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

MEGELLIU S. MEGISTIAS. 1009
the senate and his legions disbanded. In B. C. took after six arduous months of blockade, em294, Megellus was consul for the second time. Ill ployed them during their whole period of office,
health detained him awhile at Rome, but a victory Megellus was censor in B. C. 253, the year of his
of the Samnites obliged him to take the field, and death. (Fasti; Polyb. i. 17-20; Zonar. viii.
he signalised himself by taking in Samnium Milio- 10; Diod. Fr. Hoeschel. xxiii. 5; Oros. iv. 7;
nia and Ferentinum, and Rusellae in Etruria, and Liv. Epit. xvi.) [W. B. D.]
by ravaging both territories. The accounts of both MEGES (Meyvs), a son of Phyleus by Euthese consulates of Megellus are very obscure and styoche, Ctimene, or Timandra, and a grandson of
contradictory-some assign to him different fields Augeas. He is mentioned among the suitors of
of action, and defeats instead of victories. It is, Helen, and in forty ships he led his bands from
however, probable that some illegal or contemptuous Dulichium and the Echinades against Troy. (Hom.
conduct in his second consulship-for the temper I. ii. 625, &c., v. 69, xiii. 692, xv. 520, &c., xix. 269;
of Megellus was obstinate and arbitrary in the Eustath. ad tIom. p. 303; Paus. x. 25. ~ 2; Strab.
extreme, and the Postumian gens notorious for its x. pp. 456, 459.) Polygnotus had painted him in
patrician pride-brought upon Megellus, at the ex- the Lesche at Delphi as a wounded man. Accordpiration of his office, an impeachment by M. Scan- ing to Dictys Cretensis (iii. 10) he was killed in.
tius, tribune of the plebs, from which his services the Trojan war. [L. S.]
as the lieutenant of Sp. Carvilius in the campaign MEGES (Meyas), an eminent surgeon, born at
with Samnium, in B. c. 293, and the popularity of Sidon in Phoenicia (Galen, De lieth/. Med. vi. 6,
his general, rescued him. The third consulship of vol. x. p. 454), who practised at Rome with great
Megellus (B. c. 291) is better known: his impe- reputation and success, shortly before the time of
rious, perhaps his insane, extravagances made it Celsus, and therefore probably in the first century
remarkable. At the close of B. c. 292, Megellus B.C. (Cels. De Iledic. vii. praef.) He wrote
was appointed interrex to hold the consular comitia. some works which are highly praised and several
He followed the example of Appius Claudius Caecus times quoted by Celsus, but of which nothing rein B. c. 297 (Liv. xxvii. 6), and nominated himself. mains. He is, perhaps, the same person who is'His administration was answerable to his assump- quoted by Pliny (H. N. xxxii. 24), Galen (De
tion of office. He refused to wait for the usual allot- Compos. Medicame. sec. Locos, iii. 3, v. 3, vol. xii..
ment of the consular provinces, and took Samnium pp. 684, 845), and Scribonius Largus (De Compos.
for himself. He employed his legionaries, not in Medicacr. c. 70. ~ 202, p. 227). A Greek fragquenching the embers of an expiring war, but in ment by Meges is preserved by Oribasius (Coll.
levelling the woods on his own demesne. He vio- MIedic. xliv. 14), and was first published by Carlently, and in defiance of a deputation from the dinal Mai in his collection entitled " Classici Aucsenate, expelled the proconsul Q. Fabius Gurges tores e Codicibus Vaticanis editi," vol. iv. p. 27,
from-his command at Cominium, and undertook the Rome, 8vo. 1831, and is also to be found in Dr.
siege. Therehismilitary talents once more displayed Bussemaker's edition of the forty-fourth book of
themselves; he took Cominium and several other Oribasius, p. 72, Groning. 1835, 8vo. [W. A. G.]
places, and acquired the important post of Venusia,' MEGILLUS or MEGELLUS (Me'syiAos,
where he recommended the senate to establish a MeyeAAeos), a man of Eleia, in Lucania, was one of
numerous colony. His counsel was followed (Vell. those who, under the auspices of Timoleon, recoloi. 14), but the name of Megellus was carefully ex- nised Agrigentum, and gathered together the remnant
eluded from the list of commissioners for establish- of its citizens, about B. C. 338. (Plut. Timol. 35;
ing it. In revenge he divided among his soldiers Diod. xvi. 82, 83.) This was the first attempt to
the whole of the booty he had taken without restore the city. after its desolation by the Carthamaking any reserve for the treasury, and he dis- ginians in B. c. 406. (Diod. xiii. 81,&c.) [E. E.]
banded his soldiers without awaiting the arrival of MEGILLUS (MyLAAos), a Lacedaemonian,
his successor. The senate refused him a triumph. was one of the three commissioners for ratifying
Megellus appealed to the people who faintly sup- the short and hollow truce with Tissaphernes on
ported him, and, although only three tribunes fa- behalf of Agesilaus, who had just crossed over to
voured while seven opposed his claim, he triumphed Asia, B. c. 396. (Xen. Hell. iii. 4. ~ 6.) The more
in despite of the senate. For his many delinquencies common readings in Xenophon are Megialius and
Megellus, as soon as he went out of office, was Megialus. One of the interlocutors in the "Laws"'
prosecuted by two of the tribunes and condemned of Plato is Megillus, a Lacedaemonian. [E. E.]
by all the'three-and-thirty tribes. He was fined MEGILLUS (MeyLAAos), a writer on ariththe sum of 500,000 asses, the heaviest mulct to metic, mentionedin the Qeoko-yoo6eva'ApLOjq7?L1js,
which any Roman had been hitherto sentenced. p. 28. (Fabric. Bibl. Grasc. vol. i. p. 852, vol. v.
(Comp. Plut. Camill. 39.) According to the Fasti, p. 649.) [C. P. M.]
indeed, Megellus triumphed in his second consul- MEGI'STIAS (Meyarteas), a celebrated soothship-March 24th, B. c. 294, "De Samnitibus et sayer, a native of Acarnania, who traced his deEtrusceis" and Livy refers his dispute with scent up to Melampus.:He was present at the
the senate to this period. (Liv. ix. 44, x. 26, battle of Thermopylae; and though he foresaw by
27, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 47, id. Epit. xi; Dionys. his art the fatal issue of the conflict, refused to
xvi. 15-18; Frontin. Strat. i. 8, ~.3.) quit his post, though requested to withdraw by
2. L. PosTuMIus L. F. L. N. MEGELLUS, son Leonidas. He sent away his only son, but himof the preceding, was praetor, according to the self remained and was killed. A separate monuFasti, but in what year is unknown. His father's ment was erected to his memory with an inscription
unpopularity' and disgrace had no effect on the for- by his friend Simonides, which is quoted by Herotunes of the younger Megellus. He was consul in dotus. (Herod. vii. 219, 221, 228.) Plutarch
B. C. 262, the third year of the second Punic war. (Apophth.'Lacon. vol. ii. p. 221, c.) gives the name
Sicily was assigned to both Megellus and his col- Themisteas to the soothsayer whom Leonidas
league, and the siege of Agrigentum, which they wished to send away. [C. P. M.]
YOL. IL 3T