Smith, William, A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography mythology and geography

(New York :  Harper & Brothers,  1884.)

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MENANDER.
 

MENEDEMUa.
 

mg may have been the reason why he was not

so great a favorite with the common people as

his principal rival, Philemon, who is said, more¬

over, to  have used unfair  means  of gaining

popularity.  Menander  appears to have borne

the popular neglect very lightly, in  the con¬

sciousness of his superiority; and  once when

he happened  to meet  Philemon, he  is said to

have asked him, " Pray, Philemon, do not you

blush when you gain a victory over me V  The

neglect of Menander's contemporaries has been

amply compensated by his posthumous fame.

His comedies retained their place on the stage

down to the time of Plutarch, and  the unani¬

mous consent of antiquity placed him at the

head of the New Comedy, and on an equality

with the great masters of the various kinds of

poetry.  His comedies were imitated by the Ro¬

man dramatists, particularly by Terence, who

was little more than a translator of Menander.

But we can not form, from any one play of Ter¬

ence, a fair notion of the corresponding play of

Menander, as the Roman poet frequently com¬

pressed two of Menander's plays into one.  It

was this mixing up of different plays that Cae¬

sar pointed to by the phrase 0 dimidiate Menan¬

der, in the epigram which he wrote upon Ter¬

ence.  Of Menander's comedies only fragments

are extant. The best edition of them is by Mei¬

neke, in  his  Fragmenta Comicorum Grascorum,

Berol., 1841.

   [Menander (Mhavdpog).  1. An Athenian of¬

ficer in the Sicilian expedition, associated in the

supreme command with Nicias, toward the end

of the year B.C. 414 : he afterward served with

Aloibiades against Pharnabazus, and was one

of the commanders at the disastrous battle of

.(Egos potami.—2. King of Bactria, was one of

the most powerful of all the Greek  rulers of

that country, and one of those  who made the

most extensive conquests in India, reaching be¬

yond the Hypanis or Sutledj.—3. Surnamed Pro¬

tector, a Greek writer of Byzantium in the latter

half of the sixth century.  He wrote a history

of the Eastern empire  from A.D. 559 to 582 in

eight books,  of which considerable  extracts

have been preserved in the " Eclogaa Legation-

um" attributed to Constantinus Porphyrogeni-

tus. Edited by Bekker and Niebuhr, Bonn, 1830.]

   Menapia (Mevairla),  a  city of Bactriana, on

the River Zariaspis.

   Menapii, a powerful people in the north of

Gallia Belgica, originally dwelt on both banks

of the Rhine, but were afterward driven out of

their possessions on the right bank by the Usi-

petes and Tenchteri, and inhabited only the left

bank near its mouth, and west of the Mosa.

Their  country was  covered with forests and

swamps.   They had  a fortress on  the Mosa

called Castellum Menapioram (now Kessel).

   Menas (Mnvag), also called Menodoeus (Mn-

 vbbapog) by Appian, a freedman of Pompey the

 Great, was one of the principal commanders of

 the, fleet of Sextus Pompey in his war against

 Octavianufc  and Antony, B.C.  40.   In 39  he

 tried in  vain to dissuade his master from con¬

 cluding  a peace with Octavianus and Antony;

 and, at an entertainment given to them by Sex¬

 tus on board his ship at Misenum, Menas sug¬

 gested to him to cut the cables of the vessel,

 and, running it out to sea, dispatch both his

          500
 

rivals.  The treacherous proposal, however wa<

rejected by Pompey.  On the breaking out of

the war again in 38, Menas deserted Pompey

and went over to Octavianus.  In 36 he return

ed to his old master's service; but in the course

of the same year he again played the deserter,

and joined Octavianus.   In  35 he accompanied

Octavianus in the Pannonian.i campaign, and

was slain at the siege of Siscia!'  According te

the old scholiasts, this Menas is the person so

vehemently attacked by Horace in his fourth

epode.  This statement has been called in ques¬

tion by many modern commentators ; but their

arguments are far from satisfactory.

  Mende or Mend-e (Mevdn, Mevdaiog), a town

on the western coast of the  Macedonian penin¬

sula Pellene and on the Therrnaic  Gulf, was a

colony of the Eretrians, and was celebrated for

its wine.   It was for some time a place of con¬

siderable importance, but was  ruined  by tho

foundation  of Cassandrea.

  Mendes (MevSng :  Mevbr)mog: ruins near Ma-

tarieh), a considerable city of the Delta of Egypt,

on the southern side of the Lake of Tanis (now

Menzaleh),  and on the bank  of one of the lesser

arms of the Nile, named after it Mevbneswv arbpa •

the chief seat of the worship of Mendes.

  Meneoles  (MtveicXi/g).    1. Of Barce in Cy¬

rene, an historian of uncertain date.—2. Of Ala¬

banda, a celebrated rhetorician.  He  and his

brother Hierocles taught rhetoric  at  Rhodes,

where the orator M. Antonius heard them, about

B.C. 94.

   Meneorates (MeveKpdrng).  1. A Syracusan

physician at  the court of Philip, king of Mace

don, B.C. 359-336.   He  made  himself ridicu

lous by calling himself "Jupiter," and assuming

divine honors.  There  is a  tale that he was in¬

vited one day by Philip to a magnificent enter¬

tainment, where  the other  guests  were sump¬

tuously fed, while he himself had  nothing but

incense and libations,  as not being subject  tc

the human infirmity of hunger.  He was at first

pleased with his reception, but afterward per¬

ceiving the joke, and rinding that no more sub

 stantial food was offered him, he left the party

 in disgust. — 2.  Tibeeius Claudius Meneora¬

 tes, a physician mentioned by Galen, composed

 more than  one hundred and fifty medical works,

 of which only a few fragments remain.

   Menedemus (Msvsdnpog),  a Greek  philosopher.

 was a native of Eretria, and, though  of  noble

 birth,  was poor, and  worked for  a livelihood

 either as a builder or as a tent-maker.  Accord¬

 ing to one story, he seized the opportunity af¬

 forded by his being sent on some military serv¬

 ice to Megaea  to  hear  Plato, and abandoned

 the army to addict himself to philosophy ;  but

 it may be questioned whether he was old enough

 to have heard  Plato before the death of  the

 latter.  According  to another story, he and his

 friend Asclepiades got their  livelihood as millers,

 working during the night, that they might have

 leisure for philosophy in  the  day.  The two

 friends afterward became disciples of Stilpo at

 Megaia.   From Megara they went to Elis, and

 placed themselves under  the instruction  of

 some  disciples  of  Phaado.  On his return  to

 Eretria Menedemus established a school of rhi

 losophy, which  was called the Eretrian.  Ha

 did not, howeve -, confine himself to philosophi-
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