Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/345

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MAR
313
MAR

and it was chiefly through his energy and military skill that the remnant of the Roman army was enabled to keep acting on the defensive after the defeat of Canna;. In the following year he defeated Hannibal at Nola. In 214 b.c. he was again appointed consul along with Q. F. Maximus, and took the command of the army in Sicily. Here he took the towns of Leontini and Syracuse, the latter of which was defended by the celebrated Archimedes. Immense quantities of plunder fell into his hands, and he was afterwards accused at Rome of treating the towns which surrendered with undue severity. His character was undoubtedly stern and severe, but his love of justice has never been denied. In 210 b.c. he commanded against Hannibal in Italy, and during that and the following year he gained victories in Samnium, at Salapia, Numistro, and Canusium. On his return he was elected consul for the fifth time. He was killed in battle near Venusia in 208 b.c.—D. M.

MARCELLUS, Ulpius, a Roman jurist, often quoted, one of the legal advisers of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. He wrote thirty-one books of "Digesta," six books on the "Leges Julia et Papia," a book of "Responsa," and other works, from which one hundred and fifty-nine extracts are found in the Digest.

MARCET, Alexander, a learned physician and experimental philosopher, was born at Geneva in 1770. He was educated at Edinburgh, and commenced practice as a physician in London, where he acquired great reputation. He was successively physician to Guy's Hospital, and superintendent of the general military hospital at Portsmouth. He retired from practice on coming into possession of a large fortune, and visited his native city, where in 1820 he was elected a member of the representative council and honorary professor of chemistry in the university of Geneva. He died suddenly in the following year while on a visit to London. Dr. Marcet was the author of "An Essay on the Chemical History and Treatment of Calculous Disorders," 8vo, 1817, and of many valuable papers on scientific subjects.—J. T.

MARCET, Jane, wife of the preceding, author of a series of very popular "Conversations" on subjects chiefly scientific, was the daughter of Mr. Haldimand, a wealthy Swiss merchant settled in London, where, probably, she was born in 1769. About the time of Davy's brilliant discovery of the metallic bases of the alkalis, 1807, when his science was beginning to arouse the curiosity of the general public, Mrs. Marcet published the earliest of her works, the "Conversations on Chemistry." Written in the form of dialogues between parents and children, and intended for young people, it was immediately successful, and did much to popularize the science which it explained with lucidity and liveliness. "Conversations on Chemistry" has gone through nearly twenty editions. It was followed in 1816 by "Conversations on Political Economy," which Mr. Macculloch (Literature of Political Economy) pronounces "on the whole the best introduction to the science that has yet appeared;" and in 1819 by "Conversations on Natural Philosophy." Among her other books of the same kind were "Conversations on Vegetable Physiology;" on the "History of England;" and on "Land and Water." She also wrote several minor works for children She died in London in 1858.—F. E.

MARCH, Ausias, Osias, or Ugias, a poet in the Limousin dialect, born in Valencia towards the end of the fourteenth century; died in 1460. The chief theme of his poems (published in the original in 1543) is his love for Theresa Bon, or De Momboy, whom he celebrates in a style of sentiment resembling, and considered sometimes as rivalling that of Petrarch.—W. M. R.

MARCHAND, Etienne, was born in the island of Grenada in 1755, and made several voyages to the Antilles. He discovered a group of islands in the South Sea, which he called Islands of the Revolution; and he pushed his explorations as far north as Nootka Sound, adding little or nothing, however, to the observations of former navigators. He died at the Mauritius in 1793. A narrative entitled "Voyage autour du Monde pendant les années 1790-91-92, par Etienne Marchand," was published by Fleurieu in 1798.—W. J. P.

MARCHAND, Prosper, a learned Frenchman, born about 1675, and died at Amsterdam in June, 1756. He was brought up as a bookseller and publisher, and had a shop in Paris, which was the resort of the learned, but left France on account of the religious persecutions, and established a place of business at Amsterdam. Trade rivalry appears to have been nearly as vexatious among his brother protestants as persecution among Romanists. He gave up his shop, and devoted his time to the pen. At his death he left his library and MSS. to the university of Leyden. His principal work was a "Dictionnaire Historique." published at the Hague in 1758. He was also the author of "l'Histoire de l'Imprimerie." His editions of French works are held in estimation.—P. E. D.

MARCHESI, Pompèo, Italian sculptor, was born in 1790. He was a favourite pupil of Canova, and executed several of the great sculptor's later works. The Cavalier Marchesi was one of the most successful sculptors of his time. His works are marked by classic design and careful modelling: they comprise subjects from the ancient mythology, religious pieces for various churches, and numerous important memorial statues. Of these last the chief are a colossal statue of King Charles Emmanuel at Novaro; Philibert-Emmanuel, for Victor-Emmanuel; Volta at Coma; twelve statues of distinguished Italians for Milan cathedral; two statues of Francis I.; Göthe for the library, Frankfort; and many more. Marchesi was professor in the academy of Milan. He died in that city, in 1858.—J. T—e.

MARCHMONT, Hugh Hume, Earl of. See Hume.

MARCIANUS, Emperor of the East, was born in Thrace about 390, of humble parentage. He served in the Persian and African wars under the famous Byzantine general Aspar and his son Ardaburius, and by their influence he became senator and tribune. He was a man of great abilities, and gradually rose to high dignity and power in the Byzantine government; so that on the death of the Emperor Theodosius II., Pulcheria, the sister and successor of Theodosius, gave her hand to Marcian, and he was associated with her in the empire, 25th August, 450. Attila was at this time threatening with invasion both the Eastern and Western empires. On hearing of the elevation of Marcian, he sent to demand from him the tribute promised by Theodosius. Marcian sternly refused all payment of tribute. "I have iron," he said, "for Attila, but no gold." Attila, though greatly incensed, resolved to postpone his Eastern expedition till after he had subjugated the Western empire, and his death in 453 relieved Marcian from a great peril. His successors were divided among themselves, and the emperor was enabled to make peaceable arrangements with them. The generals of Marcian were successful against the Arabs, Persians, and Armenians, and his external administration was vigorous and effective. Being a strict catholic, he summoned a general council at Chalcedon in 451, in which the Eutychian heresy was condemned. His internal government seems to have been exemplary. He died in 457.—G.

MARCION, one of the early christian heretics, was born at Sinope, where his father is said to have been bishop about 100. Excommunicated from the church there, he came to Rome, probably some time before 139; that being the date assigned for the writing of the first Apology of Justin, in which Marcion is referred to as a heretic resident at Rome. He is said to have attached himself, while at Rome, to the Gnostic teacher Cerdo; but be this as it may, Marcion clearly occupies a position of his own in the history of the early church. Directly opposed to the Judaizers on the one hand, he yet cannot be affiliated to any of the Gnostic sects on the other. The practical character of his teaching, shown by his non-recognition of an esoteric gnosis, essentially distinguishes him from them. His errors arose from a one-sided development of the doctrines of St. Paul. The idea of a "new creation" in Christ was the ground of his system, and this he carried to the length of regarding the law, not as a preparation for the gospel, but as an entirely hostile system. Expressing this view in the form of a Gnostic philosophy, he assumed the existence of three fundamental principles—1. Matter; 2. the Good God; 3. the Demiurge, a subordinate being, improperly named God. The Demiurge, working on matter, created the body of man and communicated a soul out of his own essence. He was incapable, however, of transmuting matter by a true principle of life, and thus it remained as the source of evil in man and the world. One people only, the Jews, continued under the special guidance of the Demiurge, and to them he made the highest revelation of which he was capable, viz., that of a positive law of rewards and punishments. In direct antagonism to this was the revelation of a principle of love, made by the Good God, when his Son came down to Capernaum in the form of a public teacher, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Consistently with these doctrines, Marcion rejected all the writings of the New Testament, except those of St. Paul and certain parts of St. Luke's Gospel. His chief work