maintained their existence into modern times, and in these only (except at Locri) have archaeological investigations of any importance been carried on; so that there still remains a considerable field for investigation. (T. As.)
MAGNATE (Late Lat. magnas, a great man), a noble, a man
in high position, by birth, wealth or other qualities. The term
is specifically applied to the members of the Upper House in
Hungary, the Förendihaz or House of Magnates (see Hungary).
MAGNES (c. 460 B.C.), Athenian writer of the Old Comedy, a
native of the deme of Icaria in Attica. His death is alluded to by
Aristophanes (Equites, 518–523, which was brought out in 424
B.C.), who states that in his old age Magnes had lost the popularity
which he had formerly enjoyed. The few titles of his plays that
remain, such as the Frogs, the Birds, the Gall-flies, indicate that
he anticipated Aristophanes in introducing grotesque costumes
for the chorus.
See T. Kock, Comicorum atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880); G. H. Bode, Geschichte der hellenischen Dichtkunst, iii. pt. 2 (1840).
MAGNESIA, in ancient geography the name of two cities in Asia Minor and of a district in eastern Thessaly, lying between the Vale of Tempe and the Pagasaean Gulf.
(1) Magnesia ad Maeandrum, a city of Ionia, situated on a small stream flowing into the Maeander, 15 Roman miles from Miletus and rather less from Ephesus. According to tradition, reinforced by the similarity of names, it was founded by colonists from the Thessalian tribe of the Magnetes, with whom were associated, according to Strabo, some Cretan settlers (Magnesia retained a connexion with Crete, as inscriptions found there attest). It was thus not properly an Ionic city, and for this reason, apparently, was not included in the Ionian league, though superior in wealth and prosperity to most of the members except Ephesus and Miletus. It was destroyed by the Cimmerii in their irruption into Asia Minor, but was soon after rebuilt, and gradually recovered its former prosperity. It was one of the towns assigned by Artaxerxes to Themistocles for support in his exile, and there the latter ended his days. His statue stood in its market-place. Thibron, the Spartan, persuaded the Magnesians to leave their indefensible and mutinous city in 399 B.C. and build afresh at Leucophrys, an hour distant, noted for its temple of Artemis Leucophryne, which, according to Strabo, surpassed that at Ephesus in the beauty of its architecture, though inferior in size and wealth. Its ruins were excavated by Dr K. Humann for the Constantinople Museum in 1891–1893; but most of the frieze of the temple of Artemis Leucophryne, representing an Amazon battle, had already been carried off by Texier (1843) to the Louvre. It was an octostyle, pseudo-dipteral temple of highly ornate Ionic order, built on older foundations by Hermogenes of Alabanda at the end of the 3rd century B.C. The platform has been greatly overgrown since the excavation, but many bases, capitals, and other architectural members are visible. In front of the west façade stood a great altar. An immense peribolus wall is still standing (20 ft. high), but its Doric colonnade has vanished. The railway runs right through the precinct, and much of Magnesia has gone into its bridges and embankments. South and west of the temple are many other remains of the Roman city, including a fairly perfect theatre excavated by Hiller von Gärtringen, and the shell of a large gymnasium. Part of the Agora was laid open to Humann, but his trenches have fallen in. The site is so unhealthy that even the Circassians who settled there twenty years ago have almost all died off or emigrated. Magnesia continued under the kings of Pergamum to be one of the most flourishing cities in this part of Asia; it resisted Mithradates in 87 B.C., and was rewarded with civic freedom by Sulla; but it appears to have greatly declined under the Roman empire, and its name disappears from history, though on coins of the time of Gordian it still claimed to be the seventh city of Asia.
See K. Haumann, Magnesia am Maeander (1904).
(2) Magnesia ad Sipylum (mod. Manisa, q.v.), a city of Lydia about 40 m. N.E. of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mt Sipylus. No mention of the town is found till 190 B.C., when Antiochus the Great was defeated under its walls by the Roman consul L. Scipio Asiaticus. It became a city of importance under the Roman dominion and, though nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, was restored by that emperor and flourished through the Roman empire. It was one of the few towns in this part of Asia Minor which remained prosperous under the Turkish rule. The most famous relic of antiquity is the “Niobe of Sipylus” (Suratlu Tash) on the lowest slopes of the mountain about 4 m. east of the town. This is a colossal seated image cut in a niche of the rock, of “Hittite” origin, and perhaps that called by Pausanias the “very ancient statue of the Mother of the Gods,” carved by Broteas, son of Tantalus, and sung by Homer. Near it lie many remains of a primitive city, and about half a mile east is the rock-seat conjecturally identified with Pausanias’ “Throne of Pelops.” There are also hot springs and a sacred grotto of Apollo. The whole site seems to be that of the early “Tantalus” city. (D. G. H.)
MAGNESITE, a mineral consisting of magnesium carbonate,
MgCO3, and belonging to the calcite group of rhombohedral
carbonates. It is rarely found in crystals or crystalline masses,
being usually compact or earthy and intermixed with more or
less hydrous magnesium silicate (meerschaum). The compact
material has the appearance of unglazed porcelain, and the
earthy that of chalk. In colour it is usually dead white, sometimes
yellowish. The hardness of the crystallized mineral is
4; sp. gr. 3.1. The name magnesite as originally applied by
J. C. Delamétherie in 1797 included several minerals containing
magnesium, and at the present day it is used by French
writers for meerschaum. The mineral has also been called
baudisserite from the locality Baudissero near Ivrea in Piedmont.
Breunnerite is a ferriferous variety.
Magnesite is a product of alteration of magnesium silicates, and occurs as veins and patches in serpentine, talc-schist or dolomite-rock. It is extensively mined in the island of Euboea in the Grecian Archipelago, near Salem in Madras, and in California, U.S.A. It is principally used for the manufacture of highly refractory fire-bricks for lining steel furnaces and electric furnaces; also for making plaster, tiles and artificial stone; for the preparation of magnesium salts (Epsom salts, &c.); for whitening; paper-pulp and wool; and as a paint.
MAGNESIUM [symbol Mg, atomic weight 24.32 (O = 16)], a metallic chemical element. The sulphate or “Epsom salts” (q.v.) was isolated in 1695 by N. Grew, while in 1707 M. B. Valentin prepared magnesia alba from the mother liquors obtained in the manufacture of nitre. Magnesia was confounded with lime until 1755, when J. Black showed that the two substances were entirely different; and in 1808 Davy pointed out that it was the oxide of a metal, which, however, he was not able to isolate. Magnesium is found widely distributed in nature, chiefly in the forms of silicate, carbonate and chloride, and occurring in the minerals olivine, hornblende, talc, asbestos, meerschaum, augite, dolomite, magnesite, carnallite, kieserite and kainite. The metal was prepared (in a state approximating to purity) by A. A. B. Bussy (Jour. de pharm. 1829, 15, p. 30; 1830, 16, p. 142), who fused the anhydrous chloride with potassium; H. Sainte Claire Deville’s process, which used to be employed commercially, was essentially the same, except that sodium was substituted for potassium (Comptes rendus, 1857, 44, p. 394), the product being further purified by redistillation. It may also be prepared by heating a mixture of carbon, oxide of iron and magnesite to bright redness; and by heating a mixture of magnesium ferrocyanide and sodium carbonate, the double cyanide formed being then decomposed by heating it with metallic zinc. Electrolytic methods have entirely superseded the older methods. The problem of magnesium reduction is in many respects similar to that of aluminium extraction, but the lightness of the metal as compared, bulk for bulk, with its fused salts, and the readiness with which it burns when exposed to air at high temperatures, render the problem somewhat more difficult.
Moissan found that the oxide resisted reduction by carbon in the electric furnace, so that electrolysis of a fusible salt of the metal must be resorted to. Bunsen, in 1852, electrolysed fused magnesium chloride in a porcelain crucible. In later processes, carnallite (a
