) re- Crete was a powerful
maritime
state ; and Minos
lates the following story about him.
lates the following story about him.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - b
numbers, and it is added that the law respecting to this direct testimony we can oppose nothing,
the driving in of the annual nail was for this reason except the improbability that Constantine should
attached to the temple of Minerva (Liv. vii. 3); have marked out an illegitimate son as his suc-
but it is generally well attested that she was wor- (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, vol.
shipped as the patroness of all the arts and trades, iv. art. iv. p. 84, and Notes sur Constantin, note
for at her festival she was particularly invoked by v. ).
(W. R. ]
all those who desired to distinguish themselves in MINI'CIA GENS, came originally from Brixia
any art or craft, such as painting, poetry, the art of (Brescia), in Cisalpine Gaul. Brixia was a Roman
teaching, medicine, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and colony, but in what year it became one is un-
the like. (Or. Fast. iii. 809, &c. ; August. l. c. known. (Plin. H. N. iii. 19. ) The Minicii occur
vii. 16. )
only under the empire. There was a C. Minicius
This character of the goddess may be perceived Fundanus, one of the consules suffecti in A. D. 51;
also from the proverbs "to do a thing pingui Mi- and another C. Minicius, also one of the consules
nerva," i. e. to do a thing in an awkward or clumsy suffecti in A. D. 103. For this gens see Labus,
manner; and sus Minervam, of a stupid person Epigrapha nuovamente uscita dalle escavazioni
who presumed to set right an intelligent one. Bresciana, Milan, 1830. (W. B. D. ]
Minerva, however, was the patroness, not only of MINI'DIUS, L. , was a Roman merchant or
females, on whom she conferred skill in sewing, banker, established at Elis in B. C. 46, with whose
spinning, weaving, &c. , but she also guided men in heirs Cicero had some pecuniary transactions. He
the dangers of war, where victory is gained by was brother of L. Mescinius Rufus, quaestor in
cunning, prudence, courage, and perseverance. Achaia (Rufus), and married an Oppia. (Cic. ad
Hence she was represented with a helmet, shield, Fam. xiii. 26, 28. )
(W. B. D. )
and a coat of mail ; and the booty made in war MINI'DIUS or MI'NDIUS, M. , brother and
was frequently dedicated to her. (Liv. xlv. 33; heir of L. Minidius, and also a Roman merchant.
Virg. Aen. ii. 615. ) Minerva was further believed Cicero was engaged in a law-suit with him. (Cic.
to be the inventor of musical instruments, especially ad Fam. v. 20, xiii. 26. )
(W. B. D. ]
wind instruments, the use of which was very im- MINIO. 1. Was the confidential friend and
portant in religious worship, and which were ac- counsellor of Antiochus the Great, and his repre-
cordingly subjected to a sort of purification every sentative at the conference with the Roman envoys
year on the last day of the festival of Minerva. at Ephesus in B. c. 193. Minio commanded
This festival lasted five days, from the 19th to the portion of Antiochus' centre at the battle of Mag-
23d of March, and was called Quinquatrus, because nesia in B. c. 190. (Liv. xxxv. 15, 16, xxxvii. 40,
it began on the fifth day after the ides of the 42. )
month. (Fest. pp. 149, 257, ed. Müller ; Varro, 2. Q. MYNNIO (Muvvlwv), was a native of
De L. L. vi. 14; 0r. Fast. ii. 849. ) This number / Smyma, who, conspiring against Mithridates VI.
cessor.
## p. 1091 (#1107) ##########################################
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king of Pontus, in B. C. 86, was betrayed by one | Sarpedon, and conquered. (Herod. i. 173. ) But
of his confederates, and put to death. (Appian, Minos, who admired the beauty of the bull, did
Mithr. 48. )
(W. B. D. ] not sacrifice him, and substituted another in his
MI'NIUS_CERRINIUS, a Campanian, the place. Poseidon therefore rendered the bull furious,
Bon of Minia Paculla, was appointed by her one of and made Pasiphaë conceive a lore for the animal.
the two hierophants of the Bacchanalia at Rome in Pasiphaë concealed herself in an artificial cow made
B C. 186. On the discovery of these orgies (His- by Daedalus, and thus she became by the bull the
Pala FECENJA, HERENNIUS CERRINIUS), Minius mother of the Minotaurus, a monster which had
was arrested ; and, having confessed before the the body of a man, but the head of a bull. Minos
senate the impure and atrocious character of the shut the monster up in the labyrinth. (Apollod.
rites over which he presided, was placed in close iii. l. § 3, &c. ; comp. DAEDALUS. ) Minos is
custody at Ardea. His final sentence is unknown. further said to have divided Crete into three parts,
(Liv. xxxix. 13, 17, 19. )
(W. B. D. ) each of which contained a capital, and to have
MINOS (Mirws). 1. The son of Zeus and ruled nine years. (Hom. Od. xix. 178 ; Strab. x.
Europa, brother of Rhadamanthus, and king of pp. 476, 479. ) The Cretnns traced their legal and
Crete, where he is said to have given many and political institutions to Minos, and he is snid to
useful laws. After his death he became one of the have been instructed in the art of law-giving by
judges of the shades in Hades. (Hom. Il. xiii. 450, Zeus himself; and the Spartan, Lycurglis, was
xiv. 322, Od. xi. 321, 567, xvii. 523, xix. 178; believed to have taken the legislation of Minos as
comp. Mil. ETUS. ) He was the father of Deucalion his model. (Paus. iii. 4. & 2; comp. Plat. Min.
and Ariadne ; and, according to Apollodorus (iii. p. 319, b. ; Plut. De ser. Num. Vind. 4; Val.
1. $ 1, &c. ), Sarpedon also was a brother of his. Max. i. 2. § 1; Athen. xiii. p. 601. ) In his time
Diodorus (iv. 60; comp. Strab. x. p. 476, &c.
) re- Crete was a powerful maritime state ; and Minos
lates the following story about him. Tectamus, a not only checked the piratical pursuits of his con-
son of Dorus, and a great-grandson of Deucalion, temporaries, but made himself master of the Greek
came to Crete with an Aeolian and Pelasgian islands of the Aegean. (Thuc. i. 4; Strab. i.
colony ; and as king of the island, he became the p. 48 ; Diod. l. c. ) The most ancient legends de-
father of Asterius, by a daughter of Cretheus. In scribe Minos as a just and wise law-giver, whereas
the reign of Asterius, Zeus came to Crete with the later accounts represent him as an unjust and
Europa, and became by her the father of Minos, cruel tyrant. (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. 25; Catull.
Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus. Asterius afterwards Epithal. Pel. 75; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1699. ) In
married Europa ; and having no issue by her, he order to avenge the wrong done to his son An-
adopted her three sons. Thus Minos succeeded drogeus [ANDROGEUS) at Athens, he made war
Asterius, and married Itone, daughter of Lyctius, by against the Athenians and Megarians. He suba
whom he had a son, Lycastus. The latter became, dued Megara, and compelled the Athenians, either
by Ida, the daughter of Corybas, the father of every year or every nine years, to send him as a
another Minos, whom, however, some also called a tribute seven youths and seven maidens, who were
son of Zeus. It should be observed, that Homer devoured in the labyrinth by the Minotaurus. (Apol-
and Hesiod know only of one Minos, the ruler of lod. iii. 15. $ 8; Paus. i. 27. & 9, 44. & 5; Plut.
Cnossus, and the son and friend of Zeus ; and of Thes. 15; Diod. iv. 61; Ov. Met. vii. 456, &c. ;
this one they on the whole relate the same things, comp. ANDROGEUS, Theseus. ) [L. S. ]
which later traditions assign to a second Minos, MINOTAURUS (Mivátaupos), a monster with
the grandson of the former ; for here, as in many a human body and a bull's head, or, according to
other mythical traditions of Greece and other others, with the body of an ox and a human head;
countries, a rationalistic criticism attempted to is said to have been the offspring of the intercourse
solve contradictions and difficulties in the stories of Pasiphaë with the bull sent from the sea to
about a person, by the assumption that the contra- Minos, who shut him up in the Cnossian labyrinth,
dictory accounts must refer to two different per- and fed him with the bodies of the youths and
sonages.
maidens whom the Athenians at fixed times were
2. A grandson of No. 1, and a son of Lycastus obliged to send to Minos as tribute. The monster
and Ida, was likewise a king and law-giver of was slain by Theseus. It was often represented
Crete. He is described as possessed of a powerful by ancient artists either alone in the labyrinth, or
navy, as the husband of Pasiphaë, a daughter of engaged in the struggle with Theseus. (Paus. i.
Helios, and as the father of Catreus, Deucalion, 24. § 2, 27, in fin. ii. 18. § 7 ; Apollod. iii. I. 94,
Glaucus, Androgeus, Acalle, Xenodice, Ariadne, 15. $ 8. )
(L. S. ]
and Phaedra (Apollod. ii. 1. $ 3. ) He is said MINTANOR, the author of a lost treatise on
to have been killed in Sicily by king Cocalus, music. (Fulgent. Mythol. i. 1; Schol. ad Stat.
when he had gone thither in pursuit of Daedalus. Theb. iii. 661. )
[C. P. M. ]
(Herod. vii. 170; Strab. vi. pp. 273,279; Paus. vii. MINTHA or MENTHA (Mívon), a Cocythian
4. $ 5. ) But the scholiast on Callimachus (Hymn. nymph, and beloved by Hades, was metamorphosed
in Jov. 8) speaks of his tomb in Crete. The detail by Demeter or Persephone into a plant called after
of his history is related as follows. After the her ulvon, or mint, or, according to others, she was
death of Asterius, Minos aimed at the supremacy changed into dust, from which Hades caused the
of Crete, and declared that it was destined to him mint plant to grow farth. In the neighbourhood
by the gods ; in proof of it, he said that any thing of Pylos there was a hill called after her, and at its
he prayed for was done. Accordingly, as he was foot there was a temple of Pluto, and a grove of
offering up a sacrifice to Poseidon, he prayed that Demeter. (Strab. viii. p. 344; Ov. Met. 2. 729;
a bull might come forth from the sea, and promised Oppian, Hal. iii. 486; Schol. ad Nicand. Alex.
to sacrifice the animal. The bull appeared, and 374. )
(L. S. ]
Minos became king of Crete. Others say that MINU'CIA, one of the Vestal priestesses in
Minos disputed the government with his brother, B. C. 337. Her passion for gay attire made her
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## p. 1092 (#1108) ##########################################
1092
MINUCIUS.
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conduct suspected. On inquiry, suspicion was the consular tribunes of the preceding year for mis
justified, and Minucia was buried alive. (Liv. viii. conduct in the war with Veii. (Liv. v. 11, 12. ).
[W. B. D. ] 2. M. MINUCIUS FESsus, one of the first augun
MINU'CIA GENS was originally, in some of elected from the plebs after the extension of the law
its branches at least, patrician (AUGURIN US) ; but de Sacerdotiis in B. C. 300, by the tribunes Q. and
more frequently occurs in history as a plebeian Cn. Ogulnius. (Liv. x. 9. )
house. Its principal cognomens were AUGURINUS, 3. Q. MINUCIUS, was legatus to the consul, M.
Basil US, Rufus, and THERMUS. Minicius and Claudius Marcellus, during the siege of Capua,
Municius are frequently confounded with Mi- B. C. 210. (Liv. xxvi. 33. )
nucius. The following coin of the Minucia gens 4. P. and Q. MINUCII, legionary tribunes in the
bears on the obverse the head of Pallas, and on the war of Rome with the Boian Gauls in B. c. 193.
reverse Jupiter in a chariot hurling a thunder-bolt, (Liv. xxxv. 5. )
with the legend L. Minucius. Who this L. Mi- 5. L. Minucius, legatus of the praetor Q. Ful-
nucius was is unknown.
(W. B. D. ) vius Flaccus in the nearer Spain, B. C. 180. His
evidence as to the state of the province when ex-
amined by the senate differed from the account
given by the praetor. (Liv. xl. 35, 36. )
6. TiB. MINUCIUS, praetor peregrinus in B. C.
180, died early in his official year. (Liv.