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MESILLA MESSALINA 415 MESILLA, a town of Dofia Ana co., New Mexico, on the right bank of the Rio Grande, about 240 m. S. by W. of Santa Fe ; pop. in 1870, 1,578. The town, which lies in a valley of the same name, obtained notoriety from a dispute between the United States and Mexico in the settlement of the boundary under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, made in 1848. It was subsequently included in the purchase by the United States under the "Gadsden treaty " of 1853. Mesilla is the diminutive of the Spanish mesa, table; as here applied, it means a small plateau, or table land, on the bottom land of the Rio Grande, to distinguish it from the great table land, which is more ele- vated, and which extends for many hundred miles on both sides of the river. The Mesilla valley is about 30 m. long and from 1 to 4 m. wide. The soil is a rich alluvium, but artifi- cial irrigation is required. MESMER, Friedrich Anton, a German physi- cian, the first promoter of animal magnetism, or u mesmerism," born at or near Meersburg, Baden, on the lake of Constance, in 1733 or 1734, died there, March 5, 1815. He studied medicine in Vienna, and took his degree of M. D. there in 1766, presenting on that occasion a thesis De Planetarum Influxu in Corpus Hu- manum, in which he held that the universe is pervaded by a subtle element exercising an ex- traordinary influence on the human body, and identical with the magnetic element. The means by which he brought his theory into notice, and the leading features of his life, are given under the head of ANIMAL MAGNETISM. MESOLONGHI. See MISSOLONGHI. MESOPOTAMIA (Gr. ptaoq and Trora^f, between the rivers, viz., Euphrates and Tigris ; Heb. Aram Naharaim, Aram or Syria between the two rivers; now Al-Jezireh, the island), an ancient country of western Asia, bounded, ac- cording to the common acceptation of the name, N. by Armenia, from which it was separated by the Masius range, a branch of the Taurus ; N. E. and E. by the Tigris, separating it from Assyria ; S. by Babylonia ; and S. W. and W. by the Euphrates, separating it from Syria. The Greek name seems to have been first used in the time of the Seleucidse. Mesopotamia has never been a political designation, but always a purely geographical one ; and it is sometimes found applied also to the regions bordering on the valley of the two rivers. Excepting the Masius range and its prolongation parallel to the upper Tigris, Mesopotamia formed a vast and mostly very fertile plain, well watered by rivers and canals, the chief stream between the two great rivers being the Chaboras, an affluent of the Euphrates, and the principal productions of the country grain, fruits, spices, timber, cattle, naphtha, and jet. The south- ernmost part of the plain, however, resem- bled the adjoining regions of the Syro- Arabian desert, and was inhabited by numerous wild animals, including lions, ostriches, and wild asses. Among the cities of Mesopotamia were : 548 VOL. XL 27 Apamea on the Euphrates, opposite Zeugma in Syria; Edessa (now Urfa), the capital of the province of Osroene; Carrse or Carrhse, the Haran of Abraham ; Circesium, the Scriptural Carchemish, near the mouth of the Chaboras ; and Nisibis (Nizib), the Scriptural Zoba, in the province of Mygdonia. Mesopotamia was in- habited by a people called Rotennu or Reten- nu on the Egyptian monuments. They were of Semitic race, and were struggling with Egypt for supremacy as early as 1600 B. C. In later times it was in turns a part of the Assyri- an, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, Syrian, Parthian, and Neo-Persian monarchies, until it was conquered by the Arabs. It was subse- quently invaded by the Seljuks, conquered in part by the crusaders, and finally became a province of the Ottoman empire. MESSALA, or Messalla (MAKCUS VALEEIUS MESSALA COKVINUS), a Roman general, born according to Eusebius in 59, but according to Scaliger about 70 B. 0., died about the begin- ning of the Christian era. He completed his studies at Athens, and on the outbreak of the second civil war joined Brutus and Cassius in the East, was appointed to the third rank in the republican army, and commanded under Cassius at Philippi (42). After the overthrow of his party he surrendered to Antony, to whom he attached himself until, perceiving the ruin of that triumvir inevitable, he with- drew from his service, and entered that of his rival, for whom he fought in Sicily, against the Salassi in the Alps, and at Actium (31). He was appointed to succeed Antony as con- sul, and subsequently he obtained the procon- sulship of Aquitania, for the reduction of which province a triumph was decreed him. He was selected by the senate to greet Octavius with the title of pater patrice, and the exordium of his oration has been preserved by Suetonius. Soon after this Messala resigned all his official dignities except the augurship, and retired to private life. Fragments of his orations re- main (Paris, 1842) ; his other writings are only known by their titles. MESSALINA, or Mcssallina, the name of two Roman empresses, who lived in the 1st century of the Christian era. I. Valeria, daughter of M. Valerius Messala Barbatus, and third wife of Claudius, to whom she was married before his accession to the empire. She was equally profligate and cruel. Many members of the most illustrious families of Rome were sacri- ficed to her fears, her jealousy, or her hatred. one the daughter of Germanicus, the other of Drusus, son of Tiberius, who had excited her jealousy or envy ; C. Appius Silanus, who had wounded her vanity by rejecting her advances ; and Justus Catonius, whose offence was privity to her guilt. For a long time Claudius was blind to her infidelity; but when, during his absence at Ostia, she contracted a public mar- riage with Caius Silius, a handsome youth for whom she had conceived a violent passion, he