Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1053

MENELAUS. 2. A son of Amyntas II., king of Macedonia, by his wife Gygaea. (Justin, vii. 4.) According to Justin, he was put to death by his step-brother Philip, after the capture of Olynthus, b. c. 347. (Id. viii. 3.) 3. Son of Lagus, and brother of Ptolemy Soter. His name does not occur among the officers or generals of Alexander during the lifetime of that monarch, though it is incidentally mentioned by Phylarchus {ap. Athen. xii. p. 539, d.) in terms that would seem to imply that he then already oc- cupied a distinguished position. (See also Aelian, V. H. ix. 3.) The first occasion on which he ap- pears in history is in B.C. 315, when he was ap- pointed by his brother to the chief command of the forces despatched to Cyprus, where they were destined to co-operate with the fleet of Seleucus, and with Nicocreon, king of Salamis. (Diod. xix. ti2.) By their combined eflforts, they soon reduced all the cities of Cyprus to subjection, with the ex- ception of Cittium ; and that also, it would appear, must have ultimately submitted. Menelaus now remained in the island, which he governed with almost absolute authority, the petty princes of the s<'veral cities being deposed, imprisoned, or assassi- nated on the slightest symptom of disaffection. He still held the chief command in 306, when Demetrius Poliorcetes arrived in Cyprus with a powerful fleet and army. Unable to contend with tliis formidable antagonist in the open field, Mene- laus drew together all his forces, and shut himself up within the walls of Salamis, which he prepared to defend to the utmost. But having risked an action under the walls of the town, he was defeated with much loss ; and Demetrius pressed the siege with his wonted vigour. Menelaus, however, suc- ceeded in burning his battering engines ; and by the most strenuous exertions, made good his de- fence until the arrival of Ptolemy himself, with a powerful fleet, to the relief of the island. In the great sea-fight that ensued, Menelaus sent a squa- dron of sixty ships to assist Ptolemy ; but though these succeeded in forcing their way out of the harbour of Salamis, they came too late to retrieve the fortune of the day ; and the total defeat of the Egyptian fleet having extinguished all his hopes of succour, he immediately afterwards sur- rendered the city of Salamis, with all his forces, both military and naval, into the hands of Deme- trius. The conqueror, with characteristic mag- nanimity, sent him back to Egypt, accompanied by his friends, and carrying with him all his private property. (Diod. xix. 62, 79, xx. 21, 47—53 ; Plut. Dcmetr. 15 — 17; Justin, xv. 2; Pans. i. 6, j 6.) From this time we hear no more of Mene- laus. There is a coin, attributed to him, which nmst have been struck during the period of his occupation of Cyprus. (Borrell, Notice de Quelques Medailles des Rois de Cliypre^ p. 64.) 4. Onias, son of Simon, who was made high- priest of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, as- sumed the name of Menelaus. (Joseph. Ant. xii. 5. 5 1.) [E. H. B.] MENELA'US (Mej/e'Aaos), literary. 1. Of Anaea in Caria, is called by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. V. *Avaia) a peripatetic philosopher, and a great historian, but is otherwise unknown. 2. Of Maratho in Phoenicia, a Greek rhetorician, whose assistance C Sempronius Gracchus was said to have used in composing his speeches, (Cic. Jirut.2ru) MENEMACHUS. 1039 3. Of Aegae, an epic poet, who among other works which are not specified, wrote an epic poem, Thebais (vs)7j§a^s), consisting, according to Suidas, of twelve, and according to Eudocia, of thirteen books. As Longinus mentioned Menelaus with praise, he must have lived before A. D. 273, for in that year Longinus died (Waltz, Rhet. Grate, vi. p. 93 ; Ruhnken, Dissert, de Vit.et Script. Longini, 30, &c. ed. Toupius). The first five books of this epic are referred to by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. vv. Te^jUil, 'Tp/xij/T}, 'AiJ.<piyiv€ia, AvKUia, Evrprjais), but no fragments of any importance have come down to us. [L. S.] MENELA'US (MereAaos), a Greek mathema- tician, a native of Alexandria, the author of a treatise in three books, on the Sphere, which is comprised in the mathematical collection called IbLiKpds daTpov6fxos, or iJUKpos dcrrpopofiovixivos. Menelaus is mentioned by Pappus, Proclus, and Ptolemaeus, who, in his Magna Syntaxis (p. 170), says that he made some astronomical observations at Rome in the first year of the emperor Trajan (a. d. 98). He is probably the same with the Menelaus introduced by Plutarch in his dialogue De Facie in Orhe Lunae, p. 930, Besides his work on the Sphere, Menelaus wrote a treatise " On the Quantity and Distinction of Mixed Bodies." Both works were translated into Syriac and Arabic. A Latin translation of the treatise on the Sphere was published at Paris in 1 644 ; and it was also pub- lished by Marinus Mersennus in his Synopsis Ma- tliematica, Paris, 1644. This edition contained many additions and interpolations. A more correct edition was published at Oxford by Halley, a re- print of which, with a preface by G. Costard, ap- peared in 1758. (Fabric. Bihl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 16, 23.) [C. P. M.] MENELA'US, a pupil of Stephanus, was the sculptor of a marble group in the villa Ludovisi at Rome, which bears the inscription MENEAA02 2TE*ANOT MA0HTH2 EnOIEI. The group, which consists of a male and female figure, the size of life, has been differently explained. It used to be taken to refer to the story of Papirius and his mother. (Aul. Gell. i. 23.) Thiersch maintains that it is impossible not to recognise the Roman matron in the female figure, and in both the ex- pression of maternal and filial love ; and he sup- poses that it represents some scene from the family life of the Caesars, probably Octavia and Marcel- lus, " Tu Murcellus eris, manibus date lilia plenis,"" &c. {Epoclmn., pp. 295, 296.) Whickelmann at first took it for Phaedra and Hippolytus {Gescfiiclde d. Kun^t, Vorrede, § 5) ; but he afterwards ex- plained it as representing the recognition of Orestes by Electra (bk. xi. c. 2. § 29), and this supposition has been generally adopted. Thiersch (/. c.) refers the work to the Augustan age. [Compare Ste- phanus.] [P. S,] MENE'MACHUS {U^vifiaxos), a physician born at one of the cities named Aphrodisias, who belonged to the medical sect of the Methodici, and lived in the second century after Christ. (Galen, hitrod. c. 4, vol. xiv. p. 684, De Meth. Med. i. 7, vol. X. p. 53, 54.) He wrote some works which are not now extant, and is probably the physician quoted by Caelius Aurelianus {De Marl. Acut. ii. 1. p. 75), Galen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos. iii. 1 , vol. xii. p. 625), and Oribasius {Coll. Medic^ vii. 21, p 318, and in Matthaei's collection, Mosq. 1808). The Menemachus, however, who is quoted