there were towers at regular distances. Leake reckoned 118 towers, and says that the city was about 24 miles in circumference; but Ross makes the city considerably larger, giving 129 or 130 as the number of the towers, and from 28 to 30 stadia, or about 3 English miles, as the circuit of the city. The walls of the city are surrounded by a ditch, through which the river Ophis flows. This stream is composed of several rivulets, of which the most important rises on Mt. Alesium, on the E. side of the city: the different rivulets unite on the NW. side of the town, and flow westward into a katavóthra. Before the capture of Mantineia by Agesipolis, the Ophis was made to flow through the city and it is probable that all the water-courses of the surrounding plain were then collected into one channel above the city. Of the buildings in the interior of the city, described by Pausanias, few remains are left. Nearly in the centre of the city are the ruins of the theatre, of which the diameter was about 240 feet; and west of the theatre, Ross observed the foundations of the temple of Aphrodite Symmachia, which the Mantineians erected to commemorate the share they had taken in the battle of Actium. (Paus. viii. 9. § 6.)

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The territory of Mantineia is frequently described by the ancient writers, from its having been so often the seat of war; but it is difficult, and almost impossible, to identify any of the localities of which we find mention, from the disappearance of the sanctuaries and nonuments by which spots are indicated, and also from the nature of the plain, the topography of which must have been frequently altered by the change of the water-courses. On the latter subject a few words are necessary. The plain of Tripolitzá,

of which Mantinice formed part, is one of those valleys in Arcadia, which is so completely shut in by mountains, that the streams which flow into it have no outlet except through the chasms in the mountains, called katavóthra. [ARCADIA.] The part of the plain, which formed the territory of Mantineia, is so complete a level, that there is not, in some parts, a sufficient slope to carry off the waters; and the land would be overflowed, unless trenches were made to assist the course of the waters towards some one or other of the katavóthra which nature has provided for their discharge. (Pol. xi. 11.) Not only must the direction of these trenches have been sometimes changed, but even the course of the streams was sometimes altered, of which we have an interesting example in the history of the campaign of 418. It appears that the regulation of the mountain torrent on the frontiers of Mantinice and Tegeatis was a frequent subject of dispute and even of war between the two states; and the one frequently inundated the territory of the other, as a means of annoyance. This was done in 418 by Agis, who let the waters over the plain of Mantineia (Thuc. v. 65). This river can only be the one called Ophis by the Geographers of the French Commission. It rises a little N. of Tegea, and after flowing through Tegeatis falls now into a katavóthra north of the hill Scope. In general the whole plain of Mantineia bears a very different aspect from what it presented in antiquity; instead of the wood of oaks and corktrees, described by Pausanias, there is now not a single tree to be found; and no poet would now think of giving the epithet of "lovely" (patewń) to the naked plain, covered to a great extent with stagnant water, and shut in by gray treeless rocks. (Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 128.)

About a mile N. of the ruins of Mantineia is an isolated hill called Gurtzúli; north of which again, also at the distance of about a mile, is another hill. The latter was probably the site of the ancient Mantineia, and was therefore called PTOLIS (ПITÓλs) in the time of Pausanias (viii. 12. § 7). This appears to have been one of the five villages from the inhabitants of which the city on the plain was peopled.

There were several roads leading from Mantineia. Two of these roads led north of the city to Orchomenus: the more easterly of the two passed by Ptolis, just mentioned, the fountain of Alalcomeneia, and a deserted village named MAERA (Maîpa), 30 stadia from Ptolis; the read on the west passed over Mt. Anchisia, on the northern slope of which was the temple of Artemis Hymnia, which formed the boundary between Mantinice and Orchomenia. (Paus. viii. 12. §§ 5-9, comp. viii. 5. § 11.)

A road led from Mantineia on the W. to Methydrium. It passed through the plain Alcimedon, which was 30 stadia from the city, above which was Mount Ostracina; then by the fountain Cissa, and, at the distance of 40 stadia from the fountain, by the small place PETROSACA († Пeтрoσáкa), which was on the confines of the Mantineian and Megalopolitan territories. (Paus. viii. 12. §§ 2-4.)

Two roads led from Mantineia southwards,-the one SE. to Tegea, and the other SW. to Pallantium. On the left of the road to Tegea, called XENIS (Eevis) by Polybius (xi. 11. § 5), just outside the gates of Mantineia, was the hippodrome, and a little further on the stadium, above which rose Mount Alesium: at the spot where the mountain ceased was the temple of Poseidon Hippius, which was 7 stadia from the city, as we learn from Poly

(For the geography of Mantinice, see Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 100, seq., vol. iii. p. 44, seq.; Peloponnesiaca, p. 369, seq.; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, vol. i. p. 121, seq.; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 232, seq.)

MA'NTUÀ (Mávтova: Eth. Mantuanus: Mantora), a city of Cisalpine Gaul, situated on the river Mincius, on an island formed by its waters, about 12 miles above its confluence with the Padus. There seems no doubt that it was a very ancient city, and existed long before the establishment of the Gauls in this part of Italy. Virgil, who was naturally well acquainted with the traditions of his native place, tells us that its population was a mixed race, but the bulk of the people were of Etruscan origin; and Pliny even says that it was the only city beyond the Padus which was still inhabited by an Etruscan people. (Virg. Aen. x. 201-203; Plin. iii. 19. s. 23.) Virgil does not tell us what were the other national elements of its population, and it is not easy to understand the exact meaning of his expression that it consisted of three "gentes," and that each gens comprised four "populi ;" but it seems certainly probable that this relates to the internal division of its own territory and population, and has no reference (as Müller has supposed) to the twelve cities founded by the Etruscans in the valley of the Padus. (Müller, Etrusker, vol. i. p. 137; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 296, note 757.) The Etruscan origin of Mantua is confirmed by its name, which was in all probability derived from that of the Etruscan divinity Mantus, though another tradition, adopted by Virgil himself, seems to have deduced it from a prophetic nymph of the name of Manto. (Serv. ad Aen. l. c.; Schol. Veron. ad loc. p. 103, ed. Keil.) According to one of the oldest scholiasts on Virgil, both Verrius Flaccus and Caecina, in their Etruscan histories, ascribed the foundation of Mantua to Tarchon himself, while Virgil represents Ocnus, the son of Manto, as its founder. (Virg. Aen. x. 200; Schol. Veron. 1. c.) The only historical fact that can be considered as resulting from all these statements is that Mantua really was an Etruscan settlement, and that for some reason (probably from its peculiar and inaccessible situation) it retained much of its Etruscan character long after this had disappeared in the other cities of Cisalpine Gaul.

After the settlement of the Gauls in Northern Italy, Mantua was probably included in the territory of the Cenomani (Ptol. iii. 1. § 31); but we find no mention of its name in history, nor do we know at what period it passed under the Roman dominion. From an incidental notice in Livy (xxiv. 10) during the Second Punic War, we may probably infer that it was then on friendly terms with Rome, as were the Cenomani and Veneti; and as its name is not mentioned during the subsequent wars of the Romans in Cisalpine Gaul, it is probable that it passed gradually, with the other towns of the Cenomani, from a state of alliance to one of dependence, and ultimately of subjection. But even under the Roman dominion the name of Mantua scarcely appears in

The chief celebrity of Mantua under the Roman Empire was undoubtedly owing to its having been the birthplace of Virgil, who has, in consequence, celebrated it in several passages of his works; and its name is noticed on the same account by many of the later Roman poets. (Virg. Georg.iii. 12; Ovid, Amor. iii. 15. 7; Stat. Silv. iv. 2. 9; Sil. Ital. viii. 595; Martial, i. 62. 2, xiv. 195.) According to Donatus, however, the actual birthplace of the poet was the village of Andes in the territory of Mantua, and not the city itself. (Donat. Vit. Virg. 1; Hieron. Chron. ad ann. 1947.)

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Mantua appears to have become a place of importance from its great strength as a fortress, arising from its peculiar situation, surrounded on all sides by broad lakes or expanses of water, formed by the stagnation of the river Mincius. It, however, fell into the hands of the Lombards under Agilulf (P. Diac. iv. 29), and after the expulsion of that people was governed by independent counts. In the middle ages it became one of the most important cities of the N. of Italy; and is still a populous place, and one of the strongest fortresses in Italy. It is still so completely surrounded by the stagnant waters of the Mincio, that it is accessible only by causeways, the shortest of which is 1000 feet in length.

Mantua was distant from Verona 25 miles; so that Procopius calls it a day's journey from thence. (Procop. B. G. iii. 3.) It was situated on a line of road given in the Tabula, which proceeded from Mediolanum, by Cremona and Bedriacum, to Mantua, and thence to Hostilia, where it crossed the Padus, and thence proceeded direct to Ravenna. (Tab. Peut.) Mantua was distant from Cremona by this road about 40 miles. It would appear from one of the minor poems ascribed to Virgil (Catalect. 8. 4), that this distance was frequently traversed by muleteers with light vehicles in a single day. [E. H. B.]

MANTZICIERT (Marт(Ikiépт, Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. c. 44), a fortress of great importance upon the Armenian frontier. In A. D. 1050, it offered so determined a resistance to Togrul Beï, the founder of the Seljukian dynasty, that he had to give up all hope of breaking through the barrier of fortresses that defended the limits of the empire, and retired into Persia. (Cedren. vol. ii. p. 780; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xiv. p. 367; Finlay, Byzantine Empire, p. 523.) It is identified with Melasgerd or Manaskhert, situated to the NW. of lake Van, and the