Modigliaiia, Fkancisco, a Bolognese painter, fldurisht il aliout the beginning of the 17th century. Lanzi says he " was not remarkably powerful, nor al- ways consistent with himself, but very graceful and beautiful, and deserving a jilace in our lexica." His works at Urbino, where he is known under tlie name of Francisco da Forli, are a picture of Christ taken dovn from the Cross, in oil, at St. Croce, and some Angds, in fresco, at St. Lucia. His finest works, however, are in the churches at Forli and liimini, among wliich are Adam driven from Fden, the Deluge, and tlie Tower of Bahrl. He died suddenly, leaving his work imperfect, but it was afterwards continued by Arrigoni, who paint- ed the Death of Abel ia the same place. See Lanzi,
Ilisf. of Painting, trausl. by Roscoe (Lond. 1847, 3 vols. 8vo), iii, 57.
Mo'din (Mo)Ctiv v. r. 'Slwcnifi, Mojiuifi, Mui^a- £1^, and in di. ii Mwcffiv; Joscphus, Mwfui/j, and once yiwc itiv; Vulg. ,l/o(///( ; the Jewish form is, in the Mishna, D'^~'^Tl'!:n, in Joseph ben-Gorion, ch. xx, ^''"^Twl^ ; the Syriac version of ^laccabees agrees with the Mishna, except in the absence of the article, and in the usual substitution of r for d, Mora'im), a place not mentioned in either the Old or New Testament, though rendered immortal by its connection witli the history of tlie Jews in the interval between the two. It was the native city of the Maccab;i;an family (I Mace, xiii, 25), and as a necessary consequence contained their an- cestral sepulchre (ra^of) (ii, 70; ix, 19), Hither Mat- tathias removed from Jerusalem, where up to that time he seems to have been residing, at the commencement of the Antiochian persecution (ii, I). It was here that he struck the lirst blow of resistance, by slaying on the heathen altar which had been erected in the place both the commissioner of Antiochus and a recreant .Jew whom he had induced to sacrifice, and then demolishing the altar. Mattathias himself, and subsequently his sons Judas and Jonathan, were buried in the family tomb, and over them Simon erected a structure which is mi- nutely described in the book of Maccabees (xiii, 25-30), and, with less detail, by Josephus {Ant. xiii, G, 6), but the restoration of which has hitherto proved as difficult a puzzle as that of the mausoleum of Artemisia.
At Modin the IMaccabaian armies encamped on the eves of two of their most memorable victories— that of Judas over Antiochus Eupator (2 Mace, xiii, 1-1), and that of Simon over CendebiBus (I Mace, xvi, 4) — the last battle of the venerable chief before his assassina- tion. The only indication of the position of the place to be gathered from the above notices is contained in the last, from which we may infer that it was near '• the plain" {to KiHov), i. e. the great maritime lowland of Philistia (ver. 5). Bj' Eusebius and Jerome {Onomast. M);('i£f(/[<, Modim) it is specified as near Diospolis, i. e. Lj-dda; while the notice in the Mishna {Pcsachim, ix, 2), and the comments of Bartenora and Maimonides, state that it was flftceu (lioman) miles from Jerusalem. At the same time the description of tlie monument seems to imply (though for this see below) that the spot was so lofty as to be visible from the sea, and so near that even the details of the sculpture were dis- cernible therefrom. All these conditions, except the last, are tolerably fullilled in either of the two sites called Lat run and Kubub. The former of these is, by the shortest road — that through Wady Ali — exactly fifteen Roman miles from Jerusalem; it is about eight English miles from Lydd, fifteen from the ^leditorra- nean, and nine or ten from the River Rubin, on which it is probable that Cedron — tlie position of Cendebanis in Simon's battle — stood. Kubab is a couple of miles farther from Jerusalem, and therefore nearer to Lydd and to the sea, on the most westerly spur of the hills of Benjamin. Both are lofty, and both apiiarently — La- trun certainly— command a view of the iSleiliterranean. In favor of Latri'in arc the extensive ancient remains with which the top of the hill is said to be covered (Robinson, Bib. Pes. iii, 151 ; Tobler, 7>nV/e M'and. p. 18G"), though of their date and particulars we have at present no accurate information. The foundations of tiie fortress appear to be of the Roman ago, or perhaps earlier, though the upper parts exhibit pointed arches and ligiit architecture of a much later date. The view from the summit is conimanding. and embraces the whole plain to Jojipa and the Mediterranean beyond. The name Latron appears to have arisen in the IGth century, from the legend wliich made this the birth- place of the penitent thief— '•Castrnm boni Latronis" ((^uaresmius, ii, 12; Porter, //anil-boo/,: p. 285: Riland, p. 1»0I ; Thomson, Laml awl Hook, ii. 308). Kubab ap- pears to possess no ruins, l^ut, on the other hautl, its
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name may retain a trace of the monument. Ewald {Gesch. iv, 350, note) suggests that the name INIodin may be still surviving in Deir Ma' in. But this is ques- tionable on philological grounds; and the position of Deir Ma'in is less in accordance with the facts I han that • of the two named in the text. The mediajval and mod- ern tradition (see Kobinson, ii, 7) places Modin at Soba, an eminence south of Kuriet el-Enab ; but this being not more than seven miles from Jerusalem, while it is as much as twenty-five from Lydd and thirty from the sea, and also far removed from the plain of Philistia, is at variance with everj^ one of the conditions implied in the records. It has found advocates in our own day in M. de Saulcy {L'A rt Judmque, etc., p. 377 sq.) and M. Salzmann (Jerusalem, Etude, etc., p. 37, 38 ; where the lively account would be more satisfactory if it were less encumbered with mistakes), the latter of whom ex- plored chambers there which may have been tombs, though he admits that there was notliing to prove it. A suggestive fact, which Dr. Robinson first pointed out, is the want of unanimity in the accounts of the medi- eval travellers, some of whom, as William of Tyre (viii, 1), place Modin in a position near Emmaus-Nicopolis, Nob, and Lydda. 51. Mislin also — usually so vehement in favor of the traditional sites — has recommended fur- ther investigation. If it should turn out that the ex- pression of the book of Maccabees as to the monument being visible from the sea has been misinterpreted, then one impediment to the reception of Soba will be removed; but it is dilficult to account for the origin of the tradition in the teeth of those which remain.