MESS MESSENIA. 



785 



power (790 years B. C.), Mesopotamia was entirely 

 subjected to that empire, and suffered the fate of its 

 subsequent conquerors. Trajan subjected it to the 

 dominion of Rome, A. D. 106, but the Persians did 

 not suffer her to remain long in undisturbed posses- 

 sion of it. When the Arabs, in 651, established a 

 new empire upon the ruins of the kingdom of the 

 Sassanides, Mesopotamia was also obliged to submit 

 to the storm. In the year 1040, it fell into the 

 hands of the Seljooks. From that time it had many 

 rulers, in rapid succession. Genghis Khan made 

 himself master of it in 1218, but, in the year 1360, 

 it fell into the hands of Tur Ah' Bey. Forty years 

 afterwards, Mesopotamia was conquered by Tamer- 

 lane, and, in 1514, Ismael Sophi incorporated it 

 with the Persian empire. The Persians were, how- 

 ever, in 1554, compelled to cede more than half of 

 it to the Turks; and though they again, in 1613, 

 recovered the lost portion, they were unable to with- 

 stand the attacks of Amurath IV., who united this, 

 in 1637, with many other provinces, to his empire. 

 The present extent of this country is computed at 

 about 36,000 square miles, with 800,000 inhabitants. 

 The capital, Diarbekr, situated on the Tigris, with 

 38,000 inhabitants, a considerable manufacturing 

 and commercial city, is the seat of a sangiack. See 

 J. S. Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia [Alep- 

 po, Diarbekr, Mosul, Bagdad, the Ruins of Babylon, 

 &c.] London, 1827, quarto. 



MESS, in sea language, denotes a particular com- 

 pany of the officers or crew of a ship, who eat, drink, 

 and associate together, whence messmate, one of the 

 number thus associated. In military language, mess 

 denotes a sort of military ordinary, for the mainte- 

 nance of which every officer, who takes his meals 

 there, gives a certain proportion of his pay. These 

 associations of officers, in the British armies, exist 

 not merely in time of. peace, but even in the field ; 

 and foreigners are surprised at the degree to which 

 the national love of comfort prevails, even amid the 

 fatigues of service, leading the officers to carry with 

 them loads of table equipage, thereby adding to the 

 cumbrous baggage of a British army. In all the 

 descriptions of the British military life, the mess is 

 conspicuous ; and it may easily be imagined that 

 these social meetings, when the toils of service are 

 suspended, and the pleasures of the table are height- 

 ened by music ; when the restraints of military eti- 

 quette are relaxed, and a soldier-like frankness pre- 

 vails ; when the young express their hopes, and the 

 older relate their experiences, are among the bright 

 spots of British military life. Several armies, par- 

 ticularly the Prussian, have attempted, in time of 

 peace, to imitate the British mess, but without being 

 able to copy it fully. 



MESSA DI VOCE (Italian) signifies, in music, 

 the gradual swell and diminishing of the tones. It 

 fakes place in notes of long duration, especially upon 

 fermates (q. v.),and in the preparation of a cadence. 

 On the duration of the note, the gradation in the 

 piano, crescendo, forte and decrescendo must depend. 

 In shorter notes, less gradation takes place. The 

 messa di voce requires the singer to have his breath 

 entirely under his control. If well executed, it has 

 a very fine effect ; but it is not to be confounded with 

 the erroneous practice of many singers, to begin 

 every tone piano, and gradually to increase in 

 strength ; neither ought it to occur too frequently. 



MESSALIANS (in the Syriac), or Euchetes (in 

 Greek, that is, praying people"), also Enthusiasts, and 

 Pneumatists (as they called themselves); the members 

 of a heretical sect, which arose in Mesopotamia about 

 the year 360, and was introduced by Adelphius (one 

 of their teachers), in the fourth century, into Syrinx. 

 The MessalJans insisted upon the incessant exercise 



of prayer, which they considered as alone sufficient 

 for salvation. They did not labour, but supported 

 themselves by begging, and gave themselves up to 

 fanciful speculation, which explains both their con- 

 fused notions of Christianity, founded on Oriental 

 mysticism, and resembling Manicheism, and also their 

 expectation of being able by prayer to arrive at such 

 a degree of perfection that in it all sin would be of 

 necessity removed. With this are also connected 

 those ascetic, and, in part, indecent excesses and 

 strange convulsions, of which they were accused, those 

 divine revelations and visions, of which they boasted, 

 and their contempt of the church. Notwithstanding 

 the opposition and denunciations of councils, emper- 

 ors, and bishops, Messalians of both sexes continued 

 to exist, although not in large numbers, among the 

 Oriental Christians, till the end of the seventh cen- 

 tury. The modern Messalians, or Bogomili, who 

 are often improperly confounded with this sect, 

 are more nearly connected with the Paulicians. 

 (q. v.) 



MESSALINA, 1, Valeria. This notorious Ro- 

 man empress, the daughter of Messala Barbatus, and 

 wife to the emperor Claudius, has left behind her the 

 infamy of having surpassed, in licentiousness, the 

 most abandoned women of any age. She had all the 

 males belonging to the household of the emperor for 

 her lovers ; officers, soldiers, slaves, players nothing 

 was too low for her. Not satisfied with her own 

 shame, she even compelled the most noble Roman 

 ladies to commit, in her presence, similar excesses. 

 Whosoever did not comply with her wishes she pun- 

 ished with death. She at length went so far as, 

 during the lifetime of her husband, publicly to marry 

 Caius Silius, a senator. Narcissus, a freedman and 

 favourite of the emperor, formerly a paramour of 

 the empress, discovered to Claudius, who was then 

 absent from Rome, this new act of infamy on the 

 part of Messalina. But Claudius delayed to punish 

 her, and Narcissus, seeing that his own life was at 

 stake, if the empress should succeed in recovering the 

 favour of her weak and infatuated husband, gave 

 orders to his friends to murder her secretly (A. D. 

 46). 2. Statilia Messalina ; the third wife of Nero, 

 on whose death she returned to private life. She 

 then devoted herself to the study of eloquence and the 

 fine arts, and acquired some celebrity. 

 MESSANA. See Messina. 



MESSE CONCERTATE (Italian) ; masses in 

 which the recitation is intermixed with choruses. 



MESSE DI CAPELLA ; an expression applied 

 by the Italians to masses sung by the grand chorus. 

 In these compositions, various fugues, double coun- 

 terpoints, and other elaborate qualifications, are al- 

 ways required. 



MESSENIA ; a country of ancient Greece, in the 

 southern part of the Peloponnesus. Its capital was 

 Messene (Mavromati), with the mountain fortress 

 Ithome ; Mothone (Modon), Korone (Coron) and 

 Pylos (Navarino), with the stronghold Pheite, now 

 Calamata, were its principal ports. On its southern 

 coast lay the Messenian gulf (now the gulf of Coron). 

 A ridge of mount Taygetus separated Messene from 

 Sparta. Messenia is celebrated for the long strug- 

 gle of its inhabitants with the Lacedaemonians, in 

 defence of their liberty. In the first Messenian war 

 (743_724 B. C.), the Lacedaemonians with the 

 Athenians invaded Messenia, notwithstanding the 

 proposal of the Messenian king to submit their differ- 

 ences to the arbitration of the Areopagus, or the 

 A inphictyonic council. For twenty years, the Mes- 

 senians defended themselves valiantly, under their 

 king Aristodemus, who, in consequence of an an- 

 swer of the Delphic oracle, which promised them the 

 victory on condition of the sacrifice of a virgin of the 

 3 r> 



