M E S 
M E S 
trlla, who was descended of a confular family, and mar¬ 
ried the conful Atticus Viftinus, whom Nero murdered. 
She received with tokens of tendernefs her hulband’s mur¬ 
derer, and married him. She had married four hulbands 
before (he came to the imperial throne ; and after the 
death of Nero retired to literary purfuits and peaceful 
occupations. Otho, after this, paid his addrelfes to her, 
but before the confummation of marriage he defrayed 
liimfelf. In hie dying moments he wrote her a pathetic 
and very confolatory letter. 
MESSA'NA, the ancient name of Messina, which fee. 
MESSA'PIA, a country of Italy, which, though fcantily 
watered, was covered with trees and paftures. Its princi¬ 
pal towns were Brundufium, Rudias, Lupire, Hydruntum, 
Callipolis, and Tarentum. It was alfo called Iapygict, 
Peucetia, and Salentinum. 
MESSAR', a final! ifland in the Red Sea. Lat. 15. 
a6. N. 
MESSA'RA, a province of the ifland of Crete, which 
lies fouth to that of Candia, and which is the moft fertile 
and the moft agreeable of the ifland ; it has, among others, 
a very beautiful plain, fix leagues in extent, in which are 
found an abundance of wheat, barley, flax, cotton, and a 
variety of fruits. It is crofted by a fmall river called 
Malognithi , but formerly known by the name of Lethe. It 
pafl'es by the fide of the ruins of Gortyna, and empties 
itfelf into the fea facing the Paximadi illands. The wheat 
of Meffara yields a great quantity of flour, which makes 
excellent bread; it is conveyed on the backs of afles to 
Candia, Retimo, and Canea ; while the inhabitants them- 
lelves live all the year on a very coarfe barley-bread. 
Meflara is reckoned the granary of Crete. The Turks are 
here more numerous than the Greeks. 
MESSASA'GAS, or Missasagas. See Missasague. 
MES'SE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Orne, on the’Sarte : ten miles north-eaft of Alengon. 
MESSEE'LAH. See Mes-Seelah, p. 169. 
MESSEG'NA, a town of Naples, in Otranto : twenty- 
one miles north-weft of Lecce. 
MESSEJA'NA, a town of Portugal, in the province of 
Alentejo: eighteen miles fouth-welt of Beja, and fifteen 
louth-eaft of Setuval. 
MESSE'NE, or Messenia, in ancient geography, a 
country in the fouth of Peloponnelus, moltly maritime, 
fituated between Elea to the weft and Laconia to the eaft. 
It was anciently a part of Laconia under Menelaus, and 
called Meffene by Homer; interpreted by the fcholiaft, 
JHeO'encea Regia. This country is famous in hiftory, on 
account of the refiftance made by the Meffenians againft 
the Spartans, and the exploits of their hero Ariftomenes ; 
for all which, fee the article Greece, vol. viii. p. 84.1-6, 
and 868. 
MESSE'NE, now Mau'ra Ma'thi, a town of European 
Turkey, in the Morea, on a river which runs into the gulf 
of Coron ; thirty miles north-weft of Mifitra. This was 
the ancient capital of Meffenia, north of EEchalia and 
fouth of Ithome ; but it had been repeatedly cleftroyed 
in the fucceflive and calamitous wars which the Meffenians 
had fuftained with the Spartans, as related under the ar¬ 
ticle Greece, before referred to. After the third Meffe- 
nian war, the furvivors had been forced to quit then- 
country entirely ; and it was not till after a banilhment, 
as we may call it, of three hundred year^, that their de- 
fcendants were enabled by Epaminondas to return to their 
ancient territory. That celebrated general collected the 
Meffenians from Naupaftus, Cephalonia, See. and rebuilt 
Melfene in the year 370 B. C. (lee vol. viii. p. 913.) It 
became a large and magnificent town, embelliflied by the 
temples of Neptune, Venus, Ceres, Lucina, &c. by a va¬ 
riety of ftatues, &c. Strabo reprel’ents it as one of the 
ftrongeft places among the ancients, and compares it with 
Corinth, being defended by a fortrefs built on Mount 
Ithome, as the latter city was by a double citadel. On 
the path which led to this citadel was a fountain called 
Cleplydra, fignifying concealed water. It was pretended. 
187 
that the nymphs which reared Jupiter came to bathe fe- 
cretly in this fountain, whence it derived its name. Lat. 
37. 15. N. Ion. 21. E. 
MESSE'NE, in ancient geography, a kind of ifland, 
formed by the Euphrates on the weft and the Tigris on 
the eaft. It had, to the north, the wall of Semiramis, and 
to the fouth a canal, which leparated it from Babylon, 
and the Seleucide territory. 
MES'SENGER, f. One who carries an errand; one who 
comes from another to a third; one who brings an account 
or foretoken of anything; an harbinger; a forerunner. 
—The earl difpatched meffengers one after another to the 
king, with an account of what he heard and believed 
he law ; and- yet thought not fit to ftay for an anfwer. 
Clarendon. 
Joy touch’d the meffenger of heav’n ; he ftay’d 
Entranc’d, and all the blifsful haunt furvey’d. Pope. 
Messengers, in the Englilh polity, are certain offi¬ 
cers, chiefly employed under the direftion of the fecre- 
taries of ftate, and always in readinefs to be lent with all 
manner of difpatches, foreign and domeftic. Thefe are 
twenty in number, and are ftyled king's meffengers. 
They are always employed with the fecretaries ’wai-- 
rants to take up perfons for high treafon, or other of¬ 
fences againft the ftate, which do not fo properly fall 
under the cognizance of the common law ; and, per¬ 
haps, are not properly to be divulged in the ordinary 
courfe of juftice. The priloners they apprehend areufually 
kept at their own houfes, for each of whom they are 
allowed a compenfation by government. Although, re¬ 
gularly, no one.can juftify the detaining a perlon in cuf- 
tody out of the common gaol, unlels there be fome par¬ 
ticular reafon for it, yet it is the conftant practice to 
make commitments to meffengers ; but it is laid, it lhall 
be intended only in order to carrying the offenders to 
gaol. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 16. § 9. An offender may be 
committed to a meffenger, in order to be examined be¬ 
fore he is committed to prifon ; and, though fucli com¬ 
mitment to a melfenger is irregular, it is not void ; and 
a perlon charged with treafon, elcaping from the mef¬ 
fenger, is guilty of treafon, See. Skin. 599. 
There are alfo other officers diftinguiihed by this appel¬ 
lation ; as the meffenger of the lord chancellor, of the privy 
council, of the exchequer, of the great wardrobe, the two 
mellengers of the yeomen of the guards, meffenger to the 
gentlemen peniioners, four mellengers to the board of 
commifiloners for India, meffenger of the board of longi¬ 
tude, nine mellengers of the navy pay-office, four mef- 
iengers of the victualling office, meffenger of the war- 
office, three mellengers of the army pay-office, mellengers 
of the ordnance-office, mellengers off the office for audit¬ 
ing the public accompts, mellengers of the cullom-houle, 
of the itamp-oflice, of the general poll-office, feven meff- 
fengers to the commifiloners of bankruptcy, &c. 
Messengers, the name by which the Baptifts call 
thofe who perform the office of ordination, and fome 
other offices, fimilar to bilhops in the eftablifned church. 
The German Lutherans call them fuperintendents. Life 
of a Dijfenting Minijter, p. no. 
MESSE'NIUS (John), a learned Swedifh hiftorian, was 
born at Vadftena, in Eaft Gothland, in 1584. In his child¬ 
hood he was carried away by the Roman Catholics, un¬ 
known to his parents, and taken to Italy, where he re¬ 
mained fixteen years, and was educated in their religion. 
He afterwards travelled through a great part of Europe ; 
and was not only crowned imperial poet iaureat, but, as 
is faid, ennobled. Having returned to Sweden in 1608, 
Charles IX. gave him a place in his chancery, and after¬ 
wards made him profeffor of jurilprudence at Uplal. 
Here, however, he was involved in a violent dilpute with 
John Rudbec, (fee that article,) which proceeded to ffuch 
a length, and occafioned lb much animolity among the 
adherents of each party, that the king removed both of 
them- from the academy, but appointed Rudbec chaplain 
to 
