the famous Roman general, and seven times consul, who fulfilled his great military reputation by savage barbarities. He was born at Arpinum, of obscure and illiterate parents. He forsook the meaner occupations of the country for the camp; and signified himself under Scipio, at the siege of Numantia. The Roman general saw the courage and intrepidity of young Marius, and foretold the era of his future greatness. By his seditions and intrigues at Rome, while he exercised the inferior offices of the state, he rendered himself known; and his marriage with Julia, who was of the family of the Caesars, contributed in some manner to raise him to consequence. He passed into Africa as lieutenant to the consul Metellus against Jugurtha; and after he had there ingratiated himself with the soldiers, and raised enemies to his friend and benefactor, he returned to Rome and canvassed for the consulship. The extravagant promises he made to the people, and his malevolent intimations about the conduct of Metellus, proved successful. He was elected and appointed to finish the war against Jugurtha. He showed himself capable in every degree to succeed to Metellus. Jugurtha was defeated, and afterwards betrayed into the hands of the Romans by the perfidy of Bocchus. No sooner was Jugurtha conquered, than new honours and fresh trophies awaited Marius. The provinces of Rome were suddenly invaded by an army of 300,000 barbarians, and Marius was the only man whose activity and boldness could resist so powerful an enemy. He was elected consul, and sent against the Teutones. The war was prolonged, and Marius was a third and fourth time invested with the consulship. At last two engagements were fought, and not less than 200,000 of the barbarian forces of the Ambiones and Teutones were slain in the field of battle, and 90,000 made prisoners. The following year, A.U.C. 651, was also marked by a total overthrow of the Cimbri, another horde of barbarians; in which 140,000 were slaughtered by the Romans, and 60,000 taken prisoners. After such honourable victories, Marius with his colleague Catullus entered Rome in triumph; and for his eminent services he received the appellation of the third founder of Rome. He was elected consul a fifth time; and as his intrepidity had delivered his country from its foreign enemies, he fought employment at home, and his restless ambition began to raise seditions, and to oppose the power of Sylla. This was the foundation of a civil war. Sylla refused to deliver up the command of his forces, with which he was empowered to prosecute the Mithridatic war; and he resolved to oppose in person the authors of a demand which he considered as arbitrary and improper. He advanced to Rome, and Marius was obliged to save his life by flight. The unfavourable winds prevented him from seeking a safer retreat in Africa, and he was left on the coast of Campania, where the emissaries of his enemy found discovered him in a marsh, where he had plunged himself in the mud, and left only his mouth above the surface for respiration. He was violently dragged to the neighbouring town of Minturnæ; and the magistrates, all devoted to the interest of Sylla, passed sentence of immediate death on their magnanimous prisoner. A Gaul was commanded to cut off his head in the dungeon; but the stern countenance of Marius disarmed the courage of the executioner: and when he heard the exclamation of Tume, homo, undec occidere Cainum Mariam, the dagger dropped from his hand. Such an uncommon adventure moved the compassion of the inhabitants of Minturnæ. They released Marius from prison; and favoured his escape to Africa, where he joined his son Marius, who had been among the princes of that country in his cause. Marius landed near the walls of Carthage, and he received no small consolation at the sight of the venerable ruins of a once powerful city, which like himself had been exposed to calamity, and felt the cruel vicissitude of fortune. This place of his retreat was soon known; and the governor of Africa, to conciliate the favour of Sylla, compelled Marius to fly to a neighbouring island. He soon after learned that Cinna had embraced his cause at Rome, when the Roman senate had stripped him of his consular dignity, and bestowed it upon one of his enemies. This intelligence animated Marius; he set sail to assist his friend only at the head of 1000 men. His army, however, was soon increased, and he entered Rome like a conqueror. His enemies were inhumanly sacrificed to his fury; Rome was filled with blood; and he, who once had been called the father of his country, marched through the streets of the city, attended by a number of assassins, who immediately slaughtered all those whose salutations were not answered by their leader. Such were the signals for bloodshed. When Marius and Cinna had sufficiently gratified their resentment, they made themselves consuls; but Marius, already worn out with old age and infirmities, died fifteen days after he had been honoured with the consular dignity for the seventh time, A.U.C. 666. Such was the end of Marius, who rendered himself conspicuous by his victories and by his cruelty. As he was brought up in poverty and among peasants, it will not appear wonderful that he always betrayed rusticity in his behaviour, and despised in others those polished manners and that studied address which education had denied him. He hated the conversation of the learned only because he was illiterate; and if he appeared an example of sobriety and temperance, he owed these advantages to the years of obscurity which he passed at Arpinum. His countenance Marius was stern, his voice firm and imperious, and his disposition untractable. He was in the 70th year of his age when he died; and Rome seemed to rejoice at the fall of a man whose ambition had proved so fatal to many of her citizens. His only qualifications were those of a great general; and with these he rendered himself the most illustrious and powerful of the Romans, because he was the only one whose ferocity seemed capable to oppose the barbarians of the north.

C. Marius, the son of the great Marius, was as cruel as his father, and shared his good and his adverse fortune. He made himself consul in the 25th year of his age, and murdered all the senators who opposed his ambitious views. He was defeated by Sylla, and fled to Preneste, where he killed himself.

Marius (M. Aurelius), a native of Gaul; who, from the mean employment of a blacksmith, became one of the generals of Gallienus, and at last caused himself to be saluted emperor. Three days after this elevation, a man who had shared his poverty without partaking of his more prosperous fortune, publicly assassinated him, and he was killed by a sword which he himself had made in the time of his obscurity. Marius has been often celebrated for his great strength; and it is confidently reported, that he could stop, with one of his fingers only, the wheel of a chariot in its most rapid course.

Marius (Maximus), a Latin writer, who published an account of the Roman emperors from Trajan to Alexander, now lost. His compositions were entertaining, and executed with great exactness and fidelity. Some have accused him of inattention, and complain that his writings abounded with many fabulous and insignificant stories.

Marivaux (Peter Carlet de), a French writer in the dramatic way and in romance, was born of a good family at Paris in 1688. A fine understanding, well improved by education, distinguished him early. His first object was the theatre, where he met with the highest success in comic productions; and these, with the merit of his other works, procured him a place in the French academy. The great characteristic of both his comedies and romance was, to convey an useful moral under the veil of wit and sentiment: "My only object (says he) is to make men more just and more humane," and he was as amiable in his life and conversation as he was in his writings. He died at Paris in 1763, aged 75. His works consist of:

1. Pieces de Théâtre, 4 vols 12mo. 2. Homere travaylant, 12mo; which is not supposed to have done much honour to his taste. 3. Le Spectateur François, 2 vols 12mo. 4. Le Philosophe Indégent, 12mo. 5. Vie de Marianne, 2 vols 12mo; one of the best romances in the French language. 6. Le Payan Parvenu, 12mo. 7. Phorémon; inferior to the former.

Mark (St.) was by birth a Jew, and descended of the tribe of Levi. He was converted by some of the apostles, probably by St Peter; to whom he was a constant companion in all his travels, supplying the place of an amanuensis and interpreter. He was by St Peter sent into Egypt, fixing his chief residence at Alexandria, and the places thereabout; where he was so successful in his ministry, that he converted multitudes both of men and women. He afterwards removed westward, towards the parts of Libya, going through the countries of Marmorica, Pentapolis, and others thereabouts; where, notwithstanding the barbarity and idolatry of the inhabitants, he planted the gospel. Upon his return to Alexandria, he ordered the affairs of that church, and there suffered martyrdom in the following manner. About Easter, at the time the solemnities of Serapis were celebrated, the idolatrous people, being excited to vindicate the honour of their deity, broke in upon St Mark, while he was performing divine service, and, binding him with cords, dragged him through the streets, and thrust him into prison, where in the night he had the comfort of a divine vision. Next day the enraged multitude used him in the same manner, till, his spirits failing, he expired under their hands. Some add, that they burnt his body, and that the Christians decently interred his bones and ashes near the place where he used to preach. This happened in the year of Christ 68. Some writers assert, that the remains of St Mark were afterwards, with great pomp, translated from Alexandria to Venice. However, he is the tutelar saint and patron of that republic, and has a very rich and stately church erected to his memory. This apostle is author of one of the four gospels inscribed with his name. See the following article.

St Mark's Gospel, a canonical book of the New Testament, being one of the four gospels.

St Mark wrote his gospel at Rome, where he accompanied St Peter in the year of Christ 44. Tertullian and others pretend, that St Mark was no more than an amanuensis to St Peter, who dictated this gospel to him; others affirm, that he wrote it after St Peter's death. Nor are the learned less divided as to the language it was wrote in; some affirming that it was composed in Greek, others in Latin. Several of the ancient heretics received only the gospel of St Mark; others, among the Catholics, rejected the last verses of this gospel. The gospel of St Mark is properly an abridgement of that of St Matthew.

St Mark the Evangelist's Day, a festival of the Christian church, observed April 25.

Canons of St Mark, a congregation of regular canons founded at Mantua, by Albert Spinola a priest, towards the end of the 12th century. Spinola made a rule for them, which was approved, corrected, and confirmed by several succeeding popes. About the year 1450 they were reformed, and followed only the rule of St Augustine. This congregation having flourished by the space of 400 years, declined by little and little, and is now become extinct.

Knights of St Mark, an order of knighthood in the republic of Venice, under the protection of St Mark the evangelist. The arms of the order are, gules, a lion winged or; with this device, Pax tibi Marce Evangelista. This order is never conferred but on those who have done signal service to the commonwealth.