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

MEMPHIS. MENALCIDAS. 1029
towns without difficulty, but was delayed for a MEN (Mw',), or translated into Latin, Lunus,
considerable time in the reduction of Mytilene. the god presiding over the months, was a Phrygian
At this place he was taken ill and died, B.C. 333. divinity. (Strab. xii. pp. 557, 577; Procl. in Plat.
His death was an irreparable loss to the Persian Tim. iv. 251; Spartian. Carac. 7.) [L. S.]
cause; for several Greek states, and in particular MENAECHMUS and SOIDAS (Meva4aX/go
the Spartans, hearing of his success and intentions, ial otBas), were the makers of the gold and ivory
were prepared to join him, had he carried the war statue of the Laphrian Artemis, which Pausanias
into Greece. According to Polyaenus (v. 44. ~ 1) saw in the temple of that goddess in the citadel of
he was some time or other engaged in hostilities Patrae in Achaia, whither it had been removed
with Leucon, king of Bosporus, who died B.C. 353. from Calydon by Augustus. The goddess was
(Arrian, i. 12, 20-23, ii. 1; Diod. xvi. 34, 52, represented in the attitude of the chase. The
xvii. 7, 18, 23, 24, 29, 31; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. artists were natives of Naupactus, and were supp. 284.) posed to have lived not much later than Canachus
2. Governor of Thrace, who, while Alexander of Sicyon and Callon of Aegina. (Paus. vii. 18.
was absent in the East, seized the opportunity ~ 6. s. 10, 11.) If so, they must have flourished
afforded by the disaster of Zopyrion, and revolted. about B.C. 500. [CALLON, CANACHUS.] Pliny
The outbreak, however, was speedily suppressed by quotes among the authorities for his 33d and 34th
Antipater, B. C. 330. (Diod. xvii. 62.) books, Menaechmus, a writer on the toreutic art,
3. One of the demiurgi of the Achaeans, at the under which designation the chryselephantine
time of the Roman embassy to the League. (Liv. statues were included. (Plin. H. N. Elench.
xxxii. 22.) [C. P. M.] xxxiii. xxxiv.) He also mentions (xxxiv. 8. s. 19.
MEMNON (MWSvwv), a Greek historical writer, ~ 18) a group by Menaechmus, of a calf pressed
a native probably of Heracleia Pontica. He wrote a down by the knee, and with the neck doubled
large work on the history of that city, especially of back (no doubt by some one about to sacrifice it,
the tyrants under whose power Heracleia had at but this Pliny omits); and he adds that Mevarious times fallen. Our knowledge of this work naechmus wrote upon his art. He does not exis derived from Photius. Of how many books it pressly say what this art was, but of course we
consisted we do not know. Photius had read must consider this Menaechmus as the same person
from the ninth to the sixteenth inclusive, of which whom Pliny quotes as one of the authorities for
portion he has made a tolerably copious abstract. this book of his work; and then again, since the
The first eight books he had not read, and he subject on which he wrote was toreutice, it would
speaks of other books after the sixteenth. The follow, in the absence of evidence to the contrary,
ninth book begins with an account of the tyrant that he was the same person as the artist mentioned
Clearchus, the disciple of Plato and Isocrates. The by Pausanias.
last event mentioned in the sixteenth book was the Harduin (Index Auct.) and Thiersch (Epochen,
death of Brithagoras, who was sent by the Hera- p. 202) are therefore almost certainly wrong in
cleians as ambassador to J. Caesar, after the latter identifying Pliny's Menaechmus with the Mehad obtained the supreme power. From this naechmus or Manaechmus of Sicyon, who wrote a
Vossius supposes that the work was written about work repl'TeXvLrwv (which means here actors,
the time of Augustus; in the judgment of Orelli, not artists, as Harduin and the rest evidently
not later than the time of Hadrian or the An- thought: see Meineke, Hist. CGrit. Com. Graec.
tonines. It is, of course, impossible to fix the date p. 17), and also a history of Alexander the Great,
with any precision, as we do not know at all down and a book on Sicyon, and whom Suidas states to
to what time the entire work was carried. The have flourished in the time of the successors of
style of Memnon, according to Photius, was clear Alexander. (Suid. s. v.; Athen. ii. p. 65, a, vi. p.
and simple, and the words well chosen. The 271 d, xiv. p. 635 b, p. 637 f.; Schol. ad Pind.
Excerpta of Photius, however, contain numerous Nen. ii. 1, ix. 30; Vossius, de Hist. Graeo. p. 102,
examples of rare and poetical expressions, as well ed. Westermann.) [P. S.]
as a few which indicate the decline of the Greek MENA'LCIDAS (MevAkicfbas), a Lacedaemolanguage. These Excerpta of Photius were first nian adventurer, who, in some way not further
published separately, together with the remains of specified by Polybius, took advantage of the cirOtesias and Agatharchides by H. Stephanus, Paris, cumstances of Egypt, in its war with Antiochus
1557. The best edition is that by J. Conr. Epiphanes (B. C. 171-168), to advance his own
Orelli, Leipzig, 1816, containing, together with interests at the Ptolemies' expence. He was
the remains of Memnon, a few fragments of other thrown into prison by Philometor and Physcon,
writers on Heracleia. There is a French trans- but was released by them in B. C. 168, at the relation of Photius's Excerpta in the Mgmoires de quest of C. Popillius Laenas, the Roman ambasl'Academie desInscriptions, vol. xiv. (Phot. Cod. sador, who was sent to command Antiochus to
ccxxiv.; Voss. De Hist. Graecis, ed. Wester- withdraw from the country. (Polyb. xxx. 11;
mann, p. 226; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 748; comp. Liv. xlv. 12, 13; Just. xxxiv. 2, 3; Val.
Groddeck, Initia Historiae Graecorumn Literariae, Max. vi. 4. ~ 3.) In B. C. 150 we find Menalii. p. 74.) [C. P. M.] cidas, as general of the Achaean league, engaging
MEMPHIS (Muptrs). 1. A daughter of Neilus for a bribe of ten talents to induce the Achaeans
and wife of Epaphus, by whom she became the to aid Oropus against Athens. By the promise of
mother of Libya. The town of Memphis in half the sum, he won Callicrates to the same cause,
Egypt was said to have derived its name from her. and they succeeded in carrying a decree for the
(Apollod. ii. 1. ~ 4.) Others call her a daughter succour required. No effectual service, however,
of the river-god Uchoreus, and add that by Neilus was rendered to the Oropians, but Menalcidas still
she became the mother of Aegyptus. (Diod. i. 51.) exacted the money he had agreed for, and then
2. One of the daughters of Danaus (Apollod. evaded the payment of his portion to Callicrates.
ii. 1. ~ 5.) [L. S.] The latter accordingly retaliated on him with a
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