Chapter Middlemarch to Milesian Fables of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Milan Decree, a decree of Napoleon Bonaparte, dated Milan, December 27, 1807, declaring “the whole British empire to be in a state of blockade; and prohibiting all countries from trading with Great Britain or using any article made therein.”

As Britain was the best customer of the very nations forbidden to deal with her, this very absurd decree was a two-edged sword, cutting both ways.

Mildendo, the metropolis of Lilliput, the wall of which was two feet and a half high and eleven inches thick. The city was an exact square, and divided into four quarters. The emperor’s palace, called Belfaborac, stood in the centre of the city.—Swift: Gulliver’s Travels (“Lilliput,” iv., 1726).

Mildmay. (See Frank Mildmay, p. 392.)

Milesia Crimîna, amatory offences. Venus was wors hipped at Miletus, and hence the loose amatory tales of Antonius Diogenês were entitled Milesiœ Fabulœ.

Milesian Fables (Milesiœ Fabulœ), very wanton and ludicrous tales. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (lord Lytton) published six of the Lost Tales of Miletus in rhymeless verse. H e says he borrowed them from the scattered remnants preserved by Apollodorus and Conon, contained in the pages of Pausanias and Athenæus, or dispersed throughout the Scholiasts. The Milesian tales were, for the most part, in prose; but Ovid tells us that Aristidês rendered some of them into verse, and Sisenna into Latin.

Junxit Aristides Milesia carmina secum
Pulsus Aristides nec tamen urba sua est.

N.B.—The original tales by A ntonius Diogenês are described by Photius. It appears that they were great f avourites with the luxurious Sybarites. A compilation was made by Aristidês, by whom (according to Ovid) some were versified also. The Latin translation by Sisenna was made about the time of the civil wars of Marius and Sylla. Parthenius Nicenus, who taught Virgil Greek, borrowed thirty-six of the tales, which he dedicated to Cornelius Gallus, and entitled Erôtikòn Pathêmatôn (“love stories”).