Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

762 AMETRETES. MILLIARE.
were left open next they were filled up with METRO'NOMI (uperpovd4oi) were officers at
plain slabs, as in the propylaea at Eleusis, and Athens belonging to that class which we might
many other buildings, and lastly, but still at all term police-officers. They were, like all officers of
early period, they were adorned with sculptures this kind, appointed by lot. Their number is stated
either in low or high relief. The earliest existing differently: some say that there were fifteen (ten
examples of sculptured asetopes are probably those for the Peiraeeus and five for the city); some sax
of the middle temple on the acropolis of Selinus, twenty-four (fifteen for the Peiraeeus, and nine for
which had metopes only on its east front, and in the city); and others state that there were only ten,
which the style of the sculptures is so rude as al- five for the Peiraeeuls and five for the ci:y. (-Iarmost to remind one of some Mexican works of art. pocrat., Suidas, Phot. and Lex. Seg. s. v. MeTpoThe date is probably between 620 and 580 B.c. voYlot.) Bbckh (Publ. Econ. i. ~ 9. n. 193) would
The next in antiquity are those from the middle alter all these passages of the grammarians so as to
temple on the eastern side of the lower city of make them say, that the whole number of metroSelinus, in which there is a marked improvement, nomi was fifteen, and that ten were for the city and
but which still belong to the archaic style. Their five for the Peiraeeus, because the sitophylaces were
date is in the former half of the 5th century B.c. distributed in the same manner. But there does
A still further progress may be observed in the not appear sufficient ground for such a bold alterametopes of the southern temple on the eastern tion, and it seems at any rate probable that the
hill, which belongs to the second half of the same number of these officers, as the grammarians state,
century. In these the ground is tuf-i and the was necessarily greater in the port-town than in
figures marble; the others are entirely of tufa. the city, for there must have been more business
(See figures of th? Selinuntine roetopes in the for then in the Peiraeeus than at Athens, which
Atlas zu Kugler's Ksostgeschichte, pt. ii. pl. 5. figs. 1 was not the case with the sitophylaces. The duties
-4; comp. AMtiller, Arch/iol. cl. Kunst, ~ 90, n. 2). of the metronomi were to watch that the weights
Thus these Selinuntine metopes, with the works and measures used by tradesmen and merchants
of the epoch of perfect art, namely the metopes of should have the size and weight prescribed by
the temple of Theseus and of the Parthenon, form law, and either to punish offenders or to receive
an interesting series of illustrations of the progress complaints against them, for the real nature of the
of Grecian sculpture. The metopes front the Par- jurisdiction of the metronomli is not known. (Meier
thenon, now in the British Museum, are too well and Schblinanll, Att. Proc. p. 93, &c.) [L. S.]
known to need description: but it is important METRO'POLIS. [COLONIA, p. 313, b.]
to notice the marked difference in their style; MILLIA'RE, MILLIA'RIUM,' or MILLE
some show evident traces of the archaic school, PASSUUM (ulAmeov), the Roman mile, consisted
while others are worthy of the hand of Pheidias of 1000 paces (passums) of 5 feet each, and was
himself. In the later orders the metopes are not therefore = 5000 feet. Taking the Roman foot at
seen, the whole frieze being brought to one surface. 11'6496 English inches, the Roman mile would
This is the case even in some ancient specimens be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the
of the Doric order. (Comp. COLUTINA, and the English statute mile. By another calculation, ini
plates of the order in Mauch, Architekton. Ord- which the foot is taken at 11'62 inches, the mile
7m212sgen.) [P. S.] would be a little more than 1614 yards. [MENMETRE'TES (I'ETpyris), or AMPHORA sRA.]l The number of Roman miles in a degree
METRETES (adYqppevs [LETp?7TrS, t/he standard of a large circle of the earth is a very little more
ampl2 are), was the principal Greek liquid measure. than 75. The Roman mile contained 8 Greek
It contained 12 c/loes, 48 c/hoesices, 72 axestae (sex- stadia. The most common term for the mile is
trtaii), and 144 cotylee. It was 3-4tlms of the mle- mille passiusm, or only the initials M. P.; somediamnus, the chief dry measure. The Attic me- times the word passuzmsz is omitted. (Cic. ad Att.
tretes was half as large again as the Roman uam- iii. 4; Sallust, Ju!g. c. 114).
shoraa quadrantal, and contained a little less than The milestones along the Roman roads were
9 gallons. (See the Tables.) If we take, ac. called snilliaria. They were also called lapides;
cording to Bockh's views, the Greek cubic foot as thus we have cad tertizumn l/apidesm (or without the
equal to 53{- Roman sea.tarii, then, since the Attic word laEpidcsm) for 3 miles from Rome, for Rome
inetretes contained 72 sexatarii, we have the ratio is to be understood as the starting-point when no
of the metretes to the cubic foot as 72: 534- or as other place is mentioned. Sometimes we have in
97: 20, or as 135: 100, or as 1-3.5 to 1, or nearly flll ab Urbe, or a Rosna. (Plin. II. A. x-xxiii. 12.
as 4: 3. s. 56; Varro, R. R. iii. 2.) The laying down of
The Aeginetan metretes was to the cubic foot the mile-stones along the Roman roads is commonly
(still following Biickh's calculations) in the ratio ascribed to C. Gracchus, on the authority of a pasof 9: 4, and to the Attic metretes in the ratio of sage in Plutarch (Gmacch. 6, 7), which only proves
5: 3, so that the Aeginetan measure was 2-Sths that Gracchits erected mile-stones on the roads
greater than the Attic; and since the Attic con- which he made or repaired, without at all implytained 72 sextaii, the Aeginetan contained 120, ing that the system had never been used before.
which is precisely the content assigned by Cleo- There are passages in the historians, where milepatra, Galen, and Didymus, to the Babylonian, stones are spoken of as if they had existed much
Syrian, or Antiochean metretes, which belonged earlier; but such passages are not decisive; they
to the saIne system as the Eginetanl. [MENSURA, may be anticipatory anachronisms. (Liv. v. 4;
PONDERA]. Flor. ii. 6; comp. Justin. xxii. 6. ~ 9.) A more
The Macedonian metretes is inferred to have inportant testimony is that of Polyhbius (iii. 39),
been much smaller than the Attic, from the cir- who expressly states that, in his time, that part of
cumstance mentioned by Aristotle (Ieist. Ani7t. the high road from Spain to Italy, which lay in
viii. 9) of an elephant's drinking 14 of them at Gaulh, was provided with mile-stones.
once; but this is doubtful [P. S-] The system was brought to perfection by Au