it appears probable that he early obtained the honorary title of king. But after the accession of Ptolemy Philadelphus this friendly union no longer subsisted, and Magas not only assumed the character of an independent monarch, but even made war on the king of Egypt. He had advanced as far as the frontier of the two kingdoms, when he was recalled by the news of a revolt of the Marmaridae, which threatened his communications with Cyrene, and thus compelled him to retreat. (Paus. i. 7. §§ 1, 2.) Soon after this he married Apama, daughter of Antiochus Soter, and concluded a league with that monarch against Ptolemy; in pursuance of which he undertook a second expedition against Egypt, took the frontier fortress of Paraetonium, and advanced so far as to threaten Alexandria itself. The war appears to have been terminated by a treaty, by which Berenice, the infant daughter of Magas, was betrothed to Ptolemy Euergetes, the son of Philadelphus. (Paus. i. 7. § 3; Polyaen. ii. 28; Justin. xxvi. 3.) The chronology of these events is very uncertain; but it seems clear that a considerable interval of peace followed, during which Magas abandoned himself, as he had previously done, to indolence and luxury, and grew in consequence so enormously fat as to cause his death by suffocation, b. c. 258. (Agatharch. ap. Athen. l. c.) From a passage in the comic writer Philemon cited by Plutarch (De Ira cohib. 9), it appears that Magas had the character of being very illiterate; but the anecdote there related confirms the impression of his being a man of a mild and gentle character, which the tranquillity of his long reign is calculated to convey. The few particulars known concerning him will be found collected and discussed by the Abbé Belley in the Hist. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xxxvi. p. 19, also by Thrige, Res Cyrenensium, and more fully and critically by Droysen, Hellenismus, vol, i. p. 417, vol. ii. pp. 242—248. It is worthy of notice that the name of Magas is found in an Indian inscription on a rock near Peshawer. (Droysen, vol. ii. p. 821.)
The chronology of the reign of Magas is very uncertain: in the dates above given, the authority of Droysen has been followed. Niebuhr, on the contrary (Kl. Schrift. p. 236), places the commencement of his reign after the battle of Ipsus.
He left only one daughter, Berenice, afterwards the wife of Ptolemy Euergetes. Besides the Syrian Apama already mentioned, he had a second wife, Arsinoë, who survived him. (Just. xxvi. 3; and see Niebuhr, Kl. Schrift. p. 230, note.)
2. A grandson of the preceding, being a son of Ptolemy Euergetes and Berenice. He was put to death by his brother Ptolemy Philopator, soon after the accession of the latter, at the instigation of Sosibius. (Polyb. v. 34, xv. 25.)
MAGENTE'NUS, or MAGENTI'NUS LEO. [Leo, p. 744, No. 17.]
MA'GIA GENS, plebeian, was of Campanian origin, and one of the most distinguished houses at Capua in the time of the second Punic war. (Comp. Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 34, in Pison. 11.) At Rome none of its members ever obtained any of the higher offices of the state. Chilo or Cilo is the only cognomen which occurs in the gens in the time of the republic.
MA'GIUS. 1. Decius Magius, one of the most distinguished men at Capua in the time of the second Punic war, and the leader of the Roman party in that town in opposition to Hannibal. He is characterised by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 16), who was descended from him, as "Campanorum princeps celeberrimus et nobilissimus vir." He used every effort to dissuade his fellow-citizens from receiving Hannibal into their town after the battle of Cannae, b. c. 216, but in vain; and, accordingly, when Hannibal entered the city, one of his first acts was to require the senate to deliver up Magius to him. This request was complied with: Magius was put on board ship, and sent to Carthage; but a storm having driven the vessel to Cyrene, Magius fled for refuge to the statue of Ptolemy. He was in consequence carried to Alexandria to Ptolemy Philopator, who set him at liberty, and gave him permission to go where he pleased. Magius chose Egypt as his residence, as he could not return to Capua, and did not choose to go to Rome, where he would have been looked upon as a deserter, as long as there was war between his own town and the Romans. (Liv. xxiii. 7, 10.)
2. Cn. Magius, of Atella (Atellanus), probably a relation of the preceding, but belonging to the opposite political party, was medix tuticus at Capua in b. c. 214. (Liv. xxiv. 19.)
3. Minatius Magius Asculanensis, grandson of No. 1, and atavus of the historian Velleius Paterculus, distinguished himself in the Social or Marsic war (b. c. 90) by his fidelity to the Romans. He levied a legion among the Hirpini, and was of no small assistance to T. Didius and L. Sulla. So great were his services, that the Roman people bestowed upon him the Roman franchise, and elected two of his sons to the praetorship. (Vell. Pat. ii. 16.)
4. P. Magius, tribune of the plebs b. c. 87, is mentioned by Cicero (Brut. 48) in the list of orators of that time. Cicero speaks of him as the colleague of M. Virgilius, but Plutarch (Sull. 10) calls his colleague Virginius.
5. Magius, a praefect of Piso in Gaul. (Cic. de Orat. ii. 60.)
6. L. Magius, the companion of L. Fannius, deserted from the army of Flavius Fimbria in Asia, and went over to Mithridates. An account of this Magius is given under Fannius, No. 4.
7. Cn. Magius and Magia, the son and daughter of Dinaea, a woman of Larinum. Magia was married to Oppianicus. (Cic pro Cluent. 7, 12.)
8. Numerius Magius (erroneously called in Caesar Cn. Magius), of Cremona, was praefectus fabrum in the army of Pompey at the breaking out of the civil war in b. c. 49. He was apprehended by Caesar's troops while he was on his journey to join Pompey at Brundisium, and Caesar availed himself of the opportunity to send by means of Magius offers of peace to Pompey, who was then at Brundisium. (Caes. B. C. i. 24; Caes. ad Att. ix. 13. § 8, ix. 13, a, ix. 7, c.)
9. L. Magius, a rhetorician, who married a daughter of the historian Livy. (Senec. Controv. lib. v. Prooem.)
10. Magius Celer Velleianus, a brother of the historian Velleius Paterculus, must have been adopted by a Magius Celer. He served as legate to Tiberius in the Dalmatian war, a. d. 9, and shared in the honours of his commander's triumph. At the time of Augustus's death (a. d. 14) he and his brother were the "candidati Caesaris" for the praetorship. (Vell. Pat. ii. 115, 121, 124.)
