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

MtT RENA. MURENA. 1121
the foot of the Aventine. (Plin. H. At. xv. 36; attained the rank of praetor, and wais a contemServ. ad Aen. i. 724; Plut. Quaest. Romn. 20.) porary of the orator L. Crassus. He was the first
Some of the ecclesiastical writers preferred the de- of the family who had the cognomen Murena.
rivation from murcus, i. e. stupid or awkward. 3. P. LICINIUS MURENA, the son of the pre(August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 16; Arnob. adv. Gent. ceding, was a man of moderate talent, but he paid
iv. 9.) Others again derived the name from the great attention to the study of antiquity, and was
Syracusan word vcvKpor, tender. (Salinas. ad Solin. a man of some literary knowledge. (Cic. Braut.
p. 637.) [L. S.] 54.) He lost his life in the wars of Marius and
MURCUS, L. STA'TIUS, was Caesar's legatus Sulla (B. C. 82); for his death is mentioned by
in B. C. 48, and one of three commissioners ap- Cicero as taking place at the same time with
pointed by him to treat with the Pompeians at the murder of Q. Mucius Scaevola, the jurist and
Oricum (Caes. B. C. iii. 15). Murcus was one of Pontifex Maximus, or shortly after; and Cicero
the praetors in B. C. 45-44, and went into Syria seems to mean that he died a violent death; and
after his year of office expired, with the title of if so, he must have perished by the hands of the
proconsul, and as successor to Sextus Caesar, slain Marian faction, though there is no direct authority
by his own soldiers in Apameia, at the instigation for that statement, which is made by Drumann.
of Caecilius Bassus [CAESAR, No. 24; BAssus]. (Cic. Brut. 90; Drumann, Geschliche Roms, vol. iv.
With the aid of Marcius Crispus, proconsul of p. 184.)
Bithynia [CrsPus], Murcus besieged Bassus in 4. L. LICINIUS MURENA, the brother of the
Apameia, and compelled him to surrender. But on preceding, was praetor probably before he served
the arrival of C. Cassius Longinus [LoNGINuS, under Sulla in Greece. He was in the battle of
No. 11], Murcus and Crispus both surrendered Chaeroneia, B. C. 86, in which Sulla defeated
their legions to him. Henceforward Murcus was Archelaus, the general of Mithridates. Murena
an active supporter of the senatorian or Pompeian had the command of the left wing, and was opparty. Cassius appointed him prefect of the fleet. posed to Taxiles. (Plut. Sulla, 17, &c.) Murena
He defeated Dolabella. [DOLABELLA] and the accompanied Sulla into the Troad, where peace
Rhodians off the coast of Cilicia, and blockaded was made with Mithridates (B.C. 84),and Murena
Laodiceia. Murcus was next stationed off the was left as propraetor in Asia, with the command
coast of Peloponnesus, and subsequently in the of the two legions of Fimbria which had deserted
Ionian sea, where he seized and occupied a small their commander and come over to Sulla (Appian,
island opposite the harbour of Brundisium, and 2Mithrid. 64). Murena, who wished to have a
prevented M. Antony for some time from trans- triumph, sought a quarrel with Mithridates, took
porting his forces to Illyricum and the main-land Comana in Cappadocia, and robbed the rich temple.
of Greece. After the ruin of the republican party His answer to Mithridates, who complained of
at Philippi, in B. C. 42, Murcus carried his fleet the infraction of the treaty, was that he could
over to Sextus Pompey in Sicily. But his past see no treaty; and, in fact, there was no written
services to the Pompeians were ill-requited by their treaty between Sulla and Mithridates. Mithripresent leader; for at the instigation of his freed- dates sent to Rome to complain, and in the mean
men Menas and Menodorus, to whom Murcus had time Murena crossed the swollen HElys, ravaged
borne himself loftily, Sextus caused him to be the country of Mithridates, and returned into
assassinated, and promulgated a report that he had Galatia and Phrygia loaded with booty. Calibeen murdered by his own slaves. (Cic. Phil. xi. dius, who had been sent by the Roman senate,
12, ad Att. xii. 2, ad Fam. xii. 11; Pseudo-Brut. gave him verbal orders to stop hostilities, but he
ad Cic. ii. 5; Vell. ii. 69, 72, 77; Joseph. Arltiq. brought no written instructions with him, and
xiv. 11. ~~ 1, 3, 4, B. J. i. 10. ~ 4; Appian, B. C. Murena again commenced his ravages. Mithriii. 119, iii. 77, 78, iv. 58, 59,74, 82, 86, 100, 108, dates now sent Gordius against Murena, and
115-117, v., 2, 15, 50, 70; Dion Cass. xlvii. 27, soon joined Gordius with a larger force. A fierce
28, 30, 35, 36, 47, xlviii. 19.) [W. B. D.1 battle was fought on the river, which was probably the Halys, though Appian (Mithrid. 65)
mentions no name, in which Murena was defeated
mountains into Phrygia. In the early part of
~/~~ [i yo - with great loss, and he made his retreat over the
~[o ^P "B. C. 81 Sulla sent A. Gabinius with strict orders
axon X G~o~o.. to Murena to stop hostilities, and with instructions -to reconcile Mithridates and Ariobarzanes.
Murena returned to Rome, and had a triumph in.
B. C. 81, which he did not deserve. He probabljr
COIN OF STATIUS MURCUS... died soon after. His wife lived to see her son
MURE'NA, the name of a family of the consul. (Cic. prolMren.41.)
Licinia gens, which was originally from Lanuvium, 5. L.'LIdCINIu MURENA, the son of No. 4,
now Civita Lavigna, an old Latin town near the served under his father (B. C. 83) in the war
Via Appia. The name Murena, which is the pro- against Mithridates. He was quaestor at Rome
per way of writing the word, not Muraena, is said with the jurist Serv. Sulpicius, who was afterwards
to have been given in consequence of one of the his opponent in the canvas for the consulship. In his
family having a great liking for the lamprey (mu- aedileship Murena adorned the walls of the Comirena), and building tanks (vivaria) for them. tium -with Lacedaemonian stone (Plin. H. AN
(Plin. H. N. ix. 54, ed. Hard.; Macrob. Saturn. xxxv. 14). In the third Mithridatic war, which
ii. 11.) began B. c. 74, he served under L. Lucullus (Plut.
1. P. LICINIUS was praetor, but in what year Lucull. 15, &c.), and was left by him to direct the
is unknown. siege of Amisus, while Lucullus advanced against
2. P. LiCINIUS MURENA, the son of P. Licinius, Mithridates. At the capture of Amisus (B. C. 71),
VOi. IL. 4 c