A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1006 MEGABAZUS. MEGACLEIDES.
cys and Ceto, and one of the Gorgons. [GOR- xii. 3.) [CIMON.] Wrhen the Athenians' made
GONES, PERSEUS.] their expedition against Egypt, Megabyzus was
2. A daughter of Sthenelus and Nicippe, and a sent against them with a large army; and having
sister of Eurystheus. (Apollod. ii. 4. ~ 5.) driven. them out of Memphis, he shut them up in
3. A daughter of Priam. (Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 5; the island of Prosopitis, which he at last took,
Paus. x. 26. ~ 1.) [L. S.] after a siege of eighteen months, B. c. 457. (Herod.
MEGABA/TES (MefyardTsS.) 1. A Persian of iii. 160; Thuc. i. 109; Diod. xi. 74. ~ 6.)
the royal family of the Achaemenidae, cousin of Ctesias informs us that he was the son-in-law of
Dareius and of Artaphernes, was appointed by the Xerxes, having married his daughter Amytis;
latter to the command, of the expedition sent to and he ascribes to Megabyzus the service which
assist Aristagoras in the reduction of Naxos; but, Herodotus attributes to Zopyrus, namely, the
in consequence of a quarrel with Aristagoras, Me- taking of Babylon, after its revolt from Xerxes.
gabates betrayed the object of the expedition to the (Pers. 22; Diod. x. 17. ~ 2; comp. Herod. iiL
Naxians, who, thus forewarned, defended them- 153.) Several other incidents of his life are reselves successfully. (Herod. v. 32-34.) Accord- lated by Ctesias. (Pers. 27, 30, 33-40.) Two
ing to Herodotus, Pausanias designed to marry the sons of his are mentioned, Zopyrus and Artyphius.
daughter of Megabates; but the letter of Pausanias (Ctes. 37; Herod. iii. 160.) He is always called
to Xerxes, as given by Thucydides (i. 128), con- Me'ydcGCos, except in a quotation from Ctesias by
tains an offer to marry the daughter of the king Stephanus (s. v. Kvpra7a), who gives the name in
himself, the form MEy~aCaos: but even in this passage
2. in the narrative just quoted Thucydides Westermann has printed it Meydeuvos.
mentions Megabates, governor of Dascylitis, who 3. Megabazus, the son of Megabates, one of the
is perhaps the same person (c. 129). commanders of the fleet of Xerxes. (Herod. vii.
3. See MEGABAZUS, No. 5. [P. S.] 97.) Diodorus calls him Megabates (xi. 12, 13).
MEGABA'ZUS (MeydeaCos), and MEGA- Perhaps he was the same person as
BY'ZUS (Meydev&os), are Persian names, which 4. Megabazus, a Persian, who, at the time
are so intermixed by Herodotus, Ctesias, and other of the revolt of Inarus and the Athenian expediwriters, as to make it nearly certain that they are tion to Egypt, was sent by Artaxerxes to Laceonly different forms of the same name. Thucy- daemon, to bribe the Peloponnesians to invade Atdides, however, applies the names respectively to tica; but his mission altogether failed. (Thuc. i.
two different persons (i. 109); but this is not a 109.)
certain proof that the names were really different. 5. The son of Spithridates, was beloved by
For a further discussion of the two forms, see Agesilaus. (Xen. HIell. i. 4. ~ 28, Ages. 5; Plut.
Duker and Poppo, ad Thucyd. 1. c.; Hemsterh. ad Ages.. 1l, Apopthl. Lacon. p. 787; in which pasLucian. Tim. 22; Perizon. ad Aelian. V. H. ii. 2; sages the name varies between MEydeaaos, Meya'Dorvill. ad Charit. p. 472 (pp. 446, 447, orig. ed.) ~vios, MeyacdTrrls, and Meyae5rW77s.)
Aeschylus (Pers. 22) gives the form Meyancidis, 6. The priest or keeper (vec6Kopoe) of the temple
and Xenophon confounds MeydCaSos and MEya- of Artemis at Ephesus. (Xen. Anab. v. 3. ~~ 6,
dTrIs. [See below, No. 5.] 7.) It appears from Strabo (xiv. p. 641) that the
1. One of the seven Persian nobles who formed Megabyzi, or, as he calls them, the Megalobyzi,
the conspiracy against the Magian Smerdis, B. c. were eunuch priests in the temple of Artemis.
521. In the discussion put into the mouths of the Another of these priests is mentioned by Appian
conspirators by Herodotus, after the death of the (B. C. v. 9) as having incurred the anger of CleoMagian, Megabazus recommends an oligarchical patra. [P. S.]
form of government. (Herod. iii. 70, 81.) Da- MEGABERNES (Me-yaepvr7s), a grandson of
reius, who held him in the highest esteem, left him Astyages, according to the account of Ctesias.
behind with an army in Europe, when he himself (Pers. 2, 8.) [P. S.]
recrossed the Hellespont, on his return from Scyv- MEGABOCCHUS, C. is mentioned by Cicero
thia, B. C. 506. (Id. iv. 143, 144.) Megabazus in his oration forScaurus(c. 2. ~ 40) as condemned
subdued Perinthus and: the other cities on the along with T. Albucius on account of his crimes in
Hellespont and along the coast of Thrace, which the government of Sardinia. He is, perhaps, the
had not yet submitted to the Persian rule, and same as the Megabacchus who perished along with
removed the Paeonians, who dwelt about the Crassus in the expedition against the Parthians
Strymon, into Phrygia. (Id. v. 1-16, comp. 98.) (Plut. Crass. 25). The Magabocchus spoken of
He also sent to Amyntas, the king of Macedonia, by Cicero, in one of his letters (ad Att. ii. 7.. ~ 3),
and demanded earth and water, in token of his is supposed by Manutius and others to be a nicksubmission to Dareius. [For what followed see name given to Pompey on account of his victories
ALEXANDER 1. Vol. I. p. 1.18.] On his return to in the war between Sulla and the Marian party,
Sardis he advised Dareius to recall Histiaeus from and this supposition is also maintained by DruMyrcinus. [HIsTIAEus.] Herodotus mentions a mann (Gesch. Rons, vol. vi. p. 44). But as there
celebrated saying of his in praise of the situation of was evidently a Roman at that time. of the name
Byzantium (iv. 144). He was the father of Zo- of Megabocchus, and Cicero in the letter referred
pyrus. (Id. iii. 153.) Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 6. to speaks of "Megabocchus'et haec sanguinaria
~ 7) mentions a Megabyzus who was appointed by juventus," the opinion of Gronovius appears the
Cyrus as satrap of Arabia. more probable, that this Megabocchus was one of
2. Megabyzus, the son of Zopyrus, and grand- the reputed conspirators of Catiline; and he may,
son of the. above, was one of the commanders of therefore, have been the same as the one mentioned
the land forces in the expedition of Xerxes against in the oration for Scaurus, and by Plutarch.
Greece, B.C. 480. (Herod. vii. 82.) Megabyzus MEGABY'ZUS. [MEGABAZUS.]
was the commander of the army which Cimon de- MEGACLEIDES ( MeyaicXe5qs). 1. A Greek
feated on the Eurymedon, in B.C. 466. (Diod. writer, from whom Athenaeus has quoted some