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

1026 MEMMIUS. MEMMIUS.
and his relative Peleia in marriage. The fruit of
this marriage was a son, who was likewise called
Melus, and whom he caused to be brought up in ~A C
the sanctuary of Venus. On the death of Adonis,
the elder Melus hung himself from grief, and his C
wife followed his example. Aphrodite then metamorphosed Melus into an apple (piAov), and his
wife into a dove (lre'Aea). The younger Melus
was ordered by the goddess to return with a colony
to Delos, ~where he founded the town of Delos.
There the sheep were called from him puAa, be- 3. T. MEMMIUS, was sent by the senate in B. C.
cause he first taught the inhabitants to shear them, 170 as its commissioner to hear the complaints of
and make cloth out of their wool. (Serv. ad Virg. the provincials in Achaia and Macedonia against
Eclog. viii. 37.) the Roman magistrates in those districts. (Liv.
3. A son of the river-god Scamander. (Ptolem. xliii. 5.)
Heph. ap. Phot. Bibl. 152.) [L. S.] 4. Q. MEMMIUS, was legatus from the senate to
MEMBLIARUS (Me/~ftapos), a son of Poe- the Jewish nation about B. C. 163-2. (Maccab.
cilus, a Phoenician, and a relation of Cadmus. ii. 11.)
Cadmus left him at the head of a colony in the 5. C. MEMMIUS, tribune of the plebs in B. C.
island of Thera or Calliste. (Herod. iv. 147; 111, was an ardent opponent of the oligarchical
Paus. iii. 1. ~ 7.) [L. S.] party at Rome during the Jugurthine war. His
ME'MMIA, SULPI'CIA, one of the three exposure of its venality, incompetence, and traffic
wives of Alexander Severus. Her father was a with Jugurtha first opened the command of the
man of consular rank; her grandfather's name was legions to the incorruptible Metellus Numidicus,
Catulus. (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. c. 20.) [W. R.] and finally to the low-born but able C. Marius, and
ME'MMIA GENS, a plebeian house at Rome, thus laid the foundation of ultimate victory and
whose members do not occur in history before B.. Ctriumph. (Sall. Jug. 27, 30-34.) Among the
173. But from the epoch of the Jugurthine war, nobles impeached by Memmius were L. CalB C. 111, they held frequent tribunates of the purnius Bestia [BESTIA, No. 1], and M.
plebs; and in the age of Augustus they must Aemilius Scaurus. (Cic. de Orat. ii. 70, pro Font.
have been a conspicuous branch of the later Roman 7.) Memmius was slain with bludgeons by the
nobility, since Virgil derives the Memmii from the mob of Saturninus and Glaucia, while a candidate
Trojan Mnestheus (Aen. v. 117; comp. Tac. Ann. for the consulship in B. C. 100. (Cic. in Cat. iv. 2;
xiv. 47). The Memmia Gens bore the cognomens Appian, B. C. i. 32; Liv. Epit. 69; Flor. iii. 16.)
Gallus, Gemellus, Pollio, Quirinus, Regulus: all Sallust (Jug. 31 ) gives a speech of Memmius which,
the members of the gens are given under MEM- however, is rather a dramatic than an authentic
MIUS. [W. B. D.] version of the original, and he had a higher opinion
ME'MMIUS. 1. C. ME3IMIUS C. -F. QUIRI- of the tribune's eloquence than Cicero (Brut. 36)
NUS, was the aedile who first exhibited the Cerealia altogether sanctions. In the "Life of Terence"
at Rome, as we learn from the annexed coin; but (3), ascribed to Suetonius, is preserved a fragment
the name does not occur in any ancient writer. of Memmius's speech "de Se,"-the defence, proThe obverse has c. MEMMI. C. F. QVIRINVS, with bably, at which the judices rejected the evidence
a head which may be that of Quirinus: the of Memmius's enemy M. Aemilius Scaurus (Cic.
reverse has MEMMIVS. AED. CEREALIA. PREIMVS. pro Font. 7), and there is another doubtful fragFECIT, and represents Ceres sitting; a serpent ment in Priscian (viii. 4). (Compare Ellendt,
at her feet; in her right hand, three ears of corn; Proleg. in Cic. Brut. lxi.; Meyer, Fragm. Rom.
in her left, a distaff. The date of the introduc- Orat. p. 138.) From some forensic witticisms
tion of the Cerealia at Rome (Dionys. vii. 72; of L. Licinius Crassus [CRAssUS, No. 23], it
Liv. xxii. 56; Ovid. Fast. iv. 397), and conse- would appear that Memmius had the by-name
quently of the aedileship of Memmius Quirinus, of " Mordax." (Cic. de Orat. ii. 59. ~ 240, 66.
is unknown, though it must have been previous ~ 267; Quint. Inst. vi. 3. ~ 67.)
to B. C. 216; (Liv. 1. c.) 6. L. MEMMIus, was an orator of some eminence during the war of Sulla with the Marian
party, B. C. 87-81. (Cic. Brut. 36, 70,89.) From
Cicero (pro Seat. Rose. 32) it would appear that
8 8%1"'M0~ Memmius was a supporter of C. Marius.
7. C. MEMMIUS, brother, probably, of the pre-,2 ~ ceding (Cic.'Brut.' 36), married a sister of Cn.
Pompey. He was Pompey's propraetor in Sicily,'~-' -P Eo~ and his quaestor in Spain, during the Sertorian
war, B. C. 76, and was slain in battle with Sertorius near Saguntum.' (Cic. pro Balb. 2; Plut.
COIN OF C. MEMMIUS QUIRINUS. Pomp. 11, Sert. 21;, Oros. v. 23.)
8. C. MEMMiS mL. F. GEMELLUS, son of No.
2. C. MEMMIUS GALLUS, was praetor for the 6, was tribune of the plebs in B. c. 66, when he
second time in B. C. 173. Sicily was his province, opposed the demand of L. Lucullus for a triumph,
and he remained in it as propraetor during the on his return from the Mithridatic war. (Plut.
next year. (Liv. xlii. 9, 10, 27.) The annexed Lucull. 37.) Memmius was a man of profligate
coin of the Memmia gens, which bears on the re- character. He wrote indecent poems (Plin. Ep.
verse L. MEMMI,. GAL., may have been struck by v. 3; Ovid. Trist. ii. 433; Gell. xix. 9), made
some relation of C.;Memmius Gallus. overtures to Cn. Pompey's wife (Suet. Ill, Gr. 14),