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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