A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MiTAPUHRASTES. METELLUS. ]Uo S
2. An Athenian architect in the time of Peri- Liber dictus Paraclitus sea illustrium Sanctoruzn
cles, was engaged with Coroebus and Ictints and Vitae, desuamptae eve Simeone Metaphraste, Venice,
Xenocles in the erection of the great temple at 1541,-4to.
Eleusis. (Plut. Peric. 13.) [P. S.] 2. Annales, beginning with the emperor Leo
MIETANEIRA (Me'rdvepa), the wife of Celeus, Armenus (A. D. 813-820), and finishing with
and mother of Triptolemus, received Demeter on Romanus, the son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
her arrival in Attica. (Hom. Hymn. in emr. 161; who reigned from 959-963. It is evident that
Apollod. i. 5. ~ 1.) Pausanias (i. 39. ~ 1) calls the Metaphrastes who was ambassador in 902
her Meganaera. [L. S.] calinot possibly be the author of a work that treats
METAPHRA'STES, SY'MEON (2vpuecgv S on matters which took place 60 years afterwards:
MevrappdacrTs), a celebrated Byzantine writer, thence some believe that the latter part of the
lived in the ninth and tenth centuries. He was Annales was written by another Metaphrastes,
descended from a noble family of great distinction while Baronius thinks that the author of the whole.
in Constantinople, and, owing to his birth, his of that work lived in the 12th century. The
talents, and his great learning, he was raised to Annales were published with a Latin version by
the highest dignities in the state; and we find that Comb6fis in Hist. Byzant. Script. post T/zeoplhanen,
he successively held the offices of proto-secretarius, of which the edition by Immanuel Bekker, Bonn,
logotheta dromi, and perhaps magnus logotheta, 1838, 8vo., is a revised reprint. The Annales are
and at least that of magister, whose office re- a valuable source of Byzantine history.
sembled much that of our president of the privy 3. Annales ab Orbe Condito, said to be extant in
council. The title of Patricius was likewise con- MS.
ferred upon him. The circumstance of his having 4. Epistolae IX., Greek and Latin, apud Allaheld the post of magister caused him to be fre- tium, quoted below.
quently called Symeon Magister, especially when 5. Car2ina Pia duo Politica, apud Allatium,
he is referred to as the author of the Annales and in Poetae Graeci Veteres, ed. Lectius, Geneva,
quoted below, but his most common appellation is 1614, fol.
Symeon Metaphrastes, or simply Metaphrastes, a 6. Sernmo in Diem Sabbati Sancti, Latin, in the
surname which was given to him on account of his 3d vol. of Combefis, Bibliothl. Concionator.
having composed a celebrated paraphrase of the 7. EIT O'ev &pipvov 7r-s vtrepayfas Oeo'tKovu, &c.,
lives of the saints. There are many conflicting In Lawmentationem Sanctae Deipa)rae, &c., Greek
hypotheses as to the time when he lived, which and Latin, apud Allatiunl.
the reader will find in the sources below. We 8. Several Hymns or Canones still used in the
shall only mention, that it appears from different Greek church.
passages in works of which the authorship of this 9.'HLKcOI AN5yot, Sermones XXIV. de Moribus,
Symeon (Metaphrastes) is pretty well established, extracted from the works of S. Basil, ed. Greek and
that he lived in the time of the emperor Leo VI. Latin by Morellus, Paris, 1556, 8vo.; also Latin,
Philosophus; that in 902 he was sent as ambassador by Stanislas Ilovius, in (pvera Basilii Magni; the
to the Arabs in Crete, and in 904 to those Arabs same separate, Frankfort, 8vo. (when?) (Fabric.
who had conquered Thessalonica, whom he per- Bibl. Graec. vol. vii. p. 683, x. 180, &c.; Cave, Hist.
suaded to desist from their plan of destroying that Lit. p. 492, &c. ed. Geneva; Hankius, Script.
opulent city; and that he was still alive in the Byzant. c. 24; Oudin, Dissectatio de Aetate et
time of the emperor Constantine VII. Porphyro- Scriptis Simneonis Metaphrrastis, in his Commentariil
genitus. Michael Psellus wrote an Encomium of Baronius, Annales ad ann. 859; Leo Allatius,
Metaphrastes, which is given by Leo Allatius, Diatriba de Simeonibus.) [W. P.]
quoted below. The principal works of Meta- METELLA. [CAECILIA.]
phrastes are: METELLUS, the name of a noble family of the
1. Vitae Sanctorum. Metaphrastes, it is said, plebeian Caecilia gens. This family is first menundertook this work at the suggestion of the em- tioned in the course of the first Punic war, when
peror Constantine Porphyrogenitus, but this is not one of its members obtained the consulship; and if
very probable, unless the emperor requested him to we are to believe the satirical verse of Naevius,do so while still a youth. The work, however, is Fato Metelli Romnaefiunt Consules, —it was indebted
no original composition, but only a paraphrase or for its elevation to chance rather than its own merits.
metaphrase of the lives of a great number of saints It subsequently became one of the most distinwhich existed previously in writing; Metaphrastes guished of the Roman families, and in the latter
has the merit of having re-written them in a very half of the second century before the Christian era
elegant style for his time, omitted many things it obtained an extraordinary number of the highest
which appeared irrelevant to him, and added others offices of the state. Q. Metellus, who was consul
which he thought worth admitting. The biogra- B. C. 143, had four sons, who were raised to the
pliers of Metaphrastes were in their turn remodelled consulship in succession; and his brother L. Meby later writers, and in many places completely tellus, who was consul B. C. 142, had two sons, who
mutilated; but whatever was left untouched is were likewise elevated to the same dignity. The
easily to be distinguished from the additions. Metelli were distinguished as a family for their
Fabrichis gives a list of 539 lives which are com-' unwavering support of the party of the optimates.
monly attributed to Metaphrastes: out of these, The etymology of the name is quite uncertain.
122 are decidedly genuine; but, according to Cave, Festus connects it (p. 146, ed. Muller), probably
the greater part of the remaining 417, which are from mere similarity of sound, with mercenarii. It
extant in MSS. in different libraries, can be traced is very difficult to trace the genealogy of this family,
to Metaphrastes. The principal lives are pub- and the following table is in many parts conjeclished, Greek and Latin, in "Bollandii Acta tural. The history of the Metelli is given at
Stinctorum." Agapius, a monk, made an extract length by Drumann (Geschichte Roms, vol. i. pp.
of tlhem, which was published under the title 17-58.)