Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/302

MAURITANIA MAURITIUS a total defeat in Arzanene. Philippicus was deposed, bnt raised a mutiny, by which he regained the command only to give new proof of his incompetency ; he was again deposed, and Heraclius retrieved the fortunes of the empire by repeated victories. The war which succeeded between the Turks and Persians gave relief to the Byzantine arms. The Persian king Chosroes II., being driven into exile, took refuge in the Byzantine territory, and wrote a letter to Mauricius imploring aid. The em- peror gave him a large sum of money, and sent a powerful army for the invasion of Persia. The Persian rebel Bahram was decisively de- feated at Balarath, Chosroes was restored to his throne (591), and from this time till the death of Mauricius there was peace between Persia and the empire. Hostilities, begun in 587, had in the mean while been carried on against the Avars. After one defeat the bar- barians refrained from any incursion for five years. When they again threatened the em- pire, Mauricius intended to put himself at the head of the army ; but it was already the By- zantine custom for the emperor not to com- mand in the field, and yielding to the remon- strances of the senate, he sent Priscus as a sub- stitute. He was unsuccessful, and was super- seded by the emperor's brother Peter, and the latter soon after by Commentiolus, who suf- fered a disastrous defeat, in which 12,000 By- zantines were made prisoners by the Avars, and engaged in treacherous intrigues. The fortune of the war was restored in five successive battles by Priscus, who was again placed in command. In 602 he was ordered by Mauricius to pass to the northern side of the Danube into the Avar territory. The emperor had allowed the prisoners taken by the Avars to be put to death rather than ransom them, the reason probably being that they were the mutinous and dangerous soldiers of Commentiolus. The troops of Priscus now complained that they were destined to destruction like the 12,000 prisoners, organized a rebellion, made Phocas commander-in-chief , and marched toward Con- stantinople ; and while an insurrection arose in the city, Mauricius escaped with his family by sea, took refuge in the church of St. Au- tonomus, near Chalcedon, and despatched his son to Chosroes to ask him in turn for aid in the recovery of his throne. The emissaries of Phocas, who had been proclaimed emperor, found him in the sanctuary, and dragged him thence to the scaffold. Five of his sons were executed with him, his eldest son Theodosius soon after, and the empress and three of her daughters were imprisoned and afterward put to death. He was distinguished for habits of self-control, affection, and piety. He strictly enforced beneficial laws, protected art and learning, and wrote a treatise on the military art, which still exists. MAURITANIA, or Manretania, in ancient geog- raphy, the N. W. coast of Africa, including the modern Morocco and part of Algeria. It was bounded N. by the Mediterranean, E. by the river Ampsaga, which separated it from Nu- midia, S. by the Atlas mountains, and W. by the Atlantic. Numerous rivers intersect this mountainous region and empty either into the Atlantic or the Mediterranean ; among them, besides the Ampsaga, may be mentioned the ancient Sala, Subur, Lix, Mulucha, and China- laph. The Phoenicians at a remote age founded so many settlements here, that along the whole coast there was not a single town whose popu- lation was not of Canaanitish race. Herodo- tus does not mention the nations of this region. Later writers say that from the earliest times it was inhabited by Maurusii or Mauri (Moors), blacks, a tribe probably of the same race as the Numidians ; but their accounts of the origin or immigration of this people seem to be fabulous. The people have by recent research been con- nected with the Libyans of the Egyptian mon- uments. (See LIBYANS.) They first became known to the Romans when the latter in their contests with the Carthaginians had carried the war into Africa. In the Jugurthine war Boc- chus, king of Mauritania, was conspicuous, and his sons Bogudes and Bocchus were confirmed as joint kings of the country by Julius Ca?sar in 49 B. C. In A. D. 42 the Romans divided the kingdom into two provinces separated from each other by the river Malua or Mulucha; the western province was called Mauritania Tingitana, and the eastern Mauritania Csesar- iensis. The Romans founded in these prov- inces 21 considerable colonies, and introduced into the population a large element of Italian origin. In 429 the Vandals, led by Genseric, conquered Mauritania ; but in 534 it was recon- quered by Belisarius, and remained a province of the empire till it was overrun and subdued by the Mohammedan Arabs about the close of the 7th century.. (See MOOES, and MOROCCO.) MAURITIUS, or Isle of France, an island belong- ing to England, in the Indian ocean, between lat. 19 58' and 20 31' S. and Ion. 57 21' and 57 51' E., about 500 m. E. of Madagascar, 120 m. E. N. E. of Reunion, and 2,700 m. from the Cape of Good Hope ; length N. and S. 39 m., greatest breadth 27 m. ; area, 676 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 326,454. The island is divided into nine districts. (See map.) Port Louis is the capital and the port through which all the foreign trade is carried on. The popula- tion is made up of various Asiatic, African, and European races, and of every conceivable admixture of them all. Among them are sev- eral thousand Hindoos, by whom the sugar es- tates are mostly worked. The English ele- ment is generally confined to the public func- tionaries and a few merchants, and has not penetrated the mass of the population. Eng- lish is little spoken. There are numerous capes and bays along the shore, and the island is encircled by coral reefs at various distances, but generally parallel to the land. In these reefs there are 11 passes, through most of which large vessels may enter and find good