MEROE.

-As to the origin of the civilization of Meroë itself,
all is complete uncertainty; though it is generally sup-
posed to have been derived from the plains of India.
The reader may consult on this subject the work of
Von Bohlen, Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Ruck-
sicht auf Egypten, vol. 1, p. 119, seqq.

to comply had not Epytus or Telephontes, her third son, avenged his father's death by assassinating Polyphontes. (Apollod., 2, 6.—Pausan., 4, 3.)

MEROPS, a king of the island of Cos, who married Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was changed into an eagle, and placed among the constellations. (Ovid, Met., 1, 763.)

cal communication would necessarily give rise to moral and intellectual improvement.-6. The curious fact, that the images of some of the Egyptian gods were at certain times conveyed up the Nile, from their temples to others in Ethiopia; and, after the conclusion of a festival, were brought back again into Egypt. MEROPE, I. one of the Pleiades. She married Sis(Eustath., ad Il., 1, 424.)-7. The very remarkable character of some of the Egyptian paintings, in which yphus, son of Eolus, before her transformation into a black (or, more correctly, dark-coloured) men are rep- star; and it was fabled that, in the constellation of the resented in the costume of priests, as conferring on Pleiades, Merope appears less luminous than her sistercertain red figures, similarly habited, the instruments stars, through shame at having been the only one of "This singular the number that had wedded a mortal. Other mytholand symbols of the sacerdotal office. representation," says Mr. Hamilton, "which is often ogists relate the same of Electra. Schwenck sees in repeated in all the Egyptian temples, but only here at the union of Merope with Sisyphus a symbolical alluPhile and at Elephantine with this distinction of col- sion to Corinthian navigation. (Schwenck, Skizzen, ur, may very naturally be supposed to commemorate p. 19.-Compare Welcker, Esch., Tril., p. 555.—Id. ne transmission of religious fables and the social in- ib., p. 573.)-II. A daughter of Cypselus, who marstitutions from the tawny Ethiopians to the compara- ried Cresphontes, king of Messenia, by whom she had tively fair Egyptians.""-8. Other paintings of nearly three children. Her husband and two of her children the same purport. In the temple of Phile, the sculp- were murdered by Polyphontes. The murderer wishtures frequently depict two persons, who equally repre-ed her to marry him, and she would have been obliged sent the characters and symbols of Osiris, and two persons equally answering to those of Isis; but in both cases one is invariably much older than the other, and appears to be the superior divinity. Mr. Hamilton conjectures that such figures represent the communication of religious rites from Ethiopia to Egypt, and the inferiority of the Egyptian Osiris. In these delinMEROS, a mountain of India sacred to Jupiter. It eations there is a very marked and positive distinction between the dark figures and those of fairer complex-is said to have been in the neighbourhood of Nysa, and ion; the former are most frequently conferring the to have been named from the circumstance of Bacchus's symbols of divinity and sovereignty on the other.-9. being enclosed in the thigh (unpós) of Jupiter. This The very interesting fact recorded by Diodorus, name- attempt at etymology, however, is characteristic of the ly, that the knowledge of picture-writing in Ethiopia Grecian spirit, which found traces of their nation and was not a privilege confined solely to the caste of language in every quarter of the world. The mountpriests as in Egypt, but that every one might attain itain in question is the famous Meru of Indian mytholas freely as they might in Egypt the writing in com- ogy. (Creuzer's Symbolik, vol. 1, p. 537.) mon use. A proof at once of the earlier use of picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, in Meroë than in Egypt, and also of its being applied to the purposes of trade. -10. The more ancient form of the pyramid, approaching that of the primeval mound, occurs more to the south than the rectilinear form. Thus the pyramids of Saccára are older in form than those of Djiza, another proof of architecture's having come in from the countries to the south. (Clarke's Travels, vol. 5, p. 220, Lond. ed.)-From this body of evidence, then, we come to the conclusion, that the same race which ruled in Ethiopia and Meroë spread themselves by colonies, in the first instance, to Upper Egypt; that these latter colonies, in consequence of their great prosperity, became in their turn the parents of others; and as in all this they followed the course of the river, there gradually became founded a succession of colonies in the valley of the Nile, which, according to the usual custom of the ancient world, were probably, at first, independent of each other, and therefore formed just so many little states. Though, with the promul-ever, Allobroges.-Arnold's Rome, p. xxii.) MESENE, I. an island in the Tigris, where Apamea gation of their religion, either that of Ammon himself, or of his kindred deities and temple-companions, after was built. It is now Digel. (Strab., in Huds., G. whom even the settlements were named, the extension M., 2, p. 146.-Plin., 6, 31.-Steph. Byz., p. 91, n. of trade was the principal motive which tempted colo- 8.)-II. Another, enclosed between the canal of Basnists from Meroë to the countries beyond the desert; ra and the Pasitigris, and which is called in the Orienyet there were many other causes, such as the fertil- tal writers Perat-Miscan, or "the Mesene of the Euity of the land, and the facility of making the rude na-phrates," to distinguish it from the Mesene of the Titive tribes subservient to themselves, which, in a pe- gris. The term Mesene is a Greek one, and refers to riod of tranquillity, must have promoted the prosperity land enclosed between two streams. (Philostorgius, and accelerated the gradual progress of this coloniza-3, 7.- Cellarius, Geogr. Antiq., vol. 1, p. 641, ed. tion. The advantages which a large stream offers, by Schwartz.) facilitating the means of communication, are so great, that it is a common occurrence in the history of the world to see civilization spreading on their banks. The shores of the Euphrates and Tigris, of the Indus and Ganges, of the Kiangh and Hoangho, afford us as plain proofs of this as the banks of the Nile. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 5, p. 109, seqq.; Oxford transl., vol. 2, p. 110.)

MESEMBRIA, a maritime town of Thrace, east of the mouth of the Nessus, now Mesevria or Mesera. According to Herodotus (7, 108), it was a settlement of the Samothracians.-Von Humboldt notices the terminations of magus, briga, and briva, appended to the names of towns, as undoubtedly Celtic. He refers to the same source the termination bria, which is met with in the geography of Thrace, as, for example, in the cities of Selymbria and Mesembria. He thinks that the Basque iri and uri are also connected with this; and that we can go no farther than to say that there was an old root bri or bro, expressing land, habitation, settlement, with which the Teutonic burg and the Greek úpуos may have been originally connected. In the Welsh and Breton languages, bro is still, he says, not only a cultivated field, but generally a country or district; and the scholiast on Juvenal (Sat., 8, 234) explains the name of Allobroges as signifying strangers, men from another land, “quoniam broga Galli agrum dicunt; alla autem aliud." (Vid., how

MESOMEDES, a poet, a native of Crete. He was a freedman of the Emperor Hadrian's, and one of his favourites, and wrote a eulogium on Antinoüs., Hadrian's successor, the philosophic Antoninus, made it a duty to restore order and economy into the finances of the empire; and, among other things, he stopped the salaries which had been allowed to the useless

courtiers with whom the palace of Hadrian had swarmed. It was on this occasion that the stipend allowed to Mesomedes suffered a reduction. (Jul. Cap., Vit. Ant. Pii, c. 7.)-We have two epigrams of this poet's in the Anthology, and also a piece of a higher character, a Hymn to Nemesis. Judging from this last specimen, Mesomedes must have possessed talents of no mean order. The Hymn to Nemesis was published for the first time, with ancient musical notes, by Fell, at the end of his edition of Aratus, Oxon., 1762, 8vo. It was subsequently given by Burette in the 5th vol. of the Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr., &c., by Brunck in his Analecta, and by Snedorf in his work, "De Hymnis veterum Græcorum," Hafn., 1786, 8vo. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 4, p. 51.)

sians. After remaining for some time a Roman province, it fell under the power of the new Persian kingdom, and then successively under the Saracens and Turks. The oppression of the Turkish government has so altered the appearance of this large tract of country, that these fruitful plains, which once were covered with cities, now scarcely exhibit more than a few miserable villages. The lower part of Mesopotamia is now called Irak Arabi, the upper Diar-Bekr. (Laurent's Anc. Geogr., p. 268.- Rennell, Geogra phy of Western Asia, vol. 1, p. 432.)

MESSALA, I. Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, a Roman nobleman of ancient family. In the Eusebian Chronicle he is said to have been born A.U.C. 694; but if that date be correct, he would have been MESOPOTAMIA, an extensive province of Asia, the 17 when he joined the republican standard at Philippi. Greek name of which denotes between the rivers (from He acted a prominent part in that battle, and, after it μέσος and ποταμός.) It was situate between the Eu- was lost, was offered the command of the dispersed phrates and the Tigris. The name itself, however, forces of the commonwealth. It is not, therefore, does not appear to have been given to this tract prior likely that he was younger than 21 at this period, to the Macedonian conquest. The southern part of and his birth, consequently, ought not to be fixed later Mesopotamia Xenophon calls Arabia (Anab., 1, 6, 1); than the year 690. In his youth he studied for a and other writers included this country, especially the short time at Athens, along with the son of Cicero. northern part, under the general name of Syria. (Stra- After his return to Rome, his name having appeared bo, 737.) The Romans always regarded Mesopotamia in the roll of the proscribed by the nomination of Anas a mere division of Syria. (Mela, 1, 11.-Plin., 5, tony, he fled from Italy, and sought refuge with the 13.) It is called by the Arabs at the present day army of Brutus and Cassius. Previous, however, to Al Jezira, or "the island." In scripture it is styled the battle of Philippi, his name, along with that of Aram and Aramaa; but as Aram also signifies Syria, Varro, was erased from the fatal list, on the plea that it is denominated, for distinction' sake, Aram Naha- he had not been in Rome at the time of Cæsar's murraim, or the "Syria of the rivers." It was first peo- der. Varro accepted the proffered pardon, and retired pled by Aram, the father of the Syrians, though little to his studies and his books, among which he afteris known of its history till it became a province of the ward died in the ninetieth year of his age; but it was Persian empire. Cushan-rishthathaim, who is men- indignantly rejected by Messala, who steadily adhered tioned in Judges (3, 8, 10) as king of Mesopotamia, to the cause of the commonwealth. The night before appears to have been only a petty prince of a district the battle of Philippi he supped in private with Caseast of the Euphrates. In the time of Hezekiah, the sius in his tent. That chief had wished to protract different states of Mesopotamia were subject to the the war, and opposed himself to the general desire Assyrians (2 Kings,19, 13), and subsequently belonged that prevailed in the army to hazard the fortunes of in succession to the Chaldean, Persian, and Syro-Ma- the republic on one decisive battle. At parting for cedonian monarchies.-Mesopotamia, which inclines the night, he grasped Messala by the hand, and, adfrom the southeast to the northwest, commenced at dressing him in Greek, called him to bear witness that lat. 33° 20′ N., and terminated near N. lat. 37° 30'. he was reduced to the same painful necessity as the Towards the south it extended as far as the bend form- great Pompey, who had been reluctantly forced to ed by the Euphrates at Cunaxa, and to the wall of stake on one throw the safety of his country. On Semiramis, which separated it from Mesene. To- the following day, so fatal to the liberties of Rome, wards the north it was bounded by a part of Mount Messala commanded one of the best legions in the Taurus. The northern part of Mesopotamia, which army of Brutus. After the second defeat at Philippi extended as far as the Chaboras, a tributary of the Eu- he escaped to Thasus, an island in the Egean Sea. phrates, is mountainous, and for the most part fruitful. He was there invited to place himself at the head of The southern portion consists chiefly of reddish hills, the remains of the republican party. But he probably and deserts without any trees, except liquorice-wood; considered the cause of the commonwealth as now and, like the desert of Arabia, suffers, at a distance utterly hopeless, and accordingly listened to the perfrom the rivers, a dearth of food and water. suasions of Pollio, who undertook to reconcile him to the parched steppes or table-lands, where the simoom the conquerors, and to preserve the lives of those who often breathes destruction, hordes of Arabs have from should surrender under his command. Antony passed the earliest times wandered. When history, therefore, over to Thasus, and, with great appearance of cordispeaks of the Romans and Persians as possessing Mes-ality, received Messala, as well as some of his friends, opotamia, we must understand the northern part, which abounded in all the necessaries of life. The inhabitants of this portion, who still speak an Armeno-Syriac dialect, were called among themselves Mygdonians, and their district was known by the name of Mygdo

nia.

Here, on

into favour, and, in return, was put in possession of the stores which had been amassed in that island for the wreck of the republican forces. Having now joined the arms of Antony, Messala accompanied him in the dissolute progress which he made through the (Polyb., 5, 51.-Steph. Byz., s. v.) Subse- Roman dominions in Asia, when he received the homquently, under the Syro-Macedonian monarchy, it took age of the tributary kings and settled their disputes. the name of Anthemusia. (Amm. Marcell., 14, 9.- Messala, from his earliest youth, had been distinguishEutrop., 8, 2.-Sextus Rufus, c. 20.) In the time ed for his powers in speaking, and he sometimes plead of the Parthian sway, about 120 B.C., an Arab sheik, before Antony in favour of an accused tetrarch or of Osroes, took possession of the northwestern part of the an injured people. At length, however, the scandaland, wresting a principality in this quarter from the lous and infatuated conduct of Antony, and the comSeleucida of Syria. This district then assumed the parative moderation of Augustus, induced him to name of Osroene. (Steph. Byz., s. v.-Procop., Pers., transfer his services to the latter, whom he continued 1, 17.-Amm. Marcell, 14, 3.) Mesopotamia was fre- to support during the remainder of his life. In the quently the scene of warlike operations, especially be- naval war with Sextus Pompey, he was second in tween the Parthians and Romans, who here lost Cras- command under Agrippa, and, on one occasion du sus, and between the latter nation and the new Per-ring his absence, had the supreme direction of the

fleet. In the course of this contest he was also for 1,7.)-Though Messala had attained the highest poin some time stationed with an army on the Neapolitan of exaltation, in an age of the most violent political shore; and Augustus, having been not only defeated, factions and the most flagrant moral corruption, he but shipwrecked in one of the many naval engage- left behind him a spotless character; being chiefly ments which he fought with Pompey, sought shelter known as a disinterested patron of learning, and a in the most wretched condition in the camp of Mes- steady supporter, so far as was then possible, of the sala, by whom he was received as a friend and master, principles of the ancient constitution. "Messala," and treated with the tenderest care. The death of says Berwick, "had the singular merit of supporting Sextus Pompey at length opened both sea and land an unblemished character in a most despotic court, to his successful adversary, and it was quickly follow- without making a sacrifice of those principles for ed by the long-expected struggle for superiority be- which he had fought in the fields of Philippi; and the tween Antony and Augustus.-Messala was consul genuine integrity of his character was so deeply imin A.U.C. 721, the year of the battle of Actium, in pressed on all parties, that it attracted a general adwhich he bore a distinguished part. After that deci- miration in a most corrupt age. He was brave, elosive victory and the firm establishment of the throne quent, and virtuous; he was liberal, attached to letof Augustus, he lived the general favourite of all par- ters, and his patronage was considered as the surest ties, and the chief ornament of a court where he still passport to the gates of fame, and extended to every asserted his freedom and dignity. While at Rome man who was at all conversant with letters. This he resided in a house on the Palatine Hill, which had character is supported by history, is not contradicted formerly belonged to Marc Antony; but he was fre- by contemporary writers, and is sealed by the imparquently absent from the capital on the service of the tial judgment of posterity. No writer, either ancient state. War after war was intrusted to his conduct, or modern, has ever named Messala without some and province after province was committed to his ad- tribute of praise. Cicero soon perceived that he posministration. In some of his foreign expeditions he sessed an assemblage of excellent qualities, which he was accompanied by the poet Tibullus, who has cel- would have more admired had he lived to see them ebrated the military exploits of Messala in his famed expanded and matured to perfection. Messala was panegyric, and his own friendship and attachment to his disciple, and rivalled his master in eloquence. In his patron in his elegies. The triumph which Messa- the opinion of the judicious Quintilian, his style was la obtained in 727, for his victories in a Gallic cam- neat and elegant, and in all his speeches he displayed paign, completed the measure of his military honours; a superior nobility. In the Dialogue of Orators, he is and he filled in succession all the most important civ- said to have excelled Cicero in the sweetness and il offices in the state. Besides holding the consulship correctness of his style. His taste for poetry and poin 721, he was elected into the college of Augurs, and lite literature will admit of little doubt, when we call was intrusted with the superintendence of the aque- to mind that he was protected by Cæsar, favoured by ducts, one of those great public works for which Mæcenas, esteemed by Horace, and loved by TibulRome has been so justly celebrated. In 736, on ac-lus. Horace, in one of his beautiful odes, praises count of the absence of Augustus and Mæcenas from Messala in the happiest strains of poetry, calls the the capital, he was nominated prefect of the city; but day he intended to pass with him propitious, and he resigned that situation a few days after his appoint-promises to treat him with some of his most excellent ment, regarding it as inconsistent with the ancient constitution of his country. He is also believed to have been the person who, by command of the Conscript fathers, first saluted Augustus in the senatehouse as the "Father of his country;" a distinction which was bestowed in a manner that drew tears from the master of the Roman world (Suet., Aug., 58), and a reply, in which he declared that, having attained the summit of his wishes, he had nothing more to desire from the immortal gods but a continuance of the same attachment till the last moments of his life. From this period the name of Messala is scarcely once mentioned by any contemporary writer. He survived, however, ten or twelve years longer. Tiberius Cæ-rector of all his literary pursuits. It is natural to supsar, who was then a youth, fond of the liberal arts, and by no means ignorant of literature, paid Messala, when in his old age, much deference and attention, and attempted to imitate his style of oratory. (Suet., Tib., c. 70.) Towards the close of his life he was dreadfully afflicted with ulcers in the sacra spina; and it is said that, two years before his dea:, he was deprived of both sense and memory. He at length forgot his own name (Plin, 7, 24), and became incapable of putting two words together with meaning. It is mentioned in the Eusebian Chronicle that he perished by abstaining from food when he had reached the age of seventy-two; but if he were born in 690, as is supposed, this computation would extend his existence till the close of the reign of Augustus, which is inconsistent with a passage of the dialogue "De causis corrupta eloquentia," where it is said, "Corvinus in medium usque Augusti principatum, Asinus pæne ad extremum duravit." Now the middle of the reign of Augustus cannot be fixed later than the year 746, when Messala could only have attained the age of fifty-six.-His death was deeply lamented, and his funeral elegy was written by Ovid. (Ep., ex. Pont.,

wine. For,' says the poet, though Messala is conversant with all the philosophy of Socrates and the Academy, he will not decline such entertainment as my humble board can supply.' (Od., 3, 21.) The modest Tibullus flattered himself with the pleasing hope of Messala's paying him a visit in the country, where,' says he, my beloved Delia shall assist in doing the honours for so noble a guest' (1, 5). The rising genius of Ovid was admired and encouraged by Messala; and this condescension the exiled bard has acknowledged in an epistle to his son Messalinus, dated from the cold shores of the Euxine. In this letter Ovid calls Messala his friend, the light and di

pose that an intimacy subsisted between Messala and Virgil, and yet no historical circumstance has come to our knowledge sufficient to evince it. The poem called Ciris, which is dedicated to Messala, and has been ascribed to Virgil by some grave authorities, grows more suspicious every day. Tacitus, whose judgment of mankind is indisputable, and whose decision is not always in the most favourable point of view, seems fond of praising Messala; and in a speech given to Silius, the consul-elect, he considers him among the few great characters who have risen to the highest honours by their integrity and eloquence. (Ann., 11, 6.) Even Tiberius himself, when a youth, took him for his master and pattern in speaking; and happy would it have been for the Roman people had he also taken him for his guide and pattern in virtue." (Berwick's Lives, p. 59, seqq.)-Messala was united to Terentia, who had been first married to Cicero, and subsequently to Sallust, the historian. After the death of Messala, she entered, in extreme old age, into a fourth marriage, with a Roman senator, who used to say that he possessed the two greatest curiosities in Rome, the widow of Cicero, and the chair

in which Julius Cæsar had been assassinated. Mes- | formed a union with the parent city of Chalcis in Eusala left by Terentia two sons, Marcus and Lucius. The elder of these, who was consul in 751, took the name of Messalinus; he greatly distinguished himself under Tiberius, when that prince commanded, before his accession to the empire, in the war of Pannonia. (Vell. Patere., 2, 112.) Messalinus inherited his father's eloquence, and also followed the example he had set in devoted attachment to Augustus, and the patronage he extended to literature. But, during the reign of Tiberius, he was chiefly noted as one of the most servile flatterers of that tyrant. (Tacit., Ann., 3, 18.) The younger son of Messala assumed the name of Cotta, from his maternal family, and acted a conspicuous, though by no means reputable part in the first years of Tiberius. Both brothers were friends and protectors of Ovid, who addressed to Messalinus two of his epistles from Pontus, which are full of respect for the memory of his illustrious father. (Dunlop's Roman Lit., vol. 3, p. 53, seqq., Lond. ed.)

boea, in consequence of which a considerable body of colonists, coming from Chalcis and the rest of Euboea, participated in the distribution of the lands. (Thucyd., . c.) Chalcis had previously founded the city of Naxos on the eastern coast below; and it is probable that a part of the new population came from this latter place. On this supposition, at least, we can reconcile with the statement of Thucydides the account of Strabo, who informs us that Zancle was a settlement of the Naxians who dwelt near Catana (Naživ Kтíoμа Twν прòç Kaтúvŋ. — Strabo, 268). Zancle went on silently increasing in strength, and was soon powerful enough to found the city of Himera (Thu cyd., 6, 5), and to carry on a successful warfare against the neighbouring Siculi in the interior. As it was, however, the only Grecian city in this corner of the island, it sought to strengthen itself by new accessions from abroad; and, accordingly, the Ionians of Asia Minor were invited to send a colony to the "Beautiful MESSALINA, I. Valeria, the first wife of the Emper- Shore" (Kaλǹ 'AKTη), which lay along the coast of or Claudius, dishonoured his throne by her unbridled Sicily on the Tyrrhene Sea. (Herod., 6, 22.) This and disgusting incontinence. Her cruelty equalled happened about the period when Miletus was destroyed her licentiousness. After a long career of guilt, she by the Persians, and when the other Greek cities of openly married a young patrician named Silius, du- Lower Asia had either to submit to the yoke of Darius, ring the absence of the emperor, who had gone on a or imitate the example which the Phocæans had set in visit to Ostia. Narcissus, the freedman of Claudius, the time of Cyrus. The Samians, therefore, and a body was the only one who dared to inform Claudius of the of Milesians who had escaped being led into captivity, fact, and, when he had roused the sluggish resentment embraced the offer of the people of Zancle. They landof his imperial master, he brought him to Rome. The ed at Locri, on the Italian coast; but Scythes, the king arrival of Claudius dispersed in an instant all who had or tyrant of Zancle, would seem to have made no prepthronged around Messalina; but still, though thus de-arations whatever for receiving them, being engaged at serted, she resolved to brave the storm, and sent to the time in besieging one of the cities of the Siculi. An-. the emperor demanding to be heard. Narcissus, how- axilas, tyrant of Rhegium, who was on no friendly footever, fearing the effect of her presence on the feeble ing with his neighbours in Zancle, took advantage of this spirit of her husband, despatched an order, as if com- circumstance. He proceeded to Locri, told the newing from him, for her immediate punishment. The comers to give up all thought of a settlement in that order found her in the gardens of Lucullus. She en- quarter, that Zancle was undefended and might easily deavoured to destroy herself, but her courage failing, be taken, and that he would aid them in the attempt. she was put to death by a tribune who had been sent The enterprise succeeded, Zancle was taken, and the for that purpose, A.D. 48. (Tacit., Ann., 11 et 12. inhabitants became united as one common people with -Suetonius, Vit. Claud.)-II. Called also Statilia, their new invaders. The Samians, however, were the grand-daughter of Statilius Taurus, who had been not long after driven out by the same Anaxilas who consul, and had enjoyed a triumph during the reign had aided in their attempt on Zancle. He established of Augustus. She was married four times before she here, according to Thucydides (6, 5), “a mixed race," came to the imperial throne. The last of her four and called the city by a new name, "Messana" (Mɛohusbands was Atticus Vestinus, a man of consular oúva), as well from the country (Messenia) whence rank, who had ventured to aspire to her hand, al- he was anciently descended, as from a body of Mesthough he was not ignorant that he had Nero for a senian exiles whom he settled here. Messana (or, rival. The tyrant, who had long favoured Vestines as the Attic writers call it, Messene, Meoonvn), soon as one of the companions of his debaucheries, now became a very flourishing city, both by reason of its resolved to destroy him, and accordingly compelled very fruitful territory and its advantageous situation him to open his veins. Messalina was transferred to for commerce. It was also a place of some strength, the imperial bed. After the death of Nero she en- and the citadel of Messana is often mentioned in hisdeavoured to regain her former rank, as empress, by tory. (Diod., 14, 87.-Polyb., 1, 10.) Messana was means of Otho, whom she had captivated by her beau- regarded also by the Greeks as the key of Sicily ty, and hoped to espouse. But Otho's fall having de- (Thucyd., 4, 1), as being the place, namely, to which stroyed all these expectations, she turned her atten- vessels cruising from Greece to Sicily directed their tion to literary subjects, and obtained applause by course on leaving the Iapygian promontory. (Bloomsome public discourses which she delivered. (Biogr. field, ad Thucyd., . c.) And yet, notwithstanding all Univ., vol. 28, p. 431.) these advantages, it was never other than an unlucky MESSALINUS, M. Valerius, son of Valerius Messa-place, always undergoing changes, and unable at any la Corvinus. (Consult remarks at the close of the ar-time to play an important part in the affairs of Sicily; ticle Messala.) for its wealth, and its advantageous situation as regarded the passage from Italy into the island, always made it a tempting prize to the ambitious and powerful princes around. No Greek city, therefore, experienced more frequent changes of rulers than this, and none contained within its walls a more mixed population.At a later period (Ol. 96, 1), Messana fell into the hands of the Carthaginians, who destroyed it (Diod., 14, 56, seqq.), being aware of their inability at that time to retain a place so far distant from their other strongholds, and not wishing it to come again into the possession of their opponents. Dionysius of Syracuse, however, began to rebuild it in the same year, and,

MESSANA, an ancient and celebrated city of Sicily, situate on the straits which separate Italy from that island. The first settlers in this quarter would seem to have been a body of wandering Siculi, who gave the place, from the scythelike form of its harbour, the name of Zancle (Zúykkn, "a scythe"). The Siculi were not a commercial race, and therefore could not avail themselves of the superior advantages for trade which the spot afforded; they, in consequence, finally left it. To them succeeded a band of pirates from Cuma in Campania. (Thucyd., 6, 4.) These settled in the place, and, to give the new colony more stability,

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