A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Μανία).

1. A Phrygian, as the name implies (Mach. apud Athen. xiii. p. 578b), was the wife of Zenis, a Greek of Dardanus, and satrap, under Pharnabazus, of the Midland Aeolis. After the death of Zenis, Mania prevailed on Pharnabazus to allow her to retain the satrapy which her husband had held. Invested with the government, she strictly fulfilled her promise that the tribute should be paid as regularly as before,

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and she not only kept in obedience the cities entrusted to her, but also added to them by conquest the maritime towns of Larissa, Hamaxitus, and Colonae, which she took with the Greek mercenaries whom she maintained liberally in her service. She continued to conciliate the favour of Pharnabazus by frequent presents, as well as by splendid and agreeable entertainments, whenever he came into her satrapy. The valuable assistance, too, which she rendered him both by arms and counsel, he fully appreciated; and she seems to have been at the height of her prosperity, when she was murdered by her son-in-law MEIDIAS, shortly before the arrival of Dercyllidas in Asia, in B. C. 399. (Xen. Hell. iii. 50. §§ 10-14; Polyaen. 8.54.)