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

1124 MUSA. MTISAE.
enemy to the gods of the dead, and fell as a sacrifice peror was seriously ill, and had been made worse
for his nation. (Liv. ix. 40, 41, 44, 46, x. 7-9, by a hot regimen and treatment, B. c. 23, Antonius
14-17, 22, 24; 26-29; Aurel. Vict. 1. c.; Zonar. Musa succeeded in restoring him to health by
viii. 1; Flor. i. 17; Val. Max. v. 6. ~ 6; Cic. in means of cold bathing and cooling drinks, for
Orelli, 1. c.) which service he received from Augustus and the
3. P. DECIus MUS, son of the preceding, was senate a large sum of money and the permission to
consul in B. c. 279, and fought with his colleague wear a gold ring, and also had a statue erected in
P. Sulpicius against Pyrrhus at the battle of his honour near that of Aesculapius by public
Asculum. Before the battle alarm had been spread subscription. (Dion Cass. 1. c.; Schol. ad Horat.
in the camp of Pyrrhus, by the report that the Epist. i. 15. 3; Sueton. August. 59, 81; Plin.
consul Decius intended, like his father and grand- H. N. xix. 38, xxv. 38, xxix. 5.) He seems to
father, to devote himself to death and the army of have been attached to this mode of treatment, to
the enemy to destruction. Pyrrhus in consequence which Horace alludes (I. c.), but failed'when he
sent word to the consuls that he had given orders applied it to the case of M. Marcellus, who died
that Decius should not be killed but taken alive, under his care a few months after the recovery of
and that he would put him to death as a malefactor. Augustus, B. c. 23. (Dion Cass. 1. c.) He is by
A later legend, recorded by Cicero (Tusc. i. 37, ii. some scholars supposed to be the person to whom
19), related that Decius sacrificed himself at this one of Virgil's epigrams is inscribed (Catal. 13);
battle like his father and grandfather; and it is but it is hardly likely, that, in a complimentary
not improbable, as Niebuhr has conjectured, that poem addressed to so eminent a physician, no
Cicero may have found this statement in Ennius. In mention whatever should be made of his medical
other passages, however, Cicero speaks only of two acquirements. He has also been supposed to be
Decii-Decii duo fortes viri (Cic. de Off. iii. 4, Cat. the person described by Virgil in the Aeneid (xii.
20). As to the result of the battle of Asculum, it 390, &c.) under the name lapis. (See Atterbury's
is differently stated by different writers. Hierony- Refexions on the C]haracter of lapis, &c.) He
mus of Cardia related that Pyrrhus gained a victory, wrote several pharmaceutical works (Galen, De
Dionysius represented it as a drawn battle, and the Compos. Medicam. sec. Gem. ii. 1, vol. xiii. p. 463),
Roman annalists claimed the victory for the Romans. which are frequently quoted by Galen (vol. xiii.
The last statement is certainly false, and it appears pp. 47, 206, 263, 326, &c.), but of which nothing
that Pyrrhus was superior in the contest, though but a few fragments remain. There are, however,
the victory was not a very decisive one. (Zonar. two short Latin medical works ascribed to Antonius
viii. 5; Plut. Pyrrh. 21; Eutrop. ii. 13; Oros. iv. Musa, but these are universally considered to be
1; Flor. i. 18. ~ 9; Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. spurious. One of these is entitled " De Herba
iii. pp. 502-505.) Betonica," which is to be found in the collection of
At a later'time Decius, according to the account medical writers published by Torinus, Basil. 1528,
in Aurelius Victor (de Vir. II. 36), was sent against fol.; in Ackermann's " Parabilium MedicamenVolsinii, where the manumitted slaves had acquired torum Scriptores Antiqui," Norimb. 1788, 8vo.;
the supreme power, and were treating their former and elsewhere. The other little work is entitled
masters with severity. He killed a great number " Instructio de Bona Valetudine Conservanda,"
of them, and reduced the others to'slavery again. and is appended to the edition of Sextus Placitus
Other accounts, however, ascribe the expedition published in 1538, Norimb., 4to. Neither of
against the slaves of Volsinii to Q. Fabius Maximus these works require any particular notice here.
Gurges, in his third consulship, B. c.' 265 (Flor. i. The genuine fragments of his writings that remain
21; Zonar. viii. 7).; but as Zonaras states that were collected and published by Flor. Caldani,
Fabius died of a wound during the siege of the Bassano, 1800, 8vo. Further information respecttown, it has been conjectured by Freinsheim that ing his life and writings may be found in J. C. G.
Decius may have commanded the army after the Ackermann's work, "6 De Antonio Musa et Libris
death of the consul, and may thus have obtained qui illi adscribuntur," Altorf. 1786, 4to. See
the credit of the victory. also Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 65, ed. vet.;
MUSA, a rhetorician, frequently referred to by Haller's Biblioth. Botan. vol. i. p. 63; id. Biblioths.
the elder Seneca, who calls him a man " multi inge- Vl1edic. Pract. vol. i. p. 150; Sprenge], Hist. de la
nii, nullius cordis." (Controv. Praef. v.) Schott con- Med.; Choulant, Handb. der Buchlerkunde fiir die
jectures that this Musa may be the same person as Aeltere.Medicin. [W. A. G.]
Antonius Musa, the physician of Augustus men- MUSA, Q. POMPO'NIUS, only known to us
tioned below, but this is not very probable. from coins, a specimen of which is annexed. The
MUSA, AEMI'LIA, a rich woman, who died head on the obverse is uncertain: the figure on the
intestate in the reign of Tiberius, A. D. 17. Her reverse is one of the Muses, having reference to
property was claimed for the fiscus or imperial the cognomen of this Pomponius.
treasury, but was surrendered by the emperor to
Aemilius Lepidus, to whose family she appeared
to belong. Her surname Musa shows that she was
a freedwoman. (Tac. Ann. ii. 48.)
MUSA, ANTO'NIUS, a celebrated physician
at Rome about the beginning of the Christian era.
He was brother to Euphorbus, the physician to
king Juba, and was himself the physician to
the emperor Augustus. He was originally, according COIN OF Q. POMPONIUS MUSA.
to Dion Cassius (liii. 30, p. 517), a freedman, an
assertion which some persons, who are over-jealous MUSAE (MovaTm). The Muses, according to
about the dignity of-the medical profession among the earliest writers, were the inspiring goddesses
the Romans, have controverted. When the enr- of song, and, according to later notions, divinities