harbour, a circular basin open on the north only, formed by a strip of land curving round like a sickle, from which it took its original name, Zancle (ζάγκλον, or rather δάγκλον, the Sicilian equivalent of the Greek δρέπανον,[1] according to Thucydides, vi. 4).
Zancle was first founded, no doubt on the site of an earlier settlement, by pirates from Cumae, and again more regularly Settled, after an unknown interval, by settlers from Cumae under Perieres, and from Chalcis under Crataemenes, in the first quarter of the 8th century B.C. Mylae must have been occupied as an outpost very soon afterwards, but the first regular colony of Zancle was Himera, founded in 648 B.C. After the capture of Miletus by the Persians in 494 B.C. Skythes, king of Zancle, invited the Ionians to come and settle at Καλὴ Ἀκτή, then in the occupation of the Sicels (the modern Marina di Caronia, 25 m. east of Cefalu); but at the invitation of Anaxilas of Regium the Samians proceeded instead to the latter place. About 488 B.C. Anaxilas and the Samians occupied Zancle in the absence of Skythes, and it was then that the name was changed to Messene, as the existence of coins of the Samian type, bearing the new name, proves. About 480, however, Anaxilas thoroughly established his authority at Messene, and the types of coinage introduced by him persevere down to about 396 B.C.,[2] when Anaxilas himself zealously supported his son-in-law Terillus in inviting the Carthaginians’ invasion of 480 B.C. In 426 the Athenians gained the alliance of Zancle, but soon lost it again, and failed to obtain it in 415.
Messina fell into the hands of the Carthaginians during their, wars with Dionysius the elder of Syracuse (397 B.C.). The Carthaginians destroyed the city, but Dionysius recaptured and rebuilt it. During the next fifty years Messina changed masters several times, till Timoleon finally expelled the Carthaginians in 343 B.C. In the wars between Agathocles of Syracuse and Carthage, Messina took the side of the Carthaginians. After Agathocles’ death, his mercenaries, the Mamertines, treacherously seized the town about 282 B.C. and held it. They came to war with Hiero II. of Syracuse and appealed for help to Rome, which was granted, and this led to a collision between Rome and Carthage, which ended in the First Punic War. Messina was almost at once taken by Rome. At the close of the war, in 241 B.C., Messina became a free and allied city (civitas foederata), and obtained Roman citizenship before the rest of Sicily, probably from Caesar himself. During the civil wars which followed the death of Caesar, Messina held with Sextus Pompeius; and in 35 B.C. it was sacked by Octavian’s troops. After Octavian’s proclamation as emperor he founded a colony here; and Messina continued to flourish as a trading port. In the division of the Roman empire it belonged to the emperors of the East; and in A.D. 547 Belisarius collected his fleet here before crossing into Calabria. The Saracens took the city in A.D. 831; and in 1061 it was the first permanent conquest made in Sicily by the Normans. In 1190 Richard I. of England, with his crusaders, passed six months in Messina. He quarrelled with Tancred, the last of the Hauteville dynasty, and sacked the town. In 1194 the city, with the rest of Sicily, passed to the house of Hohenstaufen under the emperor Henry VI., who died there in 1197; and after the fall of the Hohenstaufen was contended for by Peter I., king of Aragon, and Charles I., count of Anjou. At the time of the Sicilian Vespers (1282), which drove the French out of Sicily, Messina bravely defended itself against Charles of Anjou, and repulsed his attack. Peter I., through his commander Ruggiero di Loria, defeated the French off the Faro; and from 1282 to 1713 Messina remained a possession of the Spanish royal house. In 1571 the fleet fitted out by the Holy League against the Turk assembled at Messina, and in the same year its commander, Don John of Austria, celebrated a triumph in the city for his victory at Lepanto. Don John’s statue stands in the Piazza dell’ Annuziata. For one hundred years, thanks to the favours and the concessions of Charles V., Messina enjoyed great prosperity. But the internal quarrels between the Merli, or aristocratic faction, and the Malvezzi, or democratic faction, fomented as they were by the Spaniards, helped to ruin the city (1671–1678). The Messinians suspected the Spanish court of a desire to destroy the ancient senatorial constitution of the city, , and sent to France to ask the aid of Louis XIV. in their resistance. Louis despatched a fleet into Sicilian waters, and the French occupied the city. The Spaniards replied by appealing to Holland, who sent a fleet under Ruyter into the Mediterranean. In 1676 the French admiral, Abraham Duquesne, defeated the combined fleet of Spain and Holland; but, notwithstanding this victory, the French suddenly abandoned Messina in 1678, and the Spanish occupied the town once more. The senate was suppressed, and Messina lost its privileges. This was fatal to the importance of the city. In 1743 the plague carried off 40,000 inhabitants. The city was partially destroyed by earthquake in 1783. During the revolution of 1848 against the Bourbons of Naples, Messina was bombarded for three consecutive days. In 1854 the deaths from cholera numbered about 15,000. Garibaldi landed in Sicily in 1860, and Messina was the last city in the island taken from the Bourbons and made a part of united Italy under Victor Emmanuel.
Messina was the birthplace of Dicaearchus, the historian (c. 322 B.C.); Aristocles, the Peripatetic; Euhemerus, the rationalist (c. 316 B.C.); Stefano Protonotario, Mazzeo di Ricco and Tommaso di Sasso, poets of the court of Frederick II. (A.D. 1250); and Antonello da Messina, the painter (1447–1499), of whose works one is preserved in the museum. During the 15th century the grammarian Constantine Lascaris, taught in Messina; and Bessarion was for a time archimandrite there. (T. As.)
MESSUAGE (from Anglo-French mesuage, probably a corruption of mésuage, ménage, popular Lat. mansionaticum, from mansio, whence mod. Fr. maison, from manere, to dwell), in law, a term equivalent to a dwelling-house, and including outbuildings,
orchard, curtilage or court-yard and garden. At one
time “messuage” is supposed to have had a more extensive meaning than that comprised in the word “house,” but such, distinction, if it ever existed, no longer survives.
MESTIZO (adopted from the Spanish, the Portuguese form
being mestiço, from Lat. miscere, to mix), a term originally
meaning a half-breed, one of whose parents was Spanish, and
now used occasionally of any half-breed, but especially to denote
persons of mixed Spanish (or Portuguese) and American Indian
blood. The offspring of such half-breeds are also called mestizoes.
The feminine form is mestiza.
MESUREUR, GUSTAVE EMIL EUGÈNE (1847–), French
politician, was born at Marcq-en-Baroeul (Nord) on the 2nd of
April 1847. He worked as a designer in Paris, and became
prominent as a member of the municipal council of Paris,
rousing much angry discussion by a proposal to rename the
Parisian streets which bore saints’ names. In 1887 he became
president of the council. The same year he entered the Chamber
of Deputies, taking his place with the extreme left. He joined
the L. Bourgeois ministry of 1895–1896 as minister of commerce,
industry, post and telegraphs, was vice-president of the Chamber
from 1898 to 1902, and presided over the Budget Commission of
1899, 1901 and 1902. He was defeated at the polls in 1902, but
became director of the Assistance Publique. His wife, Amelie
deWailly (b. 1853), is well known as a writer of light verse and
of some charming children’s books.
META, the Latin word for the goal which formed the turning-point for the chariot races in the Roman circus. The metae consisted of three conical pillars resting on a single podium. None have been preserved, but they are shown on coins, gems and terra-cotta bas-reliefs.
METABOLIC DISEASES. All disease is primarily due to
alterations (Gr. μεταβολὴ, change), quantitative or qualitative, in the chemical changes in the protoplasm of some or all of the tissues of the body. But while in some pathological states these modifications lead to structural changes, in others they do not produce gross lesions, and these latter conditions are commonly classified as Functional Diseases. When such
