MĬLIĀRE, MILLĬĀRĬUM, or MILLE PASSUUM (μίλιον), the Roman mile,
consisted of 1000 paces (_passus_) of 5 feet each, and was therefore
= 5000 feet. Taking the Roman foot at 11·6496 English inches [PES],
the Roman mile would be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than
the English statute mile. The most common term for the mile is
_mille passuum_, or only the initials M. P.; sometimes the word
_passuum_ is omitted. The Roman mile contained 8 Greek stadia. The
mile-stones along the Roman roads were called _milliaria_. They were
also called _lapides_; thus we have _ad tertium lapidem_ (or without
the word _lapidem_) for 3 miles from Rome. Augustus erected a gilt
pillar in the Forum, where the principal roads terminated, which was
called _milliarium aureum_; but the miles were not reckoned from
it, but from the gates of the city. Such central marks appear to
have been common in the principal cities of the Roman empire. The
“London-stone” in Cannon-street is supposed to have marked the centre
of the Roman roads in Britain.
MĪMUS (μῖμος), the name by which, in Greece and at Rome, a species
of the drama was designated, though the Roman mimus differed
essentially from the Greek. The Greek mimus seems to have originated
among the Greeks of Sicily and southern Italy, and to have consisted
originally of extemporary representations or imitations of ridiculous
occurrences of common life at certain festivals. At a later period
these rude representations acquired a more artistic form, which was
brought to a high degree of perfection by Sophron of Syracuse (about
B.C. 420). He wrote his pieces in the popular dialect of the Dorians
and a kind of rhythmical prose. Among the Romans the word mimus was
applied to a species of dramatic plays as well as to the persons who
acted in them. It is certain that the Romans did not derive their
mimus from the Greeks in southern Italy, but that it was of native
growth. The Greek mimes were written in prose, and the name μῖμος
was never applied to an actor, but if used of a person it signified
one who made grimaces. The Roman mimes were imitations of foolish
and mostly indecent occurrences, and scarcely differed from comedy
except in consisting more of gestures and mimicry than of spoken
dialogue. At Rome such mimes seem originally to have been exhibited
at funerals, where one or more persons (_mimi_) represented in a
burlesque manner the life of the deceased. If there were several
mimi, one of them, or their leader, was called _archimimus_. These
coarse and indecent performances had greater charms for the Romans
than the regular drama. They were performed on the stage as farces
after tragedies, and during the empire they gradually supplanted the
place of the Atellanae. It was peculiar to the actors in these mimes,
to wear neither masks, the cothurnus, nor the soccus, whence they are
sometimes called planipedes.