Monilia, necklaces. (British Museum.)
Monilia, necklaces. (British Museum.)
MŎNŬMENTUM. [Funus.]
MŎRA. [Exercitus.]
MORTĀRIUM, also called PĪLA and PILUM (ὄλμος,ἴγδη,ἴγδις), a mortar. Before the invention of mills [Mola] corn was pounded and rubbed in mortars (pistum), and hence the place for making bread, or the bake-house, was calledpistrinum. Also long after the introduction of mills this was an indispensable article of domestic furniture. Those used in pharmacy were sometimes made of Egyptian alabaster. The mortar was also employed in pounding charcoal, rubbing it with glue, in order to make black paint (atramentum), in making plaster for the walls of apartments, in mixing spices and fragrant herbs and flowers for the use of the kitchen, and in metallurgy, as in triturating cinnabar to obtain mercury from it by sublimation.
MULSUM. [Vinum.]
MŪNĔRĀTOR. [Gladiatores.]
MŪNĬCEPS, MŪNĬCĬPĬUM. [Colonia;Foederatae Civitates.]
MŪNUS. [Honores.]
MŪNUS. [Gladiatores.]
MŪRĀLIS CŎRŌNA. [Corona.]
MURRHĬNA VĀSA, or MURRĔA VĀSA, were first introduced into Rome by Pompey, who dedicated cups of this kind to Jupiter Capitolinus. Their value was very great. Nero gave 300 talents for a capis or drinking cup. These murrhine vessels came from the East, principally from places within the Parthian empire, and chiefly from Caramania. They were made of a substance formed by a moisture thickened in the earth by heat, and were chiefly valued on account of the variety of their colours. Modern writers differ much respecting the material of which they were composed, and some think they may have been true Chinese porcelain.
MŪRUS, MOENĬA (τεῖχος), the wall of a city, in contradistinction toParies(τοῖχος), the wall of a house, andMaceria, a boundary wall. We find cities surrounded by massive walls at the earliest periods of Greek and Roman history. Homer speaks of the chief cities of the Argive kingdom as “the walled Tiryns,” and “Mycenae the well-built city,” attesting the great antiquity of those identical gigantic walls which still stand at Tiryns and Mycenae, and which have been frequently attributed to the Cyclopes and Pelasgians. Three principal species can be clearly distinguished:—1. That in which the masses of stone are of irregular shape and are put together without any attempt to fit them into one another, the interstices being loosely filled in with smaller stones. An example is given in the annexed engraving.
Ancient Wall at Tiryns.
Ancient Wall at Tiryns.
2. In other cases we find the blocks still of irregular polygonal shapes, but their sides are sufficiently smoothed to make each fit accurately into the angles between the others, and their faces are cut so as to give the whole wall a tolerably smooth surface. An example is given in the annexed engraving.
Ancient Wall of Larissa, the Acropolis of Argos.
Ancient Wall of Larissa, the Acropolis of Argos.
3. In the third species, the blocks are laid in horizontal courses, more or less regular (sometimes indeed so irregular, that none of the horizontal joints are continuous), and with vertical joints either perpendicular or oblique, and with all the joints more or less accurately fitted. The walls of Mycenae present one of the ruder examples of this sort of structure; and the following engraving of the “Lion Gate” of that fortress (so called from the rudely sculptured figures of lions) shows also the manner in which the gates of these three species of walls were built, by supporting an immense block of stone, for the lintel, upon two others, for jambs, the latter inclining inwards, so as to give more space than if they were upright.—
Ancient Wall at Mycenae.
Ancient Wall at Mycenae.
The materials employed in walls about the time of Pericles were various sorts of stone, and, in some of the most magnificent temples, marble. The practice of putting a facing of marble over a wall of a commoner material was introduced in the nextperiod of architectural history. For buildings of a common sort, the materials employed were smaller stones, rough or squared, or flints, as well as bricks. These were bound together with various kinds of mortar or cement, composed of lime mixed with different sands and volcanic earths. The history of Roman masonry is not very different from that of the Greek.—The most ancient works at Rome, such as theCarcer Mamertinus, theCloaca Maxima, and the Servian Walls, were constructed of massive quadrangular hewn stones, placed together without cement. [Cloaca.] Five species of Roman masonry may be distinguished; namely, 1. when the blocks of stone are laid in alternate courses, lengthwise in one course, and crosswise in the next; this is the most common; 2. when the stones in each course are laid alternately along and across; this construction was usual when the walls were to be faced with slabs of marble; 3. when they are laid entirely lengthwise; 4. entirely crosswise; and 5. when the courses are alternately higher and lower than each other. As by the Greeks, so by the Romans, walls of a commoner sort were built of smaller quarried stones (caementa) or of bricks. The excellence of the cement which the Romans used enabled them to construct walls of very small rough stones, not laid in courses, but held together by the mortar; this structure was calledopus incertum. Another structure of which the Romans made great use, and which was one of the most durable of all, was that composed of courses of flat tiles. Such courses were also introduced in the other kinds of stone and brick walls, in which they both served as bond-courses, and, in the lower part of the wall, kept the damp from rising from the ground. Brick walls covered with stucco were exceedingly common with the Romans: even columns were made of brick covered with stucco.
MUSCŬLUS was a kind of vinea, one of the smaller military machines, by which the besiegers of a town were protected.
MŪSĒUM (μουσεῖον), the name of an institution founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, aboutB.C.280, for the promotion of learning and the support of learned men. The museum formed part of the palace, and contained cloisters or porticoes (περίπατος), a public theatre or lecture-room (ἐξέδρα), and a large hall (οἶκος μέγας), where the learned men dined together. The museum was supported by a common fund, supplied apparently from the public treasury; and the whole institution was under the superintendence of a priest, who was appointed by the king, and after Egypt became a province of the Roman empire, by the Caesar. Botanical and zoological gardens appear to have been attached to the museum.
MȲRĬI (μυρίοι), the name given to the popular assembly of the Arcadians, which was established after the overthrow of the Spartan supremacy by the battle of Leuctra, and which used to meet at Megalopolis in order to determine upon matters affecting the whole people.
MYSĬA (μύσια), a festival celebrated by the inhabitants of Pellene in Achaia in honour of Demeter Mysia, which lasted for 7 days.
MYSTĒRĬA. The names by which mysteries or mystic festivals were designated in Greece, areμυστήρια,τελεταί, andὄργια. The nameὄργια(fromἔοργα) originally signified only sacrifices accompanied by certain ceremonies, but it was afterwards applied especially to the ceremonies observed in the worship of Dionysus, and at a still later period to mysteries in general.Τελετήsignifies, in general, a religious festival, but more particularly a lustration or ceremony performed in order to avert some calamity, either public or private.Μυστήριονsignifies, properly speaking, the secret part of the worship, but was also used in the same sense asτελετή, and for mystic worship in general. Mysteries in general may be defined as sacrifices and ceremonies which took place at night or in secret within some sanctuary, which the uninitiated were not allowed to enter. What was essential to them, were objects of worship, sacred utensils, and traditions with their interpretation, which were withheld from all persons not initiated. The most celebrated mysteries in Greece were those of Samothrace and Eleusis, which are described in separate articles. [Cabeiria;Eleusinia.]