Mı ̄nara ̄ja (ca 300 – 325 CE)
Mı ̄nara ̄ja was a yavana ̄dhira ̄ja, i.e., person of authority in the settlements of Greeks under
the western Ks.atrapas in what is now Gujarat and Rajasthan in western India. He wrote a
long astrological compendium, the Vr.ddhayavanaja ̄taka, covering every subject of astrology,
in 71 chapters. The work is based on S’s Yavanaja ̄taka and a lost work of Satya.
Pingree suggests that the first part of his name, “m ̄ına,” is a designation of the S ́akas, i.e.,
Indo-Skuthians.
CESS A.4.427–429, A.5.310; Pingree (1978) 1.24, n. 75.
Kim Plofker and Toke Lindegaard Knudsen
Minius Percennius of Nola (200 – 150 BCE)
Agronomist who “demonstrated” a superior method for sowing seed of the Tarentine
cypress (P C, 151). It is unclear how Cato learned of his method: whether from
personal contacts, or from a treatise, written perhaps in Latin, Greek, or even Minius’ native
tongue, Oscan.
RE 19.1 (1937) 588 (#1), F. Münzer; Speranza (1971) 11–13.
Philip Thibodeau
Minucianus (10 – 80 CE)
A approves his recipe for scrofula (beeswax, galbanum, propolis, tere-
binth, and mistletoe from oak, add lees and natron, set on coals and add olive oil, wild
cucumber root, gladiolus bulb, and “Asian flower”): G, CMGen 6.14 (13.930–931 K.).
Minucianus also preserved an antidote from Z L, see Gale ̄n, Antid. 2.20
(14.163 K.).
RE 15.2 (1932) 1988 (#4), K. Deichgräber.
PTK
Minue ̄s (ca 500 BCE – ca 200 CE)
D L 1.27 cites Minue ̄s for the tale that T associated with Thrasub-
oulos, tyrant of Mile ̄tos; probably, like S, he is ca 200 BCE. The name is otherwise
unattested (LGPN) but accepted by Pape-Benseler, and may mean “a Minyan” (i.e., from
Orkhomenos, destroyed in 368 and 346 BCE, and mostly abandoned after 85 BCE), like the
eponymous hero of the Minyans, Paus. 9.36.4, or else “an informer” (me ̄nue ̄s).
FGrHist 1111.
PTK
Mithradate ̄s VI, King of Pontos (ca 115 – 63 BCE)
Born 132 BCE in Sino ̄pe ̄, son of King Mithradate ̄s V (d. 120 BCE); he deposed his regent
mother Gespaepuris ca 115 BCE, and expanded his realm, allying with Armenia. By ca 95 he
had come into conflict with Roman interests, after which he conquered Bithunia and allied
with many Greek cities, including Ephesos, Mile ̄tos, Pergamon, and Athens, defecting from
Rome in 90. More or less continuous warfare ensued for 25 years, Mithradate ̄s representing
himself as the savior of Hellenism, until his defeat by Pompey and suicide in 63; his treasury
MITHRADATE ̄S VI, KING OF PONTOS