MABinS. MARK. tribes, thiou};li passage of a law to distribute the Italian allies among all the tribes, Marius se- iiind an cleetion to the eoniniand of the war. Sulla lleil to his army at Nola, refused to resign the command, and marched on Home. .Marius was soon forced to flee, and after enduring the greatest hardships, and making numerous hair- breadth escapes, he reached -Africa, where he remained until a rising of his friends took place under Cinna. He then hurried back to Italy, in the absence of Sulla, and, along with Cinna, marched against Rome, which was obliged to yield. Marius was delirious in his revenge upon the aristocracy; a band of 4000 slaves is said to have carried on the work of murder for five days and nights. Marius and Cinna were elected consuls together for the year B.C. 86. Marius was, however, already in his seventy- first year, and died after he had held the office seventeen days. Unlettered, arrogant, and rude of manner, Marius did not po.ssess the qualifications requisite for maintaining influence in times of peace. The effect of his personal presence is illustrated by the scene when, during his flight to Southern Italy, a barbarian entered his room with drawn Bword to assassinate him. When .Marius called out in the darkness, "Jlan, durst thou murder C. Marius" the intruder dropiH'd liis swonl in terror and tied. See Beeslv, Miniiis and fiulla (New York, 1878). MAKIUS, -MERrATOR (?-44n?). An ecclesias- tical writer of the earlier half of the fifth cen- tury, born in Africa. He was living in Rome, 418, and ten years afterwards in Constantinople, but authorities dilTcr a< to whether he was priest or layman. He is known to have been a friend and defender of Augustine, a denouncer of the Pelagian and Nestorian doctrine. His determined opposition to the promulgators of these heresies bore fruit in their expulsion from Constantinople. He made Latin translations of Nestorius, Theo- dosius of Mopsuestia, Cyril of .•Mexandria, Pro- clus, Theodoret, and other Greeks which are in- valuable to students of Church history. These, together with his own controversial writings, were twice published in Paris with different editor-;. HiT.'! iind 1084. MARIVAXJX, mi'r*'v6', Pierre Cablet de Chamhi-.m.n i>k (lfi8a-170.3). . French dram- atist important in the development of French comedy, and a novelist, epoch-making in the evolution of French fiction. He was born in Paris. February 4, 1088: his father was a Xorman, director of the Mint at Riom in .u- verpne, where and at Limoges Marivaux passed his youth. His literary taste developed early. .At eighteen he had written a play, /,< y/in firuilmt ct /iiuitablr (published 1712), and bctwcen'1713 and 1715 he produced three romances, F.ffits mir- prrniints tlr lit stnitfnitbir. Lit roitttrr i tnhotirhic, and Lr Don Qiiirhoir moilirni . all wholly out of key with his later work. Then, falling in<ler the influence of the parodist La Motte. he under- took to travesty Homer and PYnelon. but turned from this ignoble task to the production of essays in the vein of the Sprrlnlor for the journal J,e Mrriurr { 1717). These showed kecnnrsa. hut also preciosity. The year 1720 marks a turning point in Marivaux's genius and fortune. lie lost his considerable wealth in the Mississippi scheme, became dependent on his pen, wrote n poor tragedy, Annihal, and a good comedy, ;4r/c9Utn poli par I'amour, and started llie Spcctateur /'raHfHis, a weekly "Spectator." that might have succeeded if his unmethodical habits had allowed it to appear regularly. For the next twenty years he supported himself as a playwright, suc- ceeding in comedy at the Italian Theatre and failing in tragedy at the Theatre Frangais. The more noteworthy of his thirty plays are: Les surprises dc I'anioiir (17221: Le Iriomphc de Plutus (1728) ; Lc jcii de Vamour el dii hasard (1730) ; Le legs (1730) ; and Les fausses confi- dences (1737). He founded two other unsuc- cessful journals, and in 1731 began the publica- tion of a novel, Marianne, which he left incom- plete at its eieventli part in 1742. Madame Ricciboni finished it. In 1735 he began Le paysan parvenu, which also remained a torso. Vet these are his most important works. In 1736 he was elected to the .cademy. Late in life he received a pension from Helv^tius (q.v.) and an- other from Madame de Pompadour (q.v.). He died February 12, 1703. Marivaux shows him- self in his dramas and in his fiction interested primarily in the analysis and display of human feeling. He drew in both his novels pictures of contemporary society and of Parisian street life tliat renmined imequaled for a century in their impressionistic realism, but his delight is in verbal surprise — a somewhat atTccted style known in French literature as inarivaudaqe. Marivaux's TTorfcs arc in 10 vols. (Paris, 1827-30). There is a modern edition of the plays by Fournier and also of .l/anVi)i»e. Consult: SavoUf-e, .Varifaua inconnu (Paris, 1880); Fleurs-, Marivaux et le marivaudage ( ib.. 1881); Gossot. Mariraux mo- raliste (ib., 1881) : Larroumet. Mariraux, sa vie et ses ocurres (ib., 1804) ; and Deschamps, Mari- raux (ib., 1807). MARJOKAM (OF. marjolaine, margrlgne. Fr. marjohiinr. It. majorana, magginrana, from JIL. iiiajoranca, from Lat. amaracus, ainariicum,iTum Gk. t'l/tdfniKor, amarah'os, ofiapaKov, atnarnkon, mar- joram, prolial)ly connected with Heb. ma<-aq, to purify; infiucnced by popular etymology with Lat. major, greater). Origanum. A genus of annual, perennial, and shrubby plants of the nat- ural order Labiata-, natives chiefly of the East, and of the Mediterranean region. Some of the species abound in a yellow essential oil. marjo- ram oil or oil of origanum, which is obtained by distillation. The common marjoram lOrignntim rulgiire). which has become naturalized in the United States, is a j)erennial plant, one foot high with ovate leaves, and roundish, panicled crowned heads of purple flowers, with large bracts. It is vised, as are also other species, as a seasoning in cookery, and is said to be stimulant and Ionic. Sweet marjoram {Origanum majorana) is an an- nual plant, a native of Greece and the Fast, with ovate grayish-green leaves, wrinkled bracts, and small white fiowers. Its uses are similar to those of the common marjoram, being commonly used for garnishing. MARJORIBANKS, mjirch'hanks, Edward, F^eciind lianm Tweedmouth. See Tweed-MOUTH, MARK, miirk (Ger., border, march). A Ger- man geographical term, signifying primarily the marl: of a countrV's limits (the march), and hence applied as a designation of the border countries or districts of the German Empire, con- quered from neighboring nations. Prussia began its existence a.s the north mark, erected against
