probably the ancient_capital of Media, Ecbatana, has been called the garden of Persia.

MEGIDDO, a city of Manasseh, in the tribe of Issachar. (Josh. xvii. 11.) See Part I. p. 60.

MEJARKON, a city of Dan. Josh. xix. 46.

MEKONAH, a city of Judah. Neh. xi. 28.

MELITA, an island in the Mediterranean, now called Malta; situated 60 miles south of Sicily, and being about 15 miles in length from east to west, and 25 in breadth from north to south. This island is thought to have been that of the Phaacians mentioned by Homer, at that period named Iperia, and governed by Eurymedon. It appears that the Phenicians, navigating the Mediterranean, took possession of this island about 1519 before Christ, and founded a colony which became flourishing and powerful. They established, of course, the worship of their divinities, as well as of those adored in Egypt; though perhaps the latter were derived direct from that country by a colony from the neighbourhood of the Nile, which, perhaps, settled in the island. The name of Ogygia succeeded to that of Iperia: the island now had kings, and Dido was here received with due honour on her voyage to lay the foundation of Carthage. The Greeks became masters of Ogygia about 786 before Christ, and from them its name of Melita is handed down to us. About 528 B. C. the Carthaginians overpowered the Greeks, and exercised the sovereignty of Melita, but without expelling the former inhabitants: to these succeeded the Romans, who under Attilius Regulus took the island, yet their dominion was not established till the beginning of the second Punic war. Malta was now in prosperity, and its manufactures were considered at Rome as articles of luxury. Under the Roman government occurred one of the most remarkable events in the history of Malta; the shipwreck of St. Paul, about A. D. 56. (Acts xviii. 1.) Publius was at this time Protos, or chief.

On the division of the Roman empire, Malta fell to the lot of Constantius. It was seized by the Vandals in 454, but retaken by Belisarius 583, conquered by the Arabs in 870, and by count Roger, or his brother Guiscard, in 1090. It passed to the Germans by the marriage of Constance, heiress of Sicily, with Henry IV., son of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa; but its prosperous days were now over, and its riches had disappeared. It was at length united to the crown of Spain, and Charles V. gave it to the knights of St. John of

Jerusalem, who here established themselves, A. D. 1530. These knights were in number 1000, of whom 500 were to be resident in the island; the others being dispersed through Christendom, in their several seminaries in France, Italy, and Germany. The knights surrendered the island to Napoleon Bonaparte, who, being on his way to Egypt, in 1798, with a formidable expedition, stopped at Malta, and took possession.

This island is now in the possession of the British, and is noted for its stupendous fortifications. It produces a variety of excellent fruits, though the island is wholly a rock, not having above three feet depth of soil.

No. 1. A medal of Malta, exhibiting the head of the goddess Proserpine, with a small globe, or egg, or stone, upon her head; an emblem frequent among Egyptian deities. The reverse shows a divinity to which two attendants are making offerings, and holding a canopy over the deity; from their hips issue wings, and their lower limbs resemble those of the ox. This resembles the Hebrew cherub, which had several wings and the legs of an ox; and may serve to prove that the cherubic figure was known to other eastern nations beside the Hebrews, and was, as among them, appropriated to attendants on the deity. This medal is remarkable for the Punic letters ALL, above the canopy, which prove its antiquity; and as they are also found upon medals of a much later date, they show the prevalence of the Punic language in this island, and justify the appellation barbarians, given to the inhabitants, (Acts xxviii. 2. 4.) showing that it is to be explained, not by referring it to savage manners, but to a foreign tongue. The signification of these letters is uncertain, but are supposed to refer to the goddess Urania, whom the Arabs, according to Herodotus, called Alilath, and for which the letters ALL, alil, or alili, may stand. Scaliger proves Urania to be the moon; and the deity on our medal is probably the Phenician Astarte or Ashtaroth.

No. 2. A medal with the inscription MELITAION, of Melita, the intention of which is difficult to ascertain. The figure on the reverse has two pair of wings, one pair at his shoulders, and the other at his hips. He wears a cap divided into two points, has a necklace of beads, and carries in his hands a crook or sickle, and a flail. These, with the wheat ear which appears with the head, seem to refer to the production of grain; and may denote the worship of the goddess of fertility. The figures, as well as those of No. 1, have an Egyptian air, and denote the ancient colonization of Malta from Egypt.

MEMPHIS, a city of Egypt, (Hosea ix. 6.) called in Hebrew Noph, which see.

MEPHAATH, a city of the Levites in Reuben, in the land of Moab. Josh. xiii. 18. xxi. 37.

MERATHAIM, a province of Chaldea, upon the Tigris, pro bably not far from Nineveh. Pekod, Koa, and Shoa, were places also in its vicinity. Jer. 1. 21. Ezek. xxiii. 23.

MEROM, a lake in the north of Canaan. Josh. xi. 5. See Part I. p. 58.

MEROZ, a city of Galilee. Judges v. 23.

MESHA, a mountain. See Part I. p. 21.

MESHECH, a son of Japheth. See Part I. p. 19.

MESOPOTAMIA, a country lying between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, whence its name from the Greek MESOS, between, and POTAMOS, a river; but in Hebrew it is called Aram Naharain, i. e. Syria of the rivers; and sometimes Padan Aram. In Josh. xxiv. 2, 3. it is Eber hanaar, beyond the river, rendered in our translation, "the other side of the flood." Under these different names this country is much celebrated in Scripture. It extended to Armenia on the north, and seems to have included a considerable portion of Shinar or Chaldea, to the south.

At an early period this country was subject to the Assyrians

and Chaldeans. After this it was successively subjugated by the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Parthians, the Saracens, the Seljukian Turks, the Tartars, and finally the Ottoman Turks. Strabo informs us that it was divided into two parts, the first of which he called Mesopotamia Felix, which is probably the upper part of the country, the Padan Aram of Scripture. The other part he styles inculta et aspera, uncultivated and rugged, which was the southern part of the country towards Babylon. Anciently Mesopotamia contained many cities, and seems to have been populous and flourishing; but there is now in this country no place of much consequence.

METHEG-AMMAH, a place taken by David from the Philistines, (2 Sam. viii. 1.) probably the same as Gath. 1 Chron. xviii. 1.

MICHMASH, a city of Ephraim on the border of Benjamin, east of Bethaven. 1 Sam. xiii. 5.

MIDDIN, a city of Judah. Josh. xv. 61.

MIDIAN, a country lying south-east of Canaan, on the east of the Dead Sea, and south of Moab; peopled by the descendants of Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah. (See Part I. p. 35.) The Midianites were early a commercial people, and traded to Egypt in spices, balm, &c. and some of them were among the merchants who bought Joseph of his brethren and carried him into Egypt. The Midianites are frequently mentioned in Scripture, and appear to have been a roving people, and to have spread abroad into several regions different from their original country. The capital of this country was called Midian, and its remains were to be seen in the time of Jerom and Eusebius, lying on the river Arnon, south from the city of Ar. There is also a place in Arabia, on the shore of the Red Sea, now in ruins, called Madyan by the Arabian geographers, who affirm that it is the place where Jethro the priest of Midian resided; and they still show the well from which Moses watered the flocks.

MIGDAL-EL, a city of Naphtali. Josh. xix. 38.

MIGDAL-GAD, a city of Judah. Josh. xv. 37.

MIGDOL, a place on the frontier of Egypt. Exod. xiv. 2. See Part I. p. 43.

MIGRON, a place mentioned with Michmash, (Isa. x. 28.) and probably near it; apparently a city of Benjamin. 1 Sam.

xiv. 2.

MILETUS, a sea-port town of Caria in Asia Minor. said to

have been settled by a colony from Crete. This was the birth-place of Thales, one of the seven wise men of Greece, and also of several other eminent philosophers. It was visited by St. Paul, (Acts xx. 15.) where he was met by the elders of the church of Ephesus, as he could not take that place in his way.

Miletus was once exceedingly powerful and illustrious, and its early navigators extended its commerce to remote regions. The whole Euxine Sea, the Propontis, Egypt, and other countries, were frequented by its ships, and settled by its colonies. These colonies, which were settled abroad, amounted to no less than 80, or as Seneca says, 380. The history of this place, after the declension of the Greek empire, is very imperfect. The whole region has suffered frequent ravages from the Turks. One of their sultans, in 1175, sent twenty thousand men with orders to lay waste the Roman provinces, and bring him sea-water, sand, and an oar. All the cities on the river Meander and on the coast were then ruined. Miletus was again destroyed, near the close of the thirteenth century, by the victorious Ottomans. It is at present a mean place, and the whole site of the former city, to a great extent, is overspread with rubbish, and grown up with thickets. The principal monument of its ancient magnificence, is a theatre in ruins, 457 feet long, with a front of marble. There are also remains of the wall, broken arches, a few scattered pedestals and inscriptions, with marble urns, and many wells. One of the pedestals supported a statue of Adrian, and another the emperor Severus, which has this inscription, "The senate and people of the city of the Milesians, the first settled in Ionia, and the mother of many and great cities both in Pontus and Egypt, and various other parts of the world."

From the number of forsaken mosques among the ruins, it is evident that Mahometanism has flourished in its turn at Miletus.

The Miletus at which Trophimus was left sick by St. Paul, (2 Tim. iv. 20.) is supposed to have been Miletus in the island of Crete; because when St. Paul visited Miletus on the continent, Trophimus went with him to Jerusalem, and St. Paul did not return to that Miletus. (Acts xx. 17.)

MILLO: this word in Hebrew signifies filled up, and probably refers to a deep valley in Jerusalem, between the old city on Mount Sion, and the temple on Mount Moriah. This val