Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1138

1124 MUSA. enemy to the gods of the dead, and fell as a sacrifice for hi's nation. (Liv. ix. 40, 41, 44, 46, x. 7—9, 14—17, 22, 24 26—29 ; Aurel. Vict. l. c. ; Zonar. viii. 1 ; Flor. i. 17 ; Val. Max. v. 6. § 6 ; Cic. in Orelli,Z.c.) 3. P. Decius Mus, son of the preceding, was consul in B. c 279, and fought with his colleague P. Sulpicius against Pyrrhus at the battle of Asculum. Before the battle alarm had been spread in the camp of Pyrrhus, by the report that tlie consul Decius intended, like his father and grand- father, to devote himself to death and the army of the enemy to destruction. Pyrrhus in consequence sent word to the consuls that he had given orders that Decius should not be killed but taken alive, and that he would put him to death as a malefactor, A later legend, recorded by Cicero (Tusc. i. 37, ii. 19), related that Decius sacrificed himself at this battle like his father and grandfather ; and it is not improbable, as Niebuhr has conjectured, that Cicero may have found this statement in Ennius. In other passages, however, Cicero speaks only of two Decii — Decii duo fortes riri (Cic. de Off. iii. 4, Cat. 20). As to the result of the battle of Asculum, it is differently stated by different writers. Hierony- mus of Cardia related that Pyrrhus gained a victory, Dionysius represented it as a drawn battle, and the Roman annalists claimed the victory for the Romans, The last statement is certainly false, and it appears that Pyrrhus was superior in the contest, though the victory was not a very decisive one. (Zonar. viii. 5 ; Plut, Pyrrli. 21 ; Eutrop. ii. 13 ; Oros. iv. 1 ; Flor. i. 18. § 9 ; Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. iii. pp. 502—505.) At a later time Decius, according to the account in Aurelius Victor {de Vir. III. 36), was sent against Volsinii, where the manumitted slaves had acquired the supreme power, and were treating their former masters with severity. He killed a great number of them, and reduced the others to slavery again. Other accounts, however, ascribe the expedition against the slaves of Volsinii to Q, Fabius Maximus Gurges, in his third consulship, B. c. 265 (Flor. i. 21 ; Zonar. viii. 7) ; but as Zonaras states that Fabius died of a wound during the siege of the town, it has been conjectured by Freinsheim that Decius may have commanded the army after the death of the consul, and may thus have obtained the credit of the victory. MUSA, a rhetorician, frequently referred to by the elder Seneca, who calls him a man "multi inge- nii, nullius cordis." (Controv. Praef. v.) Schott con- jectures that this Musa may be the same person as Antonius Musa, the physician of Augustus men- tioned below, but this is not very probable. MUSA, AEMI'LIA, a rich woman, who died intestate in the reign of Tiberius, A, D. 17. Her property was claimed for the fiscus or imperial 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 freed woman. (Tac. Jnn. 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 to Dion Cassius (liii. 30, p. 517), a freedroan, an assertion which some persons, who are over-jealous about the dignity of the medical profession among the Romans, have controverted. When the em- MUSAE. peror was seriously ill, and had been made worse by a hot regimen and treatment, B. c. 23, Antonius Musa succeeded in restoring him to health by means of cold bathing and cooling drinks, for which service he received from Augustus and the senate a large sum of money and tlie permission to wear a gold ring, and also had a statue erected in his honour near that of Aesculapius by public subscription. (Dion Cass. I. c; Schol. ad Horat. Epist. i. 15.3; Sueton. August. 59, 81; Plin. H. N. xix. 38, XXV. 38, xxix, 5.) He seems to have been attached to this mode of treatment, to which Horace alludes {I. c), but failed when he applied it to the case of M. Marcellus, who died under his care a few months after the recovery of Augustus, B, c. 23, (Dion Cass. I. c.) He is by some scholars supposed to be the person to whom one of Virgil's epigrams is inscribed [Catal. 13); but it is hardly likely, that, in a complimentary poem addressed to so eminent a physician, no mention whatever should be made of his medical acquirements. He has also been supposed to be the person described by Virgil in the Aeneid (xii. 390, &c.) under the name lapis. (See Atterbury'a Refleccions on ilie Character of lapis, &c.) He wrote several pharmaceutical works (Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. ii. 1, vol. xiii. p, 463), which are frequently quoted by Galen (vol, xiii. pp. 47, 206, 263, 326, &e.), but of which nothing but a few fragments remain. There are, however, two short Latin medical works ascribed to Antonius Musa, but these are universally considered to be spurious. One of these is entitled " De Herba Betonica," which is to be found in the collection of medical writers published by Torinus, Basil. 1528, fol, ; in Ackermann's " Parabiliura Medicamen- torum Scriptores Antiqui," Norimb. 1788, 8vo. ; and elsewhere. The other little work is entitled " Instructio de Bona Valetudine Conservanda," and is appended to the edition of Sextus Placitus published in 1538, Norimb., 4to. Neither of these works require any particular notice here. The genuine fragments of his writings that remain were collected and published by Flor. Caldaiii, Bassano, 1800, 8vo. Further information respect- ing his life and writings may be found in J, C. G. Ackermann's work, " De Antonio Musa et Libris qui illi adscribuntur," Altorf. 1786, 4to. See also Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 65, ed, vet. ; Haller's Biblioth. liotan. vol. i. p. 63 ; id, Biblioth. Medic. Fract. vol. i. p. 150 ; Sprengel, Hist, de la Med. ; Choulant, Handb. der Budmrkunde fur die Aeltere Medicin. [W. A. G.] MUSA, Q. POMPO'NIUS, only known to us from coins, a specimen of which is annexed. The head on the obverse is uncertain : the figure on the reverse is one of the Muses, having reference to the cognomen of this Pomponius. COIN OF Q. POMPONIUS MUSA. MUSAE (Mouo-at). The Muses, according lo the earliest writers, were the inspiring goddesses of song, and, according to later notions, divinities