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

1040 MENES. MENESTHEUS.
by Celsus (De Medic. vi. 9, p. 129), is not the Anab. ii. 12, iii. 16; Diod. xvii. 64-; Curt. v.- I;
same person, and must have lived at least a century Freinsh. ad loc.) [E. E.]
earlier. [W. A. G.] MENESAECHMUS (MevYaatX/uos), an Athe.
MENE'NIA GENS, was a very ancient and nian, an inveterate enemy of the orator Lycurgus,
illustrious patrician house at Rome from B. C. 503 by whom he was impeached on a charge of impiety
to B. C. 376. Its only cognomen is Lanatus. [LA- and convicted. When Lycurgus felt his end
NATUS.] Cicero (ad Fam. xiii. 9) mentions a drawing near, he had himself brought into the
Menenian tribe, and Appian a Menenius who was council to give an account of his public conduct,
proscribed by the triumvirs in B. c. 43, and rescued and Menesaechmus was the only man who venfrom death by the self-devotion of one of his slaves. tured to find fault with it. He continued his hos(B. C. iv. 44.) [W. B. D.] tility to the sons of Lycurgus after their father's
MENEPHRON, an Arcadian, who is said to death, and so far succeeded in a prosecution against
have lived in incestuous intercourse with his them, that they were delivered into the custody of
mother Blias and his daughter Cyllene. (Ov. Met. the Eleven. They were released, however, on the
vii. 386; Hygin. Fab. 253, who calls him Me- remonstrance of Demosthenes. (Pseudo-Plut. Vit.
nophrus.) [L. S.] X. Orat. Lycurg.; Phot. Bibl. Cod. 268; Suid.
MENES (MvCns), a Thracian, from whom the s. vv. AvKo0por, 7rpo-lpoolat; Harpocr. s. vv.
town of Menebria or Mesembria was said to have'ApcK6ovpos, ~Aurlao-al.) [E. E.]
received its name. (Strab. vii. p. 319.) [L. S.] MENESAECHMUS. [MNESAECHMUS.]
MENES (Mfvrir). This is the most usual form MENESTHES, an architect, whose pseudoof the name, which, however, we also find written dipteral temple of Apollo is mentioned by Vitruvius
as Menas, Menis, Meinis, Men, Min, and Mein (iii. 2. ~ 6. ed. Schneid.). [P. S.]
(MvOas, Mlvis, Mervis, Miz,, M7,, MEi~). Menes MENESTHEUS (Meveoaevs), a son of Peteus,
was the first king of Egypt, according to the tra- an Athenian king, who led the Athenians against
ditions of the Egyptians themselves. Herodotus Troy, and surpassed all other mortals in arranging
records of him that he built Memphis on a piece of the war-steeds and men for battle (Hom. II. ii.
ground which he had rescued from the river by 552, &c., iv. 327; Philostr. Her. ii. 16; Paus. ii.
turning it from its former course, and erected 25. ~ 6). With the assistance of the Tyndarids,
therein a magnificent temple to Hephaestus he is said to have driven Theseus from his king(.Pthah). (Comp. Diod. i. 50; Wess. ad loc.) dom, and to have died at Troy (Plut. Thes. 32, 35;
Diodorus tells us that he introduced into Egypt the Paus. i. 17. ~ 6). A second personage of this
worship of the gods and the practice of sacrifices, name occurs in Virgil. (Aen. x. 129.) [L. S.]
as well as a more elegant and luxurious style of MENESTHEUS (Meveaers), son of Iphicrates,
living. As the author of this latter innovation, his the famous Athenian general, by the daughter of
memory was dishonoured many generations after- Cotys, king of Thrace. Hence he said that lie
wards by king Tnephachthus, the father of Boc- owed more to his mother than to his father; for
choris; and Plutarch mentions a pillar at Thebes that the latter, as far as in him lay, had made him
in Egypt, on which was inscribed an imprecation a Thracian; the former had made him an Atheagainst Menes, as the introducer of luxury. There nian. (Nep. Iph. 3; comp. Vol. II. p. 617, a.) He
is a legend also, preserved by Diodorus, which re- was born probably about B. C. 377 (see Rehdantz,
lates (in defiance of chronology, unless Mendes is Vit. Iphic. Chabr. Timoth. ii. ~ 4); and, as lie grew
to be substituted for Menas), that he was saved up, his great height and size caused him to be
from drowning in the lake of Moeris by a crocodile, thought older than he really was, so that he was
in gratitude for which he established the worship called on, while yet a boy, to undertake Aerrovpof the animal, and built a city near the lake called 7yiai, a demand which Iphicrates resisted. (Arist.
the City of Crocodiles, erecting there a pyramid to Rhet. ii. 23..~ 17.) He married the daughter of
serve as his own tomb. That he was a conqueror, Timotheus; and in B. C. 356 was chosen comlike other founders of kingdoms, we learn from an mander in the Social war, his father and his fatherextract from Manetho preserved by Eusebius. By in-law, according to C. Nepos, being appointed to
Marsham and others he has been identified with aid him with their counsel and experience. They
the Mizraim of Scripture. According to some ac- were all three impeached by their colleague,
counts he was killed by a hippopotamus. (Herod. CHARES, for alleged misconduct and treachery in
ii. 4, 99; Diod. i. 43, 45, 89; Wess. ad loc.; the campaign; but Iphicrates and Menestheus
Plut. De Is. et Osir. 8; Perizon. Orig. Aegypt. were acquitted in B. c. 355. (Nep. Tim. 3; Dion
c. 5; Shuckford's Connection, bk. iv.; Bunsen, Hal. Dem. p. 667; Rehdantz, Vit. Iphic. &c., vi.
Aegyptens Stelle in der Weltpescehicdle, vol. ii. pp. 38 ~ 7, vii. ~~ 5, 7; comp. Diod. xvi. 21; Wess. ad
-45.) [E. E.] loc.; Isocr. repl i drsi. ~ 137.) Menestheus was
MENES (MerY's), a citizen of Pella, son of distinguished for his military skill; and we find
Dionysius, was one of the officers of Alexander the him again appointed commander of a squadron of
Great; and after the battle of Issus (B. C. 333) 100 galleys, sent out, in B.C. 335, to check the
was admitted by the king into the number of his Macedonians, who had intercepted some Athenian
body-guards, in the room of Balacrus, who was ships on their voyage down from the Euxine. We
promoted to the satrapy of Cilicia. In B. C. 331, do not know the exact period of his death, but it
after Alexander had occupied Susa, he sent Menes took place before B.c. 325. (Plut. Phoc. 7;
down to the Mediterranean to take the govern- Pseudo-Dem., wrepl rwv irpas'AXes. avO. p. 217,
ment of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, entrusting Epist. iii. p. 1482; Rehdantz, Vit. Ip~hic. &c., vii.
him at the same time with 3000 talents, a portion ~ 8.) [IPHICRATRS.] [E. E.]
of which he was to transmit to Antipater for his MENESTHEUS, a sculptor whose name has
war with the Lacedaemonians and the other con- been preserved by a fragment of a statue, bearfederate.states of'Greece. Apollodorus of Amphi- ing MENECOETC MENECOECOC A4,POAICIETC
polis was joined with him in this command. (Arr. EIIOIEI,. (Gruter, p. 1021, 2.) [P. S.]