A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

MĔRENDA. [[Coena].]

MĔTAE. [[Circus].]

MĔTALLUM (μέταλλον), a mine and metal. The metals which have been known from the earliest period of which we have any information are those which were long distinguished as the seven principal metals, namely, gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and mercury. If to this list we add the compound of gold and silver called electrum, the compound of copper and tin called χαλκός and aes (bronze), and steel, we have, in all probability, a complete list of the metals known to the Greeks and Romans, with the exception of zinc, which they do not seem to have known as a metal, but only in its ores, and of brass, which, they regarded as a sort of bronze. The early Greeks were no doubt chiefly indebted for a supply of the various metals to the commerce of the Phoenicians, who procured them principally from Arabia and Spain, and tin from our own island and the East. They were perfectly acquainted with the processes of smelting the metal from the ore, and of forging heated masses into the required shapes, by the aid of the hammer and tongs. The smith’s instruments were the anvil (ἄκμων) with the block on which it rested (ἀκμόθετον), the tongs (πυράγρη) and the hammer (ῥαιστήρ, σφῦρα). The advances made in the art of metallurgy in subsequent times are chiefly connected with the improvements in the art of statuary. The method of working, as described in Homer, seems to have long prevailed, namely by beating out lumps of the material into the form proposed, and afterwards fitting the pieces together by means of pins or keys. It was called σφυρήλατον, from σφῦρα, a hammer. The next mode, among the Greeks, of executing metal works seems to have been by plating upon a nucleus, or general form, of wood—a practice which was employed also by the Egyptians. It is extremely difficult to determine at what date the casting of metal was introduced. According to the statements of Pausanias and Pliny, the art of casting in bronze and in iron was invented by Rhoecus and Theodorus of Samos, who probably lived in the sixth and fifth centuries before our era.

MĔTOICI (μέτοικοι), the name by which, at Athens and in other Greek states, the resident aliens were designated. They must be distinguished from such strangers as made only a transitory stay in a place, for it was a characteristic of a metoicus, that he resided permanently in the city. No city of Greece perhaps had such a number of resident aliens as Athens, since none afforded to strangers so many facilities for carrying on mercantile business, or a more agreeable mode of living. In the census instituted by Demetrius Phalereus (B.C. 309), the number of resident aliens at Athens was 10,000, in which number women and children were probably not included. The jealousy with which the citizens of the ancient Greek republics kept their body clear of intruders, is also manifest in their regulations concerning aliens. However long they might have resided in Athens, they were always regarded as strangers, whence they are sometimes called ξένοι, and to remind them of their position, they had on some occasions to perform certain degrading services for the Athenian citizens [[Hydriaphoria]]. These services were, however, in all probability not intended to hurt the feelings of the aliens, but were simply acts symbolical of their relation to the citizens. Aliens were not allowed to acquire landed property in the state they had chosen for their residence, and were consequently obliged to live in hired houses or apartments. As they did not constitute a part of the state, and were yet in constant intercourse and commerce with its members, every alien was obliged to select a citizen for his patron (προστάτης), who was not only the mediator between them and the state, through whom alone they could transact any legal business, whether private or public, but was at the same time answerable (ἐγγυητής) to the state for the conduct of his client. On the other hand, however, the state allowed the aliens to carry on all kinds of industry and commerce under the protection of the law; in fact, at Athens nearly all business was in the hands of aliens, who on this account lived for the most part in the Peiraeeus. Each family of aliens, whether they availed themselves of the privilege of carrying on any mercantile business or not, had to pay an annual tax (μετοίκιον or ξενικά) of twelve drachmae, or if the head of the family was a widow, of only six drachmae. If aliens did not pay this tax, or if they assumed the right of citizens, and probably also in case they refused to select a patron, they not only forfeited the protection of the state, but were sold as slaves. Extraordinary taxes and liturgies (εἰσφοραί and λειτουργίαι) devolved upon aliens no less than upon citizens. The aliens were also obliged, like citizens, to serve in the regular armies and in the fleet, both abroad and at home, for the defence of the city. Those aliens who were exempt from the burthens peculiar to their class were called isoteles (ἰσοτελεῖς). They had not to pay the μετοίκιον (ἀτέλια μετοικίου), were not obliged to choose a προστάτης, and in fact enjoyed all the rights of citizens, except those of a political nature. Their condition was termed ἰσοτέλεια and ἰσοπολιτεία.

MĔTOPA or MĔTŎPE (μετόπη), the name applied to each of the spaces between the triglyphs in the frieze of the Doric order, and by metonymy to the sculptured ornament with which those spaces were filled up. In the original significance of the parts the triglyphs represent the ends of the cross-beams or joists which rested on the architrave; the beds of these beams were called ὀπαί, and hence the spaces between them μετόπαι. Originally they were left open; next they were filled up with plain slabs, as in the propylaea at Eleusis, and many other buildings, and lastly, but still at an early period, they were adorned with sculptures either in low or high relief. The metopes from the Parthenon in the British Museum are adorned with sculptures in high relief.

MĔTRĒTES (μετρητής), the principal Greek liquid measure. The Attic metretes was equal in capacity to the amphora, containing 8 galls. 7·365 pints, English. See the [Tables]. [[Chous]; [Choenix]; [Xestes]; [Cotyla].]

MĒTRŎPŎLIS. [[Colonia].]

MĬLIĀRE, MILLĬĀRĬUM, or MILLE PASSUUM (μίλιον), the Roman mile, consisted of 1000 paces (passus) of 5 feet each, and was therefore = 5000 feet. Taking the Roman foot at 11·6496 English inches [[Pes]], the Roman mile would be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the English statute mile. The most common term for the mile is mille passuum, or only the initials M. P.; sometimes the word passuum is omitted. The Roman mile contained 8 Greek stadia. The mile-stones along the Roman roads were called milliaria. They were also called lapides; thus we have ad tertium lapidem (or without the word lapidem) for 3 miles from Rome. Augustus erected a gilt pillar in the Forum, where the principal roads terminated, which was called milliarium aureum; but the miles were not reckoned from it, but from the gates of the city. Such central marks appear to have been common in the principal cities of the Roman empire. The “London-stone” in Cannon-street is supposed to have marked the centre of the Roman roads in Britain.

MĪMUS (μῖμος), the name by which, in Greece and at Rome, a species of the drama was designated, though the Roman mimus differed essentially from the Greek. The Greek mimus seems to have originated among the Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy, and to have consisted originally of extemporary representations or imitations of ridiculous occurrences of common life at certain festivals. At a later period these rude representations acquired a more artistic form, which was brought to a high degree of perfection by Sophron of Syracuse (about B.C. 420). He wrote his pieces in the popular dialect of the Dorians and a kind of rhythmical prose. Among the Romans the word mimus was applied to a species of dramatic plays as well as to the persons who acted in them. It is certain that the Romans did not derive their mimus from the Greeks in southern Italy, but that it was of native growth. The Greek mimes were written in prose, and the name μῖμος was never applied to an actor, but if used of a person it signified one who made grimaces. The Roman mimes were imitations of foolish and mostly indecent occurrences, and scarcely differed from comedy except in consisting more of gestures and mimicry than of spoken dialogue. At Rome such mimes seem originally to have been exhibited at funerals, where one or more persons (mimi) represented in a burlesque manner the life of the deceased. If there were several mimi, one of them, or their leader, was called archimimus. These coarse and indecent performances had greater charms for the Romans than the regular drama. They were performed on the stage as farces after tragedies, and during the empire they gradually supplanted the place of the Atellanae. It was peculiar to the actors in these mimes, to wear neither masks, the cothurnus, nor the soccus, whence they are sometimes called planipedes.

MĬNA. [[Talentum].]