MAXYES
Eth.
MAXYES (
Μάξυες,
Hdt. 4.191, where the name should be Eth.
Μάζυες; see
MAURETANIA p. 297a.), a Libyan tribe, and a branch of the nomad
AUSENSES Herodotus (
l.c.) places them on the “other side,” i. e. the W. bank, of the river Triton: reclaimed from nomad life, they were “tillers of the earth, and accustomed to live in houses.” They still, however, retained some relics of their former customs, as “they suffer the hair on the right side of their heads to grow, but shave the left; they paint their bodies with red-lead:” remains of this custom of wearing the hair are still preserved among the
Tuaryks, their modern descendants. (Hornemann,
Trav. p. 109.) They were probably the same people as those mentioned by Justin (
18.7), and called MAXYTANI, whose king is said to have been Hiarbas (
Verg. A. 4.36,
196,
326), and to have desired Dido for his wife. (Heeren,
African Nations, vol. i. p. 34, trans.; Rennell,
Geog. of Herod. vol. ii. p. 303.)
[
E.B.J]
