Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

MEN SARI [.

27A

METOICI.

tlicn to bring it thus furnished to the place
where the guests were reclining. On many
occasions, indeed, each guest either had a
small table to himself, or the company was
divided into parties of two or three, with a
separate table for each party, as is distinctly
represented in the cut under Symposium.
Hence we have such phrases as mensam ap-
pnncre or opponere, and mensam auferre or
removere. The two principal courses of a
deipnon and coena, or a Greek and Roman
dinner, were called respectively trpiu-rq rpa-
7refa, Sevrepa. Tpdwe^a, and mensa prima,
mensa secunda. [Coexa ; Deipnon.]

MENSARII, MEXSULARII, or NUMU-
LARII, a kind of public bankers at Rome
who were appointed by the state; they were
distinct from the argentarii, who were com-
mon bankers, and did business on their own
account. [Argkntauii.] The mensarii had
their tables or banks (mensae) like ordinary
bankers, in the forum, and in the name of
the aerarium they offered ready money to
debtors who could give security to the state
for it. Such an expediency was devised by
the state only in times of great distress. The
first time that mensarii [quinqueriri mensarii)
were appointed was in n. c. 352, at the time
when the plebeians were so deeply involved
in debt, that they were obliged to borrow
money from new creditors in order to pay
the old ones, and thus ruined themselves
completely. On this occasion they were also
authorised to ordain that cattle or land should
be received as payment at a fair valuation.
With the exception of this first time, they
appear during the time of the republic to
have always been triumviri mensarii. One
class of mensarii, however (perhaps an in-
ferior order), the mensularii or numularii,
seem to have been permanently employed by
the state, and these must be meant when we
read, that not only the aerarium, but also
private individuals, deposited in their hands
sums of money which they had to dispose of.

MEXSIS. [Calendarium.]

MERENDA. [Cokna.]

METAE. [Circts.]

METALLTTM (M"aAAor), a mine and metal.
The metals which have been known from the
earliest period of which we have any informa-
tion 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 clectrum, the compound of
copper and tin called xaA*°? and aes (bronze),
and steel, we have, in all probability, a com-
plete 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
(aKixoiv) with the block on which it rested
(aK^60eToi>), the tongs (mi pay pi)), and the
hammer (paicmjp, o-^upa). The advances
made in the art of metallurgy in subse-
quent 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 crcpvpijAaTOP, from enprpa, 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 em-
ployed also by the Egyptians. It is ex-
tremely difficult to determine at what date
the casting of metal was introduced. Ac-
cording 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.

METOICI 0>e'~°<-K(H), the name by which,
at Athens and in other Greek states, the
reside/it 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 Phale-
reus (b.c. 309), the number of resident aliens
at Athens was 10,000, in which number
women and children were probably not in-
eluded. 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. How-
ever long they might have resided in Athens,
they were always regarded as strangers,
whence they are sometimes called feVoi, and
to remind them of their position, they had on
some occasions to perform certain degrading
services for the Athenian citizens [Htdria-