Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/929

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loc cit.
loc cit.

MANETHO. bound and naked to the enemy, by means of the fetiales. This was done with the consent of Man- cinus, but the enemy refused to accept him. On his return to Rome Mancinus took his seat in the senate, as heretofore, but' was violently expelled from it by the tribune P. Rutilius, on the ground that he had lost his citizenship. As the enemy had not received him, it was a disputed question whether he was a citizen or not by the Jus Post- liminii (see Did. of Ant. s. v. Postliminium), but the better opinion was that he had lost his civic rights, and they were accordingly restored to him by a lex. According to Aurelius Victor, he is said to have been subsequently elected praetor. (Ap- pian, Hisp. 79—83 ; Liv. Epii. 55 ; Oros. v. 4 ; Obsequ. 83 ; Val. Max. i. 6. § 7 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 1 ; Flor. ii. 18 ; Eutrop. iv. 17 ; Plut. Tib. Gracch. 5 ; Dion Cass. Fragm. 164, ed. Reimar ; Aurel. Vict. Vir. Illustr. 59 ; Cic. de Rep. iii. 18, de Off. iii. 30, de Orat. i. 40, 5Q., ii. 32, pro Caec. 33, Topic. 8 ; Dig 50. tit. 7. s. 17.) 4. A. HosTiLius Mancinus, curule aedile (but in what year is uncertain), of whom a tale is told by A. Gellius (iv. 14) from the " Conjectanea" of Ate.ius Capito. MaNCI'NUS, MANI'LIUS or MA'NLIUS, tribune of the plebs B. c. 108, proposed to the people the bill by which the province of Numidia and the conduct of the war against Jugurtha were given to Marius, who had been elected consul for the subsequent year. (Sail. Jug. 73 ; Gell. vl 11.) MANDANE (MavSafT?), the daughter of As- tvages, and mother of Cyrus. [Cyrus.]. (Herod, i.' 107 ; Xenoph. Cyrop. i. 2, 3, 4.) [P. S.J MANDO'NIUS. [Indibilis.] MANDUBRA'TIUS, the son of Imanuentius, king of the Trinobantes in Britain, had fled to Caesar in Gaul, after his father had been killed by Cassivelaunus. On Caesar's arrival in Britain, Mandubratius obtained the supreme command in his state. (Caes. B. G. v. 20.) Orosius (vi. 9) calls him Androgorius. MA'NEROS (Mai'epajs), a son of the first Egyptian king, who died in his early youth, and after whom a species of dirge was called, which was analogous to the Greek Linos. (Herod, ii. 79 ; Athen. xiv. p. 620.) [L. S.] MANES, i.e. " the good ones " [Mana], is the general name by which the Romans designated the souls of the departed ; but as it is a natural tendency to consider the souls of departed friends as blessed spirits, the name of Lares is frequently used as synonymous with Manes, and hence also they are called dii Manes, and were worshipped with divine honours. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 9, 22 ; Apul. de Deo Socrat. ; August, de Civ. Dei, viii. 26, ix. 1 1 ; Serv. ad Virg. Ae7i. iii. 63, 168 ; Ov. Fast ii. 842 ; Hor. Carm. ii. 8. 9.) At certain seasons, which were looked upon as sacred days {fcriae denicales), sacrifices were offered to the spirits of the departed with the observance of various ceremonies. But an annual festival, which belonged to all the Manes in general, was celebrated on the I9th of February, under the name of Feralia or Parentalia, because it was more especially the duty of children and heirs to offer sacrifices to the shades of their parents and benefactors. (Ov. Fast. ii. 535 ; Ter- tnli. Resur. Cam. I.) [L. S.] MA'NETHO {Maveeds * or Maveddv), an MANETHO. 915

  • His original Egyptian name was undoubtedly

Egyptian priest of the town of Sebennytus, who lived in the reign of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, and probably also in that of his successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus. He had in antiquity the reputation of having attained the highest possible degree of wisdom (SynceUus, Chronogr. p. 32, ed. Dindorf; Plut. de Is. et Os. 9 ; Aelia'n, H. A. x. 16), and it seems to have been this very reputation which induced later impostors to fabricate books, and publish them under his name. The fables and mystical fancies which thus became current as the pi'oductions of the Egyptian sage, were the reason why Maneiho was looked upon even by some of the ancients themselves as a half mythical person- age, like Epimenides of Crete, of whose personal existence and history no one was able to form any distinct notion. The consequence has been, that the fragments of his genuine work did not meet, down to the most recent times, with that degree of attention which they deserved, although the in- scriptions on the Egyptian monuments furnish the most satisfactory confirmation of some portions of his work that have come down to us. It was a further consequence of this mythical uncertainty by which his personal existence became surrounded, that some described him as a native of Diospolis (Thebes), the great centre of priestly learning among the Egyptians, or as a high priest at He- liopolis. (Suid. s. v. MaueOws.) There can be no doubt that Manetho belonged to the class of priests, but whether he was high-priest of Egypt is un- certain, since we read this statement only in some MSS. of Suidas, and in one of the productions oi the Pseudo-Manetho. Respecting his personal history scarcely anything is known, beyond the fact that he lived in the reign of the first Ptolemy, with whom he came in contact in consequence of his wisdom and learning. Plutarch (de Is. et Osir. 28) informs us, that the king was led by a dream to order a colossal statue of a god to be fetched from Sinope to Egypt. When the statue arrived, Ptolemy requested his interpreter Timotheus and Manetho of Sebennytus to inquire which god was represented in the statue. Their declaration that the god represented was Sera pis, the Osiris of the lower world or Pluto, induced the king to build a temple to him, and establish his worship. The circumstance to which Manetho owes his great reputation in antiquity as well as in modem times is, that he was the first Egyptian who gave in the Greek language an account of the doctrines, wisdom, history, and chronology of his country, and based his information upon the ancient works of the Egyptians themselves, and more especially upon their sacred books. The object of his works was thus of a twofold nature, being at once theo- logical and historical. (Euseb. Praep. Ev. ii. init. ; Theodoret. Serm. II. de Tlierap. vol. iv. p. 753, ed. Schw.) The work in which he explained the doctrines of the Egyptians concerning the gods, the laws of morality, the origin of the gods and the world, seems to have borne the title of Twv (pvcriKwv iiriTOfx-^. (Diog. Laert. Prooem. §§ 10, 11.) Various statements, which were derived either from this same or a similar work, are preserved in Manethoth, that is, Ma-n-thoth, or the one given by Thoth, which would be expressed by the Greek Hermodotus or Hermodorus. (Bunsen, Aegyptems Stelle in der Weltgesch. vol. L p. 91.) 3n 2