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

1008 MEGASTHENES. MEGOELLUS.
pomenes, Apollo, or Aegeus. (Apollod. iii. IS. ~ 8; paid several visits to India, but since neither MePans. i. 39. ~ 5; Ov. Met. x. 605; Hygin. Fab. gasthenes himself, nor any other writer. alludes to
157; Steph. Byz. s. v. Me'yapa.) He was a brother more than one visit, these words may simply mean
of Abrote, the wife of Nisus, and the father of that he had'several interviews with Sandracottus
Euippus, Timalcus, and Euaechme, to whom Ovid during'his residence in the country.
adds a fourth, Hippomenes. (Paus. i. 41. ~ 4; The work of Megasthenes was entitled ry'IvPlut. Quaest. Graec. 16.) According to a Boeotian 8rKd, and was probably divided into four books
tradition, Megareus with his army went to the as- (Athen. iv. p. 153, e.; Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p.
sistance of Nisus, king of Megara, against Minos; 305; Strab. xv. p. 687; Joseph. c. Apion. i. 20,
but he fell in battle, and was buried at Megara, Ant. x. 11. ~ 1). It appears to have been written
which was called after him, for its previous name in the Attic dialect, and not in the Ionic, as some
had been Nisa. (Apollod. I. c.; Paus. i. 39. ~ 5, modern writers have asserted; for in the passage
42. ~ 1.) According to a Megarian tradition, of Eusebius (Praep. Ev. ix. 41), which has been
which discarded the account of an expedition of quoted to prove that Megasthenes employed the
Minos against Megara, Megareus was the husband Ionic dialect, the quotation from Megasthenes conof Iphino6, the daughter of Nisus, and succeeded cludes with the word ac'otrocioal, and the remainhis father-in-law in the government of Megara, ing words are an extract from Abydenus (comp.
which he left to Alcathous, because his own two Clinton, Fast. Hell. vol. iii. p. 483, note b.). Mesons had died before him. (Paus. i. 39. ~ 5; comp. gasthenes is repeatedly referred to by Arrian,
ALCATHOUS.) [L. S.] Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny. Of these writers
MEGARUS (MWyapos), a son of Zeus, by a Arrian, on whose judgment most reliance is to be
Sithnian or Megarian nymph. In the Deucalionian placed, speaks most highly of Megasthenes (Arrian,
flood he is said to have escaped to the summit of Anab. v. 5, Ind; 7), but Strabo (ii. p. 70) and
Mount Gerania, by following the cries of cranes. Pliny (1. c.) treat him with less respect. Although
(Paus. i. 40. ~ 1.) [L. S.] his work contained many fabulous stories, similar
MEGAISTHENES (Me-yaarO'7vs). 1. A Greek to those which we find in the Indica of Ctesias,
writer, to whom the subsequent Greek writers yet these tales appear not to have been fabrications
were chiefly indebted for their accounts of India. of Megasthenes, but accounts which he received
Megasthenes was a friend and companion of Seleu- from the natives, frequently containing, as modern
cus Nicator (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 305, d), and writers have shown, real truth, though disguised
was sent by-that monarch as ambassador to San- by popular legends and fancy. There is every
dracottus,king of the Prasii, whose capital was Pali- reason for believing that Megasthenes gave a faithbothra, a town, probably, near the confluence of ful account of every thing that fell under his own
the Ganges and Sone in the neighbourhood of the observation; and the picture which he presents of
modern Patna.' (Strab. ii. p. 70, xv. p. 702; Indian manners and institutions is upon the whole
Arrian,Anab. v.6, Ind.5; Plin. H.N. vi. 17. s. 21.) more correct than might have been expected.
We know nothing more respecting the personal Every thing that is known respecting Megasthenes
history of Megasthenes, except the statement of and his work, is collected with great diligence by
Arrian (Anab. 1. c.), that he lived with Sibyrtius, Schwanbeck, in a treatise entitled "Megasthenis
the satrap of Arachosia, who obtained the satrapies Indica. Fragmenta collegit, commentationem et
of Arachosia and. Gedrosia, in B. C. 323. (Diod. indices addidit E. A. Schwanbeck, Bonnae, 1846."
xviii. 3.)_ Whether Megasthenes accompanied 2. Of Chalcis in Euboea, was, along with HipAlexander or not in his invasion of India, is quite pocles, the founder of Cumae in Italy. (Strab. v.
uncertain. The time at which he was sent to San- p. 243; Vell. Pat. i. 4.)
dracottus, and the reason for which he was sent, MEGELLUS, a family-name of the Postumia
are also equally uncertain. Clinton (Fasti Hell. Gens at Rome.
vol. iii. p. 482, note z) places the embassy a little 1. L. PosTvUlUS L. F. SP. N. MEGELLUS, who
before B. C. 302, since it was about this time that as curule aedile built, and in his second consulship
Seleucus concluded an alliance with Sandracottus; dedicated, a temple to Victory with the produce of
but it is no where stated that it was through the the fines levied by him for encroachments on the
means of Megasthenes that the alliance was con- demesne-land. The year of his aedileship is ur.cluded; and as the latter resided some time at the known.' Megellus was consul for the first time in
court of Sandracottus, he may have been sent into B. C. 305, according to the Fasti, although some of
India at a subsequent period. Since, however, the annalists placed this consulate two years earlier.
Sandracottus.died in B. C. 288, the mission It was towards the close of the second Samnite
of Megasthenes must be placed previous to war, and Megellus, after defeating the Samnites in
that year. We have more certain information the field, took Bovianum, one of their principal
respecting the parts of India which Megasthenes fortresses on the north side of the Matese. On
visited. He entered the country through the dis- their march' homeward Megellus and his colleague
trict of the Pentapotamia, of the rivers of which Minucius recovered Sora and Arpinum in the
he gave a full'account (Arrian, Ind. cc. 4, 8, &c.), valley of the Liris, and Cerennia or Censennia
and proceeded thence. by the royal road to Pali- (Liv. ix. 44; Diod, xx. 90), whose site is unbothra, but appears not to have visited any other known. For this'campaign Livy ascribes a triumphparts of India. (Comp. Strab. xv. p. 689.) Most to Megellus, which the Fasti do not confirm. Memodern writers, from' the time of Robertson, have gellus was propraetor in B. C. 295, when Rome was
supposed, from a passage of Arrian (iro:Atris Be awaiting a combined invasion of the Gauls and
Axyet (Meyao'Pfvs) adfCer'tl0at rapa cabvSpao'-Tov, Samnites, the Etruscans and Umbrians. Megellus'ro,'I1VSY GaolAfda, A nab. v. 6), that Megasthenes was stationed in the Vatican district, on the right
bank of the Tiber, to cover the approaches to the
* Sandracottus is'called Chandragupta in the city. He probably remained there till after the
Sanscrit writers and his capital Pt'aliputra. great' battle at Sentinum, when he was recalled by