Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/911

MAENIUS. to light the intrigues of many of thri Roman nobles of high family. The latter in their turn retorted, by bringing charges against the dictator and the magister equitum ; whereupon botli Maenius and Foslius resigned their offices, demanded of the consuls a trial, and were most honourably acquitted. (Liv. ix. 26, comp. 34.) In B. c. 318 Maenius was censor with L. Papirius Crassus, In his censorship he allowed balconies to be added to the various buildings surrounding the forum, in order that the spectators might obtain more room for beholding the games which were exhibited in the forum ; and these balconies were called after him Maeniana (sc. aedificia). They are frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, and are described at length by Salmasius {ad Spartian, Fescenn. 12, p. 676). Comp. Paul. Diac. p. 134, ed. Miiller ; Cic. Acad. iv. 22, who speaks of the Maeniaiiormn umbra ; Suet. Cal. 1 8 ; Vitruv. V. 1 ; Val. Max. ix. 12. § 7 ; Pseudo- Ascon. in Cic. Divin. in Caecil. p. 121, ed. Orelli, who, however, absurdly mixes them up with the Columna Maenia, and with the spendthrift men-* tioned below [No. 11] . In B. c. 314 Maenius was a second time dicta- tor, and again appointed M. Foslius the magister equitum. (Fasti Capit.) 7. Maenius, the proposer of the law, about A. c. 286, Avhich required the patres to give their sanction to the election of the magistrates before they had been elected, or in other words to confer, or agree to confer, the imperium on the person whom the comitia should elect. (Cic. Briit. Ji.) Pighius and Freinsheim supposed that this Mae- nius was a tribune of the plebs ; but Niebuhr conjectures {Hist, of Rome, vol. iii. p. 421) that he may have been the same as the C. Maenius above-mentioned [No. 6], and that the high cha- racter and venerable age of the latter may have had some influence in procuring the enactment of the law. 8. P. Maenius Ant(iaticus) Me(gellus) or Me(dullinus), occurs on a coin, the obverse of which represents the head of Hercules, and the reverse the prow of a ship. On other coins we find only the names P. Maen. Ant. ; and it is con- jectured that the Megellus or Medullinus was an agnomen to distinguish this Maenius Antiaticus from other members of his family. (Eckhel, vol. v. pp.240, 241.) 9. M. Maenius, tribune of the soldiers, fell in battle against Mago, in the country of the Insu- brian Gauls, B.C. 203. (Liv. xxx. 18.) 10. T. Maenius, praetor urbanus b. c. 186. He served as tribune of the soldiers in B. c. 1 80, in the army of the praetor Q. Fulvius, against the Celtiberi. (Liv. xxxix. 6, 8, 18. xl. 35.) 1 1. Maenius, a contemporary of Lucilius, was a great spendthrift, who squandered all his property and afterwards supported himself by playing the buffoon. He possessed a house in the forum, which Cato in his censorship (b. c. 184) purchased of him, for the purpose of building the basilica Porcia. Some of the ancient scholiasts ridiculously relate, that when Maenius sold his house, he reserved for himself one column, the Columna Maenia, from which he buiit a balcony, that he might thence witness the games. The true origin of the Columna Maenia, and of the balconies called Maeniana, has been explained above. [See No. 6.] (Hor. Sat. i. 1. 101, i. 3. 21, Epist. i. 15. 26, &c. ; Liv. xxxix. VOL. u. MAEONIUS. 897 44 ; Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 3. 21 ; Pseudo-Ascou. in Cic. Divin. in Caecil. p. 121, ed. Or. ; Becker, Handhuch der RomiscJi. Alterth. vol. i. p. 300.) 12. C. Maenius, praetor B.C. 180, received Sardinia as his province, and also the commission to examine into all cases of poisoning which had occurred beyond ten miles from the city. After condemning 3000 persons, he still found so many who were guilty, that he wrote to the senate to state that he must abandon either the investigation or the province. (Liv. xl. 35, 43.) 13. Q. Maenius, praetor B. c. 1 70, was employed in the Macedonian war. (Liv. xliii. 8.) MAEN ON (MaiVwi/), a Sicilian, a native of Segesta, had fallen as a captive when a youth into the hands of Agathocles, and rose to a high place in the favour of the Syracusan monarch ; notwith- standing which, he was induced by Archagathus, the grandson of Agathocles, to unite in a project against the life of the aged king. He is said to have administered poison to him by means of a quill used as a toothpick, which brought about the death of Agathocles, with the most excruciating pains. Archagathus was at the time absent from Syracuse with an army, and the people having re- established the democracy on the death of the old king, Maenon fled from Syracuse to the camp of Archagathus, but soon after took an opportunity to assassinate the young prince, and placed himself at the head of his troops. With this mercenary force he made war on the Syracusans, and though op- posed by Hicetas with an army, he obtained the powerful support of the Carthaginians, which en- abled him to dictate the terms of peace. One of the conditions imposed Avas the return of the exiles; but though this would seem likely to have placed Maenon in a prominent position at Syracuse, we hear nothing more of him from this time. (Diod. xxi., Eocc. Hoesch. pp. 491—493.) [E. H. B.] MAEON (Matwj'), a son of Haemon of Thebes. He and Lycophontes were the leaders of the band that lay in ambush against Tydeus, in the war of the Seven against Thebes. Maeon was the only one whose life was spared by Tydeus, and when the latter fell, Maeon is said to have buried him. (Hom. II. iv. 394, &c. ; Apollod. iii. Q. % 5 Pans, ix. 18. § 2.) Another personage of this name occurs in Diodorus (iii. 58). [L. S.] MAEO'NIDES (MatdviSrjs), properly a son of Maeon, the husband of Dindyme, who was the mother of Cybele, or a native of Maeonia, which was the ancient name of a portion of Lydia, but was also applied to the whole country of Lydia. As Homer was believed by some to have been a native of Lydia, he is sometimes called Maeonides, or the Maeonian bard. The feminine form of this patronymic, Maeonif, also occurs as a surname of Omphale (Ov. Fad. ii. 310), and of Arachne (Ov. Met. vi. 103), because both were Lydians. [L.S.] MAEO'NIUS, the cousin, or, according to Zonaras, the nephew of Odenathus, whom he murdered in consequence of a hunting quarrel, not, it is said, without the consent of Zenobia, who was filled with jealous rage on perceiving that her husband preferred Herodes, his son by a former marriage, to her own children, Herennianus and Timolaus. Maeonius finds a place among the thirty tyrants enumerated by Trebellius PoUio [Au- REOLUs], and a coin of very doubtful character is described in the Pembroke collection with the legend Imp. C. Maeonius ; but those published by 3m