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

MOLA. MOLA.,65
depends, of course, on the dimensions of the edi- together at the apex, and provided at this point
fice: thus Vitruvius directs that, in a Doric tetra- with a socket, by which the upper stone was susstyle portico, 1-28th, and in a hexastyle 1-44th of pended upon the iron pivot, at the same time
the whole width should be taken as the module, touching on all sides the lower stone, and with
if diastyle, or 1-23rd and 1-35th respectively, if which it was intended to revolve. The upper
6ystyle. (Vitruv. i. 2, iv. 3, v. 9). [P. S.] stone was surrounded at its narrowvest part with a
MOENIA. [MuRus.] strong band of iron; and two bars of wood were
MIOICHEIAS GRAPHE. [ADULTERlUaI.] inserted illto square holes, one of which appears in
MOLA (1dAxos), a mill. All mills were an- the figure, and were used to turn the upper stone.
ciently made of stone, the kind used being a v-ol- The uppermost of the two hollow cones served the
canic trachyte or porous lava (.tyrites, Plin. H. N. purpose of a hopper. The corn with which it was
xxxvi. 30; silices, Virg. Alorset. 23-27; pumr iceas, filled, gradually fell through the neck of the upper
Ovid. Fast. vi. 318), such as that which is now stone upon the summit of the lower, and, as it proobtained for the same purpose at MIayen and ceeded down the cone, was ground into flour by
other parts of the Eifel in Rhenish Prussia. This the friction of the two rough surfaces, and fell on
species of stone is admirably adapted for the pur- all sides of the base of the cone into a channel
pose, because it is both hard and cavernous, so formed for its reception. The mill here represented
that, as it gradually wears away, it still presents is five or six feet high.
an infinity of cutting surfaces. The hand-mills were worked among the Greeks
Every mill consisted of two essential parts, the and Romans by slaves. Their pistrinum was conupper mill-stone, which was moveable (catillsus, sequently proverbial as a place of painful and deiovo, Tb E7rLtuVALoV, Dezt. xxiv. 6), anld the lower, grading labour; and this toil was imnposed princi-.
which was fixed and by much the larger of the two. pally on women. (Hom. Od. vii. 104; Exod. xi.
Hence a mill is sometimes called molae in the 5; Matt. xxiv. 41.)
plu/al. The mills mentioned by ancient authors In every large establishment the hand-mills were
are the following:- numerous in proportion to the extent of the fanlily.
I. Tilhe hand-mill, or qulern, called io0la 2mant- Thus in the palace of Ulysses there were twelve,
aria, versatilis, or trusatilis. (Plinl. II. r. xxxvi. each turned by a separate female, who was obliged
29; Gell. iii. 3; Cato, de Re Rust. 10.) to grind every day the fixed quantity of corn before
The islanders of the Archipelago use in the pre- she was permritted to cease from her labour. (Od.
sent day a mill, which consists of two fiat round xx. 105-119; compare Cato, de Re Rust. 56.)
stones about two feet in diameter. The upper II. The cattle-nlill, msol aosiafrira (Cato, de Re
stone is turned by a handle (mKy7r?7, Schol. in Rust. 10; Matt. xviii. 6) in which human labour'Teocrit. iv. 58) inserted at one side, and hlas a wlas supplied by the use of ain ass or some other
hole in the middle into which the corn is poured. animal. (Ovid, Fast. vi. 318.) The animal devoted
By the process of grinding the corn iakes its way to this labour was blind-folded. (Apul. JIet. ix.)
from the centre, and is poured out in the state of The mill did not differ in its construction from the
flour at the rim. (Tournefort, Voyge, Lcett. 9.) The larger kinds of hand-mill.
description of this machine exactly agrees with Ill. The water-lill (mokle aqnurZia, ndpaXAeT7S).
that of the Scottish quern, formerly an illdispensable The first water-mill, of which anly record is prepart of domestic furniture. (Pennant, Tobu in Scot- served, was connected with the palace of Mithriland, 1769, p. 231; and 1772, p. 328.) There call dates in Pontus. (Strabo, xii. 3. ~ 30.) That
be no doubt that this is the flour-mill in its most water-mills were used at Rome is manifest from
ancient form. In a very improved state it has the description of them by Vitruvius (x. 5. ed.
been discovered at Pompeii. The annexed wood- Schneider). A cogged wheel, attached to the axis
cut shows two which were found standing inl the of the water wheel, turned another which was
ruins of a bakehouse. In the left-hand figure thle attached to the axis of the upper msill-stonle: the
lower millstone only is showns. The most essential co'n to be ground fell between the stoses out of a
part of it is the cone, which is surmounted by a hopper (il#ctdibdulzuns), which was fixed above
projection containing originally a strong iron pivot. theml. (See also Brunck, Anal. ii. 119; Pallad. do
The upper millstonle, seen in its-place on the right Re Rutst. i. 42.) AusoniuLs, as quoted below,
hand of the woodcut, approaches the form of an mentions their existence on the tRuwer near Treves;
and Venantius Fortunatus, describing a castle
built in the sixth century on the banks of the Moselle, makes distinct mention of a tail-race, by
which " the tortuous streamn is conducted in a
straight chanllel." (PoenL. iii. 1 0.)
IV. The floatingr-mill. When Rome was besieged by the Goths, A. D. 536, and when the stoppage of the aqueducts rendered it impossible to use
the public coril mills (oz S 7s ro,we teiAcemves) in
the Jasnicultum, so that the citizens were in danger
of starvationl, B3elisaritus supplied their place by
erecting floating-mlills upon the Tiber. Two boats
being moored at the distance of two feet fiom each
o ether, a water-wheel, suspended on its axis between
5 theimc, was turned by the force of the stream, anld' put in motion the stones for grinding the corn, by
which the lives of the besieged were preserved,
(Procop. de Bello Gothsio, i. 15.)
hour-glass, clonsisting of two hollow cones, jointed V. The saw sill. Ausonius mentions nils