238 



MITFORD 



MITHRIDATES 



charming ; she dracriuea homely scenes anil people 

 with tin- -kill of an artist, and the liiiinnur and 

 kindliness of a clever, true-hcarte<l woman. See 

 Life by L'Estrange (3 voU. 1878), and his Friend- 

 thipt of Mary Itimscll Mitfurd ( 1882). 



Mil ford. WILLIAM, was horn in I<ondon, 10th 

 February 1744, entered Queen's College, Oxford, 

 hut left without u degree. In 1761 he succeeded to 

 the family estate of Kxbury near the New Forest, 

 and in 17(59 became a captain in tin- Smith Hamp- 

 shire Militia, of which Gibbon was then major. By 

 Cihhon's advice and encouragement he was induced 

 to undertake his History of Greece (5 vols. 1784- 

 1818). It is a pugnacious, opintonative, one-sided, 

 and even fanatical production. The author is an 

 intense hater of democracy, and can see in Philip 

 of Macedon nothing but a great statesman, in 

 Demosthenes nothing but a noisy demagogue. 

 Yet his zeal, which so often led him astray, also 

 urged him, for the very purpose of sulistantiating 

 his views, to search more minutely and critically 

 than his predecessors into certain portions of Greek 

 history, and the result was that Mit ford's work 

 held the highest place in the opinion of scholars 

 until the appearance of Thirlwall and Grote. He 

 sat in parliament from 1783 to 1818, and died at 

 Exbury, 8th February 1827. 



See the Memoir prefixed to the 7th edition of his 

 ffittory (1838), by his brother John Freeman Mitford 

 (1748-1830), who was Lord-chancellor of Ireland from 

 1802 to 1806, and was raised to the peerage as Lord 

 Kedesdale. 



Mithras, or MITHRA, a Perso-Iranian divinity, 

 whose worship, after passing through several 

 changes and transformations, spread itself for a 

 time far beyond the limits of its native seat. In 

 the Xendiivfsta. or sacred writings of the ancient 

 Persians, Mithras appears as chief of the Izeds or 

 good genii, the god of the heavenly light and the 

 lord of all countries. Protector and supporter of 

 man in this life, he watches over his soul in the 

 next, defending it against the spirits of evil. In 

 the dualism of Zoroaster he lights as an invincible 

 hero on the side of the principle of good, Ahura- 

 Mazda or Ormuzd, in his eternal struggle with his 

 rival Angra-Mainyu or Ahriman. At this stage 

 the qualities attributed to Mithras had prohahly 

 only a moral signification. Afterwards, as the 

 political power of the Persians increased and their 

 religion grew, by the natural processes of develop- 

 ment and alworption, more ritualistic and com- 

 posite, Mithras became the sun-god and was re- 

 presented by_ the orb of day, which was wor- 

 shipped in his name. By degrees his importance 

 increased till he had scarcely a rival in the Persian 

 pantheon. Unfortunately, owing to the almost 

 entire destruction of the early religious literature 

 of the East by the fanaticism of the followers of 

 Mohammed, our knowledge of Mitliraisrn as the 

 dominant religion of its day is indirect and vague. 

 Too great reliance is not to be placed on the specu- 

 lations in which some modern writers such as 

 Laiard indulge regarding it. But it would seem 

 to have been, in its ultimate form at least, a system 

 of secret rites and mysteries. For admission to 

 these the aspirant was prepared by a series of trials 

 of a severe description. He then underwent, initia- 

 tion, which, when duly and completely performed, 

 comprised seven, or according to others twelve, 

 degrees or successive steps, symbolically marked 

 by the names of certain birds and animals. Baptism 

 and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting 

 of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance 

 of sacred formulas, are also said to have been among 

 the inaiigurative acts. Most of the ceremonies 

 thiMgh which the devotee had thus to pass were 

 of an extraordinary and even dangerous character. 

 In spite, however, of all this rigour, MithraUm most 



have had attractions of no ordinary kind. Intro- 

 duced into Home in 88 B.C. by Home Cilician pirates 

 whom Pompey hail captured ami whose national 

 religion it was, it rapidly spread through the 

 greater part of the empire. The well known 

 taurine tablets sculptured in bas-relief are the 

 most interesting of its monuments that have come 

 down to our lime. There is a fine example in the 

 British Museum, and others are t be seen in the 

 pi incipal museums of Europe. Mithras now appears 

 as a beautiful youth, dressed in Phrygian garb, 

 kneeling upon a bull, into whose neck he plunges 

 a dagger. Surrounding the group are various 

 emblems, a scorpion, a serpent, a dog, a raven, a 

 crescent, and otners, to which an astronomical or 

 an allegorical meaning has been variously assigned. 

 Caves in the living rock were often the scene of 

 this sacrifice of the bull ; but it was also per- 

 formed in small temples or Mithneums, one of the 

 most perfect of which was discovered in Ostia 

 by the Cavaliere Lanciani (see Afhcnantm, Nov. 

 6, 1886). The floor and walls of tlii> chapel are 

 lined with mosaics representing the twelve signs 

 of the zodiac, and the course of the planets, and 

 containing allusions to the rites of Mithras. Tablets 

 found at Housesteads in the Roman wall and at 

 York are proof of the presence of Mithraism in 

 Britain, to which it had doubtless been brought 

 by the legionaries. Having come into collision 

 with Christianity, it was formally suppressed by the 

 prefect Gracchus 378 A.D., though St Jerome speaks 

 of it as being still practised in his time. 



See Montfaucon, L'Antiquitf Expliqufc (Paris, 1719); 

 Hammer- Purgstall, Milhriafaou Us Mithriaquet (1833); 

 Wellbcloved, Eburacum ( York, 1842); Lajard, Recherche* 

 tur It Culte PuUioue et let Mystira de Mitlira (atlaa 

 of plates in 1847, letterpress not till 1867); Windinch- 

 mann, Mitlira (1857). 



Itlithridates (more properly MITHRADATES ; 

 Persian, ' given by Mithras ' ), the name of several 

 kings of Pontus, Armenia, and Parthia, all of 

 whom have sunk into insignificance, with the ex- 

 ception of Miihridates VI. of Pontus, surnamed 

 Eupator, but more generally known as Mithridates 

 the Great. He succeeded his father, probably about 

 120 B.C., while under thirteen years of age, and 

 soon after sul>diied the tribes who bordered on the 

 Kuxine as far as the Chersonesus Taurica (Crimea). 

 The jealous behaviour of the Konmns, and the 

 promptings of his own ambitious spirit, now incited 

 him to invade Cappadocia and Bithynia, but a 

 wholesome fear of the power of the great republic 

 induced him to restore his conquests. The First 

 Mitliridatic War was commenced by the king of 

 Mil by nia (88 B.C.), who, at the instigation of the 

 Romans, invaded Pontus. The generals of Mithri- 

 dates repeatedly defeated the Asiatic levies of the 

 Romans, and he himself took possession of Bithynia, 

 Cappadocia, Phrygia, and the Roman possessions in 

 Asia Minor. He also sent three powerful armies to 

 aid the Greeks. He was, however, driven from Per- 

 gamus (85 B.C.) by Flavins Fimbria, and reduced 

 to the necessity of making peace with Sulla, re- 

 linquishing all his conquests in Asia, giving up 

 70 war-galleys to the Romans, and paying 2000 

 talents. The wanton aggressions of Murena, the 

 lioinan legate, gave rise to the Second Mithridatie 

 War (83-81 B.C.), in which Mithridates was wholly 

 successful. In 74 B.C. he invaded Bithynia, com- 

 mencing the Third Mithriilatic \\~nr. He obtained 

 the services of Roman officers of the Marian party, 

 and his arms were at first prosperous ; but after- 

 wards the Roman consul Lucullus compelled him 

 to take refuge with Tigranesof Armenia (72 B.C.). 

 Lucullus then conquered Pontns, defeated Tigrancs 

 (69 B.C.) at Tigranocerta, and lx>th Tigranes and 

 Mithridates at Artaxata (68 B.C.). Mithridates, 

 however, recovered possession of Pontus. After 



